Author:
Publication: Organiser
Date: September 2, 2000
THE people of Fiji, particularly
the 360,000 ethnic Indians, are in for a long struggle for restoration
of democracy. The interim government of President Iloilo and Prime
Minister Qarase, both virtually hand-picked by the army and the powerful
tribal chiefs, has dittoed all that George Speight and his bunch of armed
goons wanted. But even as Fiji is slowly fading out of world focus,
loot, arson, torching of homes of ethnic Indians and a general economic
collapse continue. The interim government obviously has no answer.
As much as democracy,
economic conditions are also threatened by political turmoil and sanctions
imposed by neighbours Australia and New Zealand and the distant Britian
and the European Union. The words used by these countries and bodies
are strong, but their past record is that after a lapse of time, everyone
wants to do business with the imposters. Deposed prime minister Mahendra
Pal Chaudhry, during his visit to India last week, sought to impress upon
the Indian leadership of the need for India to impose sanctions, even though
they are not likely to be effective, the Indo-Fijian economic interaction
is limited, thanks to the distance. But the symbolic gesture of the
sanctions lies in their matching the strong words of solidarity for democracy
and of concern for the large numbers of ethnic Indians who have once again
become second-class citizens.
In fact after the 1987
coup, Fiji went through the process of restructuring the Constitution and
came up with a solution that did justice to all. But going by the
current events, the military junta's Government plans to subvert the democratic
set-up for ever. The land rights, which forms the lifeline of the
island, is the crux of the problem. After the 1987 coup it took almost
ten years for the troubled island to get back to a multiracial polity.
With politics moving on democratic lines, economy looked up. Majority
of the Indian origin Fijians are engaged in commerce and trade. Even
the poor among them take land on lease and toil hard to produce food grains
and sugarcane and have put Fiji on the sugar map of the world. Forest
products and timber are other areas where there is real money and here
is where the problem began. George Speight grew from a small time
trader to a big timber merchant heading a timber firm.
Fiji is known for mahogany
which equals the Philippines spices in quality and is valued for its hard
reddish-brown wood. According to the deposed Prime Minister, there
were international bids for mahogany and two major Transnational Corporations
(TNCs) responded for the bid. The Commonwealth Development Corporation
(CDC) of the UK and Timber Resource Management (TRM) of the US vied with
each other and decided to use all the methods that TNCs usually do, to
get the multibillion dollars. While the Government is said to have
preferred CDC, Speight was said to have been roped in by the US based multinational
TRM. While the negotiations were on, James Ahkeye, finance minister
in the Rabuka Government was said to have dismissed the consultants Price
Water house and directly put Speight in charge of the negotiations.
Meanwhile elections came
in and Rabuka lost. The new government headed by Mahendra Chaudhry
decided to favour CDC of UK. According to the deposed prime minister,
the hostage drama and the resultant derailment of democracy is all linked
to trade and commerce. The dubious methods to which TNCs (known as
MNCs in India) resort is evident from what is going on in Fiji. The
racial discrimination issue and Fiji for Fijians etc. is a hoax and
a bogey raised to divert world attention from the real issues.
Chaudhry has a point
in that if India and the world community fail to speak up for the Fijian
democracy and for the ethnic minorities anywhere in the world, they will
have to be ready to witness military coups and ethnic cleansings in unstable
societies where a bunch of armed goons can hold an elected government to
ransom and even force constitutional changes. And the world community
will have to be ready to re-settle uprooted minorities.
Chaudhry has called the
abrogation of the 1997 constitution "a blueprint for apartheid" and has
warned that the turmoil in tiny island nations in the relatively calm Pacific
is not isolated. For, while Fiji made news, Solomon Islands witnessed
a forced change in that prime minister Bartholomew resigned when detained
by a bunch of armymen. There is now insurgency in Papua New Guinea
and is Vanuatu.
It is very obvious that
the Pacific backwaters, treated more like backyards by the US, China, Japan,
Australia and New Zealand, among others, are no longer going to remain
calm. As for the Indian diaspora, spread across the globe, there
is need for a policy. India cannot flex its muscles like the Americans
and the British do, but it has to stand up to Fiji-like situations.
For this, a clear-cut policy, backed by a network of supporters in the
world community in needed.
President Narayanan granted
clemency to the five Latvians involved in the Purulia arms dropping case,
as a friendly gesture pending the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
And to rescue the sole culprit, the British pilot Peter Bleach, the British
Home Secretary Jack Straw is coming to India. By comparison, India
is not able to get the Dawood Ibrahims, Win Chadhas and Nadeems back home
for trial, not to speak of the Punjab and Kashmir terrorists who are living
in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and various other places, claiming
political persecution.
The Fijian situation
is different in that India is not having to bale out any of its citizens,
nor, for that matter, any ethnic Indian wants to migrate back to India.
They have their relations in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and other
places. All the same, there is need for the South Blok to focus on
the crisis, rather than behave as if they do not exist. The crisis
is far from over in that the persecution of ethnic Indians continues unabated.
The loss is estimated at USD 30 million in Suva alone on the first day
of violence after Speight and his men attacked the Fijian Parliament.
The Suva shopping district, with establishments owned almost exclusively
by ethnic Indians, has been completely destroyed. Three hundred people
have been forced to flee the troubled areas and shifted to the western
part of the country 200 km away.
Eight persons have died
so far, of them two are Indians. Thirty are injured by gun shots,
mostly by the military and the army personnel. In the third week
of this month, a woman, too old to run, was burnt to death. Reports
quoting eyewitnesses say her house, like hundreds of others belonging to
Indians, was set on fire with petrol bombs. The idea is to ensure
that a family that has once fled the home, does not return under army-police
escort and start living. The story is the same since May 19.
It is happening mainly in rural areas in distant islands where police or
the army cannot reach easily.
But the problem is slowly
moving to the urban areas as well. What happens is eight or ten goons
armed, or unarmed, come in two vehicles and surround the Indian home in
the middle of the farm. The inmates mostly escape, but those that
do not, are subjected to beating. Items are simply picked up from
homes and from shops. The looting is systematic and the looters come
again and again, depending upon their requirements, knowing fully well
that police would take its time to come. There is enough time to
stash away farm produce and cattle. Worse, this is happening among
people who have shared neighbourhood for decades. This has happened
in Suva and its surroundings, in Reki, in Korovou and numerous other places.
Chaudhry's entourage
says there is simply no way to assess the damage and the loss. But
there is nothing ambiguous-the whole exercise is to drive out the Indians
from their homes and ensure that they do not return. Some refugees
who returned under police escort, were attacked and made to flee again.
Said an official who
has been a witness to this phenomenon : "At the end of the day, it is clear
that the security forces cannot help against organised violence.
There is nothing spontaneous about crime against the minorities.
So what do we do? Either leave Fiji for safer havens or resort to the Sri
Lankan Tamils' way." The warning underlying this observation is clear and
ominous.
