still going?

Fiji

Is Mara still going?

AS Fiji enters its third year of post coup recovery it encounters another crisis: to keep Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara or dump him. His most devout followers believe Mara is irre placeable as interim prime minister.

They quote his “sterling contribution . . . to the development, growth, progress, peace and harmony”, in the country.

And they want him to remain as the

country’s prime minister until parliamen

tary democracy has been restored. At 69 Mara must be wondering when that might be. While economic recovery has been achieved to some extent, work on a new constitution has been slow and the path back to general elections far from clear. His most hardened critics are not

giving him credit for anything. They

have accused his government of preaching “naked racism” and said the draft constitution is “racist and smacks of forcing changes through the barrel of a

gun”.

Mara took office as interim prime minister on December 5, 1987, at the urging of coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka, who became Minister for Home Affairs in the Mara administration. The man date was for Mara to rejuvenate the eco nomy and prepare a new constitution that will pave the way for new general elections. The economy has been re vived. Inflation dropped to 8.7 percent last month, compared to the post-coup highest of 11.8 percent in November last year. Inflation before the coup was 2 percent in April 1987. Projections by the Reserve Bank point to an economic growth rate of 7.3 percent this year, a boom in sugar production, an increase in tourist arrivals, record earnings of Fsss million from fish export, and a foreign reserve level of $3OO million by the end of the year.

That was the pat on the back for the interim government. It, however, has not achieved equal success in the formula tion of a new constitution. After the re lease of the draft constitution and weeks of submissions from the public, the country was still far from nearing the next general elections. Certainly not within the two-year term of the current administration. Deposed Prime Minister Dr Timoci Bavadra and his Coalition Party have been using the draft constitu tion to pick holes in Mara’s administra tion. The draft tries to guarantee and protect the rights and aspirations of the

indigenous Fijians and provides them

political clout in the form of guaranteed

numerical superiority in parliament. The interim government believes these guarantees will prevent violent strife be tween the two major races Fijians and Indians in future. The Coalition thinks the opposite will happen and has called for political equality among all the races. “There can be no lasting peace unless each of us are recognised as equals before the law, and particularly before the supreme law, which is the constitution,” says Dr Balwant Singh Rakka, president of the Indian dominated National Federation Party, the partner of Fiji Labour Party in Bavadra’s Coalition. “History has taught us that you can never progress if you take away one part of the national identity. We are prepared to bow but not to kneel to those who wish to subjugate us.”

Bavadra continued to stoke the fire of defiance. When addressing a Coalition rally at Ba, in Western Viti Levu, he accused the government and the military of striking a deal in the drawing up of the draft constitution. He alleged the draft constitution limited the freedom of the commoner Fijians to participate in the running of government and was

“outrightly not acceptable”. His allega

tions received a strong rebut from the chairman of the Constitutional Inquiry and Advisory Committee, Paul Manueli.

He said Bavadra’s allegations were “both mischievous and irresponsible”.

On June 29 and 30 the interim gov ernment sponsored a national economic summit in Suva that acted as the guide line for the mini national budget to be announced in August. While there was no Coalition participation, the govern ment tried to get as big a cross-section of the country involved. It was in this sum mit that an attempt was again made to keep Mara in office beyond December.

At the end of official business, just be fore the summit closed, trade unionist Jim Smith moved a motion from the floor calling for a resolution urging Mara to stay on as prime minister until par liamentary democracy was achieved. He called on those supporting his motion to stand and applaud. Mara’s most devout followers were the first to rise, then by trickle and by storm all stood.

The Coalition was outraged. The re solution received front page coverage in the daily newspaper, The Fiji Times, and the three-times-a-week Fiji Post. “It was an orchestrated move,” said Coalition fi

nance spokesman Mahendra Chaudhry

who attended the summit as general secretary of the Fiji Trades Union Con gress (FTUC). “The motion was not on the agenda and the way it was handled it forced everyone to stand.”

The question now is whether Mara will stay. He announced last March he was not staying on at the end of his two-year

term. He said it again in June during the meeting of his provincial council from the Lau Group. Within that period he

had been continually urged by organisa

tions and individuals to stay on and lead Fiji back to full economic and political recovery. Some suspect he would stay, despite reported friction in his rela tionship with Rabuka who, until recently, was always eager to publicly speak on issues.

Recently Mara’s Alliance Party has been trying to revive itself after falling apart in the aftermath of the coup. The party is structured on racial lines; Fijian Association, Indian Alliance, and the General Electors Association which rep resents those of other races. Many in the Fijian Association were involved with the Taukei Movement whose public agitation triggered the military takeover. Because of this the Indian Alliance quickly disin tegrated. Its leadership saw the coup as a betrayal of their loyalty to a Fijian dominated party. The attempt to rele gate Indian status politically has caused much disillusionment, and the revival of the Alliance Party cannot begin until Fiji has a new constitution. “Indians want to see what’s in store for them,” said one key Indian Alliance.

One of Mara’s big headaches has been the trade unions. Through their affilia tion to the FTUC, the unions have been regarded by government as part of the Fiji Labour Party. It was because of this that government in 1985 withdrew its recognition of FTUC when FTUC en dorsed the formation of the Labour Par ty. The withdrawal of recognition also meant the collapse of the Tripartite Forum, which comprised government, FTUC and the Fiji Employers Consulta tive Association. The Forum discussed wage guidelines. Not too long ago Chaudhry threatened to call a national strike to force government to re-activate the Forum and lift the wage freeze. But at the summit, FTUC managed to ac quire an undertaking for the lifting of the wage freeze in favour of a national wage guideline. “That was a victory for us,” says Chaudhry.

If Mara can keep the unions happy, the Coalition gagged and the economy growing he can delay the constitution until feeling has mellowed enough to allow the introduction of one that will favour one race. In his speech at the opening of the summit he reminded de legates that countries like the United Kingdom and New Zealand do not have a constitution. “Let me say that a con stitution by itself will not achieve econo mic growth,” he said. “The major chal lenge on the road to economic progress at this time, and no doubt we will face in the next eleven years, is national unity.”

Why 11 years no-one bothered to ask. So Mara didn’t tell. a