Frank Bainimarama

ᔥ NZ Herald

Good move by Frank Bainimarama to remove the Great Council of Chiefs:

Fiji’s military commander has disbanded the Great Council of Chiefs, a leadership tradition in the Pacific island nation that dates back more than 130 years.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama said the council was “an institution created during the British colonialism, and one that in modern times has become politicised to the detriment of Fiji’s pursuit of a common and equal citizenry”.

He had greatly reduced the power of the council before eliminating it yesterday. His latest move may be an attempt to prevent the council from being written into the new constitution he has promised to help produce within the next year.

The council was established under British colonial rule in 1875. Its 55 chiefs had refused to endorse Bainimarama’s rule.

Fiji’s tribal lands are vested in the women of the villages, not the men. The GCC was designed to give the men something to do and make them think they were important.

The old constitution gave power outside of the parliament to the select group in the Great Council of Chiefs. Unfortunately rather than ceremonial they became highly political and corrupt.

With a new constitution coming, one where all citizens are equal beofre the law without preference based on race the Great Council of Chiefs really needed to be disbanded.

It is good to see that Fiji is moving forward despite the best efforts of New Zealand and Australia to hamstring them.

Frank Bainimarama has announced another milestone in the reform of Fiji’s democracy. The most important step is a new constitution to replace the gerrymandered rubbish that was forced on them the last time.

For the first time, everyone will have a voice. This is a fundamental part of the constitutional formulation process that cannot be and must not be compromised.

The constitution must be premised on the fundamental values and principles set out in the People’s Charter for Change, which my Government has been advocating and implementing.

These principles and values are universally recognized and aspired to. Therefore, these principles and values are non-negotiable. They are:

• A common and equal citizenry;
• A secular state;
• The removal of systemic corruption;
• An independent judiciary;
• Elimination of discrimination;
• Good and transparent governance;
• Social justice;
• One person, one vote, one value;
• The elimination of ethnic voting;
• Proportional representation; and
• A voting age of 18.

This is the sort of constitutional discussion that is meant to be taking place in New Zealand, though I doubt we will be so bold as to address fundamental issues such as the removal of race based voting and seats.

Fiji is taking time to re-organise their political and constitutional arrangement to a system that meets the needs of all Fijian citizens. It shows committment for them to stand strong against bullying from Australia and New Zealand.

With the removal of Kevin Rudd and the appointment of Bob Carr as Foreign Minister a remarkable thaw has happened with regard to Fiji.

BOB Carr will begin to reverse six years of hard-line Labor policy against the government of Fijian dictator Frank Bainimarama.

Mr Carr will offer an olive branch to the military strongman, who seized power in the small Pacific island nation after a military coup in 2006.

The new Foreign Affairs Minister will travel to New Zealand tomorrow to meet NZ Prime Minister John Key to discuss Fiji’s banning from the Pacific Islands Forum in 2009.

Incentives for Fiji are likely to include lifting some of the “sticks” against the regime, including the forum’s ban on the junta – and some reversal of Australian sanctions set up in the wake of the coup.

These include a blanket ban on the supply, sale or transfer to Fiji of arms and related material, the provision of technical advice, assistance or training, a financial service or financial or other assistance to Fiji related to military activities or  any activity that involves the sale or supply of any export-sanctioned goods to Fiji.

I sense a change from New Zealand as well. This is great news for Fiji.

An interview by Graham Davis screened on Prime and Sky News last night.

Graham Davis is a top class interviewer. Frank Bainimarama stresses the point that NZ is more understanding than Oz.

Grubsheet’s interview with the Fijian leader, Frank Bainimarama, is being shown this weekend in Australia and New Zealand on Sky News and in Fiji in a news special on FBCTV at 7.30pm on Sunday night. In it, Bainimarama says Australia is now alone among its ANZUS partners in refusing to engage with Fiji. And he reveals fresh details of his plans to return the country to democracy in 2014.

In an exclusive interview with Graham Davis for Sky News, Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has lashed out at the governments of Australia and New Zealand, accusing them of neglecting the Pacific Islands.

Commodore Bainimarama accused former Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd of neglecting the Pacific, adding Canberra’s lack of attention to the region – and especially its policy of shunning Fiji – had weakened Australian influence in the region and had created a vacuum that bigger powers were moving to fill.

He added improved relations between Australia and Fiji would only come if Tony Abbott won the next election.

The NZ Government and Murray McCully need to drop the stupid sanctions so that business people in Fiji can openly engage and help Fijian Government.

The NZ Herald has a remarkable article that shows just exactly why Qarase had to go in Fiji. There is none of the breathless fantasy of Michael Field or Barbara Dreaver, just plain facts, and the facts are damning of Andrew Hughes and Laisenia Qarase.

