More to politics

Pim Opinion

More to politics than votes

Countries in the region are keeping a careful eye on events in Fiji. The birth of the Fiji Labour Party has aroused mixed feelings of admiration and anti cipation.

For while some might envy the very existence and apparent support of the new political force, others have breathlessly awaited the announcement of its policy platform for other reasons.

There is nothing quite like the word "nationalisation” to strike dread into the hearts of foreign investors and although the new party has been careful to stress that it welcomes offshore finance for the right projects, the fateful word is heard loudest in foreign parts.

Fiji, with its “gilt edged” status as a favourite Pacific island investment destination, has been the envy of its neighbours since independence. That could change.

For, rightly or wrongly, the money men to the south-west, in particular, would tend to steer well clear of any country with the word “nationalisation” in its political vocabulary.

As a new party, Labour may have something to learn about the impact abroad of statements intended only for political impact at home. It is almost always a mistake to think nobody outside is listening in.

In any case, there are better and safer ways of achieving national participation in the economy as Mr Turnbull of Burns, Philp makes clear (Page 29).

Perhaps “localisation” would be a better word than nationalisation.” For if indigenous people can be persuaded, assisted or both to take up the parts of Burns, Philp that the company is suggesting it might unload in the future, this would have the effect of “freeing” local industry from foreign control without the trauma of a mass flight of capital.

And without that capital, Labour campaign promises of

improved services across the board will be just so much political hot air.

Again, without capital investment, the first to suffer will be those whom Labour holds dearest and among whom it can expect to find a natural constituency.

Other parties in the region will want to know, however, how Labour proposes to fund its ambitious program.

Benefits always have to be paid for and Labour, allied as it is with the trade union movement, is denied the traditional weapon of reduced government spending.

That leaves the electorally unpopular option of increased taxation.

The new party, in that respect, may have handed its older rival a valuable big stick.

On the other hand Labour can begin to look like one of the first political movements in the South Pacific to offer a genuine consensus that cuts across tribal and personal ity lines.

That would indeed be a potential point of departure for all kinds of political destinations. Fiji’s last election without television possibly represents a last opportunity to campaign on policies rather than personalities. In future, television’s propensity to focus on visible, moving photogenic people as opposed to “dull” policy issues will be very difficult to avoid.

If it can survive the next election intact and current signs are that it can the Fiji Labour Party will almost certainly represent the most significant political deve lopment in the South Pacific since the beginnings of independence. Its philoshopy is well capable of export to nearby nations where trade unions have so far adopted mainly passive political roles.

But the Fiji party may learn sooner rather than later that there’s more to politics than votes and that policy cannot be constructed for purely domestic consumption.