Bloggers in Fiji and around the Pacific are debating a recent Amnesty International report chronicling the island nation’s human rights record since the country’s president abrogated the constitution April 10.

The report, titled Fiji: Paradise Lost, contends that since the constitution was nullified, Fiji’s military government has limited freedom of expression, movement, assembly, the right to a fair trial and the freedom of arbitrary detention. Also, the government has briefly imprisoned up to 40 people, including lawyers, opposition politicians, high-ranking members of the Methodist church and 20 journalists. The report tallies alleged arrests and other violations through July.

The head of Fiji’s military, Frank Bainimarama, came to power in a December 2006 coup, dissolving parliament and the government of Laisenia Qarase. On April 9, 2009 three judges ruled in a case brought by Qarase that the takeover was illegal. The judges demanded Bainimarama step down, and asked Fiji’s president to appoint a caretaker government to move the country to elections. On April 10, the country’s president claimed he had no power to appoint a new government; instead, he nullified Fiji’s 1997 constitution, fired the entire judiciary and appointed Bainimarama to a five-year term, scheduling elections in 2014.

One of Bainimarama’s first tasks was to promulgate a series of 30-day renewable Public Emergency Regulations, called PER, for “maintaining public safety,” granting the government the authority to, among other things, impose curfews, restrict movement and the ability to detain people for up to seven days without charges. In July, the government said it would extend the PER through December 2009. Amnesty International calls on the government to immediately repeal these rules.

From the report:

The ongoing harassement and arbitrary detention of journalists, lawyers, clergy and government critics by the authorities under the guise of the PER is a tactic used to suppress freedom of expression, including any form of dissent.

The report saves special criticism for the restriction of the country’s press. The rights group points out that extra-constitutional PERs allow the government to revoke the license of any media organ printing negative stories; the government also granted itself power to place censors in newsrooms around the country.

The report also claims the government holds undue influence over the country’s judiciary.

Fiji’s government says the report provides very little proof of alleged human rights abuses perpetrated by the country’s military.

In a comment at the Soli Vakasama blog, Tui argues it is good that someone has begun chronicling the alleged abuses by the Bainiarama regime.

THe entry of Amnesty Interrnational into the foray of Fiji Politics must be very disheartnening to the Illegal Regime.Now they will have to answer to somebody for their total disregard of human and civil rights in Fiji.They have to explain why they are only allowing one side of the story to be told.With the entry of Amnesty International into the mix the illegal regime must explain the abuse of women, the torture of civillians and even their murder.
Isn’t it strange that the regimes first line of defence as stated by the uneducated PS for Info is that people must come with evidence of the abuse. I wonder which planet Leweni is talking from because we know that PER is still in force in Fiji and that is proof enough of abuse of anykind.I am so glad that this is happening in Fiji because soon some heads will begin to roll and it will not be the peoples but that of the illegal regime and its mastermind Bainimarama.

No Right Turn, a blog from New Zealand, calls the report – which also exposes alleged abuses from the December 2006 coup – “unpleasant reading.”

While the Fijian regime are clearly amateurs at oppression, they have successfully created a climate of fear, with people intimidated by “Gestapo tactics”, including threats, arrests, arbitrary detentions, travel bans, and even attacks on homes. According to Amnesty, over a thousand people have been dragged off by the military to their barracks, where they have been beaten, forced to perform military drills, stripped, and sexually abused. At least one person has died as a result of this mistreatment, but despite being tried and convicted, his killers have been released on orders from the regime. The media is subject to censorship and can report only “good news” about the regime and international events. The judiciary has been corrupted and turned into a tool of the regime, and the rule of law no longer exists. Instead, everything is down to the arbitrary whim of those in power.

This isn't happening in some far-off place like China or Zimbabwe - its happening right on our doorstep, in one of the largest countries in the Pacific. And there seems to be very little we can do to stop it.

Bainiarama justified his actions in December 2006 claiming the former government was corrupt and former Prime Minister Qarase ruled solely for the benefit of the indigenous Fijian population at the expense of Indo-Fijians, descendants of indentured servants brought to the islands about a century ago by British colonial rulers. Indigineous Fijians presently make up just below 60 percent of the population while Indo-Fijians represent roughly 37 percent.

Fiji: The Way It Was, Is and Can Be argues this historical context is not found in Amnesty International’s report.

As for the report itself, I can only say I'm deeply disappointed with Amnesty International, an organization that over the years I have admired and financially supported. Its title tells all: Fiji: Paradise Lost: A Tale of Ongoing Human Rights Violations April - July 2009. Its researcher and author is ethnic Fijian Apolosi Bose. Its methodology involved 80 interviews with journalists, lawyers and others, all hostile to the Interim Government, based largely on Bose's visit to Fiji from 4-18 April, and 2008-2009 inputs from “activists in Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne and London. ” The Fiji April visit overlapped the Abrogation of the 1997 Constitution and the introduction of the Public Emergency Regulations. Other than the period immediately following the coup, this was the most troubled period in the past six years…

There have been human rights abuses in Fiji, and not all of them have been properly addressed by the Government. There have also been abuses of office by opponents of the Government. These things happen in post-coup situations. All such happenings need to be place in context, weighed and balanced; compared with earlier (pre-coup) abuses; and considered within a future context: where is Fiji now, and how may we help it to move towards a better future? The Amnesty International investigation does none of these things. It is a report by and about “activists” aimed at an international audience, and it will be used by them to further isolate Fiji to no useful purpose.

Two bloggers from outside Fiji debate the veracity and importance of recent media reports on the purported human rights violations by Fiji’s government.

The QBrand QBlog, from Australia, wonders why people in that country get worked up about problems in Burma, but ignore purported violations in Fiji.

It's getting harder and harder to understand the attitudes of many Australians to our island neighbour Fiji. Despite clear evidence of the repressive nature of the Bainimarama regime, most of the talk I hear about Fiji is about how cheap the airfares are and which resort is the best.

From a branding perspective, what are the forces that perpetuate our view of Fiji as a sleepy, friendly tropical paradise when we get worked up about human rights in Burma and Zimbabwe, or about media censorship in China?

Is it just proximity? Or is it that so many Australians and Australian enterprises with commercial interests in Fiji are willing to be apologists for Bainimarama and his military government?

Café Pacific, from a New Zealand-based journalist and academic, criticizes Pacific media for concentrating on abuses in Fiji while ignoring decades of human rights violations in East Timor.

THE HYPOCRISY reeks. While Australia, NZ and the media went through the usual bleating about Fiji human rights violations, they remained silent about the ongoing struggle to gain justice for those Timorese who have suffered horrendous human rights violations for more than four decades. Alleged human rights violations in Fiji are a soft target - the tough target, the top Indonesian military commanders who have blood on their hands for their colonial adventure in East Timor, remain free with inpunity. Timor-Leste's Truth Commission appeals for an international tribunal and a “commission for disappeared persons” still remain an unlikely dream.

[Note to copy editors, line editors, journalists, NGOs and news organizations: The terms “paradise lost,” “trouble in paradise,” and other related expressions are now forbidden in future reports on Fiji. Utilizing this long-suffering analogy now constitutes a human rights violation.]

While Fiji technically has been suspended from the group of former British colonies since its December 2006 coup, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group made the disbandment full on September 1. This is the second time Fiji has been fully suspended by the group. Only Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe have previously been removed by the Commonwealth.

While the move was hardly a surprise, it most likely will drive  a deeper wedge between Fiji’s military backed government and the international community. In May, the regional group Pacific Islands Forum suspended Fiji from participation in its body for the failure to hold elections. Shortly afterwards, the European Union cancelled its 24 million Euro sugar subsidy to the country.

To Fiji this most recent suspension means the country will be excluded from Commonwealth sporting events. Also, Fiji’s government will be barred from attending in Commonwealth intergovernmental activities, meetings and, perhaps most importantly, receiving technical assistance.

Frank Bainimarama in December 2006 ousted the government of Laisenia Qarase, whom the military leader claimed ruled for the benefit of indigenous Fijians at the expense of ethnic Indians, the country’s largest minority group, making up nearly 40 percent of the population. It was Fiji's fourth military coup since 1987.

The so-called Indo-Fijians are descendants of indentured workers brought to the Pacific Island nation to work in sugar plantations by British colonial rulers roughly one hundred years ago.

A large proportion of Indo-Fijians have subsequently been kicked off the land their families once farmed. While the community as a whole has excelled in the economic sector, tens of thousands of Indo-Fijians have left Fiji for other countries.

In April Bainimarama and his government was provided with a five-year mandate after the country’s president abrogated the 1997 constitution. He was responding to a court decision claiming Bainimarama’s coup was illegal, forcing the Prime Minister to step down and requiring the president to appoint a caretaker government to bring Fiji to elections. However, the president maintained Fiji’s constitution did not provide him with that power.

Since then, Bainimarama said his government will begin work on a new constitution in 2012 to take the country to elections in 2014. The Prime Minister has said he will write a new electoral law, scraping the country’s method of providing different voter roles for people of different ethnicities. He also maintains he will spend the next three years rebuilding Fiji’s infrastructure and propping up its economy, which has been hit hard by the global economic crisis and the after-effects of political instability.

Let's get to the bloggers. Writing a few days before the suspension, Loyal Fijian argues that life in Fiji will go on outside the umbrella of the Commonwealth.

Fiji is is set to be suspended from the Commonwealth.

While this statement Will surely be used by the Anti-IG forces to depict the IG in a bad light, life will go on as normal.

The Commonwealth is nothing more than a Club of former British colonies with no real purpose or power.

In fact, what is the sense of reminding ourselves of the dark chapter when we were subjugated by a foreign power?

In this day and age, do we need a Commonwealth?

Loyal Fijian does not think so. We are a sovereign nation and have no need for the relics of history.We are a republic!

