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.

On 30 August, 1999, hundreds of thousands of Timorese voters braved an Indonesian-directed terror campaign to cast ballots for independence in a U.N.-organized referendum. This event, which ended Indonesia’s 24-year illegal, brutal military occupation, led to the creation of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste as the first new nation of the millennium. The vote was the culmination of decades of struggle by Timorese people, supported by solidarity activists around the world.

The release of journalist Max Stahl's video recording of the outrageous Massacre de Santa Cruz in 1991 increased global awareness about the crimes occurring in East Timor under the Indonesian occupation.

In 1996 Jose Ramos-Horta and Bishop Ximenes Belo were awarded the Peace Nobel Prize and only three years later Indonesian President Habibie allowed the people of East Timor to choose between autonomy within Indonesia and independence. And the world united along with East Timor.

"Die-in" protest in the US. Credit: www.etan.org

Solidarity movements able to pressure their governments and protest Indonesian abuses sprung up in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Portugal, France, Holland, Ireland, Germany, the UK, Canada and the US during the 1990s. Even within Indonesia, East Timorese had friends working to stop abuses and promote self-determination.

In the summer of 1999, in the lead up to the Referendum, the International Federation for East Timor assembled the Observer Project, an international team of members from at least 22 countries to go to Timor and monitor the vote. The security arrangements for the months preceding the referendum were shaky, as the UN-brokered agreement for the Referendum left security to the Indonesian police.

UN poster that reads "We will not leave" credit to Australia Timor-Leste Friendship Network

IFET monitors bravely fanned out across the territory, a project report from August 22, 1999 explains

We have rented houses and deployed teams in every area of East Timor. Upon arriving in a town, an IFET-OP team first makes contact with the police and local authorities, and then with various community leaders and advocates on both sides of the campaign. They settle into a house which an IFET-OP advance team has arranged, and begin observing and inquiring about events and perceptions related to the campaign and other aspects of the consultation. Each team reports in nightly by phone and files a written weekly report. Although nobody on any of our teams has been injured, several have witnessed violent or intimidating incidents, and have reported such events to the appropriate authorities, UNAMET, and IFET-OP headquarters in Dili.

The IFET observers reported the violence that engulfed East Timor after the vote, which it turned out, was overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia. The IFET Observer Project reported on September 3

The observers, members of the International Federation for East Timor Observer Project (IFET-OP), traveled to the Becora neighborhood of Dili to investigate reports of militia burning houses in the area yesterday. When they arrived, they found a house newly ablaze, and with both firefighters and journalists at the scene, the IFET-OP team went to investigate. Ten minutes after the observers arrived, the Indonesian military-backed militia showed up at the house.

The Aitarak (Thorn) militia struck one U.S. IFET-OP member in the face. Another team member, a woman from Finland, was hit in the back by a militia holding a gun. Yet another Finnish team member was threatened at gunpoint. The militia members also punched the IFET-OP driver and smashed a window on his car.

With militia violence kicking off again almost immediately after the vote, solidarity groups around the world began to demand their governments pay attention to the worsening situation in East Timor. The following video, from Jose Budha, portrays how Portugal stood up and stopped in that period:

[Subtitles] The images of a country standing for 3 minutes in solidarity with a distant people ran the world, as did the aerial view of a 10 kilometers human chain. Thousands ended up heading towards Madrid, so that they could shout loudly their rebellion against the Indonesian Embassy. Indonesia eventually accepted the entry of an international force in East Timor. The UN took another week to send this force. We do not know how many people died. Out of the 18 accused in Indonesia of involvement in the events of 99, only 1 was convicted and the others were acquitted in different instances. There is a certainty that in the future, when necessary, there are millions of voices ready to scream, reaching as far as 14,000 kilometers away, to Timor Lorosa'e.

After the results were out in the 4th of September numerous atrocities, killings and devastation happened as TAPOL reported in 1999:

After the referendum results were announced on 4 September, the militias and their Kopassus bosses unleashed a scorched-earth policy of gigantic proportions. Para-military forces joined the fray, along with six TNI battalions, including two notorious local battalions, 744 and 745. Altogether about 15,000 men were involved. Without such a large contingent of men, it could never have taken hold so rapidly.

Although [Operation] Sapu Jagad-II sought to create the impression that this was a spontaneous outpouring of anger by pro-Indonesia forces, there is overwhelming evidence that the destruction was a well-prepared military operation. In many places, villagers were forced to destroy and burn their own neighbourhoods, even their own houses. The aim was to destroy as much as possible and punish the pillars of the pro-independence movement. The Catholic Church, which had given sanctuary to fleeing East Timorese throughout the occupation, was one of the main targets.

Photo from "Genocide Watch: East Timor 1975-1999", researched and written by Adam Jones. Shared under a license for non-profit use.

All IFET OP volunteers were forced to leave Dili by September 7, 1999 under extremely harrowing circumstances

Today, September 7, the last of our observers was forced to leave East Timor. Over the past two days, the Royal Australian Air Force evacuated 60 of our nonpartisan volunteers to Darwin from Dili and Baucau.

We left East Timor for safety, but with tremendous sadness. The East Timorese people have no Australia to run to, no place to hide from militia terror. Last night, Australia and Indonesian military officers prevented one of our East Timorese staff members from boarding the plane with us — and he faces an unspeakable horror shared by hundreds of thousands of his fellow East Timorese.

Most international observers and media fled East Timor before IFET-OP had to leave, and we were the last international NGO to leave. UNAMET has withdrawn from the entire country except Dili, where their communications and electricity has been cut off, and they are surrounded by militias who shoot into their compound virtually without interruption.

The mentioned “world pressure” became more and more real as citizens did not resign. Some photos of solidarity ties in Portugal may be seen in Tane Timor website. Maremargo posted images from Spain. Antonio Jose, from Uma Lulik blog, illustrated and emotionally described what was happening in Lisbon in a never before seen solidarity during the 7th and the 8th [pt] of September 1999:

As sirenes dos bombeiros ouviram-se ininterruptas nesses 3 minutos… parámos por Timor-Leste como nunca parámos por mais nada… TODOS (…)
Durante toda a tarde do cimo daquele prédio foram lançados constantemente papeis e papelinhos, rolos de papel higiénico, tudo o que vinha à mão era material para protesto. No final da tarde percebe-se que esse stock acabou pois eram as páginas amarelas que fluíam nessa altura… aquele ventinho sempre a ajudar e a depositar os protestos em plena embaixada dos EUA, nas árvores, no seu jardim e envolventes. No topo do prédio viam-se gente de gravata e camisa, a causa era a mesma…

"Civil non-obedience for Timor Loro Sa'e" in front of the US Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal, September 1999. Photo by Flickr user nopasaran, used with permission.