Qarase colluded with the Australian in charge of the Fiji Police at the time to lure Commodore Frank Bainimarama to New Zealand ostensibly for “peace” talks and they tried to arrange for New Zealand through Howard Broad to arrest him. They tried to fit him up on trumped up charges and have him detained in New Zealand:

In Suva, the Fiji police force had been awaiting an opportunity to arrest the commodore on the sedition charge but were unable to penetrate his heavily armed personal security detail – rarely less than 12-strong at any given time.

“I had earlier taken a brief of evidence to the DPP,” said Mr Hughes, “and it was agreed that there was a case to answer on a sedition charge.

“We wanted to arrest and charge Commodore Bainimarama but he was permanently covered by heavy security. I was very keen to avoid an armed confrontation between the police and the military. So we waited.”

As Prime Minister Qarase waited at Suva’s Nausori airport to board a New Zealand Air Force VIP jet to take him to the Peters-brokered talks in Wellington, he was surprised to be joined by Mr Hughes, who then explained that the arrest plan was unlikely to come to fruition. Mr Qarase was shocked.

The Fiji Police Commissioner boarded the flight and in Wellington he met a deputy secretary for foreign affairs but was again told the New Zealand Government’s position was that a political or diplomatic solution was preferred.

New Zealand has responded positively to the news that emergency laws are to be lifted in Fiji.

The Government has welcomed Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama’s announcement that emergency laws in the country will come to an end on Saturday.

New Zealand has been calling for the public emergency regulations to be lifted since the Fijian military regime introduced them in 2009.

The regulations give the regime extended powers, restrict people’s rights to gather in public, and censor the media.

In his New Year’s speech, Commodore Bainimarama announced the regulations would come to an end on January 7 and a consultation process for a new Fijian constitution would be announced in the next few weeks.

Commodore Bainimarama said removing institutionalised discrimination and addressing corruption would be among the aims, the Fiji Times reported.

“The constitution must establish a government that is founded on an electoral system that guarantees equal suffrage – a truly democratic system based on the principle of one person, one vote, one value,” he said.

Frank Bainimarama is making progress in Fiji despite the best efforts of New Zealand and Australia to hinder his every step. He has announced that martial law will cease on 7 January.

Bainimarama, who seized power in a military coup in 2006, says he will hold elections in 2014.

He claimed that the existing voting system was racially based with indigenous Fijians having greater voting power than the ethnic Indians who make up around 35 per cent of the 900,000 people.

He said Fiji had been mismanaged and hindered by greed and selfishness.

“You and I must not allow a few to dictate the destiny of our country for their own selfish needs,” he said.

He warned features of a new constitution will be non-negotiable.

“The constitution must establish a government that is founded on an electoral system that guarantees equal suffrage – a truly democratic system based on the principle of one person, one vote, one value.

“We will not have a system that will classify Fijians based on ethnicity….”

Consultation would begin next month: “To facilitate this consultation process, the Public Emergency Regulations will cease from 7 January 2012.”

Sounds like he’s doing better than New Zealand to remove racism from politics.

Freshly sworn in as Foreign Minister, Murray McCully jumps straight into the job and…sticks up for a bloody unionist:

Foreign Minister Murray McCully has conveyed to Fiji’s foreign minister New Zealand’s disappointment at the regime refusing a union delegation entry to the country.

The group, including CTU president Helen Kelly, wanted to investigate allegations of human and labour rights breaches by the Bainimarama government.

It was turned away at Nadi airport.

Mr McCully says there’s direct action the Government can take.

“What we’re hoping for is that Fiji’s going to listen to the fact that the international community want to see some movement in the right direction, this is not movement in the right direction.”

He says they’re looking for signs from Fiji that there will be free and fair elections.

Sheesh Murray, you are having a ‘mare. Instead of sticking up for a hobbit hater how about making some meaningful offers to Fiji for assistance on the road to democracy. Once again NZ wags the finger and tut-tuts over Fiji.

Why aren’t we offering to send some Electoral Commission folk up there to assist? How about some experts in conducting a census? Both of things are areas Fiji needs desperate advice on before they can hold free and fair elections.

If we don’t do anything to help then China sure as hell will. Then let’s see how Helen Kelly would get on visiting and protesting China’s influence in the South Pacific.

I have repeatedly blogged about the country of my birth, Fiji, and how New Zealand through utter hypocrisy has treated them. Along with Australia our successive governments have decided to wag our collective fingers at Fiji and tell them how they must behave.

Instead of helping and assisting a return to democracy we have hindered. We placed sanctions on travel, on advice and then coerced the Pacific Forum to give them the cold shoulder. All we have done is show the welcome mat to increase Chinese hegemony in the Pacific.