The Commonwealth can do as it pleases.

Fiji: The Way It Was, Is and Can Be finds little solace in the Commonwealth's decision.

One can, of course, see where the Forum and Commonwealth are coming from. They had to react to what they saw as an illegitimate regime imposed by the military. The pity is they could not also see that the regime that was deposed was far from democratic, even though it had the support of most ethnic Fijians. And that the only way to break the cycle of coups, and establish a just and more genuine democracy, was to remove race as the inflammatory accelerant from Fiji politics once and for all. The party leaders, Qarase and Chaudhry, the Commonwealth insist Bainimarama include in dialogue do not want this. Race-based parties and electorates guarantee their re-election. That's why their recent letter to Bainimarama copied the Commonwealth's insistence on inclusive dialogue with no conditions and no determined outcomes, and why the Government will always resist this sort of dialogue with politicians like this.

The situation is anomalous but the irony is not hard to see. Read it slowly. Two democratic, non-racist institutions oppose a military regime —–and so unwittingly continue to extend support for undemocratic, racist politicians—– and so undermine the wobbly efforts of the military regime (sic!) —- to impose democratic, non-racist political procedures.

However, a comment from Alterego takes the blog's writer, Crosbie Walsh, to task for his alleged support of the Bainimarama regime:

I'm as opposed as you are to undemocratic, racist politicians; problem is they're a product of the population that elects them. As are the good ones: every country has it's fair share of both.

At least pre-Bainimarama the upright citizens of Fiji could publicly voice their opinions, campaign on issues of importance, petition their representatives, vote bad leaders out, and take bad law to court.

So how exactly is the current situation an improvement?

No Right Turn, another blog from New Zealand, wonders why it took the Commonwealth so long to suspend Fiji.

Almost three years after Bainimarama's coup, Fiji has been suspended from the Commonwealth. It took them long enough. The net effect will be that the Fijian regime doesn't get invited to parties any more - including, if they care, the Commonwealth games - but that seems entirely appropriate for an unelected dictatorship.

Given the entrenched anti-democratic attitudes of Fiji's dictator, this is unlikely to change his mind. But it does send a message internationally that coups and dictators are unacceptable to the community of nations, and that democratic countries will not associate themselves with them.

At Raw Fiji News, lartinidaveta says the UN must continue the pressure on the regime and send Fiji’s peacekeepers home.

If the Commonwealth would really want to hit Baini and his supporters where it hurt most then they should veto for the discontinuation of RFMF at all UN Peacekeeping duties. That is Baini lifeblood thats keeping him in power. All Fijian Security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan should be terminated immediately and have them replaced by other Pacific Islanders Peace keepers that had being trained by RAMSI. There should be concerted effort by all global and regional gatekeepers in order to eradicate this type of political problem from the Pacific for good. What ever happen in Fiji can aslo happen in PNG and these are destabilizing factors for regional peace.

Along with news of the suspension, the International Federation of Journalists have called for Australians and others to boycott Fiji. This is in response to the Public Emergency Rules that have been in place since the abrogation of the constitution that give the government the power to place censors in news bureaus throughout Fiji.

At the Soli Vakasama blog, Fiji ex tourist wonders how regular people will accept the suspension.

It will be interesting tonight to see its reaction to the suspension from the Commonwealth. Surely the athletes and rugby players who will miss out on the Commonwealth games next year must be spewing.

Let’s hope they air their disquiet.

The UN must now suspend Fijian soldiers from all peacekeeping; it is immoral not to do so.

It was a great call by the journalists to ask tourists to not visit Fiji. It is not the workers who would lose money but the junta through taxes.

Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda, known as Josefa Ilolio, announced his retirement after nearly nine years in office. At 88, he leaves office as the world’s oldest statesman.

His rule has been punctuated by three separate constitutional crises. Josefa Ilolio became president in the aftermath of Fiji’s 2000 coup when indigenous Fijian nationalists and members of the military held an elected government headed by an Indo-Fijian hostage for 56 days. He served until December 5, 2006 when military leader Frank Bainimarama declared a national emergency and assumed presidential powers before dissolving Parliament. A month later, the military commander then restored Ilolio to power. The President then named Bainimarama interim-Prime Minister.

On April 9, 2009, a court of appeals ruled Bainimarama’s takeover was illegal and ordered Iloilo to name a caretaker government until elections could be held. However, the President declared he had no constitutional authority to name a new government. So he annulled the country's 1997 constitution, discharged the entire judiciary and appointed himself head of state. The following day he nominated Frank Bainimarama to a five-year term, pushing out elections until 2014.

Some bloggers marked the passing.

From Babasiga

From radio fiji is the news that Ratu Iloilo will, at last, be living the pleasant life of a retired man, to spend time with his family in Veseisei. He is a frail gentleman and deserves time in his senior years with his kin and his vanua.

From a comment by True Pale Blue at the Real Fiji News site.

What an outstanding example of service to a Nation! Comparable to that of HM Queen Elizabeth II and worthy of such comparison. Our thoughts, our prayers and our deepest respect go out to the retiring President.

“Well done, good and faithful servant”

Gospel of St Matthew (25:23)

As stated in Fiji’s now abrogated 1997 Constitution, Fiji’s president is appointed by the hereditary indigenous Fijian group the Great Council of Chiefs for up to two five-year terms. While the President's power is largely ceremonial, the position does have certain reserve powers that have proved powerful during Fiji’s four coups and constitutional crises.

Vice President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau will assume presidential powers until a new president can be appointed. Frank Bainimarama has stated the Great Council of Chiefs, which he suspended, will not choose Fiji's next president. Instead, his cabinet and the recently re-appointed Chief Justice will do so. Bainimarama has claimed he will begin working on a more equitable and racially balanced constitution in three years. Josefa Ilolio may well be Fiji’s last President appointed by the Great Council of Chiefs.

Critics have long claimed that Ilolio was deeply under Bainiarama’s influence. Supporters contend Ilolio attempted to save indigenous Chiefly system by attempting to modernize the entire government.

From Fiji Board Exiles, gdevreal calls Ilolio’s retirement “long overdue,” and wonders what is next for the Bainimarama regime without its man in Government House.

Frank was pretty dependent on a rubber stamp president.
What happens now? With these sons and daughters of chiefs coming back into power, what do they need Frank for? He is definitely a liability on the international front, and knows phuck all about running an economy or a nation.

Staying at Fiji Board Exiles, real jack argues through a troubled decade, Ilolio was a stabilizing force.

the regime will have to find someone with similar standing and blood credentials who will be able to hold that pivotal role in itaukei [indigenous Fijian] society as the Turaga Tui Vuda has had since 2001 - we tend not to think about the pivotal role this chief has played in stabalising itaukei politics in this country since 2001 - his cheifly status and blood ties has been central to that stabalising influence - he has saved the itaukei race and held it together after the upheavels of 2001 and till todate - his Mana has held this country together.

The international press has painted the retirement as providing Bainimarama a chance to further consolidate power. A few of Fiji’s anti-government bloggers concurred.

Coup Four Point Five suggests that to tighten his grip Bainiarama had to force Ilolio out of office.

Contrary to the announcement this afternoon by the interim regime’s head, Frank Bainimarama, that President Ratu Josefa Iloilo has announced his retirement, sources have told us that Iloilo was forced into early retirement by the regime.

We have confirmation that the Tui Vuda’s retirement as President and Commander in Chief of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces was planned by the regime soon after the appointment of Ratu Epeli Nailatikau as vice president in late April after the abrogation of the Constitution on April the 10th.

Sources have told us that the regime has been discussing a retirement package for Iloilo for more than two months.

From the Soli Vakasama blogsite.

The recent maneuverings resulting in getting rid of incompetent Josefa Iloilo to make way of useless Epeli Nailatikau and news that liumuri, veivolitaki Epeli Mataitini or no hoper Tui Wei Talemo maybe in the running for VP post. The recent postings of Leweni, Naupoto and now Tikoduadua into PS [Permanent Secretary] positions only confirms Bainimarama’s real Road Map for Fiji folks and it ain’t towards democracy, but to the full militarization of Fiji!

The government alleges that Rewa High Chief Ro Teimumu Kepa broke meeting rules when she met with Methodist church leaders to plan its annual two-week conference that the government has refused to issue a permit. The conference was scheduled to take place near the end of August in her province of Rewa, a poor, mostly rural area not far from the capital Suva. It brings in tens of thousands of members, includes choir competitions and provides a substantial amount of fundraising for the church.

The government denied a permit for this year’s conference because leaders refused to not include two of its former presidents, Manasa Lasaro and Tomasi Kanailagi, and remove any political discussions from its agenda.
Detractors of both men accuse them of mixing ethno-nationalist politics and religion.

Both men also attended the alleged planning meeting and were arrested. Judges released all eight people on $500 bail and (for some) forfeiture of travel documents. They will reappear in court August 13.

The predominately indigenous Fijian Methodist church, which nearly one-third of the country's population belongs, was closely aligned with the government of Laisenia Qarase, which ruled from 2001 until it was overthrown in December 2006 by Commodore Frank Bainimarama for what he called corrupt and racist rule that benefited indigenous Fijians at the expense of other ethnic groups. It was Fiji’s fourth military coup since 1987.

After a court ruled in April the 2006 takeover was illegal, Fiji’s president annulled the country’s constitution, fired the entire judiciary and appointed Frank Bainimarama to a five-year term before elections will be held. The government then passed a series of Public Emergency Regulations, controlling the media and limiting assembly.

Insaafi, writing in Raw Fiji News, says the arrests are a a case against religious freedom.

