You will note Key, Rudd, Obama and soon to be prime minister elect Cameron all share this particular do-nothing ethos. Does anyone of these men actually have a policy position that doesn’t involve a tribe of pollsters and spindoctors?

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out.

But I am not Fijian, so am obviously disqualified from understanding how military dictatorships operate.

And as for Bok, yeah NZ is a sanctimonious little country that has freeloaded off the western alliance for decades. So, your point was?

Of course now that Fiji is going to hell in a handbasket, you get great holiday deals. and the locals will do anything for hard currency. Your point was? Because I seem to have missed it.

Oh yes, happy darkies prefer military dictatorships, well, judging by your label, you should know.

May I suggest you study a little history?

Why the double standards.

Deity, I have been there 5 times since the coup. Sorry but you do not have a clue what you are talking about. happiness factor is about twice that of NZ and the opposition against the Com. is about at the level support for bringing Helen back would be.

And why should we care about how Fiji is governed? We wouldn’t dare tell the Chinese how to run their country — and there people do fear the midnight knock on the door, people do disappear, and they do get sent off to jails after show trials.

If our country was taken over by the military I would fucking hope our “friends” and neighbours stuck up to the bastards. The reason Burma for example continues to be able to operate is because “your” belief is applied by China (who benefit nicely from it) who sells them all the weapons etc they want and gets to rape Burma (or Myanamar) natural resources.

There is no justification to holding of elections till 2014. It doesnt take 8 years to get a country ready for “democractic” elections, it takes 8 years to subvert the population and destroy the chance for free and true elections however.

The day you see lawyers being detained, news papers censored and anyone who speaks out put under house arrest is generally not a good day. Also it is not generally a good sign for the future direction of the country.

So why do I care, because if it happened hear I would hope people would care.

Reminds me of Benjamin Franklin and his famous quote “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. “

Whether I satirise myself is neither here nor there, although your having told me means I can add that attribute to my skill-set for future use.

I am not Fijian, and so I’m not directly affected by what the commodore does.

If you’re not Fijian — and you sound as if you’re not — why should you care?

I am told that Fijians do not see his rule as the most onerous of regimes to live under. For 99.999% of them, they do not fear midnight knocks on the door, you don’t get ‘disappearances’, nor, it seems, do you get bodies of dissidents turning up in the bay.

I don’t see the point of trying to bully him and his regime; clearly it has not worked. That’s the conclusion you have to draw from Murray McCully’s visit there and agreement.

And why should we care about how Fiji is governed? We wouldn’t dare tell the Chinese how to run their country — and there people do fear the midnight knock on the door, people do disappear, and they do get sent off to jails after show trials.

Is that what the NZ Government really wants, dead Fijian diplomats?

I hold no candle for Quarase. But military dictators are just that. There is only one way that military dictators do business. Hint: Its in the title.

If you want to go blaming, blame bloody Paul Reeves for his abortion of a constitution that let the crims stack Parliament.

But Bainimarama has had since 2006 to draft a real constitution. Promising an election by 2014 is clearly just bullshit.

I personally judge by deeds not words. Is Fiji better off than before the coup? Clearly not. Freedoms are being slowly strangled out. The cult of the beleagured commodore “just looking after the interests of his people” is coming along nicely.

In 2013 there will be another externally driven “crisis” necessitating the preparations for drafting a constitution to be put on hold for another few years, after which another colonel will step forward to seize control and promise free elections in due course. Such is always the way when you vandalise the institutions of government.

I see it as the other way around. You apparently don’t give a sh*t about democracy, as long as the propaganda is good quality, and the gerrymandering isn’t reported.

I’m not supporting the coup, I’m supporting the reality of working with Frank to get back to free and fair elections, rather than lock in Qarase and his mob and support corruption. There is a difference.

Must have passed retrospective legislation or something.

Of course they dont allow the people to vote, or do anything except admire the spiffy uniforms and the new presidential palace toys.

Then the admiring always vote them back into power with 97% of the vote to demonstrate how much they care.

You satirise yourself, unsurprisingly. But what would you expect from “so called” democrats?

Whilst Frank is skating on the edge (and I agree there have been a couple of fair out of bounds calls), and may well go the path of perpetual dictators, it’s pointless pretending the previous bunch were anything but, with only the appearance of democracy giving them right to stuff Fiji up completely.

Don’t know about you Murray, but I expect taking the reigns from the current dictator just to hand back to the previous mob because they pretended better, and the world chose to believe the pretense, to be far more immoral than trying to help the current one move to free and fair elections. Frank, when it comes down to it, is still a safer bet than Qarase ever was.

Probably not – its all game playing when it comes down to it.

do you know the commodore?

How do you know he is a ‘power crazy wackjob’?

You see, I don’t. And I know that how he rules offends some in Fiji and in the so-called democratic West.

But I am told by people who live there, and have been there, that he rules with some admiring consent.

And it seems to me that treating him and his henchmen (and a few women) as naughty little natives who should should play by ‘our’ so-called democratic rules isn’t working.

Tell me — how has trying to back Commodore Bainimarama into a corner succeeded. If it had, Murray McCully wouldn’t have been up there two weeks ago being conciliatory.