M A I N   N E W S

Chaudhry’s three-pronged plan
Restoration of democracy in Fiji
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Aug 22 — The deposed Fijian Prime Minister, Mr Mahendra Chaudhry, feels that international community should seriously address to the menace of repeated military coups to dislodge the democratically elected governments in Fiji.

His instant concern, of course, was the reinstatement of his multi-racial coalition government but there was no guarantee that it would not be upstaged in a similar manner on a later day, he observed during a wide-ranging interview with The Tribune.

“There are some inherent infirmities in the set up of the island nation because of which any future government will be exposed to the risk of such coups and there can be no stable democracy in the existing situation. The larger issue is, thus, to safeguard the democratically elected governments from the repeated onslaughts of a handful of vested interests and malicious elements in the military”, he explained.

Elaborating, he said the tiny country had three coups and as many constitutions during its three decades of independence, as a result democracy had failed to strike roots. The security forces were overwhelmingly dominated by the indigenous Fijians. Ethnic Indians, who accounted for 44 per cent of the population, had virtually no representation in the army and their strength in the police was less than 30 per cent.

The systematic drive launched by the administration since the 1987 coup to marginalise the ethnic Indians, under which all key state institutions were packed with indigenous Fijians, was making things worse.

It was, thus, hardly surprising that all coups had been carried out with the complicity of the security forces by frustrated politicians, who were out to grab power, in league with criminal elements having vested interests. On each occasion the ethnic Indian community had been at the receiving end.

Referring to the latest George Speight-led coup, he said the government did have prior information that certain “out of power” politicians had planned civil disturbances to overthrow the government. The Ministry of Home Affairs was accordingly directed to take appropriate measures to forestall the attempt. However, it could do little as a powerful minority in the military and even the Police Commissioner, as it turned out later, were involved in the conspiracy.

The deposed Prime Minister called for an effective international intervention to rid the South Pacific nation of the scourge of repeated coups. Major democratic countries could press for UN mediation in the matter and a mechanism could be put in place by way of a resolution or an accord with the state of Fiji. The UN could even force the state to bring a legislation to ensure proportional representation to ethnic Indians in the security forces.

The coup, Mr Chaudhry asserted, was not a result of any ethnic conflict between the Fijians and the Indo-Fijians but a consequence of the bitter power struggle amongst the indigenous Fijians belonging to three different tribal confederacies.

Persons of a particular region in the security forces, polity and business had joined hands to grab power.

The Great Council of Tribal Chiefs was no longer a united entity. Its blatant politicisation by his predecessor, Mr Sitiveni Rabuka, had left it completely factionalised and this was adding to the turmoil.

He was optimistic about the reinstatement of his multi-racial coalition and said it would happen sooner than most observers believed.

Mr George Speight had been charged with treason which implied the coup had failed. Its natural consequence was that the pre-coup position be restored to undo the illegal act for which Mr Speight was being tried. He said he was not pressing for the reinstatement of exactly the same coalition and was prepared to broad-base the government by including some members of the Opposition.

Asked about his action plan, Mr Chaudhry said his Labour Party was working on a three-pronged strategy for the expeditions restoration of democratic rule in the country. Besides seeking international support, the party machinery had been activated within the country to expose all those behind the coup and presently calling the shots in the interim government on the defensive. Simultaneously, the party had moved the high court to challenge the dissolution of the elected government and Parliament.

He had already visited Australia and New Zealand to muster support for his cause and planned to tour England, France and other European countries to put across his viewpoint over the next two weeks. In the final phase he would visit Canada and the USA before the scheduled meeting of the Commonwealth Association group in New York on September 15. The group held an emergency meeting immediately after the coup at which “smart” sanctions like snapping of sports links, travel, advisory restrictions and the discontinuation of military exercises were imposed. He expected the group to impose economic sanctions on Fiji. He had no plans to set up a government in exile and would return to the island to wage a battle from within the country.

The multi-ethnic strand of Fiji, Mr Chaudhry lamented, had been impaired by acts of a handful of so-called “nationalist” rebels who were out to marginalise ethnic Indians. With every coup the lot of Fijians of the Indian origin was turning from bad to worse. Only about 15 per cent of them were well placed and the rest were petty farmers or landless labourers.

At present 83 per cent of land was with the indigenous Fijians and the interim administrations had reserved another 7 per cent for them which meant that the ethnic Indians would not be able to acquire land. It could only be taken on lease. They had been made vulnerable to exploitation as the Native Land Trust Board, which managed land, could impose unreasonable condition while renewing lease. Farming would no longer be viable for the ethnic Indians.

They had been subjected to injustice, violence and all sorts of atrocities since the coup. Their houses were set afire, shops, looted and destroyed and as per conservative estimates the loss was assessed at 13 million. Terrorised by the criminal indigenous elements, some Indian migrant farmers had been hiding at places up to 250 km off the main island. They were living in refugee camps and were afraid to return as they were skeptical about the ability of the security forces to protect them.

Worse, the blueprint prepared by the government for the development of indigenous Fijians would in effect establish an apartheid state. The ethnic Indians and other races would be disenfranchised and the indigenous Fijians would be offered all sorts of concessions and incentives at their cost. The native Fijians would get scholarships, industrial licences, interest free loans, jobs and even exempted from the payment of taxes. All these measures would reduce ethnic Indians to third grade citizens and they would virtually become slaves.

In such a situation an exodus of professionals and skilled persons was inevitable. After the 1987 coup over 80,000 ethnic Indians had left Fiji which reduced their population from 51 to 44 per cent.

Only effective intervention by the international community, particularly India, could save the immigrants from the impending doom. He said initially the Indian response was “passive” but now that he was out of custody, it was expected to take a decisive action. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, had assured him that India would intensify international action if the island nation failed to fall in line.

Mr Chaudhry was satisfied with the performance of his government. He provided an honest government which made a lot of difference to the life of Fijians in a short period of 12 months. Its main thrust was on poverty alleviation. Food prices were brought down by 15 per cent to 30 per cent by removing sales tax and customs duty on basic food items and bringing them under the price control order. The interest on housing loans for the low income group was brought down from a high of 13 to 6 per cent. Water and power charges were brought down by 10 per cent and additional resources were provided for education and health services. All these steps had enhanced the popularity of the government and people were pleased with the performance. Only a handful of malicious elements in the security forces, power hungry politicians who were defeated in the election, and failed businessmen had conspired to topple his elected government.