Fiji election timetable
March 27th, 2008 at 6:32 am by David FarrarWhen I read that Foreign Ministers could not get an election timetable out of Fiji, but are hopeful there will be one next month, I am reminded of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. Each time he goes for it, Commodore Lucy pulls it away!
Talking of Fiji, The Press reports a complaint from Fiji Solicitor-General Christopher Pryde regarding a recent interview on Radio NZ regarding Fiji. While I am far from a fan of the Fiji administration, I would not assume their complaint is without merit. I understand there were a reasonable number of straight out factual inaccuracies in the interview.
Related posts:
- Fiji Government wins complaint against Radio NZ
- It is 1984 in Fiji
- Blogs only uncensored news from Fiji
- Fiji to expel High Commissioner today
March 27th, 2008 at 6:50 am
At least the Fijian election will be decided by those above the ground!!
http://keepingstock.blogspot.com/2008/03/mugabe-raises-dead.html
Vote:March 27th, 2008 at 7:24 am
I’m not so sure that our government should be so quick to criticise Fiji for setting an election date.
When are we having ours? Has Helen Clark announced a date yet? And why should she – and she alone – be able to set the date, and keep it secret from the rest of us until last safe moment?
We need a system similar to the United States, whereby everyone knows when the election will be, and can plan accordingly.
Until then, our government should keep quiet about Fiji.
Vote:March 27th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Anyone know if Adolf Whatshisname is still the President of the Fijian dictator’s New Zealand Fan Club?
Vote:March 27th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Indeed – an update should be slightly more indepth than one person’s negative opinions. They are entitled to their opinion of course but I would have thought it was incumbent on RNZ to actually present other opinions (perhaps from the Fiji Human Rights Commission for eg). Indeed, from my limited experience the NZ Media’s reporting of the events in Fiji (and I am particularly thinking of TV 1) have been little more than exercises in self-righteous indignation with an analysis that hasn’t got past “coups bad … okaay”. This is not to say that Fiji’s systems of governance are in a happy state – far from it – but there are always more than one side to the story and it might be nice to hear about them from time to time.
As an aside the local media seem overwhelmingly negative of the interim government and the Courts consistently rule against actions taken by the interim government – if the rule of law and freedom of the press were that restricted one would have expected less public criticism and Mr Pryde to have won a few more cases!
Vote:March 27th, 2008 at 9:34 am
The Fiji “problem” is a gift from the gods for local foreign ministers, isn’t it? They get to look all tough and alpha-maleish for standing up to a “dictator”. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel for them, and especially tough alpha male Winston!
If I were Bainimarama, I’d be doing exactly what he is doing – f*cking with them. Good on him.
Vote:March 27th, 2008 at 9:42 am
Our foreign minister would have more credibility for calling the Fijian military government to an election timetable if he called for the Chinese to have a timetable towards “free and fair elections”. Whoops, we’re about to sign a FTA with them so I guess he’s muzzled.
He is hypocritical to make these demands on the Fijians.
Vote:March 27th, 2008 at 9:58 am
The most likely time you will get straight out factual inaccuracies from our media, is when corrupt socialism (a la the Qarase government) was involved somewhere. A Bainamarama or a Pinochet will be roundly condemned. An exponentially worse Castro will be idolised. A corrupt Allende or Qarase will be elevated to sainthood.
Vote:March 27th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
The situation in Fiji is deceptively complex.
Mr Qarase, originally a prosperous banker with almost no public profile, stepped in to politics as an act of public service to help restore order following Speight’s gangsterism.
But instead of stepping down as interim PM, Mr Qarase chose to become a career politician and run for office. He had experienced, perhaps, the intoxicating taste of power and decided, well, why not seek a democratic mandate. In the process of seeking election, he jettisoned some of Speight’s friends and relatives but kept on some of the others. Indeed, after winning the election, Qarase appointed to Cabinet some people who were more than implicated in Speight’s coup. This outraged a significant number of people in Fiji, not just the newspapers and Mr Chaudhary.
It gets more complicated when one considers that there is a parallel system of power in Fiji embodied in the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC) which traditionally has had an unspoken veto on the conventional, democratic process. Nobody became PM without the GCC’s approval. Hence, Mr Bainimarama’s recent moves against them.
There’s two key points really. One: Fiji has all the facade of a constiutional democracy – a parliament, a judiciary, even elections – but they are all subject to deep-seated and pre-colonial tribal and familial rivalries within Fijian society (I’m ignoring the Indo-Fijians here – sorry – who I suspect will continue to become less relevant, not least because many of them are spending their lives trying to get out of Fiji).
And two: as has been stated in an earlier post, NZ needs to stop posturing and posing over Fiji. Its a rare opportunity for telling another country what to do and Mr Peters can’t help himself. I’d like to see our media and our government do more to connect with the ordinary people of Fiji. The development assistance programme, for example, could do less to prop up government departments and more to help ‘grassroots’ organisations and individuals. That way, we might get a clearer picture of what is going on in Fiji.
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