Shortly we are going reap what we have sowed with Pacific nations who have looked on as Fiji didn’t collapse, rebuilt their infrastructure and all the time thumbing their noses at the bombastic nature of the Australian and New Zealand. The Pacific nations have patiently waited until the embarrassment of what they are about to do would be maximised.

New Zealand and Australia face diplomatic embarrassment in Auckland this week, with the Pacific Forum set to give Fiji military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama a ringing endorsement – even without him being here.

Prime Minister John Key, who will chair the 40th edition of the Pacific Forum, faces a Melanesian and Micronesian rebellion over his hard-line on Bainimarama, who seized power in a military coup in 2006.

Pacific leaders will be handed evidence of overwhelming multi-racial public support in Fiji for Bainimarama and his martial law decrees which are seen as keeping order in the coup-prone nation.

The data comes on top of a WikiLeaks diplomatic cable revealing a top Australian politician telling the United States that “Bainimarama will either be shot or we’ll have to do business with him”.

The forum, in its 40th year, was intended to be a celebration for the organisation which first met in Wellington in 1971. From then until 1996 it was united in condemning French nuclear testing, but since then Fiji’s woes have been the central focus. When Bainimarama failed to keep a promise to hold elections by April 2009, the country’s membership in the forum was suspended. Bainimarama has said elections would be held in 2014.

Wellington and Canberra have maintained “smart” sanctions since 2006, hoping to force elections, believing it is the will of the majority of Fiji’s 837,000 people (57% Fijian and 37% Indian).

However, remarkable data to be released to the forum, seen by the Sunday Star-Times, reveals strong support for Bainimarama and mounting public anger in Fiji toward New Zealand. Over two-thirds of both races support him, according to the data. There is even overwhelming support for his moves against the indigenous dominated Methodist Church.

A senior political figure admitted there was no surprise in the information. “We have expected it, but it does make it hard to decide what to do next.”

All this could have been avoided, but our government insists on listening to the out touch morons in Foreign Affairs and continuing a policy of seclusion for Fiji that we don’t similarly apply to other non-democratic nations like China, or even Libya.

I fear though we are too late to reverse the situation. Ironically our government position may have strengthened Fiji’s resolve. I am yet to meet a Fijian, or Fijian Indian who has a bad thing to say about the remarkable turn around in Fiji. Bainimarama has removed corruption, destroyed the power of the Great Council of Chiefs and is now bringing the hopelessly corrupt and politically active Methodist Church into line. Fiji has new and better roads, a better port, a infrastructure building programme and most importantly still dominates Pacific tourism.

Anyone who has holidayed in Fiji knows that the news reports breathlessly shown here about Fiji could almost be fiction.

It is time New Zealand dropped its failed Fiji policy and stepped up tot he mark to actually help return Fiji to democracy.

The frenzied race for democracy in Fiji: What model the motley crowd promises to deliver?

Thakur Ranjit Singh,

As the race of fight for democracy in Fiji intensifies, it has now reached new heights of political expediency where hitherto diametrically opposed political animals are seen drinking from the same pail. In addition, we witnessed the genesis of a new adage that declares that a foe’s opponent or enemy is a political friend.

However, what still remains uncertain is the model of democracy that can be expected from those whose definition of democracy rests in self-interest or their ability to clamber back onto the gravy train from which they were jettisoned by the military take-over.

The media coup by the military fugitive, Ratu Tevita Mara has taken the fight for democracy to a higher level. Café Pacific columnist David Robie recently sought some answers: Who are the media minders behind Mara massaging his military message and what is their agenda? Why are things being taken at face value? Where is the evidence backing up Ratu Tevita’s sweeping allegations?

What have also come under scrutiny are not only the credibility of certain media, but also the credibility of Ratu Tevita Ului Mara and the stance taken by the Australian and NZ governments in bending their rules on military sanctions by granting special exemption to this former military henchman who had suddenly seen the light. This author had questioned the credibility and authenticity of the aristocratic Ratu Tevita who has been dangled as a devotee of democracy.

In presenting a “smoking gun picture” from the Canberra meeting of the pro democracy and anti-Bainimarama brigade, Graham Davis questioned the motive of those behind the Canberra meeting and the ten point plan put forward to take Fiji back to democracy. He questioned the inclusion and propriety of Simione Kaitani, a known ethno-nationalist and a former Qarase’s minister, as a pro-democracy campaigner.

Just in the week Ratu Tevita was scheduled to arrive in New Zealand, this author was able to produce his February, 2003 “dragon-slaying” Close Up programme at Fiji TV, showing the same Simione Kaitani admitting to have committed sedition prior to the march that resulted in Speight taking hostage of Chaudhry’s government on 19 May, 2000.