The issue is not so much that a high chief has been apprehended at midnight and taken for questioning without any justfication.
It is more about the moral repugnance and abomination of denial of very basic tenets of natural justice to a decent citizen of fiji whose rights to human freedom , dignity and freedom of speech are enshrined in not only the abbrogated constitution but also in the preamble to the Charter tha the regime has adopted as its mantra.
It is also about the traditional respect that we have for all the mothers, sisters and citisens of our country.
Religious freedoms form the cornestone of all civilised societies and the suppression of the Methodists in Fiji cannot and should not be condoned by those who have any respect for their own rights and religions.
It is time for all the religious groups to show total solidarity with the Methodists.

Intelligentsiya argues by picking a fight with the powerful Methodist church, the military government may soon meet its match.

The Methodist Church remains steadfast and refuses to budge on their intent to hold their conference.

There could be wave after wave of believers willing to face persecution and oppression for the Lord's work (as is foretold in the good book). This time Bainimarama has picked a fight with the wrong foe - God.

Let's see how many methodists the military can round up and charge with incitement, before they collapse in exhaustion or run out of holding capacity.

However, an anonymous comment in the above post criticizes Church leadership.

As a Christian, I am sick and tired of publicity hungry chiefs seeking political notoriety, without dealing with what's important, standing amongst distracting homosexual looking Kanailagi crying out as victims of what they created.

Impure intentions of the embittered and the desperate, missing what once was which many did not favor, feeling rebuffed by a government who professed to represent us, the common average hardworking invisible people of Fiji.

Real Fiji News contends this is issue is political and not religious.

We should be reminded that only a hand full of Methodists have a political agenda, which consequently is destroying the religious values for the remainder of the 300,000 followers.
This is not about religion its about POLITICS. The Government is NOT against the Methodists, its against the POLITICS, lets be constantly reminded of that. The SDL party has freely admitted it has a clear strategy with regards to the Methodist church and the current government.

For a few bloggers, however, the arrests and charges do not represent a fight between the government and the Methodist church; rather, it is a battle against Rewa High Chief Ro Teimumu Kepa, a practicing Catholic who was Minister of Education in the SDL-led Qarase government.

During her two-day captivity, her family released a video on You Tube hoping to sidestep Fiji’s media censorship. In the video, family members claim Ro Teimumu’s “human rights and indigineous rights has been grossly violated by this illegal government currently running the country.”

What makes this issue so complicated – and potentially destabilizing – is it intersects so many fault lines within indigenous Fijian society: Namely, the role religion plays in the public sphere and the power indigenous chiefs have in politics. Some in Fiji are more than willing for chiefs and church leaders to entertain political aspirations.

Others point out that there is no place for either in modern society. They argue Fiji is a multi-ethnic and poly-religious nation – with other ethnic groups, especially ethnic Indians, making up nearly 40 percent of the country’s population and non-Christian worshippers accounting for more than 30 percent of those who live in Fiji.

Jenny Hayward-Jones, blogging at the Lowy Interpreter, argues the arrests were a desperate move by the government.

Yesterday's arrests in Fiji of the leadership of the Methodist Church and a female paramount chief are a dramatic development in Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama’s quest to increase his control over the country. Whether they will be the trigger for the ultimate demise of his leadership, or civil unrest, or whether they are a sign of the permanent entrenchment of a military dictatorship remains to be seen.

The arrests are a clear threat to two key pillars of Fiji society – the Methodist Church and the Chiefly System – and represent the most significant provocation from Bainimarama to civil society in Fiji since the 2006 coup. It’s a risky and desperate move from a leader who claims to understand the ‘Pacific Way'.

Laminar Flow, writing in Stuck in Fiji M.U.D., asserts the so-called pillars no longer have a pull on anyone in the country.

The proverbial pillars of Fiji's society, which Jones raised in her latest blog posting, was an emotional appeal for incitement. It may have escaped the mind of Jones, that those dual pillars she had highlighted; are so out of touch of reality that their influence on Fiji's populace has dwindled to a such a pathetic degree that, their appeal is actually anachronistic-oblivious to the changing demographics of Fiji's modern society.
Both pillars are no longer load bearing entities in politics, as they once were. Currently both bedfellows flaunt their roles in public, but the actual process of reducing their Chiefly/Religious footprint in Fiji politics would neither dent nor damage, the structural integrity of the progressing nation.

Nasima, writing in the Soli Vakasama blogsite, salutes a “true chief” like Ro Teimumu for defending her people.

A true chief will acknowledge that without his/her people, they are nothing. Therefore his/her service will always be to the people first and self later. A chief who respect his people will get respect in return and a true chief will readily acknowledge that people’s respect should never be taken for granted to justify discontinuing his respect for his people. A true chief will always have the welfare of his people close to his heart.
The above is rarely witnessed nowadays because true Fijians chiefs are an endangered species. Sadly, there are not many of them around and the Fijian people, as a unique race on the face of this earth, are being led to a slow death. Wannabe chiefs are more concerned with the figure in their bank account than with the livelihood of their people.
Many will highlight the fact that a woman is standing up in the face of danger to fight for what she believe in because of the Christian faith gifted to her and her people by her forefathers. What many will fail to realise is that regardless of whether it is a man or a woman, it takes a true blue blood to flow in your veins to be able counter head-on the dangers, the likes of which is descending upon the Fijian people.

Fiji: The Way It Was, Is and Can Be points out “Ro Teimumu is a chief but she is also a politician.”

My interpretation is that her primary purpose is to use the Conference as a means to create unrest and rally mass Fijian support for a political cause she shares with extreme Fijian nationalists. That is, to overthrow the Bainimarama government and see the return of a government that puts chiefly, and Fijian elite rights and privileges, ahead of those of other citizens, including those of ordinary Fijians. This is not because she is an unfeeling person but rather, I suspect, because she believes chiefs are born to rule, and that Fiji, first and foremost, must be for Fijians.

But Some traction, some gain, must come from the past three years. I say this with no disrespect for Ro Teimumu or the Fijian chiefly system. But in the modern, multi-ethnic, multi-religious state of Fiji, Fijian chiefs and national politics — and religion and politics — should be kept apart, and the concepts of vanua, lotu and matanitu [Fijian culture, Christian church and government], as they apply to the 21st century, need to be re-thought. The prostrate bodies of slaves should no longer be used as rollers to launch Ro Teimumu's or anyone else's waqa drua. Over the next few weeks ordinary Fijians should be particularly wary of such manipulation by chiefs, church and the SDL.

From the Blog: Waqa Drua = Large double-hulled canoes, some as long as 30 metres, capable of carrying up to 200 people, and faster than contemporary European ships.

This loose coalition argues the Discovery Channel programming sensationalizes shark attacks and embellishes the dangers sharks pose to humans. While Shark Week may provide a handsome profit to the US-based network, it has created a generation of viewers that feel “sharks need to be hunted to extinction,” the group argues. They are circulating a petition calling for the boycott of Shark Week.

Shark Week, which has run on cable and satellite systems since 1987, offers Discovery Channel viewers a week-long series of documentaries and feature programs. Last year an estimated 29 million viewers around the world viewed Shark Week. As an example of its popularity, a different petition calls for the Discovery Channel to expand Shark Week programming to 24 hours per day.

Shark Week begins in the United States August 2 and runs a few weeks later in different regions.

From the group’s manifesto at the French Polynesia-based blog Discovery’s Shame:

The fact is that no shark species target humans for food and people all over the world swim and dive with sharks for pleasure—the same species that Discovery infers will attack and kill people.

Scientists who's work has been used for Discovery's Shark Week have found it twisted and misrepresented by the company. For those who are familiar with sharks, Shark Week is nothing more than tabloid journalism, and does not reflect modern scientific knowledge.

Until recently, even the dangers to sharks from overfishing was covered up by Discovery, because they considered conservation to be an unpopular subject.

According to most estimates, each year sharks attack 50 to 70 people and kill between 5 and 15. Between 20 and 100 million sharks die annually due to fishing.

The blog Sea Stewards: Sea is Our Sanctuary tells readers to “support rational shark programming.”

Despite promises in a meeting with shark advocates and filmmakers in New York two years ago to promote shark awareness Discovery Channel is still promoting the hype and fear of sharks in their sensationalistic Shark Week programming. We have a responsibility to raise awareness that promote sane and sustainable ocean practices. Sharks are an important component fo a healthy ocean and the fear and hype generated by shark attack films is harmful to sharks.

The Discovery Channel admits it employs attention-grabbing methods to bring in viewers. But the network says its web and television programming educates that audience about the value and plight of sharks. Instead of being sensationalistic, its television programming portrays the complicated relationship between humans and sharks, which is what viewers want to see.

David, a shark conservation graduate student in the United States, blogs under the moniker Whysharksmatter on the site Southern Fried Science. A few weeks ago he interviewed Discovery Channel Executive Paul Gasek on the controversy surrounding Shark Week.

[Whysharksmatter]WSM: Do you believe that how movies, the news, and networks like the Discovery Channel portray sharks affects how the public views sharks? For example, in the scientific community, it is widely acknowledged that the movie Jaws has encouraged public fear of sharks. We can’t help but notice that a poster for this year’s Shark Week bears a strong resemblance to the movie poster for Jaws. Though your website has lots of conservation information, do you believe that some of your programming promotes fear of sharks?

[Paul Gasek]PG: At Discovery Channel, we pride ourselves on telling compelling and accurate stories. Shark Week is no different. Two of our shows this year are based on actual historical events: one is about the first U.S.-based shark attacks on record, off the New Jersey shore in 1916, and the other is about the infamous summer of 2001 when more than 50 swimmers were attacked by sharks off U.S. beaches. It is a fact that sharks sometimes mistake people for prey and attack. In these, and many of our shows, we are digging deeper than the media headlines and telling the stories behind the stories.

