There are 28 Comments on this posting: a record.
An oldish (post-June 2009) Australian video interview with Frank Bainimarama, but one that spells out the consistency of his aims and confirms my belief that, whatever the shortcomings of his Government, he is sincere it what he is attempting to achieve. Well worth listening to during this holiday period. Click here to listen.
Photo: Bainimarama with Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi, another consistent and sincere man who, while probably agreeing with much of what Bainimarama is trying to achieve, disagrees with his methods and doubts his likelihood of success. The saddest thing in Fiji is that these two are not batting for the same team. Also on YouTube.
28 comments:
Croz, clicking where you suggest doesn't work. Any other links? Vinaka
Thanks. I missed out the last digit. Now fixed. Also linked to YouTube.
How can someone spend several days with another person and still manage to pronounce that person's name incorrectly? Why not call Bainimarama "Frank" rather than mangle his prenom in Fijian like this bloke has? Did anyone notice other Aussie reporters during the Copenhagen fiasco continually referring to Toovaloo, as in Kangaroo, instead of Tuvalu? When you can't get a name right, how much faith can your audience have in the content of your story? That said, I agree this was somewhat more balanced that the usual media fare on Fiji. But I shuddered to see what those poor school children were being given in the way of one of Frank's free lunches. With all the natural bounty of the islands, the kids are being dished up sausages for God's sake! Napoleon said "an army moves on its stomach". What a shame that Frank's multiracial revolution in Fiji is being fueled by junk food like this. At this rate, these kids won't live to see democracy restored.
Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi is one of the true great Chiefs of Fiji. Yes his vision for Fiji would not be that different to Frank's vision.
However I think given his position, background and principled stand he is not in a position to join with Frank. I think someone like Ratu Madraiwiwi still serves a great good in Fiji even though he is not a supporter of the Interim Govt as he can keep the Interim Govt honest. One of the great things about the democratic system are the checks and balances in ensuring that other view points are taken into account in managing the affairs of a group of people.
The current situation in Fiji needs atleast some truely independent and capable people who have not been involved with the 2006 Coup to remain independent.
This will hopefully give us some tru independent leaders in the future when the country returns to democracy.
Snoopy, I agree with each of your paragraphs 100%.
Sorry I don't agree with Snoopy and for once don't agree with Croz. A year ago I met Ratu Joni and he gave me a gift. A collection of his own speeches!! Interesting display of ego. I stayed up all night to read them. I recommend them to anyone who can get hold of a volume, not just because of his insights into the Fijian political history, but also because of what the speeches say about Ratu Joni. Here is a deeply conflicted man, who while he accepts that the insecurity of the taukei is based on false fears ignited by unscrupulous politicians, still believes in pandering to those insecurities. His view is that reality is what people believe it to be, not what the truth is! This is no Gandhian greatness. This is a weak man with neither the vision nor the revolutionary determination of Bainimarama. Madraiwiwi gives in to the fiction. Bainimarama fights the fiction to present the truth.
In one speech delivered in October 2001, he asks how the Fijian people are to approach the uneasy tension between culture and modernity. He answers; I have dealt with this contradiction by leaving it to circumstances to dictate to me what course to adopt in any given situation.
Really? Is this what Mandela would do, faced with the challenges in apartheid South Africa?Does a true leader allow circumstances to dictate to him, or does he dictate to circumstances?
Then take his approach to inter-ethnic tension. All he does is ask a series of questions. He has no answers.
Ratu Joni is a man who identifies problems. Often and in an hackneyed and tired way, along racial lines only. There is no class analysis, and he provides no answers. Here is a conflicted man with neither vision, nor will to drive change. At least Bainimarama has both.
@Anonymous, you make some good points. Ratu Jone is a good man who in a way is a victim of his own circumstances. Yet the way things have developed in Fiji shows that his way of just sitting back and letting history look after itself was never going to work. It is too passive a role for a country which has experienced so much political manipulation and deliberate spin doctoring. While the passive leaders sit back, the Fiji Times and Fiji TV work their one-sided propaganda machines. To correct the spin, Fiji needs a more fiery leadership. Maybe Ratu will have a role in the future but I think many people now see him as irrelevant for the future. It's a pity because he seems to be a good well-meaning although weak man.