While the East Timor Action Network put people on the streets in September 1999, it was also able to count on the phone calls and letters of over ten thousand Americans

ETAN grew during 1999, enlarging our membership from 8,500 to 11,700. […] Using our experience and national activist network developed through eight years of dedication to a cause many called hopeless, ETAN mobilized public and official pressure. […] In September, ETAN’s web site was visited by more than 40,000 people a week. […] During September, our most active staff and volunteers were featured or quoted in countless mainstream media articles and programs, reaching tens of millions. ETAN activists authored op-eds in major U.S. newspaper, wrote letters to the editor, and appeared on local and national radio and TV shows.

On the other side of the world, the decisive moment for international intervention happened on the eve of the APEC summit in New Zealand, when Bill Clinton privately met with Pacific leaders. Only days prior he had announced the suspension of US military training with Indonesia. According to blogger Nigel Morley of “Writing for the Future“

To some readers this may seem fanciful but when Timorese Nobel Peace Prize winner José Ramos-Horta met United States (U.S.) President Bill Clinton at the APEC meeting in New Zealand in 1999, Clinton remarked that Ramos-Horta had more influence with Congress than he did (Zubrycki: 2002).

New Zealanders turned out in numbers to welcome Clinton, Ramos Horta and Australian Prime Minister Howard. Australians also “Take To The Streets Over East Timor”:

From Sidney, Australia, "Mother & Child" photo by Flickr user Potsy, used with permission

Banners saying “Stop The Slaughter” and “Wiranto - Murder.” Chants of “Free East Timor” and “Viva Timor Leste” (long live East Timor) came from the crowd after it heard from East Timorese resistance leader Mr Jose “Xanana” Gusmão during a live telephone hook-up from Jakarta.

“We need you, brothers and sisters of Australia, we need your voice,” Xanana Gusmao in Jakarta said by telephone, “I think it is important to send a message to the Indonesian Government that the Australian community and Australian workers will do everything they can to stop the killings. Viva East Timor,” he said. “Viva,” the crowd yelled back.

Students from Kingsgrove High School pledge their support for a free Timor in 1999. Photo by Flickr user sHzaam!, used with permission

During the torturous days of September 1999, world leaders moved slowly to intervene in East Timor, when it was clear that the Indonesian military and its proxies were completely destroying the territory, and setting off a humanitarian crisis of massive proportions. But the decisive protest and advocacy of groups of concerned citizens across the world shamed the US, Australia, and Indonesia into turning a new page for East Timor.

A decade later, it is time to celebrate that global union. Several events are scheduled in Dili, such as a photo exhibition in Fundação Oriente (which was itself the place where a massacre occurred in 1999) describing solidarity movements over the years.

This is the first in a series of posts to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the popular referendum in East Timor, a vote which led to the territory's internationally recognized independence. If you would like to share memories from the acts of global solidarity for East Timor in 1999, please do so below.

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.

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.

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.

European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, admitted Fiji would have received the payment if it would have had a “legitimate government” in place.

He was referring to the events that began on December 2006 when Commodore Frank Bainimarama dissolved Parliament and overthrew the government of Laisenia Qarase, which he called corrupt and racially divisive. It marked Fiji's fourth military coup since 1987. On April 9, 2009 three judges ruled that Bainimarama had come to power illegally and directed the military leader to step down and the country’s President to appoint a caretaker regime to guide Fiji to elections. However, the President claimed the constitution did not provide him with that power, so he abrogated the document, reappointed the Bainimarma government and provided it with a five-year mandate, promising elections in 2014.

Sugar has a longer history. 130 years ago, British colonial rulers first brought Indians to Fiji to work in the country’s sugar plantations. While its status has declined in the past two decades, Fiji’s sugar industry has been a backbone of Fiji’s economy for the past century. It contributes to roughly seven percent of the country’s GDP, brings in a large amount of foreign earnings and directly supports a quarter of the population. Not to mention that people in Fiji consume sugar at twice the world average.

However, critics maintain, the cost of sugar production in Fiji has increased over the years, while yields and quality have declined. Because the predominately Indo-Fijian cane farmers work on land owned by ethnic Fijians, land issues are highly politicized and take on a racial dimension.

The EU money would have come from a fund for the export sectors of former European colonies to become more globally competitive. The funds are also meant to off-set World Trade Organization-mandated reforms that blocks the EU from buying sugar (and other commodities) on a preference-based quota system, paying former colonies a higher price for its exports.

Coup Four And A Half points out, Fiji’s government broke some of the 12 commitments it made with the EU in April 2007.

The interim regime, in consultation with the three senior interim ministers, agreed to the following commitments:

- Free and fair elections to be held within 24 months from March 2007, meaning elections are to be held by March 2009 subject to the findings of the assessment to be carried out by the independent auditors appointed by the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

- Interim Regime to have consultations with the civil society and relevant stakeholders when adopting major legislative, fiscal and other policy initiatives.

- Interim Regime to use best endeavours to prevent statements by security agencies designed to intimidate.

- Interim Regime to uphold the Constitution and guarantee normal and independent functioning of Constitutional institutions such as the Fiji Human Rights Commission, Public Service Commission, Constitutional Offices Commission, as well as preserve the substantial independence and functioning of the Great Council of Chiefs.

- Interim Regime to fully respect the independence of the judiciary, appoint a Tribunal by 15th July 2007 to preside over the hearing of suspended Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki, appointment and dismissal of judges to conform to Constitution, and no interference whatsoever by the military, police or the regime with the judicial process including full respect for the legal profession

- All criminal proceedings linked to corruption to be dealt with through appropriate judicial channels and that any other set up to investigate alleged cases of corruption should operate within constitutional boundaries.

- Interim Regime to ensure all cases of alleged human rights infringements are investigated and dealt with in accordance with the various procedures and forums under laws of Fiji.

- Interim Regime to lift the Public Emergency Regulations in May 2007 subject to any threats to national security, public order and safety.

- Freedom of expression and freedom of the media in all its forms are fully respected as provided in the Constitution.

- Interim Regime to maintain regular dialogue to allow verification of progress made and to give EU/EC authorities full access to information on all matters linked to human rights, peaceful restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Fiji.

- Interim Regime to cooperate fully with eventual missions from the EU and EC for assessment and monitoring progress.

- Interim Regime to send progress reports every three months starting 30th June 2007 regarding the essential elements of the Cotonou Agreement and the commitments.

