KEY POINTS:
As a board member of the NZ Pacific Business Council, and naturally close to recent events in the Pacific, I have been concerned that we are tending to present a fairly one-dimensional view of our Pacific neighbours.
We have reports on riots and coups, but seldom the geopolitical and economic realities of these events, and their likely consequences (apart from a passing reference to tourism).
New Zealand exports goods worth more than $1 billion to 23 Pacific islands, with almost half of that going to the so-called "troubled neighbours" of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Tonga.
Commentators can safely sit in "democratic" New Zealand and criticise the constitutional issues these developing nations have to grapple with, and expect them to rigidly abide by our "Westminster-style" of democracy.
The latest developments from Fiji indicate a welcome first step back to constitutional government.
It appears that in Fiji, like Tonga, the "Pacific Way" may be the preferable way to resolve Pacific disputes.
No lives were lost in Fiji, and comments from the Fiji Human Rights Commission should persuade New Zealand and Australia to reconsider its uncompromising stand with Fiji - as the main victims of any censures are the general population of Fiji, who need a resumption of tourism, especially by New Zealand and Australian visitors.
We can comfortably debate the niceties of our type of democracy, but we are a relatively wealthy country by GDP per capita standards, while all the four so-called "troubled" countries have quite low GDPs per capita.
It is this economic reality that is at the heart of their civil unrest, rather than constitutional niceties, and the road to so-called "western" style democracy seems to depend on a "western" standard of living.
After all, democracy is a Greek word meaning "government by the people" - and this assumes those who govern have the confidence of the general public.
Yes, there are some ethnic issues in Fiji, but again they are fundamentally economic in origin.
So the speedy resumption of tourism and other trading appears to be the ideal way to re-establish political normality.
Why should we expect our Pacific neighbours to completely adopt our Westminster-style of democracy, when in the past century or so they functioned very satisfactorily with their own traditional society, culture, and values?
Surely we can't expect our system, which evolved over 25 centuries, to be fully embraced in less than two centuries without some hiccups, and we should be less critical, and more supportive of their problems.
If not, Asian nations are silent on the issue, and ready to displace New Zealand and Australia geo-politically and economically.
For this and other reasons, I believe the New Zealand news media should be taking a far more active and sympathetic role in reporting on a broader range of issues in the Pacific - not just the bad news.
* Mike Flanagan is on the board of the NZ Pacific Business Council. His views expressed here are personal.