WSM: Are you and other Discovery Channel executives aware of the following facts?:

A) Sharks kill less than ten humans a year

B) Less than 1% of shark species have ever bitten a human

C) Sharks play key roles in regulating ecosystems

D) Losses of shark populations have resulted in collapses of economically important fisheries

E) More than 100 million sharks a year are killed in one of the most wasteful, unsustainable, and brutal fishing practices on Earth…

F) Resulting in dozens of species suffering 95% or higher population declines in the last thirty years?

PG: We are absolutely aware of the plight – and importance – of sharks. And while we have millions of people watching our Shark Week programming (29 million people last year) and visiting our Shark Week website (one million people in July alone) we work hard to educate them about the importance of shark conservation.

Each year, Discovery Channel partners with Ocean Conservancy on a Public Service Announcement about the state of sharks which airs throughout Shark Week… We also dedicate a large portion of our website to shark conservation, using it as a tool to entertain and educate people.

The question-and-answer session sparked debate throughout the shark community. Here are a few comments from the Southern Fried Science site.

From Mako:

When it comes to television, people want to be entertained and networks want to entertain. By portraying sharks as menacing eating machines hungry for human flesh, thats entertaining to people. Its the same reason that people flock to the movie theatres for the next lame scary movie. We like to be scared. It may be “accurate”, but its the commercials, camera angles, music, tone of the commentary that bring across fear and misconception to the audience. Its the nature of media, bend the truth a little and sell it better, or give the stone cold boring truth.

From Irradiatus:

No one is claiming Shark Week should be the “Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.”

Quite the opposite.

What everyone is saying is that you can make a million different varieties of insanely fascinating shark programs that aren’t about them being evil killing machines.

Allie says:

There is a HUUUGE divide between the conservation-oriented Discovery Channel website, and it’s television programming. Yes, choosing sensationalistic headlines may reel people in, but for those who don’t take the time to watch, it also sends a message.

While the debate raged on, the MarineBio Blog compared this year’s Shark Week to previous editions.

I hated that the Discovery Channel aired shows with that threatening voiceover, and all the fear-mongering worked into the script. People who fear sharks won’t respect the fact that shark populations are dwindling worldwide. The only thing people were “discovering” during shark week is that sharks are man-eating demons. There was very little mention of the true nature of sharks, which is that they’re apex predators in search of fish, and seals and other marine critters they find yummy. And that more often than not, human encounters with shark in the wild consist of the sharks swimming away – not attacking. Sharks are extremely important to balanced marine ecosystems. Without them, there’s a top-down cascade of ill-effects as shark prey begin to proliferate and take over – causing their prey-species to be depleted.

However, checking up on this year’s website, the author found:

To my surprise, most of the blood and gore has been replaced with messaging on shark conservation and it seems they’re planning to air documentaries about sharks that are informative and educational rather than shocking and gory. They even have a map of shark populations and their conservation status around the globe.

This year’s Shark Week features the following programs: Blood in the Water; Deadly Waters; Day of the Shark 2; Sharkbite Summer; Great White Appetite and Shark After Dark.

The innocuous-sounding Day of the Shark 2 has generated a tremendous amount of dialogue. The program – described as a “harrowing hour” – exhibits three separate shark attacks: the first when a great white breaks through a shark cage, trapping a diver inside; second, a former Navy seal is attacked in shallow waters and third a bull shark happens upon a spearfishing trip in the Bahamas.

In instances such as this, the blog Shark Divers doesn’t directly find fault with the Discovery Channel. Instead, the blogger Shark Diver takes to task film production companies who combine unsound diving methods with luring sharks in hopes of creating a dangerous situation in front of rolling cameras.

The other side of Shark Porn is more direct. Industry members who enable shark disasters operationally. This years Shark Week will feature one such video.

The operator behind that video has been telling anyone who will listen that this video was an accident, “a one time event”.

Unfortunately all of these claims are after event fabrications and he knows, as does the entire industry, that this video is just one of series of cage breaches at the same site by the same operator.

We have had enough. We have had enough of operators who cry wolf when things go wrong to operational errors that are the result of sloppy operations. We have had enough of operators who blame the videographer, or photographer for capturing their disasters and profiting from it. We have had enough of those few industry members who claim the moral high ground for sharks and yet deliver mayhem and disaster upon an entire industry.

If you are a current supporter of these few industry folks take a long, cold look in the mirror. There is no such thing as “an accident” in a baited shark situation and the myth of cage breaches as an acceptable part of our industry is just that, a myth.

Earlier this year production companies were scoping locations to film portions of the upcoming Shark Week. A dive company in Fiji tells why it refused assistance to a team who wanted to film a “Pro-Shark ‘documentary-entertainment’ show’.”

From the blog Fiji Shark Diving:

Titled “Deadly Waters”, the plan is to travel to the five “most dangerous beaches for Shark attacks” where the waters are “infested with Sharks” and conduct a series of “experiments” to determine what causes the attacks. The locations they have chosen are the Bahamas, South Africa, Oz, Florida and… Fiji!
A list of questions includes
- what makes these specific locations so deadly?
- do you have any documented Shark attack case studies….?

Well, we sent them packing - and I herewith formally apologize to those well-meaning friends who sent them our way thinking that they were doing us a favor.

Thing is, we were not only outraged by their unacceptable portrayal of Sharks and the stupidity of their new “experiments” - but also and foremost, because of the damage they were intending to inflict to the reputation of Fiji. Talk of “deadly beaches”and “Shark infested waters” is simply toxic for the Tourism Industry, the principal income earner of most Island Countries. Yes, also for the Bahamas whose image has already been tarnished by past and equally stupid programs.

The statement came after the three leaders met with Fiji’s military ruler Frank Bainiarama in a special session of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, a bloc of countries who self-identify as having Melanesian populations, distinct from Micronesian and Polynesian peoples.

Bainimarama flew to Port Vila, Vanuatu to explain his “strategic framework for change,” the five-year plan to help remake Fiji’s ethnic-based constitution and voting system to take the country up to elections, scheduled by Fiji's President for September 2014. (Discussion on that plan here.)

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare said the Bainimarama regime isn’t going away until 2014, and by keeping intact the suspension, the Pacific Islands Forum will have no leverage with Fiji’s government. Also, because Fiji plays an important role in the Pacific economy, its outsider status will undercut the current PACER trade negotiations. Finally, the group called on Bainimarama to engage with all Fiji’s leaders to implement a process of national reconciliation.

The Pacific Islands Forum voted unanimously in January to suspend Fiji from the group unless it scheduled elections in 2009 as once promised by Bainimarama. After going back on this promise originally made in October 2007, Bainimarama has stated that holding a vote without altering the country’s race-based voting system would further heighten ethnic tensions by rewarding parties that only appeal to a specific ethnic group.

The country’s population is currently made up of 60 percent indigenous (Melanesian) Fijians and roughly 37 percent ethnic Indians, the descendants of workers brought to the islands roughly a century ago by British colonial rulers.

To some success, Fiji's government has tried to paint its suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum as forced upon smaller countries by Australia and New Zealand. Bloggers and commentators debated how the MSG decision will affect the upcoming Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Cairns, Australia.

Topasi at Real Fiji News

The stand taken by the MSG, in particular PNG and the
Solomon Islands in relation to Fiji lifts the stakes to new heights. The implications are enormous, far far beyond the tiresome calls for the return to democracyin Fiji.
What we are seeing today are two island nations with enormous economic clout standing up to imperialist bullying by the big two…

The MSG is no longer a feral dog feeding on scraps. The MSG carries more clout than all the Pacific island nations combined. That is a fact. ..
Forget about the rantings of Tonga and Samoa. They are just empty barrels with zero economic clout. They are just fresh-of-da-boat freeloaders who have nothing to offer Australia and NZ.
Fiji has some important allies in the MSG. The stakes have been raised to dizzying heights.

From commenter Vitivou:

This is what bloggers who hate Bainimarama do not understand.

The real motive of why Australia and New Zealand are sanctioning Fiji or trying to get Fiji out of the SPF is nothing to do with a return to democracy. It is to do with the fact that they see this as their best opportunity to get PACER implemented.

PACER will see the final and total control of the Pacific island economies by New Zealand and Australia. This will create far worse economic benefits to Pacific states.

On the other hand, from Soli Vakasama:

Ever since the fool [Organizer of Fiji’s first two coups – in 1987 – and later elected Prime Minister Sitiveni] Rabuka pushed for Fiji to be recognised (duh) as Melanesian, our Nation has become like the other Melanesian Islands, BACKWARD in every way as soon as the irrelevant military here becomes involved in politics that is much too overwhelming for them.
For that leka Somare to state that Bhainimarama is good for Fiji, is the biggest insult toward the citizens of Fiji and negates all that we strive for.
These Melanesian leaders are the most corrupt around, feathering their crummy nests by selling out their own people – as the saying goes, Birds of a feather flock together, Thick as thieves or it takes one to know one.

From Navosavakadua writing at Raw Fiji News.

The MSG gang don’t seem to understand what fools they’ve made of themselves by supporting a tin-pot dictator.
Fiji has a right to be represented in trade talks and other regional matters but Frank doesn’t represent Fiji. If they can’t understand this you’ve got to wonder what they think they’re doing in their regional meetings.
But what is their motive for standing up for a dictator? Are they on the payroll of a state that wants to see the Aussies and Kiwis pushed out of the Pacific?
Or do they have some secret dream of replacing Fiji as the hub of the Pacific? If we degenerate further into the status of a tin-pot dictatorship it’s true that Vanuatu could start to replace us as the hub but others may be hoping to pick up a share of regional activities which are currently headquartered in Fiji.
I don’t understand their motives at all, but I do know that when they say Frank’s roadmap to nowhere should be seriously considered, they have some other motive. The only thing that’s clear from the roadmap is that the dictator does not intend to share power with anyone for the next five years. If they can’t see that it means they’re blind or have some other secret, dirty motive.

