One of the more striking differences between Voreqe Bainimarama's coup and the others were the hints that it was really an Indian counter-coup.

Somehow, it was believed, Bainimarama had used his indigenous army to end racism.

Writing in the Pacific Economic Bulletin, Professor Biman Prasad of the University of the South Pacific, makes it plain that this is no longer so.

Fiji is becoming anti Indian again. This is from his report: 

The government's stated objective since it overthrew the Qarase government has been for racial and political equality and meritocracy in appointments and promotions in the civil service. Immediately after the coup, the majority of Indo-Fijians felt that there would be decisive changes from the policies of the past 20 years. Ethnic considerations prevailed in the appointment of staff in the civil service, in the allocation of scholarships, in government grants and in the delivery of state services. 

Sadly, however, the intentions and the rhetoric of the government have not matched the situation on the ground. The age-old policies of ethnic discrimination - mainly against Indo-Fijians - have continued. 

The figures ... show that Indo-Fijians make up a declining percentage of new appointments and promotions from the period 2007-09. 

This performance sits uncomfortably with the historically large numbers of Indo-Fijian graduates from all tertiary institutions in Fiji. Appointments at the senior level are even further skewed in favour of military personnel, and invariably, indigenous Fijians. None of the heads of diplomatic missions is an Indo-Fijian and at present only three permanent secretaries are Indo- Fijians. 

The non-racial and cohesive society that Prime Minister Bainimarama talks about is a very noble ideal but his government should take heed of what is happening on the ground. Otherwise, his vision for Fiji will remain a vision only on paper. Conclusion The past three surveys on Fiji - by Chand (2007), Prasad and Narayan (2008) and Mahadevan (2009) - have observed that the Fijian economy has been merely kept afloat by short-term and stop-gap policies. In 2009, there was hope that the economy would make some recovery; instead it contracted by 2.5 per cent (Government of Fiji 2009a). 

This contraction has been attributed to the impacts of the global economic crisis in late 2008 and 2009 and floods in early 2009. The major sectors that contracted in 2009 include transport, storage and communications, wholesale and retail trade, agriculture and forestry, manufacturing, public administration and defence, education, health and social work, and hotels and restaurants. Sectors such as construction, which were expected to grow in 2009, remained sluggish. While the poor economic growth of the past three years can be partially attributed to the impact of natural disasters, the high food and fuel prices of 2007 and 2008 and the global economic crisis, the basic cause of the sluggish economic recovery after the 2006 coup is the perceived political instability and uncertainty about future economic policies. If one looks at other Pacific island on hold. Our development partners and bilateral partners would have reason to engage further with the government. 

The government must realise that confidence is the key to our future. 

The current assessment is that people expect continuing high levels of uncertainty and therefore many are making plans to leave the country. A country from which people wish to leave is one where progress is hard to come by. After the 1987 coups it was mainly Indo-Fijians who left the country. Since the 2000 coup, however, and especially after the 2006 coup, many skilled indigenous Fijians have been leaving. The country's human capital continues to bleed as qualified people leave our shores. Narsey (2010) provides a useful analysis of the demographic changes that have taken place in the past 20 years. The Indo-Fijian population is already down to 37 per cent and Narsey projects that it could be down to 26 per cent by 2027. Indo-Fijians continue to leave the country in large numbers.

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