Fiji coup goes off at half cock and in slow motion

Lord Patel presaged the coup in Fiji on November 7th as did the Australian Navy, who have 3 boats currently hanging around offshore, mainly to be ready to act to protect Australian citizens and commercial interests.

Rolling News from Fiji TV here.

Cmdr Frank Bainimarama has seized power and in a televised address has assumed all executive powers and dismissed former banker Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase who has been put under house arrest.

Fiji (Independent since 1970) splits broadly between the native Fijians (60%) a people of mixed Polynesian (partly Tongan) and Melanesian ancestry (54.3%), and Indo-Fijians (40%) who are the rapidly declining proportion of descendants of Indian contract labourers brought to the islands by the British in the 19th century who have been actively emigrating in the past few years. This racial divide follows a religious / linguistic / political divide between the Christian English speaking Fijians and the Muslim / Hindu Indian Urdu - Punjabi speaking population. The 40 plus political parties split broadly along this divide.

Politically they have had 3 successive coups (now 4) leading to the major one in 200 that saw banker Laisenia Qarase assume power - consolidated by an election a year later.

There is curently much opposition to the intention of Qarase to offer amnesty for the leaders of the 2000 coup by two Parliamantary Bills. The military leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama (injured badly in the coup) asked Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to resign in mid October, 2006. The Prime Minister attempted to sack Bainimarama without success ,who went walkabout to examine Fijian troops on UN duties overseas.

On Bainimarama's return, Qarase dropped the controversial amnesty measures from the bill on 4 November 2006.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters organised talks in Wellington between Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and Commodore Bainimarama on 29th November. These talks althpough calimed to be "fruitful" were unsucessful. On his return Commodore Bainimarama announced that the military were to take over most of capital Suva. Which has now happened.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has just announced that Australia will not intervene.

An evidently impatient New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has just announced on BBC Radio that Qarase has "taken leave of his senses" and "ripped up the Constition" and says the "International Community" must support the democratically elected Gubment and called for military officers effectively to overthrow their Commander. He claimed they have troops standing by.

A demi - tropical paradise, supported by a fairly prosperous sugar cane industry but now very much dependent on tourism has seen visitors and income decline as this coup has festered.

An easy going population who agree with Bainimarama that all politicians are corrupt, plainly have little stomach for a fight - in this their 4th coup since independence and they see the tourists and their money melt away. Some of them are fourth generation residents.

Emperor Gold Mines who have operated for 75 years and employ 1,700 is closing down it has just been announced - next years sugar crop is threatened due to late deliveries of fertiliser.

Some of them are fourth generation residents.

A thorny problem for the ex-colonialists. Lord Patel remembers the enthusiasm of the Fijian rugby team (80,000 play Rugby Union of the 1 Mn population) who visited the UK in the winter of 1969 /70 (They trhashed the Ba-Bas at Gosforth) , one of whose centres espoused boots and ran in his bare feet. Senitiki Nasave who was 20 at the time of that tour was a wonderful centre who shone regularly at the Hong Kong sevens and died of a heart attack on 3 April 2003 at the tender age of 53.

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