In an untitled post at Raw Fiji News

The leaders of these Islands, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu have done a back flip not for the good of the people but for their big egos, they need to agree with Fiji and together they seem to think they are bigger than Australia and New Zealand. Be good if they were, they would not have to rely on aid money from Aust and NZ for those that need it the most in these islands. For humanitarian reasons this will carry on so those that rely on aid money will not miss out.
 
The problem with Pacific leaders they glorify and feed off each other without any thought for its people. Leading a nation is not much fun without the recognition of the super powers and like Frank should also be isolated and not given what they want.

A commenter named mrx77 says:

In good times, we cry, piss and mourn of Australia and NZ’s “interference” in our affairs.
In bad times, we expect them to bail us out unconditionally.
What irony!!!

New Zealand author Crosbie Walsh writes that Australia and New Zealand could well lose this battle in the Pacific Islands Forum. From Fiji: The Way It Was, Is and Can Be:

It would seem that for all their well-meaning diplomacy and aid, Australian and New Zealand politicians (and, presumably, their advisers) have a lot to learn about their Pacific neighours. The Melanesian Spearhead Group decision does not bode well for the health of the PI Forum, unless Australia and New Zealand are prepared to back down. For the record, the population of the MSG totals about 7.5 millon; that of other Island Forum members well under one million; Australia 21 million and NZ 4 million.

Media reports claim Thaksin Shinawatra, one of Thailand’s richest men, departed Malaysia just ahead of arrest warrants and made his way by private jet to Fiji, where he entered the country under an assumed name known to authorities. He later met with Fiji’s leader Frank Bainimarama and advisors.

Fiji and Thailand have no extradition treaties, fueling speculation that Thaksin traveled to the Pacific looking for asylum. Before Thai officials asked Fiji to return the fugitive leader, Thaksin left for Tonga. Rumors persist he eventually made his way to Port Vila, Vanuatu while leaders of the four-country Melanesian Spearhead Group heard Frank Bainimarama’s five-year plan to write a new constitution and electoral law before holding elections.

The Vanuatu trip has not been confirmed. Thakin’s laywers claims he is not searching sanctuary; he is looking for investment opportunities.

First elected Prime Minister in a 2001 landslide, Thaksin's time in office was punctuated by allegations of serious corruption (often at high personal gain), authoritarianism, human rights abuses and electoral fraud.

A government body froze $2.2 billion of his assets in Thailand. In October 2008, Thailand’s Supreme Court convicted him (in abstensia) of abuse of power, mostly relating to pushing through laws aiding family members' business interests. He was sentenced to two years, but has not visited his homeland since August 2008 to serve the sentence.

Earlier this year, Thaksin, who usually lives in Dubai, again ran afoul of Thai authorities when they accused him of directly supporting anti-government protests that turned violent. After protesters clashed with the military, the government revoked his passport, and Thaksin allegedly travels on a passport from Montenegro.

Fiji has been increasingly politically and economically isolated since April, when the country’s President annulled the constitution and provided the military leader (who himself came to power via a December 2006 coup) with a five-year mandate.

Since then, Fiji’s government has imposed a series of emergency regulations, aimed at controlling assembly and censoring the media. Thus, people inside and outside the country have come to rely on blogs for Fiji political information.

Cour Four Point Five reports:

[Thaksin] flew into Suva in his Learjet for a secret meeting with prime minister and military commander Frank Bainimarama on Monday.

The meeting - held in Bainimarama's office - was confirmed by Major Neumi Leweni, who said a business prosposal was discussed at lunch.

It's understood the Thai leader wants to invest $300million in Fiji.

In return, it's expected he'd be assured safety from extradition - authorities in Thailand are trying to get him back to Bangkok, where he faces two years in jail for abuse of power.

The blog Musings from Thailand wonders if Thaksin’s ends justify his means by meeting Bainiarama.

What a paradox. Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted by a coup in Thailand in 2006, flew into Fiji's capital, Suva, yesterday to meet another coup leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who staged a coup in the same year — only to be ruled illegal by the court there.

In some ways, when Thaksin shook hands with Bainimarama to talk about his plan to nvest $300 million in that South Pacific island, he must have been reminded of Gen Sonthi Bunyaratakalin, whose coup sent him out of the country almost three years ago. Both the Thai and Fijian military officers weren't supposed to be politically ambitious. Both had been living low-profile lives before they decided to push out the elected, civilian governments. Suddenly, they declared themselves defenders of their respectie countries' political stability and to fight rampant corruption.

Thaksin has spoken vehemently against military coups in Thailand. He has called for the return of electoral democracy, even ready to stake his life on his determination to put an end to future coups.

Now, he has gone to Fiji to cozy up to one of the most controversial coup leaders in the region.

Soli Vakasama, from Fiji, offers guidance.

This is an advice to you Mr Thaksin as you are also a victim of military coup stay away from Bainimarama or you will suffer the cosequences.

The Thai blog Connecting the Dots questions whether the former leader would be able to refrain from politics – a common demand of those who grant asylum.

When it comes to the issue of asylum political or other, that option is off the table for him for the moment anyway. For him to accept asylum means clipping his wings, and for the moment that is totally unacceptable. Thaksin’s goal is to regain his position as Prime Minister of Thailand, then make his enemies disappear forever. Then followed shortly after by stuffing his pockets.

Political asylum requires a few sacrifices to be made on the asylum seekers part. The first one and most significant is not to leave the country that is granting asylum. Once the person leaves the country protection could not be offered as they would be out of that country’s jurisdiction.

The second thing is the asylum seeker must become politically inactive or the asylum could be withdrawn. Once again this is not an option for Thaksin.

For Thaksin to give up anything is not his style so for the moment staying one step ahead of the people that are pursuing him is the game of today. So to travel under a false name or to visit countries that leaders think like him are Thaksin’s only options at the moment.

Thaksin would only accept political asylum if he were truly beat, but even then it may be like his April 2006 I quit story pulling a fast one.

Thailand’s press – and the media throughout the Pacific – provided near daily accounts of Thaksin supposed narrow escape from police in Kuala Lumpur before jetting to Fiji. The blog Bankok Crimes speculates that countries hosting Thaksin are ignoring Thailand’s extradition requests because of the government's weak case.

Every 2-3 days, this fine newspaper's headline reads; Thaksin is in Malaysia, Cambodia, Fiji, ad infinitum. Each and every country knows that Thailand wants him to be arrested and deported to Thailand. Each and every country refuses to respond to Thailand's request. Seems like EVERY country knows how bogus his conviction is. Most in Thailand also know this. If the minority get thier way and Thaksin is arrested and returned, the majority will rebel and he will likely not spend much time in the pokey. Then the current government's real problems will begin.
The govt knows this and really don't want him to be returned, but they love the continual headlines. That way, thier lack of accomplishments stay out of the news.

Many, but certainly not all, Fiji’s bloggers oppose the Bainimarama government. A post from Fiji Democracy Now on the blog Raw Fiji News sums up allegations of government criminality.

This was the story about how our dictator, Frank Bainimarama, met secretly with the fugitive former Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.
There is something very unsettling about the news that an international fugitive of justice such as Shinawatra was officially received at taxpayer expense by the current government of Fiji.
It’s confirmation that our dictator, Frank Bainimarama, turns a blind eye to criminality. And it confirms that if criminality suits his purposes, he will happily embrace it.
The criminal acts of Shinawatra and his wife, Potjaman, while he was Prime Minister of Thailand have been well documented by Thai courts of law, which saw fit to sentence Shinawatra to jail for corruption.
Yet the dictator greeted the Thai criminal like a visiting dignitary despite the fact that Shinawatra was in criminal mode, travelling under an alias on a Montenegro passport, as criminals do.
It was a meeting of two criminals who couid help each other.

Thaksin began his career working in Thailand’s police. After earning a Phd. in Criminal Justice in the United States, he rose to become lieutenant colonel in Thailand. He left the police in 1987 to work fulltime in his business plans, which rose from abject failures to building one of the most profitable telecom companies in Asia. Fiji’s bloggers point out the financial incentive of their cash-strapped government courting such a person.

Here is where we enter allegation territory. Coup Four Point Five and Raw Fiji News report that Thaksin may be interested in developing the Grand Pacific Hotel, a colonial building constructed in 1912 on the sea front near the edge of Suva’s downtown. The building has long been slated for restoration, but plans have continually fallen through. It now houses a garrison of soldiers, who guard government buildings across the street.

From Coup Four Point Five:

It's understood a deal was struck for Shinawatra to buy the derelict Grand Pacific Hotel at the meeting.

The GPH was supposed to have been developed into Suva's top hotel by FNPF and Fiji Investment Corporation.

Coupfourpointfive has been told Shinawatra handed over a cheque for $250,000 to [Head of Fiji National Provident Fund John] Prasad, reportedly a deposit for the deal. But it's believed the cheque wasn't deposited into the FNPF account by Prasad until today.

From Raw Fiji News:

It appears Thaksin’s Fiji venture has a probable hidden agenda. Thailand press speculated that Thaksin is bargaining for a safe haven for exile in Fiji and the final investment sum may never materialize given Fiji’s nose diving economy.

In a speech to the nation, Bainimarama laid out the first details on an electoral timetable since April, 10 2009 when the Fiji’s president annulled the country’s 1997 ethnic-based constitution, fired the entire judiciary and eventually gave Bainimarama a five-year mandate. This was in reaction to an appeals court verdict of the previous day forcing Bainimarama to step down because the judges ruled the military commander came to power illegally in December 2006 when he dissolved Parliament and ousted the government of Laisenia Qarase.

