Letters to the Editor

Fiji Reflections

My wife and I have just returned from a few weeks in post-coup Suva, where I was teaching at the Fiji Medical School, partly in response to acute and anticipated staff shortages.

The school, which graduated its first “native medical practitioners” as far back as 1885, faces an uncertain immediate fu ture as a great number of Indian and Eu ropean expatriate staff members already have resigned and emigrated, or plan to.

Immigration, mostly to Australia, New Zealand and Canada, is the main conver sation topic with Indian professional colleagues.

However, since the coup, all civil serv ants, including academic staff, nurses, etc, have been asked to lake a 25 per cent pay cut, which when taken with the recent de valuation of the Fijian dollar (still worth more than the Australian dollar), means a severe drop in living standards. This affects locals more than expatriate staff, since most of the latter have their wages supplemented by their home countries.

In addition, there have been lay-offs and reduction, in working hours of many busi nesses. The newspaper “personal” col umns have seen an increase in the number of marriage offers (linked to immigration prospects) from overseas Indians. In some cases leaving the country means having to forfeit property or money to “repay” the government for a breach of terms of con tract for bonded service.

The outward signs of the coup are ev

idem in soldiers guarding public buildings including the hospital, bridges, and of course, the Suva Civic Auditorium, where the Great Council of Chiefs has been in session to decide the country’s future.

The most aggressive of the pressure groups on the Council of Chiefs is the Tau kei movement, whose power base is made up of traditional land owners and sup porters of the Alliance Party. They make their submissions, which include de mands for making Fiji a republic, in the customary “vakaturaga” manner, involv ing handing over of the traditional sperm whale tooth “tabua”.

Meanwhile the local reggae band “Rootslrata” gives free concerts in sup port of the Taukei movement, to the crowds gathered in Sukuna Park outside the Civic Auditorium. A few enterprising Fijians are selling “Colonel Rabuka” t-shirts at $7 each.

Though there have been no repetitions of the major riot that followed the coup, a number of criminal break-ins by vandals have led to increased military and police patrols on the streets of Suva with shops remaining open but having their shutters on standby ready to “board up” at any sign of trouble.

Indians feel insecure after a few have been attacked in their houses, and others claim to have cane-knives and petrol bombs ready to repel break-ins. Fiji’s strict gun-control laws hve fortunately pre vented more serious bloodshed. Indians, and some others, tend to look over their

shoulders when discussing sensitive is sues since informers have caused a num ber of people to be detained by army or police for questioning. Officially permits are needed for gatherings of more than four people, even in private homes, requiring our Indian host to obtain such a paper from the local police station prior to a small dinner party for seven people.

In the Fijian villages of the coast and interior, life goes on without the tension felt in Suva. As a village elder phrased it on an island south of Viti Levu: “We Fi jians are still friendly, coup or not.”

The link with the Crown is valued at grass-roots level, with many village homes in all parts of the country having portraits of the Royal family around their own col lections of fading snap-shots on the wall.

In the towns, Fijians and Indians alike are avid newspaper readers (there is no TV apart from video, which serves up a steady diet of kung-fu westerns and Hindu rom ances). Both the Fiji Sun and Fiji Times carry news items and letters that are both pro- and anti-coup, illustrating that a free press not only exists but provides a forum for people to air their views.

The coup of May 14 has set an unfor tunate precedent in a region of the devel oping world unique for its unbroken record of parliamentary democracy since inde pendence. It has set Fiji’s economy back several years and is unfair to the Indians who have lived and worked in Fiji for gen erations, and given it the high living standard enjoyed until recently.

As for the future, it seems to me that the present interim administration in Fiji (it is not a military regime: civilian politi cians and chiefs make up the great major ity of its members under the Governor General, Ratu Sir Penaia Gan ilau), will guide the country to a new con stitution, influenced decisively by the Great Council of Chiefs. It seems little doubt that the new constitution will en sure permanent Fijian control, while the Indians who can, will “vote with their feet” by leaving.

My personal concern is that the Uni versity of the South Pacific, and the Fiji School of Medicine, will be able to main tain their high standards. Having worked in a number of countries in the South Pa cific, both British Commonwealth and US possessions, I know that Fiji-trained doc tors form the backbone of the medical services in all these islands. While expa triate staff come and go, it is these local doctors, Polynesians, Melanesians, and Micronesians, who have done their five years of training in Suva, who provide continuity in the main hospitals and outer island clinics throughout the region.

Stephen R Weinstein

Tarragindi, Qld, Australia