The blog also reported that some media in Fiji was barred from reporting on the loss in aid because of the Public Emergency Regulations that went into effect after the abrogation of the constitution and were recently renewed for another 30 days.

Fiji TV, the Fiji Times and the Indian newspaper, Shanti Dut, were banned from reporting the cancellation of more than 70 million dollars of European Union aid to cane farmers.

The aid money was the allocation earmarked for 2009 to help cane farmers overcome declining sugar prices.

Many who subscribe to Fiji Television news headlines received a notification on their mobile phones saying the 6pm news would feature the EU story.

But the story failed to appear - the bulletin instead went with the appointment of Pita Wise as permanent secretary in the interim Prime Minister’s office as its lead.

We have been told the EU aid money story, was removed at the order of the Ministry of Information censors.

The Daily Post, Fijivillage and the government-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation were able to evade censors and run the story.

A post by corruptionfighter99 at Raw Fiji News contends that Mahendra Chaudhry, the country’s first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister who was taken hostage on May 19, 2000 by Fijian nationalists and soldiers and later joined the military backed regime of Commodore Frank Bainimarama may have lost some of his support in the country’s largely Indo-Fijian sugar belt.

With the sugar industry facing collapse, it looks like sugar politics are about to change.
In the past, if Mahendra Chaudhry made a claim about the sugar industry, his loyal followers always believed him, regardless of what his opponents may say. Whether it’s the National Federation Party or the SDL, Chaudhry has been able to dismiss any statement they make.
But this time it’s going to be different. The EU price for sugar has already dropped but the biggest drop in price kicks in later this year, 2009/2010. Farmers payments are going to shrink, even after the devaluation boosts the number of shrunken Fiji dollars they receive.
The EU Reference Price for white sugar falls from 541 Euros in 2008/2009 to 404.4 Euros in 2009/2010. If we count the 08/09 price in pre devaluation dollars it was about $1190. The 09/10 price, even in post devaluation dollars is only $1068. But the cost of fuel and fertilizer are rising fast
because of the devaluation.
The EU promised aid because they knew that many farmers would go broke with the new price for sugar. The aid is supposed to help farmers adapt by helping them to move into new industries and assisting larger more efficient farmers to takeover unviable farms.
Without the aid, many farmers will go broke. They will walk away from their farms with nothing to show for generations of hard work.
No doubt Mahendra Chaudhry will blame [Ousted Fijian nationalist Prime Minister Laisenia] Qarase for all the problems. But this time around, the Chaudhry magic has gone.

Arvinesh Chand, writing in Fiji Today, says the government is washing its hands of ‘big sugar.’

Fiji Broadcasting Reports “Minister for Primary Industries Joketani Cokanasiga says farmers should not be disheartened by the withdrawal of the European Union aid for sugar but only take it as a challenge to open up untold opportunities.”
This is the third statement in recent days that suggests that the Government sees sugar as a historical crop and is quietly stepping away from support in favor of other crops.
Cokanasiga explains that their role is to advise the Fiji Sugar Corporation on how farmers could adjust by diversifying into planting other crops to maintain their livelihood.
He adds that the Legalega Research Station in Nadi is working very closely with farmers to establish demonstration plots in order to transfer technologies researched at the station for the benefit of the farmers.
The research station is advising farmers not to only rely on the income from their sugarcane
farms but to also grow short term cash crops and raise livestock within their farming systems.

The day the EU announced its decision, Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama left for a conference regarding sugar with other members of the ACP, African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States. In his remarks, he thanked the EU for past aid and warned without continuation of EU trade preferences, Fiji may not be able to make needed reforms to its sugar cane industry.

From Fiji Today.

No News Agency other than Fiji reported the speech. The final report from the conference doesn’t even mention Fiji’s problems with the EU. There was consternation that Fiji was trying to involve the conference in Fiji’s spat with the EU and a concerted effort was made to avoid politics and deal with the EU at a non political level.

A New Zealand-based blog, Fiji: The Way It Was, Is and Can Be, looks at how the regional actors are reacting toward Fiji.

The [EU] announcement came as PM Bainimarama, unaware of the announcement, left to attend a ACP (Asia-Caribbean-Pacific) ministerial conference on Sugar in Guyana, South America. Before leaving, the PM said he knows Australia and NZ are pushing hard to ensure Fiji is not assisted by the EU, the United Nations, the Commonwealth and the Asian Development Bank.

Australia, NZ and the US are reported to be talking about “targeted sanctions.” Nearly one person in three in Fiji is involved in some way in the sugar industry. It is hoped the Australian, NZ and US aim will be more accurate than the Europeans — or there will be no one left to aim at. I doubt any of them would try the same tactics on China.

In a similar vein, Café Pacific argues the EU’s fund freeze will only push Fiji deeper into the arms of China.

While the politicos and media flacks in New Zealand and Australia are rubbing their hypocritical hands with glee, cane growers are wondering how to survive. Now that the European Union has confirmed it will not be paying the 2009 sugar allocation for sugar industry reform (worth more than $US30 million) for the second year running, it is a matter of looking to Plan B. The EU has blocked the sugar assistance because of the military-backed regime’s refusal to return the country to democratic rule (until 2014).

When the funds were first suspended, Fiji was found to have breached the Cotonou agreement between the EU and the ACP bloc of countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific). Speculation was rife about whether Fiji regime censorship would gag this story, but it has at least slipped past the censors on Fijivillage News and Fiji Daily Post websites. Fijivillage added that it had been told that regime leader Voreqe Bainimarama said – before flying out to sugar meetings in Guyana and Brussels - that the governments of Australia and NZ were “trying to collapse the Fiji economy”.

Sabotage in other words. And yet another relentless push into railroading Fiji further into the arms of China and chequebook diplomacy. Chinese aid to Fiji has soared after the December coup - from $US23 million in 2006 to $US160 million in 2007 and still climbing.

A government spokesman said the Minister of Justice ordered their release under a compulsory supervision order, which allows certain criminals to serve the remainder of their sentences outside of prison. Fiji Law states the Minister of Justice may have a prisoner released on compulsory supervision granted the prisoner has (1) not been imprisoned twice before; and, (2) is serving a sentence longer than three years.

In January 2007, the eight soldiers and one policeman suspected that Sakiusa Rabaka and three other youths were trying to purchase marijuana. They took the young men to a nearby military camp, told them to strip to their underwear and subjected them to difficult physical exercises. When the men started to stumble, they were beaten and kicked. In court, the young men later testified Rabaka was groaning in pain, but the group continued to torture him. Rabaka eventually passed out; members of the military group forced two of his friends to perform oral sex on the unconscious Rabaka.