Bainimarama carried out that December 2006 coup – Fiji's fourth since 1987 – to counter what he called the Qarase government’s corrupt and racist rule. He complained that Qarase and his SDL-led government ruled solely for the benefit of the majority indigenous Fijian community at the expense of other ethnic groups, especially the minority Indo-Fijian population, descendants of workers imported roughly 100 years ago by British colonials to toil in Fiji’s sugar and copra industry.

Until April 2009, Bainimarama’s rule was punctuated with creating the People’s Charter, a counterpart to the 1997 constitution, hoping to tame Fiji’s religious and ethnic tensions that have occasionally boiled over since independence in 1970. He also sparred with Fiji’s neighbors, including successive governments in Australia and New Zealand and the regional group, the Pacific Islands Forum, which in May stripped Fiji of full membership because Bainimarama had reneged on plans to hold elections in 2009. (Continuing to vote with the country’s ethnic-based electoral system still installed, Bainimarama has long argued, would only benefit racially polarizing parties in Parliament.)

A few weeks after the Pacific Islands Forum suspended Fiji, the European Union cancelled the country’s 24 million Euro subsidy for its ailing sugar industry because of differences with the Bainimarama government. The country may soon face suspension from the group of former British colonies, the Commonwealth of Nations, for its refusal to hold elections.

In Wednesday’s speech, Bainimarama reached-out to those neighbors and development partners, thanking those who have “shown the willingness to listen and understand.” He also asked for foreign assistance when the country begins work on the new constitution in September 2012, after “extensive” consultations with all members of society. While the constitutional framework will come from the People’s Charter, many details are up for discussion, he said, Including Parliament size, length of term in office and creating checks and balances on power.

The constitution must be in place by 2013, Bainimarama said, so elections can be held one-year later.

As I have stated earlier the new constitution must include provisions that will entrench common and equal citizenry, it must not have ethnic based voting; the voting age shall be 18; and, it must have systems that hold Governments accountable with more checks and balances.

Bainimarama’s speech also touched on modernizing laws and institutions, but stated that his government will take the next three years to work on strengthening socio-economic conditions, upgrading Fiji’s infrastructure and propping up the country’s economy.

Coup Four Point Five argues Bainimarama is playing games with the election dates to prolong his rule.

Frank Bainimarama tried to fool Fiji and the world when he delivered his strategic framework for change national address today.

His claim that work on a new Constitution will start in September 2012 reveals that the regime will not relinquish power in September 2014 as he claimed today.

We draw your attention to his interview with Australian journalist Graham Davies in early May.

During the interview Bainimarama said he had the shortest time of five years to carry out economic and constitutional reforms and this was a very hard task.

If five years is a short time, then Bainimarama’s announcement of work on a new Constitution starting in September 2012 – 2 years from the projected elections in September 2014 is nonsensical.

Coupfourpointfive believes it is basically to pull wool over people's eyes.

At Raw Fiji News, fijidemocracynow2009 ties Fiji’s poor economic situation to the current political climate.

Delaying the process of drafting a new Constitution is a desperate gambit to give the Bainimarama regime some breathing space. It’s a transparent stalling tactic.
Leaving the country without a Constitution for three years will only act as a disincentive to potential investors
The dictator talks of engaging and re-engaging international partners, but if his stated intention is to keep our beloved nation in illegal limbo for another five years, how do other civilized countries engage with this dictatorship?
No, folks, the speech could never be called a “strategic framework”. It’s just a generalised exposition of propositions that is big on sweeping statement and very short on meaningful detail.

Let’s stick with the “buying time” theme a bit more. From Japan, L. Douglass Garrett, who writes the Competing Hypotheses blog, says a new constitution could serve Fiji well, but questions whether the Bainimarama regime is the right team to create that document.

The good news about that would be getting rid of the ethnically-divided means of electing representation in the 1997 Constitution… and that does need to happen if there is ever to be a practicable concept of “Fijian” as a nationality, not a hyphenated part of some identity… but…

The distinct possibility that such things are being said to draw out the tenure of the junta is real.

As this author has argued recently in other examples, the basis of Rule-of-Law governance is the Constitution *as it exists*. You follow what you have, and it changes by a process of amendment or replacement (whichever is allowed; one of them certainly is).

Fiji would be well served by a new Constitution. Let's let a constitutionally formed government perform that process.

In an unsigned post, Raw Fiji News doubts the new constitution will ever come to fruition.

Frank Bainimarama’s self-imposed wish list is just that, a far-fetched wish conjured by his conniving think-tank to delay the process of keeping the tyrant and his backers away from their imminent life-long jail sentences.
Frank’s “roadmap to nowhere” is not even worth the paper it’s written on.
Like all his previous twisted lies and PR stunts since December 2006, Frank just can’t seem to be able to hold down any of his previous motherhood roadmaps.
His clean-up corruption roadmap only resulted in a plethora of self-enriching programmes designed to puff up his and his cohorts bank balances.
His farcical charter has turned out to be the works of professional con artists out to line their own pockets while fanning the dictator’s ego with their promise of a heavenly peace and prosperity crap for the ailing Fiji.
Frank’s pretentious role as a guardian of the 1997 Constitution turned shitty when he ordered half-dead Iloilo to join him in abrogating Fiji’s supreme law on Easter Friday.
Banana republic of Fiji is now being promised a new constitution. Really?

From the blog at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, director of the Melanesia Program, Jenny Hayward-Jones, also questioned why the constitutional process should take so long:

For those sceptical of Bainimarama’s commitment to democracy, the speech offered little to persuade them otherwise. Bainimarama renewed his commitment to hold elections in September 2014 and outlined a new promise – the preparation of a new constitution by September 2013. While this was inevitably the consequence of the abrogation of the 1997 constitution on 10 April this year, it is not clear why he decided public consultations on the drafting of a new constitution cannot commence until September 2012.
Commodore Bainimarama said the new constitution would derive its impetus from the recommendations of the People’s Charter for Change, Peace and Progress. That document has been in the public domain for at least six months and has already been subjected to a consultative process. It is therefore strange that Fiji’s citizens have to wait another three years for an opportunity to participate in the process of determining their own future. If there are to be public consultations, why not start now? It would have cost the interim Government little and demonstrated to the region and the international community that Fiji was serious about political reform.

Hayward-Jones also predicted Fiji’s constitutional consultations will involve very little dialogue on the role of the military in Fiji’s politics.

More worryingly, the lack of any reference in the address to the future role of the military in Fiji was a strong indication that Commodore Bainimarama does not intend that the military retreat from its dominance of government and politics beyond 2014.

From New Zealand, No Right Turn also wonders what the government will be doing for the next three years.

Soli Vakasama didn’t come away impressed:

Jolly good thing that he believes in his own rhetoric, because he’d be the only one.
Every utterance from the illegal prime meanster is hollow like that thingamajig held up by his neck, and so terribly terribly shallow.

In the comment section at Soli Vakasama, Jean D’ark points out if previous governments – or Fiji’s military – can’t obey Fiji’s former constitution, who’s to say those institutions will follow a new one?

no use working on a new Constitution if we can’t obey the one we have. We will just disobey that one when we don’t like everything it dishes up, either.

A Constitution has no intrinsic value in and of itself other than that which WE, ITS PEOPLE give it! Other than that, it’s just a piece of paper!

And if we don’t have any discipline in ourselves now to follow our current Constitution, we won’t be able to impart anything of that sort into the new one, either!

So it doesn’t really matter how much faith Frank, or you, or the military council has in the new piece of paper, if the people don’t go for it (and they won’t), then it won’t have any value, or power, either.

So there we’ll all be – stuck in exactly the same quagmire we are already in today.

A major narrative in Fiji’s current political situation remains that Australia and New Zealand are making matters worse with heated anti-Bainimarama rhetoric and corresponding sanctions. In the Soli Vakasama blog, commenter Budhau claims that Fiji’s neighbors must use more of the carrot than their usual stick approach with Bainimarama and help the country create a constitution — so everyone can move on.

We can easily start work on the new constitution right now, with help from experts from ANZ and have it ready in a year. We can easily prepare for elections with the help from ANZ and have an election in 2012 instead of 2014. If we begin work on the constitution and the elections – I am sure the EU will release the funds, with the sanctions removed, our economy has a chance to recover, the tourists will start coming and so on.
But no – some of you want nothing to do with a new constitution, elections etc. What you want is the 1997 constitution back, Qarase reinstalled as the PM and Frank and his boys to march straight to Naboro – and you will hold you breath until you turn blue unless you get your way – well, good luck.

Fiji:The Way It Was, Is and Can Be echoes those sentiments:

One might hope the international community, having given up on earlier elections, might sometime between now and then respond to Bainimarama's appeal for assistance.

The blog also posts a timeline on Fiji’s political events for the next five years.

He didn’t provide a timetable, or framework, but it is the first signs of the country gaining a new political and social code since April, when the President annulled the country’s 1997 Constitution and gave Bainimarama and his government a five-year mandate. The president was reacting to a court decision claiming Bainimarama, who is also Fiji’s military leader, came to power illegally in December 2006 when he dissolved Parliament and the government of Laisenia Qarase. The court ordered Bainimarama to step down and the President to replace him with a caretaker government to lead the country to elections. The president said he had no authority to create a new government, so he did away with the constitution.

Bainimarama’s 2006 takeover was Fiji’s fourth military coup since 1987. But it was the first to support – at least in name – the interests of ethnic Indians who make up a bit less than 40 percent of the islands’ population. The indo-Fijian population, the descendants of imported workers sent by the former British colonial rulers to toil in Fiji’s sugar and copra industry, enjoy great economic success but are (some argue) hampered politically, especially by the former constitution, which guaranteed equal rights to all communities, but also codified the “paramountcy” of ethnic Fijian interests.

