The way Fiji

Politics

The way Fiji could be

By David North

There is a tropical island nation, a former British colony, where sugar is grown, and where the population of about a million is almost equally divid ed between two ethnic groups, one of them being the East Indians.

Historically, the other population group has controlled the prime ministership, but for the first time an Indian has won the job.

Sounds like Fiji just before the coup,

right?

Well, in this case, the sea is not the Pacific, it is the Caribbean; and the nation is not Fiji, it is Trinidad and Tobago. And the other major population group is not Fijian, but rather, English-speaking Blacks, descendants of African slaves.

The victor in Trinidad, and new coali tion Prime Minister is Basdeo Panday of the United National Congress (UNC); a

62-year-old, British-trained lawyer and

union leader who had served as foreign minister in a previous coalition govern ment.

His coalition has the narrowest of mar gins in the 36-seat parliament. UNC and

the rival (indigenous-dominated) People’s

National Movement each won 17 seats in the November elections. The tie was bro ken by a two-seat, largely indigenous party, once a major force in Trinidad politics, but now strong only on the lesser island in the nation of Tobago. That party, led by A N R Robinson, won the two seats on Tobago,

and then played kingmaker, creating the

coalition with Panday’s faction.

It is as if there had been a tie in the Fijian parliament which was broken by the delegate from Rotuma; with the Rotuman then becoming Deputy Prime Minister, as Robinson has done.

There are differences as well as similar ities between Fiji and Trinidad. There are about three-quarters of a million people in

Fiji, and about one and a quarter million in Trinidad. Trinidad, with both oil and asphalt deposits, has twice the per capita income of Fiji, but three times its external debt - suggesting that mineral wealth does not always lead to prudent fiscal practices.

The calm that followed the ethnic trans fer of power in Trinidad reflected two other major differences between that nation and

Fiji.

First, there is a substantial mixed blood population in Trinidad, approximately 14 per cent; this tends to blur the African- Indian division. (There is nothing compa rable in Fiji.) About one percent of the Trinidadian population is Chinese and another one per cent is European.

Second, there is a totally different elec

“Is there a possi bility of a Fiji-like coup?”

toral system. Instead of using ethnically segregated electorates, the pattern in Fiji and New Zealand, Trinidad has a single electoral roll. The British first-past-the post system prevails.

One of the things leading to the recent UNC victory was unhapiness with the record of the previous Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, and another was the rela tive turnouts of the two ethnic groups - sig nificant when there is a common roll, but of no importance when the seats are segre gated. In the last election about 60 per cent of the Blacks voted, while it was about 80 per cent for the Indians.

We asked the Trinidadian ambassador to the United States, Corinne McKnight, about the dynamics of the election. The

ambassador, an appointee of the last gov

ernment, said; “The really important thing

is that a largely Black party decided to sup port Panday, that’s the big story.”

Bearing in mind the role of the Fijian Army (which has always been predomi nantly Fijian), and the somewhat different role of the Yugoslav Army (historically dominated by the Serbs) we asked the ambassador about the ethnic identity of the leader of Trinidad’s small army.

“Well, our Brigadier is Carl Alfonso, and he’s all mixed up” she said with an easy laugh. The mix she was referring to was the army leader’s ethnic background, apparently a blend of African and Indian blood.

Trinidad has had its share of political violence in recent years. For example, a group of Black Muslim fundamentalists, killed a number of people a few years ago and besieged the parliament and the then (Black) prime minister. The army later res cued them.

With this in mind, as well as the Suva precedent, we asked: “Is there a possibility

of a Fiji-like coup?”

“Not a chance” said she.

As if to prove the ambassador’s point, Prime Minister Panday, at the time this was written, was in a London Hospital for heart surgery. This is exactly the set of circum stances in which Third World coups occur - the elected leader is off in Paris or London, preferably in the hospital, and then the military takes action. But not in Trinidad, at least not now.

Other sources support the ambassador’s optimism; maybe this was simply the first of a series of alternations of Trinidadian prime ministers, from African to Indian and back again, just as control of the White House moves back and forth between the Democrats and the Republicans, with no hint of military intervention. ■