Granted Ratu Joni is a bitter man because of the way his own clansman removed him from office. Granted he is an intelligent man who must be suffering personally since 2006. However he had no cause to blame the Indians, then the Muslims, then Chaudhery for the December 2006 coup. He did this in a speech he delivered in Canberra in 2007 which must have pleased the Australians greatly because of the war against terrorism. However it was a racist speech because he lumped the Indians and the Muslims together as having the same point of view when there are many opposing views about the coup held within these communities. As an expatriate Fiji-born I felt hurt and betrayed by this speech and ecpected better from the former VP. He should have overcome his personal bitterness I think. He hurt a lot of people.
Anonymous (who disagreed with Snoopy and me. It helps to use a pseudonyms)
I also have this book. Please look again at the examples you give. I think you mistaken in your interpretations. (1) Ratu Joni was not "pandering" to Fijian insecurities; he was trying to help non-Fijians (like you and me) better understand them. (2) Rt Joni said perceptions --what we believe -- become part of our realities. He was not denying reality. (3)I think you misundertand his The Journey Together address in Oct. 2001 (p.25). He is saying he deals with each case ("any given situation") as circumstances dictate rather than "construct an intellectual framework to rationalize my actions."
In my copy of A Personal Perspective Ratu Joni has written "The more I reflect about my country, the less I seem to understand!" You may see this as a sign of weakness. To me, it is further evidence of one of his many strengths. I commend his On Understanding the Fiian People address to the NFP in 2001.
Croz, I don't understand your enthusiasm for Ratu Jone and fail to see how he has any meaningful role in contemporary national life. This is a man who enjoys both chiefly status and is arguably the most intellectually gifted Fijian of his generation. Yet I've yet to see any evidence of him being able to demonstrate the kind of leadership qualities the country so badly needs. I think there are two major impediments that keep Ratu Jone on the periphery, though it's an open question which is the more dominant. Firstly, as a Bauan chief, he's surrounded by some of the very worst indigenous supremacists and has shown little inclination to tackle them head on. And secondly, as a lawyer and judge, he evidently feels that fealty to constitutional niceties comes before the kind of pragmatism the regime, for one. believes is required in Fiji right now to deal with indigenous extremism. You seem to think that it's enough for Ratu Jone to make a few enlightened sounding speeches and indulge in successive hand wringing treatises in print. But it's his abrogation of leadership in a more practical sense that has rendered him irrelevant and disillusioned many of us who once held him in the highest regard. We need to recognise that Ratu Jone's health problems over the years have undoubtedly robbed him of some of his vigour. But solving our national crisis requires men and woman with moral clarity and practical leadership skills rather than those who vaccilate and agonise while the bure burns down around them.
Are Rt. Joni's speeches available anywhere?
Croz and Anonymous, you were having such interesting discussions that I could not resist. I agree that Ratu Joni has failed Fiji by not being able to be a leader that we all wished him to be and we needed him. Who is a leader? He/she is somebody who can adapt to the changing circumstances and take control of the situation rather than allowing the situation to control him/her. He failed to warn Qarase and his cronies when they were raping democracy and indulging in blatant racism and injustices. As a respected Chief, he failed to come out openly against the ethno nationalists. He is responsible for Fiji's current situation through his error of omission. A leader should not let his country burn and be raped by thieves masquerading as Chiefs. I think through that action (his omissions) he has made himself redundant in the current Fiji we are looking at.
Thakur Singh and Anon (the disagreeing one - pls use a pseudonym)- a lot of what you say is correct. I think what Ratu Madraiwiwi has been pointing out is that the Fijian people had a fear (which was exploited by many Fijian politicians) and to move the country forward we all needed to recognise this fear and help them deal with it. For Fiji to be succesful we can't afford to have a lack of economic progress for the Indegenous Fijians - you cant have a society where one class/race/religion esp the majority feel aggrieved.
