Thakur Ranjit Singh: Ball in NZ's court to make stand against Fiji

Fiji's chiefly system, a legacy of the colonial era, is incompatible with Western democracy. Photo / Thinkstock

John Key's Government can revoke Mara's visa and redeem itself, writes Thakur Ranjit Singh.

Mere elections do not deliver democracy. An election that does not grant freedom, equality and social justice to all its citizens is not worth defending.

Four and a half years ago - just after Commodore Frank Bainimarama ousted Laisenia Qarase's supposedly democratic Government - I presented a paper at a conference organised by the Coalition for Democracy in Fiji and accused the New Zealand and Australian governments of hypocrisy because of their lack of understanding of Fiji's fundamental ills.

It appears nothing much has changed. Australia granted a visa to the renegade military man Ratu Tevita Mara, to address the so-called democracy movement in exile in Canberra last week.

It is interesting to see the makeup of this dubious forum which includes stalwarts of the SDL (Qarase's Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua), church and the unions. Among other things, they wish to bring back the hegemony of the unelected and unrepresentative Great Council of Chiefs, which has been an obstacle to Westminster-type democracy in Fiji.

Fiji's chiefly system, a legacy of the colonial era, is incompatible with Western democracy. Fiji's indigenous population is still confused that the chiefly system makes kings by the accident of birth, as in the case of Ratu Mara, while the white man's voting system makes commoners like Rabuka and Qarase very powerful people through another system.

The New Zealand Government hosted Pakistan's military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf, and works with China despite its atrocious human rights record, because of trade advantages.

Australia is no different in these double standards. It was quiet about the Thailand coup yet overtly critical of a lesser power, Fiji.

That is why it is shocking that New Zealand is following in the footsteps of Australia, and granting a visa to Mara.

This is inconsistent with its so-called "smart sanctions' which no longer appear to be smart because of its ineffectiveness to sway Fiji so far.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully is now bending rules just because a hitherto militant and nationalist soldier has expediently "seen the light" and changed sides.

Mara is still related to Fiji's military government; the President's wife is his sister. He has also been implicated in some beatings as well.

It is shocking to see that while New Zealand is stopping rugby players with military connections from playing in the Rugby World Cup, it is allowing Mara.

He is a known nationalist who wishes to turn Fiji back to the undemocratic, racist and blatantly racial discrimination environment that failed to grant all its citizens equal rights and social justice, especially to the Indo Fijians.

Mara and his elder brother, Ratu Finau Mara, were activists in the extreme ethno-nationalist Taukei Movement which was behind Rabuka's 1987 coup, and which organised wanton thuggery and violence against innocent, law-abiding Indo Fijians.

In May 2000, the same people slaughtered democracy and held hostage the democratically elected government.

For 56 days, the so-called champions of democracy partied and danced on the grave of democracy.

The same people are shedding crocodile tears in Canberra, aided and abetted by the Australian Government, and they now wish to start that charade in New Zealand.

While Australia has jumped the gun, New Zealand still has the opportunity to retain its clean, first world image by thinking rationally and listening to those who, unlike its bureaucrats, know Fiji's history.

If it cannot help, the least it can do is not add fuel to the fire by granting a visa to somebody who is hiding behind the sham of noble heritage, yet harbouring extreme anti-democratic and ethno-nationalist tendencies.

John Key and New Zealand have an opportunity to show that the lessons learnt from the Treaty of Waitangi settlements have not gone in vain: the conciliatory path to solving deep ethnic and political problems is still alive.

New Zealand still has the opportunity to redeem the failure of its foreign policies on Fiji.

There is an opportunity to capitalise on the atmosphere of the sporting RWC environment to engage with a rugby-crazy country. The ball is in the bigger and relatively more "civilised" brother's court.

Thakur Ranjit Singh is a political commentator and former publisher of Fiji's Daily Post newspaper, who experienced the 1987 and the 2000 Fiji coups.