Monday, January 26, 2009

Bullying Fiji

Posted on 18:02, January 25th, 2009 by PabloThe ongoing diplomatic fracas between New Zealand and Fiji stemming from the peaceful coup staged by Vice Commodore Frank Bainimarama and his military allies two years ago has taken on the aspect of farce.

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Fiji Times publisher served with deportation papers

The publisher of the Fiji Times, Rex Gardener, is to be deported to Australia on Tuesday morning after being found guilty of contempt of court by the Fiji High Court on Thursday.The country's oldest newspaper was fined US$100,000 for publishing a letter that criticised the court's validation of the 2006 military coup.

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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Is Fiji’s suspension from the Forum inevitable?

Niue Premier, Toke Talagi, and chair of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders (PIF), said recently that Fiji faces the possibility of suspension from the Forum for saying that it is not able to have an election in March this year, as promised in an agreement at the Forum meeting in Tonga in 2007.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Aust and NZ need to coax Fiji democracy, says academic

Fiji's military leaders will not be coaxed into democracy by new sanctions or political attacks from Australia and New Zealand, a top academic says.

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[Fiji] Times ‘must accept responsibility’

Speaking in response to today’s High Court ruling on Fiji’s oldest newspaper, Sayed-Khaiyum said, “it (The Fiji Times Ltd) has done little since the offence occurred to convince me that it has taken steps to ensure what occurred is not repeated”.

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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Fiji pulls out of Pacific Forum to decide country's fate

SUVA: Fiji's military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, will not attend a special regional summit next week to decide whether his country should be suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum.

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Friday, January 16, 2009

Digicel Fiji Announces US$285,000 Relief Effort.

NADI, FIJI - Digicel, the fastest growing mobile company in the Pacific, today announced that it has pledged more than US$285,000 to support the flood disaster relief effort in the Western region of Fiji.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Area of Convection Moves Closer to Fiji

The area of convection in the western/south Pacific Ocean has moved closer to Fiji; it is now located approximately 330 nautical miles west of Nadi.

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Tonga not in favour of suspending Fiji from Forum

TONGA is not in support of an idea to suspend Fiji's membership from the Pacific Islands Forum, Tonga's Prime Minister Dr Feleti Sevele said this afternoon.

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

China offers condolences, relief aid

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao has sent Beijing’s condolences to Fiji’s interim Prime Minister in the wake of deaths from the floods which besieged parts of the country in recent days.

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Fiji Floods

Flooding in Nadi, Fiji January 9th 2009. Filmed while driving to Nadi airport.

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Thursday, January 08, 2009

Fiji Interim Leader Rules Out E.U Aid, For Electoral Reform.

Fiji’s coup leader said [...]The interim government isn’t prepared to compromise on its “vision” for Fiji just because “carrots are being dangled,”.

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Tuesday, January 06, 2009

A-G slams academic’s take on Fiji

INTERIM Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has brushed aside comments made by Dr Brij Lal in the media and urged him not to make comments that were “weak on facts.”

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Monday, January 05, 2009

Obama, Fiji and the CIA.

The question that may never go away: Who really is Barack Obama?In his autobiography, "Dreams From My Fathers", Barack Obama writes of taking a job at some point after graduating from Columbia University in 1983.

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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Un-neighbourly Neighbours

South Pacific neighbours, Fiji and NZ, are separated by just three hours of direct flight by Air Pacific or Air New Zealand. Not only that, the New Zealand High Commissioner's home is just next door to Commodore Frank Bainimarama's home on Sukuna Road in Suva, separated only by a fence and ignorance of each other's presence.

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Friday, December 26, 2008

Fiji: The limits of sanctions

The vexed question of what to do about Fiji is likely to be a high priority for policy makers in Canberra, Wellington, and Pacific Island capitals when they return from a brief Christmas break. Pacific Islands Forum leaders are due to meet in Port Moresby on 27 January to discuss their next move in relation to Fiji.

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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Driving Fiji toward China

Winston Peters didn’t make a spectacular early mess as ‘Foreign Minister’, then won over the apprehensive Foreign Affairies by largely following their briefs and capped that by establishing a helpful relationship with the US.

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Fiji and New Zealand engage in ‘Diplomatic Suicide

Tensions between Fiji and New Zealand boiled over Tuesday when both countries kicked out each other’s chief diplomats.

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John McCain Escapes To Sunny Fiji.