After the young men were released, Rabaka continued to have medical problems, complaining of headaches and a swollen head. His mother testified her son had “visible straight marks and boot marks” on his back. Two weeks after the incident, Rabaka was admitted to the hospital in Nadi, Fiji, where doctors operated on him. The pain continued after leaving the hospital. A week later Rabaka collapsed in front of friends at his home. He died shortly thereafter. He was 19-years-old.

The incident took place a few weeks after military commander Frank Bainimarama dissolved Parliament and deposed the government of Lasenia Qarase, which he said was corrupt and racist.

A High Court judge convicted the nine men in March 2009 and sentenced them to four-year prison sentences.

From the blog at Soli Vakasama Worldwide site

We feel the utmost disgust that the guilty men are allowed to walk free while the families of the young man killed and the other men tortured are left to suffer in silence and despair.
Our heart breaks at the suffering of the Rabaka Family and the men that were tortured.
We hope the healing process is swift and we wish them peace and goodwill forever.

It is so hard to believe that the stories we read of killings and tortures that happen overseas are actually happening in Fiji and has only occurred since the hijacking and rape of this Nation Fiji on 5.12.06. One wonders what type of upbringing these guilty but illegally freed so called soldiers and police personnel had and just how the Fiji military has gone from a respected institution to the most appalling example of the vilest disgusting atrocities that another man can heap upon another.

No Right Turn in New Zealand.

And so the Fijian military protects its own. It's not the first time - Bainiramarama himself ordered the release of his son-in-law, Francy Kean, after he had been convicted of manslaughter for beating someone to death at a wedding. But the precedent it sets is astounding. Thanks to the coup, Fiji's military thugs are now above the law, able to beat, rape, torture and kill with impunity.

Fiji Today agrees.

This follows the pattern of any criminal associated with the military having special privilages as the Commander shows the rank and file soldier that they above the law and are protected in all their actions
The use of the yellow ribbon program and CSO to override the decisions of the court is corruption plain and simple.

Fiji Today argues this could be a long-term problem for Fiji’s government, which is still searching for judges to fill its High Court more than a month after the country’s president annulled the constitution, fired the entire judiciary and appointed the government of Frank Bainimarama to a five-year mandate.

One of the reasons the dictatorship is having problems finding senior judges to appoint because of the decree allowing no legal challenges to any decrees of the President.
The judges are scared they would be seen as puppets of the regime as they realise that the courts would be neutralised with any contraversial cases having a decree issued before the case came to court.

The release of the soldiers was widely expected after the abrogation of the consitution, argues Coup And A Half.

Ironically, one of the reasons given by Frank Bainimarama for carrying out a military coup and toppling Laisenia Qarase’s Multi-Party government was that the administration was allegedly abusing the criminal justice system and interfering in the judiciary, with the then Attorney-General Qoriniasi Bale liberating high profile chiefs Tui Cakau Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu and former Vice-President, Ratu Jose Seniloli from prison under the Compulsory Supervison Order (CSO).

The two were jailed for their roles in George Speight’s coup against Mahendra Chaudhry’s government in May 2000.

Qarase was also accused of approving Seniloli’s salary while he was in prison.

In another case similar to Bainimarama’s accusation of Qarase, Bainimarama’s brother-in-law Francis Kean jailed in 2008 for bashing to death a guest at a wedding in December 2006. He was out of prison after an year, serving the required two-thirds of his jail term.

Victor Lal, writing in Raw Fiji News, offered a dark reason for the early release.

The murderers have been released to appease the military and to warn critics that if they open their mouths, they will be murdered by the military goons with impunity.

Fiji: The Way it Was, Is and Can Be argues the group’s release “raises serious doubts about the sincerity of the Fiji Government, and does nothing for its credibility.” The blogger called on Fiji’s Attorney General to “correct this wrong.”

No government purportedly intent on justice can condone the unecessary, brutally prolonged and cowardly assault on 19-year old Sakuisa Rabaka, in January 2007 (yes, it took that long to come to court). But the early release of his assailants does just that. The assault may be “written off” as a one-off abuse of power by nine over-zealous or sadistic individuals; their release — uncorrected — can only be attributed to one huge misuse of power by the State.

Fiji’s government says the 30-day extension was “highly necessary,” and the censorship will “help the country’s progress towards democracy.” “The people of Fiji are now experiencing a remarkable change from what used to be highly negative and sensationalized news to a more positive, balanced and responsible reporting by the media,” said Government and Military spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Neumi Leweni.

Prime Minister and military commander Frank Bainimarama told a Fiji-born journalist now living and working in Australia, that he hopes to mold Fiji into a smaller version of Singapore, where keeping the peace ranks higher than freedom of expression.

In a post at Raw Fiji News, a writer called fijidemocracynow2009 doubts the government’s claims of reforming the country’s race-based electoral code and moving Fiji to a post-racial society.

The dictator says censorship is necessary for his regime to push ahead with reforms without the hindrance of media opposition.
That is a big lie. The dictator has no intention of relinquishing power, which is exactly what he would have to do if there were to be reforms that eventually led to elections.
The truth is that the comprehensive censorship of our media is designed to cover up Frank Bainimarama’s criminality.
The information blackout is supposed to prevent us and the rest of the world from watching the dictator consolidate his one-man rule for the long term.
He doesn’t want journalists reporting the ongoing intimidation of the regime’s critics or questioning actions such as the release of the convicted killers of Sakiusa Rabaka and Nimilote Verebasaga.
No, he wants a clean shot at turning Fiji into Bainimaramaland.
But, thanks to Fiji’s Freedom Bloggers his movements are being closely monitored and faithfully reported. So censorship is NOT working!

So far, at least two local journalists have been detained for allegedly breaking the emergency regulations. Most recently, Coup Four And A Half reports, two more journalists, this time from the website Fiji Live, were taken into custody 3 PM Saturday, May 9 for allegedly reporting and publishing an article regarding the early release of members of the country’s security forces who were jailed for manslaughter after being convicted of torturing and killing three civilians in early 2007. These alleged detentions have not yet been confirmed. Update: Police have confirmed they are questioning the two reporters.

The government of Fiji has also deported three foreign journalists in the previous two months.

In other news, Netani Rika, editor of the Fiji Times, discussed media freedom at the Pacific Freedom Forum XIX, supposed to take place in Fiji, but the country’s political climate forced organizers to change the venue to Apia, Samoa.

