November 4, 2006

By Michael Field in Suva
It used to be a line popular with politicians, the one about Fiji having too many Indians and not enough chiefs.
As Fiji awaits the return o f its troubled military chief, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, the old joke hints at a troubled reality.
After being scapegoats in the first three coups, Fiji’s
diminishing population of Indians are but spectators as chiefs war with each other. What threatens is more than a coup; civil war lurks.
The battle between the commodore and Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is more than a fight over a couple of contentious parliamentary bills, it is also about who rules Fiji - the Melanesians from Viti Levu and its chiefly island of Bau, or the Polynesians of the Lau islands, on Fiji’s maritime border with Tonga. Commodore Bainimarama is from Bau; Mr Qarase from Lau.
The conflict between the two goes deep into Fiji history and one of the key reasons chiefs sought annexation from Britain was because they believed only a foreign power could end the regular cycles of bloodshed. Britain and Methodism did do that, but the internal struggle between sides continued.
With independence in 1970 rule of Fiji slipped to the Lauans and the imperial Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara who served first as prime minister and then, after the first coup in 1987,became president. On the out for much of this was the rival Cakobau clan from Bau.
Up until 2000 the key political issued in Fiji was the
indigenous Fijian concern behind the rising power of the Indo-Fijians who, in 1966, had reached just over 51 percent of the population. An Indian dominated government came to power in 1987, leading to the first of two coups mounted by the number three in the Fiji military at the time, Sitiveni Rabuka.
Between 1987 and 1999 the Fijians tried constitutional devises to contrive indigenous control in the face of international opposition. Little noticed at the time were internal battles for the post of commander of the Republic of the Fiji Military Forces (RFMF). This pitted Lauans against Bauans and, bizarrely, those from rival high schools including Marist Brothers and Suva Grammar. Promotion often depended on those factors alone; and there were no Indians in the RFMF.
In 1999 Rabuka decided to go with a multiracial constitution and lost the next election, to Indo-Fijian Mahendra Chaudhry. A year later came the third coup, nominally led by failed businessman George Speight. Significantly though Speight, who is from Bau and is loosely related to Bainimarama, called in the early days of his coup for the deposing of Ratu Mara. He even made sure Ratu Mara’s politician daughter remained a closely guarded hostage.
But it was the events of May 29, 2000, that have significance for what is happening in Fiji now. The day before Speight’s men had trashed Fiji TV and killed a policeman. Commodore Bainimarama had Ratu Mara taken to a naval patrol boat and made him resign.
Within hours the Commodore declared martial law; these days it looks very much like a coup. It was never called that but Mr Chaudhry was never allowed to return to office and Bainimarama controlled political life.
He appointed obscure banker Laisenia Qarase as interim prime minister, expecting him to stand down when they got around to holding elections. That expectation was perhaps why he appointed him, a minor Lau chief loyal to Ratu Mara.
Fiji politics is anything but straightforward and Mr Qarase formed the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) party. SDL announced that while they did not agree with the method behind Speight’s coup, they agreed with the cause - indigenous dominance.

In the nasty war behind the scenes people were angry with the Commodore and special forces soldiers loyal to Speight - who felt betrayed over the way the RFMF had ended the hostage drama with Mr Chaudhry - set out to kill the commander. He escaped by leaping out a window and down a step bank, bullets kicking dirt behind him. Eight soldiers were killed that November 2000 day.
Mr Qarase went on to win general elections in 2001. The elections were suspect with F$29 million of Agriculture Ministry funds being diverted into marginal indigenous electorates to support the SDL.
Key officials are on trial currently over the scam; ironically on the day last week that Mr Qarase as at
Government House trying to seek the Commodore’s sacking, he should have been in court giving evidence over operation.
President Ratu Josefa Iloilo tried to sack the commodore and replace him with Colonel Meli Saubulinayau. Ratu Meli is a Marist Old Boy - like the Commodore - but he is from Lau.
And the RFMF would not have him.
The Commodore is right to say the SDL Government has been riddled with Speight linked politicians and officials. Many of them have served jail time and it was this that led Mr Qarase to bring out his Reconciliation Bill that would have pardoned many involved in the coup.
The Commodore fears what he has called Fiji’s “cannibal past” and it is why he has opposed the Qoliqoli Bill, a neatly mirrored reflection of New Zealand’s Seabed and Foreshore Act. Fiji proposes to give the resource to loca chiefs; the commander sees it as a return to tribalism.
His problem though is that when general elections were held in May this year the electorate pretty much voted for what Mr Qarase proposed. Additionally he set up a multi party cabinet with Mr Chaudhry’s Fiji Labour Party (FLP) and has made it clear that both bills are subject to widespread negotiations.
The SDL mandate was pretty straightforward; they took 36 of the 71 seats in Parliament. It won 81 percent of all indigenous Fijian votes and 45 percent of the total vote.
FLP took 31 seats on 81 percent of all Indo-Fijian vote, and 38 percent of the overall vote.
But the Commodore, imbibed with the notion that he “saved” Fiji, cannot accept democracy. He has said that Fijians were too easily led and that only the RFMF had the necessary skills to safeguard the nation. Mr Qarase, he says, has to go.
The Prime Minister replied this week that he would not and said the Commodore’s allegations of corruption were “just a cover for a deeper agenda to overthrow a democratically-elected Government.
“We must ask whether the Commander is being used or influenced by unscrupulous people opposed to certain items of legislation introduced by the Government. Is the Commander being manipulated by those with a certain political agenda?”
He did not name those in the dark background; their names though are known in top political circles.
“I declare emphatically that there is absolutely no question of me resigning in response to the current situation, or of my Government stepping down,” Mr Qarase said.
Mr Qarase has now restored to appealing to the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC), saying it was their chiefly wisdom and authority that resolved the 2000 crisis. He has a short memory; the chiefs talked and talked and the hostage saga dragged on for 56 days - and the issues behind the coup are still unresolved.
The Commodore was dismissive of the council.
"Why is Qarase running to the (GCC) when he is the Prime Minister?" he told the Fiji Sun newspaper.
"For heavens sake, he is the head of this country and he should have the guts to make a decision…
"This shows the calibre of a weak and manipulative leader who has no guts to stand for the truth and fight for his people but instead turns to the GCC to make his decisions for him,” he said.
Ironic, as the chiefs rule, of Fiji’s 846,000 people, only 37 percent are Indians. The problem today is all Fijians.

Copyright: Michael Field