The excerpt:
Are we ready for elections
THAKUR RANJIT SINGH
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
What we learn from history is that we do not learn from history. I have said this before and reiterate that in the case of Fiji our leaders and politicians have short memories.
What we should have learnt from the 2000 attempted coup is that no political interests should be involved in any interim government. Qarase and his motley crowd used the interim period to use and abuse tax-payer resources to trump up their political parties and political career. Fiji paid a heavy price in the Agriculture Scam and a shady government. One would have thought we learnt from our mistakes.
When Frank Bainimarama made his move in December, 2006, one would have thought that he had learnt from the escapades of the SDL Party as interim government.
Therefore, we thought that the interim government of 2006 would be made up of apolitical people who would not aspire for political position or opportunity or abuse their positions to drum up political support and because of this may be placed in a conflict of interest situation. This conflict could arise between what is good for the country and what is good for your political party.
The interim Government has more than one leader and politicians from active political parties and this has given the interim regime some disrespect, disrepute and some actions and decisions that may be deemed to border on political-fertilisation rather than something that is good for the country.
With daily happenings in Fiji now, people like me have become very embarrassed. This is because when Frank took power in 2006, some considered it as God sent, and a saviour who had come to rescue democracy from irresponsible and racist leadership.
People like us in New Zealand went public and supported his actions, attracting a great deal of contempt from friends and relatives. However, the news of military personnel gaining financially from their positions embarrasses people like me who had regarded the military as a saviour. There appears to be a situation that all those who are in power have a habit of putting their fingers in the till.
It appears the military has lost its plot, and the sooner it is put on track the better it is for the nation as a whole, and for people like me to redeem our respect for supporting the initial assault on a so called democracy.
However, despite the antics of military and its political cabinet ministers, there is one thing that I still agree with Bainimarama and the interim Government that Fiji is not yet ready for elections.
I agree we have many problems that need to be sorted out before we can be ready for elections. Calls for early and premature elections in Fiji by the so called bigger brothers (and bullying ones at that) are unreasonable and unwarranted, and undue interference. These countries have achieved their political development and destiny of democratic civilisation without external interference that Fiji is facing from these countries.
Fiji is at a political metamorphosis where Britain was some 600 years ago, USA was some 250 years ago, Australia and New Zealand were some 150 to 200 years ago and India was about 70 years ago.
All these countries have gone through various stages of political development involving wars, civil unrest, partitions, racial wars, penal colonies, massacres and many upheavals before they achieved the democracy that they are proud of and chiding Fiji to emulate.
At least the consolation is that Fiji has been spared the loss of lives that others suffered; nevertheless it has been facing political unrest since its independence some four decades ago.
So many elections since then have not been able to solve its problems, so what makes them think that election in March 2009 will solve Fiji's problems. These countries need to understand that even in the past elections, real democracy had never been achieved. It had merely been a sham of democracy; in many instances autocratic leaders used their traditional powers and influence to masquerade as democratic leaders.
The international community has to realise and learn that democracy measured by election is not a solution. Despite so many elections, Fiji's problems remain unresolved. Every coup exposes wounds that need to be healed and the deep underlying problems that need to be attended to.
Before Fiji can gain stability and effectively return to some degree of democracy a number of serious issues need to be addressed and resolved.
While Father Kevin Barr, in his earlier writings, has already spoken of them, I wish to repeat them here. Among them is the agenda of the nationalists who want Fiji for Fijians and Fiji as a Christian state. Another issue is the racially explosive mix of fundamentalist religion and extreme nationalism found in Assembly of Christian Churches in Fiji, which has a strong influence on the political and social process.
In addition, the inherent conflicts and tensions within Fijian, chiefly between families and confederacies, are a smouldering volcano, ready to erupt.
There is a need to remove the race-based politics and election and an electoral system and process that gives same weight and importance to every vote. The current system is flawed in this respect.
For example, while Peni in Kadavu is one of the three thousand voters who elect his representative, his cousin Viliame on the other hand is one of the some eighteen thousand voters who elect his Member of Parliament in Nadroga. What this means is that Peni's Kadavu vote is worth some six times more than Viliame's Nadroga vote.
There are numerous other examples of such anomaly, discrepancy and lack of fairness that smacks on the face of democracy which promotes same value for all votes. Therefore, Fiji's elections cannot be really called fair unless this problem is sorted out.
The other lament is influence of chiefs over their voters and conflict of democracy with the ascribed chiefly status.
While some chiefs and their followers have been crying for constitutional rule and rule of law, they did not blink an eyelid to prevent the Charter team free access to deliver information to Fijian villagers. I wonder whether they knew about the constitutional requirements and provisions on freedom of movement and information.
It is essential for Australia and New Zealand to understand how democracy works in poor Third World countries. They need to realise how the leaders in such countries can exploit it for their personal and political gains while showing all the niceties of a democratic government. Does Mugabe come to mind?
Deposed Prime Minister Qarase is already on record that he would bring back the controversial Qoliqoli Bill and other racially biased controversial laws that country like New Zealand has already thrown in their parliamentary trash bin.
What then, will New Zealand rescue Fiji from its democracy that the new government would have got through an unfair electoral system and a racially entrenched ultra-nationalistic slogan?
What then, who or what will then prevent the military from repeating its action and how long will the yoyo coup rule Fiji?
Mere timetables for elections are not permanent solutions to Fiji's problems. What we need is serious consideration and strategies to address the fundamental problems with a view to eradicating the coup culture.
We have gone so far towards looking for a solution that we are at a point of no return. We have suffered more than enough in search of a solution; we shall strive to find it. Fiji should be allowed time to resolve its problems, once and for all, at its own pace and in its own time.
- Thakur Ranjit Singh is an Auckland-based political commentator on Fiji issues, an advocate of good governance and a proponent of democracy that delivers social justice to all its people.
E-mail: thakurjixtra.co.nz
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