Rika’s speech marked the first time a Fiji-based journalist spoke of working conditions under the new rules. He reported that since the Emergency Rules were introduced April 10, the number of censors have increased in newsrooms. Other than the worries of self-censorship practiced by journalists, Rika said one of the problems facing Fiji’s media is the inconsistency of rules that exist between different censors. The Fiji Times newspaper continues to report on political events, he said, much of those stories are cut from the newspaper. However, some censors are stricter than others. Which stories make the paper remains at the discretion of the censor on duty.

From Rika’s speech at the Pacific Freedom Forum event, published in Coup Four And A Half:

To say that Fiji’s media has been under fire since December 2006 is no exaggeration.

We have been threatened, bullied and intimidated. Our cars have been smashed, our homes firebombed.

Despite this, our staff have remained committed to the ideals of a free media, telling the stories that must be told, exposing the weaknesses in State policies and also covering human interest assignments.

It is because of their commitment and refusal to detract from the cause that the interim government has been forced to gag the media.

It is important in these trying circumstances for senior journalists and managers to maintain a brave face and communicate constantly with their staff, offering support and protection.

It is also imperative that we offer guidance and direction and stress the importance of the role of a vibrant, free press in a democracy.

Offering a rebuttal, Real Fiji News, a new pro-government blog, said it was “amazing that [Rika] went all the way to Samoa to tell the audience this piece of useless information.”

Ok, so lets not forget this Netani, you had been warned several times about biased reporting, no one was stopping you ‘telling the truth’. It is unfortunate that you are blinded by your own self loathing of the IG. If you actually reported correctly you wouldn’t have been censored.

Stuck in Fiji M.U.D. says that journalists are missing the region’s larger story while sticking to story of media freedom in the Pacific.

Ironically, while those journalists were enjoying their well-endorsed junket in Apia, oblivious to the fact that media freedom is not the central story.

It seems that, the diplomatic negotiations to the Pacific Free Trade Plan (PACER Plus) and the detrimental effects of this Trans-Tasman lobbied treaty; has somewhat not registered highly on their list of priorities; despite the notion that those negotiations affect all Pacific Island states.

Is the lack of coverage on those trades negotiations, a clear demonstration that most news published in the Pacific, is viewed through the prism of their Australian or New Zealand Publisher or Editor?

The funny thing about these Pacific media Forums is that these journalists, really don't focus much on Pacific trade negotiations with EU, US or Australia or New Zealand or even in-depth coverage of their own industry and the future trends of their profession based on the current global events like the changing landscape of the news paper business.
It's just that Freedom of the Media, is a story that elevates sales and elevated sales mean elevated circulations. SiFM fills in this lack of analytical and balanced coverage.

New Zealand-based journalist and academic David Robie, who attended the meeting, has a similar line of argument. He reports that Fiji’s problems sometimes overshadowed other regional issues at the meeting.

From Café Pacific:

PACIFIC media freedom advocates meeting in Apia, Samoa, this week did their best to keep the Fiji censorship problem in proportion and give other regional issues a good hearing. But it was tough. The Fiji challenge kept bubbling to the surface, leading to a spirited debate on the future of [Pacific Islands News Association] at one session and feisty calls for the regional news service Pacnews to get out of Suva at others. Fiji dominated all the speeches on the opening day with several of the region's media freedom heavyweights giving the regime a hard time - but they also warned that the young generation coming through into the industry should not be seduced by government freebies.

A bit off topic, but only a bit. Loyal Fijian criticizes international media organizations for allowing parachute journalists to briefly land Fiji and report on rumors and hearsay and then wonder why the reporters are asked to leave.

And so, we have a certain so-called journalist who thinks he has a god given right to jet in and out as and when he wishes.

We are a small country sir, but we are a sovereign nation. The citizens of this country expect our authorities to maintain law and order.

If a journalist does their job to report fairly and with balance, that's a different story. But what about someone who is publishing a blog filled with rumour , speculation and innuendo aimed at humiliating senior public figures and even inciting unrest and mutiny.

There is a story being peddled by this NZ based self-proclaimed journalist that the Commander of the FMF had an attachment with the Chilean navy ages ago and then goes on to very mischievously suggest that this somehow has a bearing on what's happening in Fiji now.

I-War 101. The Big Lie Theory! Dont let the truth get in the way of a good story…

whats next? Accuse an FMF officer who has been through the American officer training facility in Hawaii (a highly rewarding experience, we are told) of being complicit in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo?

What hypocrisy and rumour mongering!

That's where this bloke crosses the line. Using bits and pieces of hearsay to try and conjure up an image in order to achieve a political objective.

That's not journalism, that's propaganda.

When the current government of Commodore Frank Bainimarama dissolved Parliament and ousted the Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase in December 2006, they instituted roughly six months of similar emergency rules, but with no censors in newsrooms. However, journalists complained of “working in an environment of fear, of persecution and
harassment” because of actions by members of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces.

These most recent Emergency Rules began shortly after April 9, 2009 when judges ruled that Bainimarama came into power illegally, forcing him to step down and the country’s president to appoint a caretaker government to lead the country to new elections. The president argued he had no such constitutional powers. Instead, he annulled the 1997 constitution, fired the entire judiciary and eventually reappointed Bainimarama’s government to a five-year mandate, claiming elections would be held in 2014.

The announcement came just hours after Fiji was stripped of benefits from the Pacific Islands Forum for refusing to schedule elections by May 1. Maori leaders feel that New Zealand’s troubled relationship towards Fiji needs changing and would like to support their ancestral brothers, the indigenous Fijians which make up two-thirds of Fiji’s population.

(Unlike Fiji’s first three military coups, military leader Frank Bainimarama took power in December 2006 in the name of righting past wrongs against the minority ethnic Indian population that has fewer political rights than indigenous Fijians but enjoys economic success on the islands. )

However, Prime Minister John Key tampered hopes for the meeting. Because the Maori Party belongs to New Zealand's governing coalition, the Prime Minister said his government should speak with “one voice,” meaning no face-to-face talks will take place with Fiji’s Prime Minister until he is willing to move up elections earlier than his intended date of 2014. Maori Party members have suspended an official trip to Fiji, but said a delegation may travel in an “unofficial captacity.”

Fiji’s political blogosphere, which is mostly anti-regime, was unimpressed with the Maori plans from the outset.

Talking Fiji:

The Maori delegation had explained yeterday that the NZ govrnment had ”misunderstood” what Frank and his military regime were doing in Fiji.
It seems they were the ones who had “misunderstood” what Frank was doing.
Thankfully they had the presence of mind to admit they were wrong when they thought Frank was fighting the whole world to safeguard Fiji’s best interests.
Someone must have sat them down and explained to them that Frank was actually fighting the whole world (and the whole of Fiji) to safeguard his own best interests.

