Is hard not to like Fiji... I have been there many times, I know people and places... is quite a hub in Pacific Island terms, and combination of fijians, hindus and chinese makes the place quite unique... So unique that no many outside rules apply there....
Yes there is a military government now... is not the 1st one and is always about the same issues... corruption, racial divide, land ownership, etc.
As a background, the british brought Indian workers for the sugar plantations and they had an unusual status during colonial time... with independence they got citizenship but not equal right in various areas, one of them was land ownership... they prospered in the business and education... but in many ways they still among the poorest as well.
In 1909 near the peak of the inflow of indentured Indian laborers, the land ownership pattern was frozen and further sales prohibited. Today over 80% of the land is held by indigenous Fijians, under the collective ownership of the traditional Fijian clans. Indo-Fijians produce over 90% of the sugar crop but must lease the land they work from its ethnic Fijian owners instead of being able to buy it outright. The leases have been generally for 10 years, although they are usually renewed for two 10-year extensions. Many Indo-Fijians argue that these terms do not provide them with adequate security and have pressed for renewable 30-year leases, while many ethnic Fijians fear that an Indo-Fijian government would erode their control over the land.
A google will give tons of deeper and surely more accurate analysis of the situation than this one...
On the ground... you would not notice much... a taxi driver (my political barometers anywhere) told me something like that:
"Government has become so irrelevant to ours lives that we don't care anymore... they are up there always arguing about the same... I'm down here working to eat... we all just wait and see... when news come in the radio, I change station, I put music at least there u know what they are singing about"
Other voices you hear say: “is funny they tell you that no one religion is “more” right than another one... but then they gospel on one form of democracy as if it the only solution. I didn't hear so much uproar with Pakistan... they had a military dictator for ages... but Americans needed them... we are not so important”
Fijians are Melanesians in their ancestry, but very integrated in the Polynesian “world” due to the tradelines. While Polynesians were traditionally a class systems (Tonga still has a king, Samoa has a parliament but selected among nobility lines, etc) with a warrior upper class, Melanesians had a more egalitarian social units with vest political power in groups of elders. Within some of these groups are "Big Men," renowned for their political, economic, and warrior attributes, and you get to be a “big man” pretty much on your own stand, without necessary having to belong to a powerful clan... as consequence this “status” is not hereditary. (If interested on this issues read “worlds apart” - a history of the pacific Islands by I.C. Campbell)
In many ways is no wonder why the military has such a important role in Fijian society... a warrior in the family is a huge source of pride... I have been in small villages having Kava (a traditional root drink of ceremonial and social importance among polynesia and fiji) and you see pictures of Fijian soldiers fighting away (mostly Iraq) either as part of regular armies or as private security (mercenaries), they provide the village and their church with income and "honour"...
Furthermore, Fiji’s main export is “services”, basically in security... and they are gutsy... very blessed with amazing natural bodies, speed and cunning ways in combat... as any that has played rugby against then can witness...
So, at least to me is no surprise that military government will still have and always will have influence in Fijian politics until a governance system is achieved that represents not only political issues but as well the weird racial situation and the traditional structure of the society.
In times of crisis, some people tend to welcome military interventions (in reality I believe that no military coup is completely uninvited by at least some part of the civil population), I guess the idea of people living under a code (military code?) has some sort of honor and law, when things around it are lawless...
The fisheries dept of Fiji for example, was by far the most inefficient and corrupt of all I knew... they lived in a world apart. Its disappearance would had no influence in the fisheries stake holders besides less corruption... 75% of its personnel was suspended by the military... that cleaned the corruption... but left the sector without knowledge and management
When change in government happens, in Spanish they say: “new broom cleans well” (escoba nueva barre bien)... but then in english I find it very interesting that the difference in between “use” of power, and “abuse” is only 2 letters... and that has been always the problem with military governments...
So basically... yes there is a rule of law that should be followed... but the older i get, the less I judge... legal does no always means good...there is only one group of people that will decide if Bainimarama’s rule was good or not, and that is the fijians (all included) themselves.
otherwise... is a beautiful, dynamic, multicultural and fantastic place. Ah! And I did my 1st triathlon in 11 years! Oldest guy in the field, did not finish last, and I was invited to the wedding of the winner...
some images from one of the villages
my friend Bob Gillet, his son Mark and a boat that i'm planning to build one day
one river we kayaked on the weekend
