Tapu Misa: Fiji's hope lies in peaceful resistance

Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi could have been more polite. The Pacific Forum's most outspoken critic of Fiji's military ruler Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama didn't hold back when the commodore sidestepped the country's constitution to have himself reinstated as prime minister.

Tuilaepa called Bainimarama a "puppet-master" and urged Fijians to "pound the streets in protest marches". "Peaceful, passive resistance," he said, was the only way to "rid yourself of cheap, idiotic dictators".

Which wasn't very Pacific, as Tuilaepa's next-door neighbour, American Samoan congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin, pointed out. And not exactly diplomatic, either.

The congressman told US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that New Zealand and Australia were "acting with a heavy hand" in trying to force elections in Fiji. Now was not the time for verbal attacks and heavy-handed tactics, he said. Fiji's problems were complex, and "smart diplomacy and continued engagement" would achieve more than condemnation and isolation.

He is right, of course. But forum leaders like Tuilaepa, who may feel they've given the bullish Bainimarama plenty of chances to engage, might be on to something. Never mind Bainimarama, go straight to the Fijian people.

As Tuilaepa told the Savali newspaper, "The people of Fiji... will have to stand up and demand a return of their government... And if the Fijians want it bad enough, peaceful and passive resistance will work in Fiji."

Listen to Wadan Narsey, an economics professor at the University of the South Pacific who finds himself at odds with many of his fellow Indo-Fijians for his opposition to the 2006 coup and the subsequent abrogation of the Constitution, and it's clear that it is not just the Fijian military which sustains Bainimarama's illegal regime but the support of those whom Narsey calls the "good citizens" of Fiji.

"These good citizens have willingly supported illegal methods, to achieve what they think are good causes," Narsey argues in a recent lecture. But their support has so far only emboldened Bainimarama's military government and been "instrumental in encouraging them to announce that they have abrogated the 1997 Constitution". And it has created a Fiji headed for economic collapse, greater unemployment and a massive increase in poverty.

Professor Narsey says it's dismaying that "so many otherwise good citizens" in Fiji have supported the military coups over the past 22 years.

In 1987 and 2000 it was the Methodists, the Great Council of Chiefs and the majority of indigenous Fijian. In 2006, he said, it has been the Catholic and Hindu organisations, the Fiji Labour Party and its stalwarts, leaders of Non-Governmental Organisations, and the majority of Indo-Fijian citizens.

Many had "bought into the argument that the existing electoral system was racist and unjust", and while Professor Narsey agreed that the system produced disproportional results, "that was a far cry from concluding that it was unfair ethnically; that was a far cry from concluding that a common roll proportional system would magically produce any results significantly different from the balance of power which emerged from the 2006 elections. And it was
also a far cry from the attitude that... the need for electoral reform justified a military coup against a lawfully elected Government."

As Indo-Fijian historian Brij Lal has written, "Whatever electoral system is in place, unless there is basic respect for the rule of law, nothing will work. The real cause of political instability in Fiji is not its electoral system, but a large standing army in an unruly environment characterised by a blatant disregard for the verdict of the ballot box."

Professor Narsey says those who supported the 2006 military coup and Bainimarama's illegal regime needed to "search their souls and to draw back from the brink, if they genuinely care about uplifting the standard of living or our poorest workers in Fiji..."