Victor Lal, author of the blog Musings on Fiji, writes this in Raw Fiji News:

The agony of the people of Fiji, to a large extent, can be laid at the door of Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Michael Somare (and a few others) who constantly talked of dealing with the anti-democracy gangsters and gun-haw-haw coupsters in the so-called Pacific Way.

The Maori Party’s Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples should go to Papua New Guinea and have a word with Somare, who will give them a better picture of the psychological state of the present goons in Fiji.

He thought he was dealing with brotherly and sisterly Pacific Islanders, only to find out that they were devils in disguise, feasting on their own people.

If Somare had taken a tough stance with Australia and New Zealand, the gangsters might have thought twice before tearing up the 1997 Constitution, dismissing the Judiciary (which also had been propping them up), not to mention being thrown out of the Pacific Islands Forum.

In New Zealand, the planned trip was seen in a much more positive light. But the diplomatic give-and-take within the Key government was criticized.

No Minister calls it “common sense.”

While our foreign affairs poobahs who seem to have captured John Key and Murray McCully continue to insist on ‘elections now, no matter how bad they are' for Fiji, Mrs Turia suggests we actually sit down and talk civilly with Mr Bainimarama and, in her words, find out what is going on in Fiji.

Adolf sincerely hopes she goes to Fiji. I suggest the delegation should comprise the Maori King (mana) Dr Sharples (cabinet minister) and Lt Col (R) Wira Gardiner. (emminent Maori leader and National Party member)

Mr Gardiner has precisely the right background to put the Commodore at ease during discussions.

A circuit breaker such as this is essential if New Zealand's interests in the South Pacific are to be fulfilled.

Fiji: The Way It Was, Is and Can Be wonders whether John Key’s strategy of only negotiating with Fiji through the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth is the best choice.

I can see John Key's point but why doesn't he accompany the delegation? It would be in line with his familiar hands-on, up-front approach to other issues: a round-the-table dialogue by a down-to-earth pragmatist rather than hands-off bureaucratic negotiations? Unlikely, but it could actually help.

Tumeke takes the proposed dialog into the context of inter-governmental politics within New Zealand’s ruling coalition.

Mactional is an ugly mash sometimes - and the Maori Party's kite-flying on Fiji was another lost opportunity. It was a potentially valuable back channel to the regime in Suva, but it was fumbled. Why did the PM shift his position? Did clumsy MFAT has their fat paws on it, or was it a political botch from McCully? Or was it the Fijian regime that scotched it?

It was the timing the PM could have played with in permitting any delegation that included a Minister of the Crown - enough time to work something out; but now it's all gone. The Maori Party isn't too hot on the diplomatic tango either and has stood on the government's feet because they didn't read the nuances themselves.

Kiwi Blog is one person who admits to being perplexed.

I’m a bit puzzled by the Maori Party stance on Fiji. The original Fiji coups were about preventing the majority Indians from forming a Government. It was about protecting what they saw as the right of indigenous Fijians, and that stance had the support of some Maori activists in NZ.
But the Commodore’s coup is (officially anyway) about the opposite. He is saying he wants to remove any special rights from indigenous Fijians, and replace the constitution which has race based seats.
Somewhat strange bedfellows for the Maori Party I would have said whose entire party is about how there should be special rights for indigenous people.

From Political Editor Audrey Young, blogging at the New Zealand Herald.

John Key hasn't made many mistakes since becoming Prime Minister in November - and those that he has made haven't mattered much anyway.
That changed this week with his mishandling of a possible Maori Party visit to Fiji…
On Sunday Key responded quickly saying a visit by Sharples would be okay so long as it was in a private capacity as Maori Party co-leader and not as a minister representing the Government.
On Monday he had had a change of heart. He said he had talked to Sharples, that he had agreed New Zealand had to have one voice on the issue of Fiji and that he did not believe Sharples would be going to Fiji.
On Tuesday, it became very untidy: Sharples said he might still go and Key said he would stop Sharples from going if he went ahead.
It would be helpful if the Prime Minister had one voice, as well. It should not have taken him long on Sunday to realize that such a trip by Sharples would be problematic for perceptions of Government unity, at the very least.

We’ll look at the outcome of Fiji’s suspension from the 16-nation from the regional block. The move, which came into effect midnight May 1, temporarily strips Fiji of full member privileges, including attendance of Forum meetings and events. The country will also no longer will benefit from new financial or technical assistance – other than aid toward the restoration of democracy.

Fiji’s suspension marks the first time in its nearly four-decade history the Pacific Islands Forum has taken this step against a country. Yet Forum chair, Toke Talagi, Premier of Niue, said the suspension was particularly timely due to the “deterioration” of legal, political and human rights in the country.

Fiji’s government called the suspension “regrettable.” The acting Prime Minister said the forum “has chosen to ignore the circumstances in Fiji” by forcing it to hold elections under a “racist” communal-based system (where Parliamentary seats are apportioned by race) that strips powers from politically moderate groups which attempt to attract voters across race/ethnic lines.

In Raw Fiji News, contributor Jean D’Ark responds to the regime’s refusal to hold elections until 2014.

DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS ARE NOT ABOUT ENDORSING A PARTICULAR ELECTORAL SYSTEM OR NOT. THEY ARE ABOUT DETERMINING WHAT THE PEOPLE THINK OF WHAT IS GOING ON? CONCEALED JUST BEHIND KHAIYUM’S STONEWALL OF EXTRA-PLANETARY PROPAGANDA IS THE CONCEITED ASSUMPTION THAT “WE KNOW BEST”. WELL – LET US SEE IF THE PEOPLE AGREE. OR ARE YOU AFRAID THAT THE PEOPLE WILL PUT TWO-AND-TWO TOGETHER, AND EQUATE FIJI’S CURRENT DIRE STRAITS WITH THE REGIME’S APPALLING DECISION-MAKING THAT PRECEDED IT?

Fiji Girl argues Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama is not out to progressively change Fiji to become a post-racial state; rather, he is engaged in a power play.

No matter how ‘over much’ the Baini might protest, this is not about Fiji’s electoral system. It never has been. This Vore coup has always been about him escaping from being brought to Justice for his treatment of the CRW soldiers [who attempted a mutiny in November 2000 that was violently put down by soldiers]. People are not stupid. Our neighouring governments are not stupid. They see through Vore’s lies, and see him for the pathetic creature he is.

Now that the Forum has suspended Fiji, the government can move forward with its promised reforms, says Kalougata in Fiji Board Exiles.

