Page 18 - IB Sept-Oct 2020

Fiji@50 Fiji@50

Any aspirations by Fiji’s fifth Prime Minister after indepen- “It was about reinforcing power, the power of elites, and
dence, Lauan banker Laisenia Qarase to address any of the keeping the population divided into different communal
questions Professor Lal had raised were hindered to some ex- groups. That weighted system perpetuated injustice for a
tent by a landmark ruling of the Fiji Court of Appeal in 2001. great many of our people, created different classes of citizens
As head of the interim government, Qarase was ordered to and encouraged corruption. It was a system that no advanced
hold general elections under the 1997 constitution. The party democracy would accept for itself. The status of any Fijian
he formed, the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewevanua (SDL) won. in national life depended on his or her racial origin, whether
He narrowly won re-election when Fiji went to the polls in that man or woman came from one of the chiefly or business
2006, and while Qarase tried to implement the multi-party elites, and even what part of the country the person lived in.”
government concept provisions of the constitution by inviting Bainimarama as leader of his Fiji First Party went onto win
members of the Fiji Labour Party into his cabinet, elements a second four-year term in office in the general elections
of the Fiji military felt Qarase was leaning too far towards as- of November 2018, although it lost significant ground to the
suaging the nationalistic aspirations of the indigenous voters. iTaukei-dominated SODELPA Party.
On 5 December 2006 then military commander Frank Baini-
marama moved to remove Qarase and his government in a Historian Professor Brij Lal calls it militiarised democracy
military coup. Initially, his military government attempted to and asks what will happen when Bainimarama is no longer
rule under the provisions of the 1997 Constitution, but when around.
Fiji’s Court of Appeal ruled his military takeover unconsti- “Democracy based on the will and whims of one strongman
tutional, Bainimarama announced the abrogation of the is dangerous, and Fiji may yet pay a heavy price for this; but
constitution. for many this one strongman also stood for stability against
The constitution that he introduced four years later was chaos. Indo-Fijians knew well that if Bainimarama failed, they
revolutionary for it removed any reference to the political would be done for. More than anything else, ordinary people
paramountcy of indigenous Fijians, eliminated Fiji’s ethnic- wanted peace and security, and insurance against future
based electoral system and introduced one common roll coups. Bainimarama offered to be the buffer, and he was
system. It also eliminated the Upper House or Senate, closed believed. But what happens when the well runs dry, or when
down the influential Great Council of Chiefs and effectively some other saviour appears on the horizon, which has a differ-
silenced the previously powerful Methodist Church of Fiji. ent agenda, a different vision, perhaps even a nationalistic
“Five years ago, I stood in this great Hall and promised the one?
global community that my Government would introduce the “Democracy has had an ill-fated history in Fiji, having to
first genuine democracy in Fiji’s history before the end of contend with military coups as the vehicle for effecting politi-
September,” Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama told the 69th cal change in the country. Democracy was alive all these years
session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on 27 more in its symbolism than in its substance, dependent on the
September 2014. goodwill of powerful men rather than implanted in the hearts
“It is my honour to inform the Assembly that, with the sup- of ordinary citizens or embedded in the sinews of its public
port of the Fijian people, I have kept that promise. I return institutions. It had few true defenders but many fair weather
to the Assembly today as the duly elected Prime Minister of friends, who habitually deserted it in its moments of great-
the Republic of Fiji. At our general election on 17 September, est need. Democratic values have been steadily eroding in
I led my Fiji First political movement to a decisive victory Fiji since the 1987 coups and disillusionment with politics and
in the first election to be held under our new Constitution politicians.
on the basis of equal votes of equal value. The new Consti- “All this made the Indo-Fijian reaction in 2014 understand-
tution replaced the three previous constitutions since our able, but it is also true that Indo-Fijians have planted in the
independence from Britain in 1970, in which Governments process the seeds of a new political order, a new kind of
were chosen under a weighted and discriminatory formula democracy, which is fundamentally at odds with the principles
that separated the various communities and favoured some of representative democracy. Putting it colloquially, placing
citizens over others. all your eggs in one basket in an uncertain environment is
“For nearly four decades, we laboured under a system that never prudent; nor is it prudent to pin all your hopes on one
was undemocratic, unjust and unfair. Indeed, we were a case man to be your saviour, however good or great that savior
study of a nation that was supposedly democratic and casting might turn out to be. The rule of law, freely arrived at, is
itself as such, but was failing to meet some basic democratic infinitely superior to the rule of a group of men, however well
standards — a common and equal citizenry, a common identity intentioned they might be. Fiji is going through a massive
and a level playing field on which every citizen can excel. We process of transition from one order to another. Inevitably,
have often heard it said that elections are key to having de- there will be uncertainty, confusion, error, disenchantment
mocracy. We in Fiji knew that that was not the case, because and disappointment.”
our electoral system, before it was reformed, did not give us
true democracy. It did not facilitate justice, transparency or publisher@islandbusiness.com
good governance.

18 Islands Business, September/October 2020