When Bainimarama first assumed power, he promised to clean up what he called the corrupt practices of the former government (and former governments) and hold in check what he called Qarase’s racist policies. (For example, the military leader criticized that government’s attempt to provide amnesty to perpetrators of Fiji’s 2000 coup that brought down a multi-ethnic government led by an Indo-Fijian.) In 2007, the military government embarked on the People’s Charter for Change, Peace and Progress to rid the country of “race based” politics, policies and institutions.

Bainimarama also targeted for change Fiji’s ethnic-based electoral system (where people of different ethnicities vote on different rolls). He claims it provides too much power to parties who can gain only ethnic support, instead of attracting voters ideologically, such as through economic policies.

Bainimarama has been mostly quiet since on the abrogation on Fiji's political future. Speaking Monday, Bainimarama said the new constitution would not tolerate politicians using racial discrimination as a tool to win votes.

Ironically, as Bainimarama was speaking of a new constitution, his government extended to August the Public Emergency Rules that limit free media by placing government censors in newsrooms, extend police search and seizure powers and force organizations to ask for permission to hold meetings.

Unlike the political dialogue set before the 1997 constitution was annulled, which most bloggers ignored, Bainimarama’s move to rebuild the nation’s constitution has piqued some interest in the blogosphere.

Joe, writing in Real Fiji News, has a few thoughts for the new constitution.

It is a clear indication that we are on the road to democracy when the Prime Minister is talking about a new constitution and blue print for the country.

I have a few suggestions for the electoral provision of our new constitution:
1) The President, Senators and members of the lower house, to be elected.
2) Any party or independent that has failed to win at least one seat in 2 consecutive elections in the past be deemed as “ineligible” to contest in any future elections.
3) Any former “Democratically elected” PM cannot contest in any future
elections.
4) Any party and/or their prospective derivatives that demonstrated an intent to enact/legislate racist policies in the past be ineligible to contest in any future elections.
5) Compulsory retirement of PMs after 2 consecutive terms in office or 8 yrs, whichever is the lesser.
6) Absolutely no Brij lal style multiparty cabinet. It sux. [Note: This refers to problematic Constitutional provision that any party with more than eight seats must be given a proportional number of cabinet posts. It was ignored by both ethnic Fijian and ethnic Indian governments.]
7) The RFMF [Royal Fiji Military Forces] to ensure transparency in relation to elections for the new parliament and be granted immunity from prosecution for the “cleanup campaign” that came into effect on 5th Dec 2006 and all subsequent events/actions involving the RFMF and its Commander-in Chief for the maintenance of law and order by decree or otherwise, as seen appropriate in their judgment. Under the “Doctrine of Necessity” clause of the 1997 constitution prior to its abrogation or adopted in part after abrogation.
8.) Subsequent to clause (7), immunity from prosecution is to be granted to the RFMF and its Commander-in-Chief for events/actions prior to 5th Dec 2006, but limited to and including the exact time of appointment of Commodore Frank Bainimarama as “Commander of RFMF”.

This brought a few comments.

From kahukiwa:

A new constitution granting immunity for the illegal regime – now I didn’t see that coming (!!).

Banning of past Prime Ministers – now thats a surprise. As is your assumption that any former PM wasn’t democratically elected.

The assumption that the army is the only body that can assure transparency – thats an even bigger surprise!

What will be even more interesting is exactly how the dictatorship intends shaping electoral reform. Like all good tin pot military regimes they will want assurances that they can still influence outcomes. So how are they going to deal with the demographics of Fiji, which suggest that indigenous Fijians will enjoy a substantial numeric advantage by the time of any future elections, and which by that stage will probably be open to any political body that isn’t sponsored or representative of the narrow interests the army represents. And one suspects that the Peoples Charter isn’t going to solve that little problem.

Tears for Fiji questioned the extent which a written document can create racial harmony.

This illegal leader Voreqe [Bainimarama] definitely must be living in La-laland to even think that his new constitution is going to eradicate racial discrimination.
What he doesn't know because he lacks the intellectual capacity to comprehend it is that racial discrimination is a worldly issue that WILL NEVER EVER BE ERADICATED FROM THE FACE OF THIS EARTH WITH WORDS! It's up to each and every individual to make that choice for him/herself.
And who is he to say that “he will not tolerate racial discrimination as a way of dividing people.” No one likes to be discriminated against whether it is race or gender or religion or sexual orientation or whatever. But at some point in our lives, we would have been discriminated against. Heck! I have. It annoys me, but it is how we deal with it that matters. Not by how some gun-totting coward like Voreqe, who comes along and tries to play “saviour”. So sorry that the people of Dawasamu have to listen to his garbage, but then again it's their choice and their loss to be brainwashed by this idiot of a fool!

Since the President abrogated the constitution, one of main subplots in Fiji has been the fight between the government and the Methodist church – whose membership claims roughly 35 percent of the population (the majority are ethnic Fijians). The government argues some Church leaders harbor dangerous nationalist tendencies and some of its members were involved in the previous pro-Fijian coups. The government has deferred indefinitely this year’s Methodist conference because it claims the meeting would be used to organize opposition to change in Fiji and provide voice to instigators.

In response to the call for a new constitution, the Methodist church of Fiji and Rotuma released a statement, published on the blog at Soli Vakasama, calling for the government to:


-Reinstate the Constitution and comply with the rule of law as directed by the Appeals Court on Thursday 09 April 2009

-Return the country to democratic elections under the 1997 Constitution, and under foreign, independent supervision, not later than December 2009

-Protect all the rights of its citizens as stipulated under the 1997 Constitution, especially from arbitrary arrest, harassment, torture and inhumane treatment

-Reinstate the law courts and ensure an independent judiciary.
-Ensure that any changes to the electoral system are democratic, constitutional, participatory, and inclusive and accounts for the interests of all individuals and ethnic groups complying with the UN Convention on the Declaration of Human Rights as well the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

-Ensure that the Charter is considered and acted upon in line with the provisions of the 1997 Constitution.

-Ensure the operation of a free and independent media

-Set up an independent truth and reconciliation commission towards national forgiveness, reconciliation and healing.

This, too, has brought out a few comments:

EnufDictatorship says

Well done to the statement!
But again I still feel, ALL OUR TALK IS WIND…and we have been doing a lot of that really since Dec. 5 2006.
Something CONCRETE will have to come out of the fasting and praying. Our Father is an ACTIVE trinity in Heaven and Earth. He doesn’t slumber or fall asleep.

Shiregal argues:

Well, better late then never, I guess!!!! The church’s silence has been deafening in the last two years!!! More so when people have been tortured and killed. Constitutional officers sacked without a murmur???? Citizens basic human rights violated…..blatently……silence!!!!!!

The move was announced from a statement from government police and military forces, arguing that “inciteful issues are going to be discussed at the conference.”

Fiji’s Methodists gather each August at a different location to take part in choral competitions, collect money for the church’s work and discuss social and political issues.

Church leaders hoped to gain an audience to plead their case with Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the country’s military and political leader (and practicing Methodist). Bainimarama, who told Church leaders no conference until politics leaves their pulpits, came to power in a 2006 coup that dissolved parliament and what he termed the corrupt and racist pro-indigenous Fijian government of Laisenia Qarase, also a practicing Methodist.

The coup was immediately criticized by Fiji's Methodist church, the largest spiritual group in the country, comprising 35 percent of the population, where nine out of ten members are indigenous Fijians. However, some other Christian denominations (like the Catholic church) and some Hindu and Muslim groups at least initially supported the new government’s promise to make life easier for the country’s poor and help heal the rifts caused by racial tensions.

That is not to say the Methodist church’s hierarchy has always opposed military interventions on Fiji’s governments. Before Bainimarama’s December 2006 takeover, Fiji’s previous three military coups – all taking place since 1987 – were carried out under the banner of ethnic Fiji nationalism and supported by at least some members of the hierarchy of the Methodist church. (At least one commentator argues that since the 2000 coup that deposed the government of an Indo-Fijian Prime Minister, the Church has changed its approach toward furthering indigenous rights through destabilizing coups. )

Many think Fiji’s deep-seated political troubles started when British colonial rulers began importing workers from the Indian sub-continent to toil in Fiji’s burgeoning sugar and copra plantations. Yet more than a few scholars will argue religion is a major, if not the major, cleavage between Fijians and Indo-Fijians. Indigenous Fijians began embracing Christianity 180 years ago, after the first missionaries appeared on the islands. The country’s ethnic Indians are largely practicing Hindus, with 15 percent Muslims and six percent identifying themselves as Christian.

The government’s decision to cancel the Methodist conference is another chapter in the dispute between the two parties. Methodist church hierarchy has continually opposed the People’s Charter for Change, the Bainimarama regime’s blueprint for creating a more racially inclusive Fiji, saying the government’s lack of popular support forbids it from concerning itself with constitutional changes. (Former members of the Qarase government attempted to debate the Charter at during last year’s Methodist conference.) The government has argued in the past that church leaders deliberately mislead parishioners by bringing up emotional themes like the government would like to change land ownership laws allowing non-ethnic Fijians to purchase land.

On April 10, Fiji’s President nullified the country’s constitution and provided the Bainimarama government with a five-year mandate. A few weeks later, authorities arrested and held for two days a high ranking member of the Methodist Church, Rev. Manasa Lasaro, for calling for elections and a return to democratic rule. (Church hierarchy also argued for returning to the now-defunct 1997 constitution, a free and independent media and for the government to abide by a court ruling – now invalidated — that declared that Bainimarama came to power illegally and should step aside.) It was during this time, the government warned the Methodist Church against attempting to cause instability, claiming it would defer the conference indefinitely.

As one could anticipate, the conference’s cancellation has become an emotional topic among bloggers, who are debating the role religion plays in the country.