Frank can implement the charter and new Constitution without all the foreign meddling and a few countries in the South Pacific who agreed to Fiji's suspension can look for other shipping and airline routes to serve their countries. NZ and OZ will be happy to serve them for a price. Now is the time to quietly and politely implement some new policies for Fiji.

Jone says:

Agreed! Australia and NZ are total hypocrits. If the standard is democracy, then Tonga and Samoa should also be expelled. This ruling is a joke!

It shouldn’t be lost that the Forum Secretariat is located in Suva, Fiji’s capital. Real Jack argues Fiji should kick the regional body out.

the best thing about arrogance is that the way to lever it is to challenge the ego - and thats whats been done to Canberra - and they've swallowed it hook line and sinker - now Fiji is free to do whatever it needs to do to implement these changes - the Forum is now irrelevant to what happens here - it has the option of taxing to the maximum the Forums activities here or simply kicking them out - now noone can say Fiji acted prematurely or irrationally by kicking out the Forum headquarters and its offices from here.

One subtext of this story has been the ineffectiveness of Australia and New Zealand to influence events in Fiji. With Fiji now sidelined in the Forum, the regional body will certainly lose influence with the government while China and India have moved in and strengthened business ties with the country; even if that means for Fiji sometimes employing foreigners at the expense of locals while the economy is sinking.

Fiji’s government said regardless of the suspension, bi-lateral agreements with other countries in the region remain alive and it will continue dialogue with other international partners. The Australian press, at least, reports that China does not want to be seen as a “protector” to the Fijian regime. This has been picked up by at least one blogger, Discombobulated Bubu.

I was wondering why Voreqe has been strutting about like a peacock lately.

Word is that he thinks China will just write him blank cheques whenever he asks cos China is such the new bestest friend.

I am no political expert but I know enough to appreciate that this is a good example of just how no man is an island.

When it comes to the crunch, China will value Australia's word more because it is Australia that has the goodies that China wants.

Fiji offers no more than an opportunity for Chinese Nationals to come and earn a living (courtesy of the string attached to the Chinese loans) , pilfer our fishing grounds, and perhaps a land grab if we, it's citizens, continue to stay complacent about the rape of our freedoms.

Chinese don't come here to lay on the beaches. They go to places that have casino's and present opportunities to make money.

Bloggers aren’t only looking at this issue from the viewpoint of Fiji. New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the Pacific Islands Forum have parts to play also, says the New Zealand-based blog Fiji: The Way It Was, Is and Can be. While New Zealand has looked the other way regarding military coups in larger countries, two separate governments were not ready to do so with Fiji. That’s because New Zealand never saw Fiji as an equal partner.

Do I hold New Zealand primarily responsible for the way things have developed? Yes, but obviously not entirely. Bainimarama staged the Coup. His Government dug itself ever deeper into mud, much of its own making. Australia has also played an important role but seems, in most matters, to have taken its lead from us. Regretfully, I think we are the more culpable. I expected us to do better. Fiji's string of crises need not have come to this. We have been the most insistent on an election deadline that, for technical reasons alone, most probably could not have been met on time. Australia still has a High Commission in Suva, and has offered technical and other support. We have no High Commissioner and only skeletal HC staff.

We have offered nothing to help Fiji out of its mess– no forsensic accountants, no judicial or electoral expertise, no progressive easing of the travel bans, not even an air accident inspector. We, more than any other country, in our direct attacks and support for his opponents, drove Bainimarama back into a corner, provoking retaliation. Other Forum countries merely followed our lead, some with extreme reluctance. Let us hope dialogue continues, with or without the Forum. In a year or two, looking back, we may have cause to recall that it was at this Midnight we “send to know for whom the bell tolls.” We will then know whether is was Bainimarama, Qarase, Fiji, Australia's and New Zealand's mana, or the Forum we helped create and destroy.

Meanwhile, in displays quite uncharacteristic of good diplomacy, we have bailed ourselves and Bainimarama into a corner leaving neither a way to escape with dignity intact.

Along with the news of its suspension, the government announced its emergency rules would be extended for a second thirty days. This allows the police extra search and seizure powers, the right to detain suspects up to seven days without charges and provides strict rules for media coverage of political events, along with government censors embedded in newsrooms. The government said it re-upped the rules to maintain calm “during trying times.”

Following a court ruling stating the Commodore Frank Bainimarama came to power illegally in December 2006, the country’s President nullified the constitution, fired the entire judiciary and reappointed Bainimarama to a five-year term, expiring in 2014.

Members of the 16-nation body gave that ultimatum in late January to then-Interim Government leader Frank Bainimarama. The group stated that if Fiji does not meed the deadline, the country would be suspended from all Forum events and cease receiving any new financial and technical assistance. But Bainimarama insisted Fiji would not hold elections until his government could remake the country's race-based electoral code that allows the majority ethnic Fijians to vote on different rolls than ethnic Indians and other minority groups.

Much has changed in Fiji since the deadline. Following an April 9 court decision that Bainimarama’s military-backed regime came to power illegally in December 2006, the country’s President annulled the country’s constitution, fired the judiciary, reappointed the Bainimarama regime and gave it a five-year mandate before promising to hold elections in 2014. A few members of the Forum condemned those moves.

Fiji’s government hopes that diplomatic maneuverings could still win the day. Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum remained optimistic the PIF would not kick out Fiji because member countries are being educated on recent developments in the country. Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who is traveling to a meeting of the Asian Development Bank, called for an “urgent meeting” with leaders of Australia and New Zealand to stave off the expulsion.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare remain unimpressed.

The Pacific Island Forum has its headquarters based in Suva, Fiji.

Café Pacific investigates the geo-political fallout of a possible Fiji expulsion, especially in light of growing Indian and Chinese influence on the island.

Bainimarama's strongest supporter in the forum, PNG prime minister Sir Michael Somare, has apparently deserted the regime and is siding with the Australian and New Zealand isolationist push. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd gloated over the claimed United Nations decision not to award any more peacekeeping duties to the Fiji military. The hypocrisy of Australia and New Zealand is deafening. And this can only end badly, even disastrously for the region. The regime is likely to respond with anger. Will it be time to toss out the Australian high commissioner? The forum has never taken such drastic action against a member in almost four decades of virtual “Pacific way” consensus. If it does so this time – excluding the most influential and crossroads island nation of the region – the isolationist policy will come back to the bite the forum in most unpredictable ways.

It will also open the door to a dramatic rise in Chinese influence in the region, at the expense of Canberra and Wellington. It was interesting to see the turnout for the swearing in of Ratu Epeli Nailatikau as Vice-President – ironically the chief was ousted as military commander when Sitiveni Rabuka staged his double coup in May 1987 (against both Dr Timoci Bavadra's Labour government and against his own two higher ranked army officers). Present for Nailatikau were the high commissioners of India, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea and the ambassadors of China and Kiribati…

Within Fiji, Intelligentsiya argues the Bainimarama regime is to blame and tells people of Fiji to “stand tall” in light of upcoming hardships.