UNITED States Senator John McCain and his family jetted into the country at the weekend to spend Christmas.

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Friday, December 12, 2008

Australia P.M, Kevin Rudd- Stubs His Toe Over Tiny Fiji.

Lowy Institute blog "The Interpreter" latest posting reviews the recent Ministerial contact group meeting.

Fiji's Interim Prime Minister, generic response to the Contact Group meeting, as reported by Radio NZ article.

Fiji’s interim Prime Minister says interim government won’t be deterred
Posted at 22:04 on 12 December, 2008 UTC
Fiji’s interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama says the government won’t be deterred, no matter how cruel travel sanctions might be to the country’s poor, the young and the innocent.
Fiji Live reports Commodore Bainimarama said his Government would continue its agenda to bring peace, durable stability and progress to Fiji.
He says the sanctions have been harsh on Fiji, and have restricted the participation in Government from the pool of competent and non-political, and non-Military, people.
Commodore Bainimarama says as a result, the nation as a whole is suffering and his government’s efforts at service delivery and removal of corruption are being hindered.
New Zealand’s foreign minister Murray McCully and his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith said before this week’s meeting of the Forum Ministerial contact group, that the policies of their respective countries remain.

Undeniably, the pressure may seem to be focused on Fiji; however, the real centroid of pressure is on the shoulders of both Trans-Tasman countries, whose leaders fear being viewed by their foreign counterparts; as pathetic and incompetent for their inability to corral tiny Fiji, in to their watering hole.

Fueled by the stigma of the Peter Principle, Rudd's frustration with Fiji, was buttressed by the disappointing outcome of the much hyped South Pacific Forum, Ministerial Contact Group meeting in Suva.

Rudd tells Fiji - get democratic

SMH-December 12, 2008 - 1:59PM

Further action will be taken as needed to press Fiji to return to democracy, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.

Mr Rudd said Australia had taken a hard diplomatic line while Pacific Forum leaders made an unprecedented strong statement condemning Fiji at a meeting in Niue earlier this year.

He said their position had not changed.

"Subject to recent advice from the foreign minister you will see further action from Pacific Island forum countries on this matter in the period ahead," he told reporters.

"This government takes democracy in Pacific island countries seriously. It is not optional. It is what we do on in our part of the world."

Mr Rudd said Australia would not stand idly by.

"We have taken a hard diplomatic line on this. Further action as necessary will be taken," he said.

A delegation of Pacific dignitaries, including Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, on Thursday met Commodore Frank Bainimarama who has ruled Fiji since a bloodless coup in December 2006 that ousted then prime minister Laisenia Qarase.

Bainimarama last year promised to return his country to democratic rule by the end of March 2009.

© 2008 AAP

While Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, was so eager to talk about democracy in Fiji, as if he or his Government was the sole judge of it in the region. One ageless quote from US President Teddy Roosevelt's 1901 speech comes to mind and the quote also used by 2008 Presidential candidate, John McCain:

“Speak softly and carry a big stick — you will go far.”

What Rudd had failed to comprehend, was that the diplomatic hard line against the Interim Government of Fiji, is analogous to; speaking loudly, whilst carrying a twig.

"This government takes democracy in Pacific island countries seriously. It is not optional. It is what we do on in our part of the world."

It is beyond a doubt, that Rudd has obfuscated the definition of democracy and the Australian Government has repeatedly demonstrated regional hegemony towards Fiji; it will be no surprise that Rudd will face the same disdain in the region like his predecessor, John Howard.

While Rudd, conveniently raised the issue of free media in Fiji, it is rather ironic to learn that Australia is proposing a national Internet filter. It is certainly appearing that, domestic resistance to the Rudd's Government Internet filtering proposal, is building exponentially; and if that trend continues unabated, the concern of Fiji's lethargic path to democracy, will be the very least of Rudd's problems.

Global Voices blogger, John Liebhardht's posting examines the heated reactions to the issue of filtering, in Australia's segment of the blogosphere.

It seems that in both the Internet filtering issue and Fiji's progress to democracy have a common thread, which is the double speak of the Australian PM.

Spiked-Online reviews the debate leading up to the proposal:

To oversimplify it somewhat, the Rudd government’s proposal is so broad that the only way in which it could be deployed would be along the lines of crude keyword/image filters used by countries such as China, Iran and Turkey.

Mandatory Internet Filtering explained on Channel 9 (posted below)

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