From Soli Vakasama

This move just proves the monster despotic p ig and his illegal regimes loss of moral standing, not only in Fiji but the rest of the world.
P ig Bhainimarama and the illegal regimes reckless threats toward innocent citizens of Fiji is a sure sign of immense insecurity on their part.
After all, what could a group of Methodists and their choirs, that could hardly be described as dangerous or even mildly violent do or say that we and the rest of the world are already aware of about the cowardly p ig and his cowardly army and coup apologists.
The bipolar despotic p ig controls the stupid army and preserves power by lavishing favours on the barmy army officers and police chiefs whose hands are so steeped in blood that regime change would be their own nemesis.

From Soli Vakasama Worldwide Movement:

Bainimarama has shown by his actions that he relies on his own personal wisdom and power and the might of his Police and army. The true might of any nation is not in its army or weaponry, not in its firepower but in Godes power. The future of Fiji lies in the Church standing up to do God’s work of salvation and implanting God’s truth, justice, freedom and love in the nation.
It is quite clear from the detention of Rev Lasaro and the demands now being placed on the Church by the Bainimarama government and the Police and military that they do not respect the Church, the freedom of belief, and the duty of the Church to be God’s voice of truth, justice, peace and compassion to the nation. Bainimarama is now laying down a challenge to the Church, as the Caesar’s have done in early Christian Rome and oppressive regimes have done to persecute the Church through the ages.
Come what may, the Church will stand firm in its belief that God is the ultimate authority; it derives its courage from the fact that despite suffering and His death at Calvary, Christ has risen triumphant.

From Semi Meo, writing at Raw Fiji News.

The Dictator must have amongst his advisors seasoned theologians who convincingly quantified the possibility of “inciteful issues are going to be discussed at the conference” of Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma.
This Dictator and the IG must be told that the very ethos of their political and so called legal existence is contrary to the every fundamental tenets of the Christian faith that turned us away from eating each other toward eating outside our species….opps…did not consider pro-IG theologians may be some Pentecostals churches, some Muslim theologians, Hindus, Buddhist and Military’s own cadre of padres.
Since when has this slayer of political democracy, destroyer of social cohesion and robber of economic independence and prosperity promoted himself as supreme spiritual mediator between the rest of us and deities we respectively esteems?

More than a few support the cancellation of this year’s conference.

Kalougata, from Fiji Board Exiles:

I've said it before, the Methodist Church of Fiji stopped being a “christian church” became a “political party” long ago. Now they are about to reap what they have sown. They have long ago changed from planting the seeds of Jesus and the teachings of the Bible to planting the seeds of politics, power, and money grabbing. All pathetic earthly endeavors. The Methodist hierarchy depends on the HUGE amounts of money they raise from the annual conference to line their pockets (it sure hasn't gone to their hospital, they depend on the govt. for that money).

Again, Fiji Board Exiles. This time Alohabula1

Now if you go back to your school books I am sure you will recall the Great Schism and other events that separated religion from politics. There was a good reason for that obviously, because often politics are polar opposites of religious practices everywhere in the world. We all wish it weren't but politics sometimes ends up being the “hatchet man”.. No matter what religion a person embraces the concepts are pretty much the same. When religion and politics mix you get the Crusades and Jihads etc and all matters of dastardly deeds in God's name…

There are a lot of choices being made in Fiji, right now and I seriously doubt that God is going to come down and strike the present administration with pestilence, death or a rain of frogs. If HE were to do that he would have done it to some of the members of previous administrations many of whom quite happily indulged in the Seven deadly sins and broke a few of the commandments like lying, stealing and lots of coveting in the parking lots and other romantic locations.

In a post written when Reverend Lasaro was imprisoned by the government written by IslGirl in Real Fiji News:

Are we heading towards a Christian state? Ratu Soqosoqo a Kadavu chief said before the 2006 election ‘if we cannot make Fiji a Christian country the we chiefs should make our territories and everyone in them Christians’

One man one vote is obviously and alien concept for the Methodist church as they are dictating to their members what they will and will not accept, democracy is long dead in Fiji. And for all other citizens of Fiji understand this, the Methodist church is blackmailing its followers and amounts to nothing short of management by fear on behalf of the leaders of the church.

The real battle in this lies between the military and removing the SDL/Methodist power base that was leading this country to ruin.

Methodist Church and the [former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s] SDL party are one and the same, they do not want a democratically elected government, they do not want reforms and they most certainly do not want the one man one voting system, as this will mean the end of their power base in Fiji.

From Fiji: The Way it Was, Is and Can Be:

The Christian, and particularly the Methodist, church occupies a unique position in Fiji. It is the repository and major beneficiary of both Fijian traditional values and a colonial heritage that entrenched those values. The Church, respect for chiefs and “being Fijian,” and the State are seen as one. Attack one and all could collapse. A major reason why some Fijians oppose Bainimarama, and what he says he's trying to achieve, is because he has “detached” the state from this trilogy, and in so doing has threatened their privileged position, and the perks that go with it.

Such people (the so-called Taukei element within the church) hold that their church and their values are the only true values in Fiji (non-Chistians presumably have no worthwhile values.) They are lukewarm to the ecumenicalism of Interfaith Search Fiji and the Fiji Council of Churches. They were instrumental in founding the racial, “born again,” fundamentalist Assembly of Christian Churches in Fiji (ACCF). Unlike most Methodist leaders in other countries, they have no honest interest in democracy (or civil rights) except when it suits them to uphold their position.

Many people have good reason to oppose Bainimarama but these people are not among them. They oppose Bainimarama for exactly the same reasons they supported the Rabuka and Speight coups: to retain power and privilege in the name of protecting ethnic Fiijian rights.

The three lawyers, among others, had recently been named by the pro-government site Real Fiji News. While police confirmed the detentions and laptop seizures, a spokesman would not say why the three men were hauled in. All three have been released, but no word as yet on their laptops.

Regardless of the reasons behind the detentions – or the veracity of the claims the men actually blog for Raw Fiji News – let’s begin with why Real Fiji News named names.

In its post that claims lawyer Richard Naidu allegedly blogs for the anti-government site, Real Fiji News attacks the Raw Fiji News blog.

They have destroyed lives of people who they call ‘Coup Apologists’ they have lied about the state of the economy, they have lied about business deals, lied about money gained under false pretenses, lies about uprisings of Fijians, lied about the Military, lied about the Government. It is so easy to hide behind a blog site and spew out lie after lie. This site has KEPT YOU UPDATED WITH THE TRUTH, and we have proven time and time again that Raw Fiji’s only intention is to incite violence and unrest in the country and all done at the hands of some of our legal profession.

A reader called Boo Boo writing in Real Fiji News after the detentions had been announced.

What they thought was informative and intelligent has backfired not only on themselves, but on the entire country in more ways than one. Their opinions and comments have been read by many who would have loved to have visited Fiji some day, but won’t because they now view Fiji in a negative light. These potential visitors will not come here now! Thanks to these folks. The gaping hole in our economy that was once our tourism industry is their legacy. This has affected thousands of hotel workers and their families. Leave alone the world economic crisis, these bloggers have done their bit for Fiji. Well done, bastards!

Fiji Girl says the government is barking up the wrong tree by detaining the three men.

So the illegal regime and Real Fiji News think that Richard Naidu, Jon Apted and Tevita Fa are bloggers?
Talk about not being able to see one’s own nose! Real Fiji News especially should know by now that REAL bloggers, like yours truly, are not the movers and shakers of the movement. Like the faceless drones behind Real Fiji News, we are commentators, observers – voyeurs, if you will – and, since the death of our media freedom, ersatz reporters.
People like Richard Naidu, Jon Apted, Tevita Fa, Dorsami Naidu, Shamima Ali, Virisila Buadromo are too busy out there DOING the good deeds to have the time or inclination to then write about them and spend countless hours bitching online about the illegal regime. Like we bloggers do. They have better ways to spend their time.
We bloggers have our duty – I like to think an important one – in bringing down this illegal regime through channelling information, fuelling support and keeping the debate alive. But, like the Judean People’s Front, we ain’t necessarily where the action is.
It must have been quite a bitch-slap to the face after they hauled in the real lawyers, accused of blogging, up to camp to find that suddenly every blog site reported their detention.

TeeJay for a Free Fiji argues the detentions prove that bloggers are rattling the regime.

News that the Illegal Regime have hauled in, and since released, two lawyers suspected of being behind the Raw Fiji blog site, indicates that the blogs are having an impact.

Whatever the status of the involvement of Richard Naidu and Jon Apted is irrelevant to the fact that the Illegal Regime will have NO success in stopping bloggers.

To the brave and wonderful people inside Fiji who are blogging away, may God bless you for your efforts in the curent climate within the country. Keep it up, because it is working!! Even though a small percentage of Fijians will see the blogs, the key is for those who do, they need to pass on the information to as many people as possible.

Meanwhile, those of us outside Fiji are with you all the way, thinking of you every day, right behind you, doing what we can to assist, no matter how small that may be.

Raw Fiji News lets the police wonder if they had the wrong people.

What does the Fiji military police know about technology?
If their computer experts think they’re such gurus at tracking down bloggers like us, then perhaps coming down to our side of the woods will solve their problem.
But their problem is that they’re all banned from travelling to our turf cause they are coup aliens marked with “restricted from entering our soil”.
Sorry guys, Richard Naidu and Jon Apted are the wrong people!
Don’t waste your time hauling people randomly or closing internet cafes, etc,etc – we will continue to blog on telling it like it is!

From New Zealand, the blogger behind Fiji: The Way It Is, Was and Can Be – previously critical of some of Fiji’s anti-government blogs – tells the government to let the bloggers keep writing.

Justice needs to be seen to be done. Blanket clamp-downs convey the wrong message, and deprive Government of the feedback, advice and opinions it needs to achieve its longer-term goals. In today's Fiji, unrestrained opposition and totally gagged opposition are both equally unhealthy and equally dangerous.