The clock’s ticking Bainimarama but the writing is on the wall.

It’s 3 strikes and a once founding island country is rowing its own canoe out of the PIF family.

What a depressing, emotional day for our noble country.
It should be day of mourning.

Once our suspension comes to pass formally, we can expect that to trigger a whole lot of additional testicle squeezing from the international community.
Pleas and blood tie links to Tonga will not help.
The region is not turning their backs on us. Leaders are protesting their opposition to Bainimarama and his illegal regime. And in the process are allowing hard lessons to be learned.
Despite the unabashed trash being heaped on us by the illegal central bank guv, we know better.
Stand tall, united and remain proud Fiji.
Only under intense heat, can gold be found.

From New Zealand, the Whale Oil blog calls Prime Minister John Key’s declaration that Fiji will most likely be expelled from the body a “bad move.”

All this move will do is push Fiji closer and closer to China. Someone other than the fools at Mfat needs to be advising you on Fiji.
I can help there and put you in touch with several folk who have the ear of Frank Bainimarama.
Don't be captured by the bureaucrats, actually make a difference.

With Samoa’s history of problematic representative government, Jone at Fiji Board Exiles says New Zealand and Australia are being hypocritical by siding against Fiji.

Seems strange that NZ and Oz should insist that Fiji returns to democracy, freedom of the press and human rights etc, when its ‘favoured' nation Samoa is so flawed! Add PNG widespread corruption, and Tongan non-democracy, to the Oz/NZ list of ‘favoured' nations, and the hypocrisy is even greater!

The mandate excludes the commissioner of Fiji’s police or prisons or the head of Fiji’s military.

Debate continues on the total number of forced retirees who will leave the workforce on the last day of April. Fiji’s Public Service Commission permanent secretary told the media more than 1600 civil servants will be affected, including 15 doctors, 97 nurses and more than 800 teachers. One blog calculates perhaps 2200 government workers could be out of work.

In order to continue necessary services, the government will allow workers with “scarce skills” to be eligible for re-employment on 12-month contracts. Those professions include doctors, nurses, teachers, engineers and other technical officers.

A post at Coup Four And A Half, the blog providing the 2200 statistic, reports that the influx of recent retirees could provide liquidity issues for the country’s retirement financial plan, Fiji National Provident Fund.

With the deteriorating economy and rising inflation due to devaluation, it's expected that most of those retiring will want to withdraw their money all at once, instead of taking the pension scheme under which the calculated percentage of their funds is paid out once a month.

The interim regime has publicly stated that all those retiring at the age of 55 should depend on their FNPF savings to sustain them for the rest of their life and cater for the needs of their families.

Sources say it will be interesting to see whether the FNPF allows members to take their money out in a lump-sum.

Raw Fiji News also predicts most retirees will take their money out immediately. The fund’s manager affirmed all retirees will be paid according to their pension options.

The new retirement regulations arrive when Fiji’s economy is under strain. It has been hit by the global economic slowdown, hurting the tourist and agriculture industries; the recent devaluation of its currency by 20 percent has raised fears of inflation. On top of that, Moody’s Investor Services downgraded the country’s credit ratings by two notches because of “political instability.”

The Intillentsiya blog argues Fiji’s taxpayers will eventually foot the bill for the mass retirements.

Eradicating all those over 55 (with the privileged exceptions of Bainimarama & Teleni) from the face of the civil service is just irrational. Especially as we all know there are no set internal means in existence within the civil service to capture their institutional knowledge of where things are at, upon their departure. It is simply impossible to capture it all within a span of day’s (there are some reports of instant departures) whereas normally institutional knowledge is embedded into organizational procedures and structures. The fact that there will be a helluva lot of extra workloads thrown upon the remaining civil servants to deal with is almost guaranteeing worse off service outcomes to taxpayers. In effect the taxpayers once again bear the brunt of this flawed and illegal decree…

The economic fall0ut of this flawed policy and illegal decree will be severe. Assuming that these 1,000 or so over-55er’s were on a conservatively estimated salary of FJD$30K that essentially boils down to savings of about $30mill from now on. Which is dandy for Bainimarama’s continued illegal empire building.
However the other end of the spectrum also means that there is a $30mill LESS floating actively within the economy (goods, services) and it will fall upon the illegal regime to somehow subsidize normal government mandated services.
It also means there’s less taxes for collection and therefore even less income for custodians of our national coffers at FIRCA to depend on for next year’s budget.
The superannuation custodians FNPF can also expect similar trends.

The retirement regulations are problematic to a few bloggers who point out that Royal Fiji Military Force commander Bainimarama, who turned 55 April 27, has been excluded from them. Tim Selwyn, in a post at the New Zealand-based Tumeke blog, says the forced retirements will allow the government to do away with troublesome army officers.

It is no coincidence that Bainimarama turns 55 on 27 April and that he can force any state employee to retire that is 55 just three days later. It may be utter hypocrisy, but it is also a classic Alpha Male move to eliminate the senior ranking rival males - the MO of the bully/thug military man.

The retirement exemptions are the means the military will use to sack the good sorts of government officials that resist - in any way - the “new legal order.” The sorts of people that refused to obey the Commodore the first time around in 2006 and who continued to operate their departments without reference to what they knew was an illegal authority. He had to send troops into some of these offices because the senior civil servants refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of his regime - and the Appeal Court upheld that Bainimarama's government was and is illegal. These are good people with a genuine ethic of maintaining a first class neutral public service. These people will be forced to retire and the Commodore can move his military men and other pro-regime supporters in - regardless of merit and competence and with no mind for the rule of law.

Earlier this year, Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s interim government fought and won a case against two public sector unions allowing it to reduce the civil servant retirement age from 60 years to 55. A few weeks later, the Supreme Court allowed the two unions to appeal the case, granting a stay in the new rules.

The stay was nullified after the country’s president, reacting to a court case questioning the legality of the Bainimarama government, abrogated the constitution, fired the entire judiciary and made himself head-of-state. He then reappointed the Bainimarama government to a five-year mandate.

During the retirement case, the Bainimarama government argued the 55 year rule will free needed cash for the government, allow older civil servants to enter the private sector with new businesses and, more importantly, permit Fiji’s bulging young population a place in the workforce. One analysis showed that Fiji’s private sector has only been able to handle one-half of the new job seekers each year.