One Year After The Coup

Fiji

Bruce Loudon, The Australian’s Asia-Pacific Editor, looks at life in post coup Fiji.

AFTER a year of almost ceaseless racial rhetoric, it might be ex pected that Fiji would now be a place of boundless bitterness, with the ri val Fijian and Indian communities at each other’s throats.

In some respects it is. Many of the most doleful prognostications at the time of last year’s first coup have been realised. But for almost the first time, perhaps, there are some hopeful signs on the horizon.

Superficially at least, paradise has been regained even if the political, social and economic undercurrents in Fiji society are of such a magnitude and intensity that they could at any moment explode into a third, even more devastating, military takeover.

Indeed, only a few weeks ago, senior of ficers of the Fiji Military Forces (FMF) headed by the now Brigadier-General Ra buka discussed just that a third mili tary takeover based on their belief that the objectives of the original May 14 coup had been betrayed. At the time, the proposal was shelved. But there is little doubt the officers are waiting and watching, and they would have no compunction about launching a third coup if they judged it to be necessary to ensure the Fiji-for-the-Fi jians objective was achieved.

A year after the first coup, the 6000strong military force highly disci plined, well trained and fiercely loyal to Brigadier Rabuka remains the only cohesive body in the country; in effect the progenitor as well as the sole arbiter of all that happens.

For the rest, there is division and un certainty. And within that division and uncertainty there remains considerable inter-racial goodwill.

Brigadier Rabuka’s supporters seek to create an impression of unity among the Fijians, who comprise just under half the 750,000 population. There isn’t.

Brigadier Rabuka is personally popu lar. Dressed in a T-shirt and with a gleam ing smile, he looks for all the world like an American football star and lady-killer as he stares down from large colour posters displayed in Suva shops.

A commoner, he is apparently more popular than any other Fijian leader in cluding the veteran President, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, and the Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.

But in his quest for Fijian hegemony he has divided the nation; racial bigots of the militant Taukei movement, so influential and so close to him through much of the past year, are now highly critical of the Mara Government though not, signif

icantly, of Brigadier-General Rabuka.

To the Left, too, Fiji is divided. In last year’s election many younger Fijians voted for Dr Bavadra. The suggestion now is that if another election were held today, even more would do so. Increasingly it is Fiji ans younger, better educated and wor ried and not just Indians who are seeking permission to emigrate, appar ently convinced that the country has been ruined by Brigadier Rabuka.

Fijians in the great middle ground seem to support Brigadier Rabuka and the nominally civilian Government he has put in place. They identify with his national ism, believe he is right and, say Indians, are manifestly more assertive, if no less friendly, in their attitude toward other ethnic groups.

What, then, of the Indians? They are still leaving. They’re still trooping around to the Australian and New Zealand em bassies seeking permission to migrate. In creasingly, they are disadvantaged.

At the time of the first coup, for ex ample, the top Public Service posts of de partmental permanent secretary were about evenly divided between Fijians and Indians. Today, all but four of the 26 po sitions are held by Fijians.

And in the private sector as well Indian workers are being replaced by Fijians. On the insistence of the Government, posi tive discrimination in favour of Fijians is in full swing.

The Indian mood is still one of deep apprehension, though less because of any perceived direct threat to themselves than because they see no future for their children.

Equally, however, there is now among the Indians the first optimism that has been seen in a year. Tourists are back. For eign aid has been restored. The economy is picking up. The Indian shopkeepers are getting rich again.

The events of the past year have made it clear that Fijians are not going to be ruled by Indians. And within the Indian com munity there is now an increasing (if sul len) acceptance of that reality, something that makes the constitutional changes now being contemplated much more bearable, if no less unwelcome.

“If the buggers want the political power, let them get on with it,” one Indian said.

“They must just leave me alone to run my shop and fill my bank account for the day when I may leave and go to Australia.”

For him, the present situation in Fiji, with Ratu Mara’s Government in power, underwritten by and beholden to Briga

dier Rabuka and the military, is about the best that could be hoped for.

In the five months the Government has been in office it has overseen a remarkable return of business confidence. Even for eign investors are returning, and that has as much to do with the persona of Ratu Mara as anything else.

Perhaps the most grim and dark days in Fiji were seen after Brigadier Rabuka staged his second coup. The Taukei extre mists were in full flight and the first re publican Cabinet was under their control.

Fiji was locked in a vice of authoritarian rule and fundamental religious zeal.

Brigadier Rabuka’s sudden realisation in December that Fiji was bleeding to death and that he had no alternative but to call in Ratu Mara to save the situation changed all that. But it would be wrong to be unduly optimistic about the situation, and any expectation that Fiji will return to its pre-May 1987 democracy and prosper ity is misplaced.

Fiji will not return to those days, and the real sadness about what Brigadier Ra buka did last year is that he has changed the country forever.

He and his supporters eagerly talk about a return to the Commonwealth, about a return to international respecta bility, about the Queen resuming her place as Head of State.

This is just so much pie-in-the-sky nonsense: legal draftsmen are working on a new Constitution aimed at sorting out once and for all the mess wrought by the two coups, but there is no hope of a return to the sort of multiracial democracy that served the country so well for 17 years.

It is Brigadier Rabuka and his beloved FMF as well as the Great Council of Chiefs whose writ now runs, and they have de cided the new Constitution will enshrine and give effect to the objectives of the orig inal coup Fijian hegemony.

Any attempt by Ratu Mara to divert from the goal of installing a Fijian oligar chy would see Brigadier Rabuka’s men back on the streets. It is he, not the Pres ident or Prime Minister, who continues to hold the whip hand.

Once the new Constitution is in place and parliamentary elections are held, there is a better-than-ever chance Brigadier Ra buka will enter the race and win hands down. Both Ratu Ganilau and Ratu Mara are old and increasingly frail. There is no other chief waiting in the wings to take their place. So Brigadier Rabuka is the re pository of all the hopes and aspirations of the Fijian nationalists. □