Fiji's Beta Democracy-The Road Less Travelled.

Robert Frost's famous poem has many lessons to be learnt, for all those political observers. Fiji has indeed took the road of democracy not taken and it has become the whipping post of all those who wanted the nation to to take the well travelled path of instant elections.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by, And that
has made all the difference

The new US Secretary Of State, Hillary Clinton has been reported by TVNZ web article, to have commented on Fiji's democracy. The excerpt of TVNZ article:

Fiji must hold elections this year: Clinton

Source: Reuters
Read

Foreign Minister Murray McCully and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after signing an Arrangement For Cooperation On Nonproliferation Assistance.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Fiji's coup leader to restore democracy to the country and she backed a demand by South Pacific leaders for elections there this year. With Foreign Minister Murray McCully at her side, Clinton said democracy must not be "extinguished" in Fiji, where the country's 2006 coup leader and self-appointed prime minister has said he will not hold elections this year as promised.

"We join New Zealand in encouraging Fiji's interim government to abide by the Pacific Island Forum's benchmarks and timetable to restore democracy to that country," Clinton said. "We share a common determination that democracy must not be extinguished there," she added.

Coup leader Frank Bainimarama promised to hold elections last month, but then said Fiji must first change its racially based electoral system, which he blames for past instability. Bainimarama, who is also Fiji's military chief, staged the 2006 coup, saying the government was corrupt and soft on the perpetrators of a 2000 coup.

Fiji has suffered four coups and an army mutiny since 1987. It is racially divided with tensions between majority indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians, who control the business center.

Fiji Live (F.L)article, also cited TVNZ. This is the excerpt of F.L article:

Clinton urges Fiji to democracy
08/04/2009
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Fiji's coup leader to restore democracy and she has backed a demand by South Pacific leaders for elections later this year.

Clinton made the comments to TVNZ while meeting with New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully. Clinton said democracy must not be "extinguished" in Fiji.

"We join New Zealand in encouraging Fiji's interim government to abide by the Pacific Island Forum's benchmarks and timetable to restore democracy," Clinton said.

"We share a common determination that democracy must not be extinguished there," she added. The Pacific Leaders through the Pacific Islands Forum which includes Australia and New Zealand met in Papua New Guinea in January this year issuing an ultimatum to Fiji to hold elections by the end of 2009 and announce an election timetable by May 1.

Failure to meet this deadline will see Fiji suspended from the Forum.

The actual video (posted below) of Clinton's joint press conference with New Zealand's Foreign Minister, Murray McCully.

Full transcript.





While former Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton hopes that "democracy is not extinguished in Fiji". It is a concern for SIFM, if the caliber of democracy Clinton advocates for Fiji, is actually a Jim Crow type of democracy, which the US Ambassador had also wanted as an earlier SIFM post outlined.

While the Trans-Tasman neighbors and the US want their own type of democracy, irrespective of its actual hypocrisy; those anticipating a May 1st Election in Fiji may be waiting in vain.

Another TVNZ article, quotes from ANU History Professor Brij Lal, as he peeks in his crystal ball and adamantly issues a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The excerpt of TVNZ article:

Fiji slides into desperation

Fiji is sliding into a "desperate state" as its military leadership continues to thumb its nose at a looming election deadline.

Pacific analysts are warning that the political and financial position of the largest Polynesian nation is more fragile than ever, and more serious than many realise. "Things are really heating up in terms of violence and threats on the media, and money wise the place is in dire straits," says Professor Brij Lal, a specialist in Pacific issues at the Australian National University (ANU).

"It's the military's doing but it's the Fijian people that are really going to start hurting." Fiji's military leader Frank Bainimarama has been in power since staging a bloodless coup in December 2006. He's since failed to hold an election to restore democracy.

Bainimarama argues that before going to the polls, the electoral system
must be overhauled to make it fairer for the country's Fijian Indian minority. And while most of his critics agree reforms are needed, the slow pace and unclear intentions of the regime has increasingly frustrated Australia, New Zealand and smaller Pacific nations.

In January, via the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), they collectively handed Fiji a May 1 deadline to announce an election date. And the Commonwealth and Obama administration later added their voices to the ultimatum. But the interim government is refusing to budge.

"We will not be told what to do or when to do it by Australia or any other country," senior government spokesman Neumi Leweni said when asked if the country intended to fulfil its neighbours' wishes.

"We are going about our business at our pace and that's that." The
problem, Lal and other commentators say, is that in the meantime the nation is coming under increased strain. The coffers are running dry, with government departments recently ordered to reduce their operating budgets by 50% to stay afloat.

"The economy is in a desperate state," says Dr Jon Fraenkel, also of
ANU. "Fiji's government revenue has virtually collapsed because exports are down, business confidence is down and foreign investment is low.

"That's why they're making these draconian announcements about cutting back on state expenditure." The European Union has warned that the country's biggest export industry, sugar, is at risk if no election is held, and earnings in the second biggest market, tourism, are well down.

"Much of this will be the global economic crisis but the internal crisis
will also be turning people away," Lal says. Tactics of intimidation also appear to be on the rise. Several prominent citizens, including a lawyer, trade unionist, newspaper editor and a businessman, have been the target of overnight vandal attacks on homes, cars or offices in Suva in the past two months.

Fiji police say there is no evidence linking the crimes to the government
but commentators say the fact most victims are pro-democracy cannot be overlooked. It used to be that you could say human rights abuses were
confined to the early period after the December 2006 coup," Fraenkel says.
"But in the last few months there have been more attacks again and things are getting very difficult. "It's true to say that the scale of the crisis in Fiji is a lot worse than many people realise." Three international reports published since January have raised concerns about aspects of human rights, and the International Federation of Journalists has warned of increasing threats to press freedom.

But still the military regime is sticking to its guns. Fraenkel says it's
important to remember that many Fijians themselves want an election. "It's convenient for Bainimarama to act as though all the pressure is external but that's not the case," the academic says.

Indigenous Fijians, who make up 57% of the population, mostly want
elections as soon as possible to get back to constitutional democracy, Fraenkel says. And the minority Fiji Indians, who initially felt they had been better served by this coup more so than the coups of 1987 and 2000, were also looking for change. "Even the Fiji Labour Party, the party preferred by most Fiji Indians, is beginning to see there has to be an end to this," Fraenkel says. But commentators don't see an end in sight.

In just a few weeks, the deadline will pass, leaving the PIF to decide if it will do as it threatened and suspend Fiji.

Fiji-based academic Dr Steven Ratuva, of the University of the South
Pacific, says the forum has "shot itself in the foot" with the ultimatum.
"Suspension was designed to hurt Fiji but ultimately it's the region that will suffer, as will the small countries like Tuvalu and Kiribati that virtually rely on Fiji to keep going," Ratuva says.

"There will no longer be that regional architecture there to support them
[...]It's very unlikely to have the desired effect of propelling Fiji into
action and, to be frank, it won't hurt the country very much at all in the short term." Another way forward is political talks to be held between party heads to discuss electoral reform. But in the past few days Bainimarama has threatened to exclude key leaders, including ousted prime minister Laisenia Qarase.

"If that happens it will render the process useless and we're back to
square one," Fraenkel says. In the meantime, Lal says, expect no changes quickly. "These military men are enjoying the power," he says. "They're riding a gravy train and when it stops they'll have to get off so they're clinging on."

Fiji website Matavuvale, has a thread on Fiji's return to democracy, on their forum page. The thread has differing views on Fiji's democratic situation, some widely off the mark and in left field, along with Lal and Frankael's quoted remarks.

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