Davis, in his earlier article had shown a photo of ANU academic, Dr Brij Lal with Kaitani. A clip of Fiji TV Close Up was forwarded to Dr Brij Lal who clarified his position through a personal e-mail to this author. Dr Lal unequivocally denies any previous association with either Ratu Tevita Mara or Simione Kaitani, nor is he in any way formally associated with any organisation. His views on Fiji are longstanding and well known. Dr Lal dismisses any attempt to link him up with the perpetrators of the 2000 coup, and calls it “mischievous.” He stated that:

What I said in the meeting was what I have always said: that coups are bad, that the path of resistance should be peaceful, that there should be a genuine rather than a politically expedient conversion to the values of democracy. When the meeting concluded, and Padma [Mrs Lal] and I were about to head off to Sydney, Kaitani got himself snapped with me; and on the basis of that single photograph, people assumed that I was supporting Mara and Kaitani and crowd. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Davis had reserved most of his criticism for Kaitani who had been named by one of the soldiers during Speight coup as “one of the indigenous extremists who’d encouraged George Speight to carry out his coup and was with him in the parliamentary complex.”

It is obvious Ratu Tevita Mara was enlisting support of questionable nationalist elements like one time George Speight’s treasonous Minister Kaitani who also later happened to be Fiji PM Qarase’s Assistant Minister of Information. Then he had appeared on Close Up and admitted his criminal activity of sedition. Contrary to being disciplined, reprimanded or charged by the police, Prime Minister Qarase rewarded Kaitani with a full ministerial cabinet position a month after his criminal confession on national TV. While all this was taking place, Fiji media, including Fiji TV and the normally vocal Rupert Murdoch’s Fiji Times remained mute on this gross violation of good governance. However, Fiji media’s dereliction of duties during Qarase regime is another story to be pursued some other time. Those interested in Fiji’s future and its model of democracy are bound to be confused if not worried.  The question that arises is: what sort of democracy does the international community seek for Fiji? Kaitani, while admitting his crime, is non-repentant about being a nationalist, and still wants Fiji’s leadership to be in indigenous hands, and seeking “Fiji for Fijians.” This is verified from the Close Up link.

What is also questionable is the credibility of Rajesh Singh who supposedly leads the makeshift break-away pro-democracy group hosting Ratu Tevita Mara in Auckland.

The break-away group was formed because the legitimate and long-standing Coalition for Democracy in Fiji (CDF), led by Nik Naidu is against the military-man’s visit to New Zealand because of his alleged act of torture in Fiji. On the eve of arrival of Ratu Tevita Mara in Auckland, CDF has filed a criminal complaint with the NZ Police against Mara.

Going back to the organiser of Mara’s trip Rajesh Singh, he is a former organiser for Naitasiri rugby and reportedly considers the Qaranivalu of Naitasiri, Ratu Inoke Takiveikata as his mentor and friend. Ratu Inoke was convicted and implicated for his role in the Fiji military mutiny of 2 November 2000.  Singh is a former Assistant Minister in Qarase government and was sacked for insubordination. He also reportedly used to visit Ratu Inoke in prison. His political stability and loyalty for democracy is highly questionable because he was working for the Bainimarama government at Fiji Sports Council until recently when he failed to get reappointment. Like Ratu Tevita, he also is a turncoat, one of the inside persons, who had suddenly seen the light once things did not work their ways.

Is this the model or brand of democracy, led by such motley crowd that John Key, Murry McCully and Kevin Rudd seek for Fiji? Do they wish to push Fiji back to the dark days of the Taukei movement and ethno-nationalism, where the rule of jungle, chiefly aristocracy and Methodist church’s bigotry masqueraded as democracy, where Indo Fijians were relegated as second and third class stateless citizens?

While the clips of the Close Up programme and background information have been provided to both major TV stations, one cannot expect much from New Zealand media’s questionable, what some may call jaundiced reporting on Fiji. The NZ mainstream media equates democracy to mere elections; irrespective of what takes place after such supposedly democratic elections which Fiji already had many of, since 1987.

Now, armed with this information, when you see on TV or read of Ratu Tevita’s visit to New Zealand through its mainstream media, you need to take it with a pinch of salt because of their agenda-setting on Fiji where the media appears to sing from the same hymn-sheet as McCully’s and NZ government’s foreign policy, in which, like in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. some [military personnel] are more equal than the others.

[E-mail: thakurji@xtra.co.nz]

[About the Author: Thakur Ranjit Singh is a political commentator and a former publisher of Fiji’s Daily Post.]