I dont think every leader needs to be a revolutionary like Banimarama - Like Ratu Madraiwiwi i am not convinced that Banimarama's way is the correct one in the long run - however now that we are here let's try and build a better Fiji. I think in the long run a Democratic process may provide a painful, slow and fairly bad way for change - vut it does provide the best way for change known historically. The problem we face is that if the majority of the people in Fiji (esp the Fijians) feel aggrieved by what Banimarama is doing than 1 day whether it is 5 years or 10 years there will be a backlash when they come to power. There is also a high risk the absolute power will corrupt - maybe not Banimarama or the current military council but the risk is there.
I think Ratu Madraiwiwi is a great Chief in Fiji as he was trying to bring the different races in Fiji together and move Fiji forward by democratic means. He influenced and ensured that the Great Council of Chiefs decisions were not too fundamentalist, he served the judiciary well, he expalined better than anyone what the issues were on all sides of the race divide and he was a Chief (Leader) for all races.
Background and details of Ratu Jone Madraiwiwi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Madraiwiwi
There's been some very interesting arguments going on about Rt Joni but for now and for the Fiji tomorrow, he is irrelevant in Fiji's leadership.
I'm an indigenous Fijian and for now, this country needs a leader like Bainimarama for so many reasons. Let's state a few obvious ones:
Firstly, putting the chiefs and their corrupt political cronies in their proper places. That one is done and taken cared of.
Second, getting politics out of sugar because too many a times, leaders like Chaudary put the country at ransom through political manipulations of the sugar industry etc.
Thirdly, getting institutionalized racism removed from our midst. This one is still being undertaken and by the look of it, is well on its way to be completed before election 2014.
Th fourth point is removing embedded corruption from the civil service and other government machineries. We have seen improvements everywhere in regards to this.
There maybe other aspects that needed to be corrected for Fiji to make real democratic progress.
Once Frank and his team completes all these, every one in Fiji especially the ordinary folks in the villages, in the islands, squatter settlements, and households will come to the realization just how much politics of the past based on race have hindered real meaningful progress for everyone.
Thank you Frank. We are supporting you all the way.
Why does Ratu Jone always describe the communities on racial lines alone? The Indo-Fijians take this position and the indigenous Fijians that position! And what of the other minorities? Are they relevant at all? It would appear not! His is a simplistic and shallow approach to social and political problems in Fiji. No wonder he counts Qarase and Takiveikata as his close friends! He was prominent at the Qaranivalu's second wedding! What is also interesting about this man is his chameleon like quality. His speeches and their message change depending on the audience. So who really is Ratu Joni?
Wow this is an interesting discussion. I have only one thing to say. In the past Ratu Joni has advocated for engagement and dialogue to help to build understanding between communities. Since December 2006, he has become well known for refusing to engage with the current government. He even avoids talking to the PM and AG. How does he reconcile his attitude with his prior preaching? What does he advocate on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the Solomons when he still can't reconcile with his adversaries in Fiji?
Look, words are cheap and you can only judge people on their actions. Ratu Jone Madraiwiwi seems to want it both ways. Wearing his legal hat, he's in the same corner as the likes of Graham Leung, Richard Naidu and Adi Dame Imrana Tuisolia in insisting on strict adherence to legal and constitutional principles. And wearing his chiefly hat, he ought to be taking a stick to the more extreme of his indigenous kaivata but declines to do so. What can we glean from this? That is easier for Ratu Jone to side with the Suva intelligentsia in clinging to inherited kaivalagi "law" as an absolute principle than it is for him to exercise his authority as a chief to achieve meaningful change among Fijians at village level. It's called a failure of leadership in my book.
Yeah, much easier to be feted as a persecuted democrat among your adoring fans in Suva than get your hands burnt trying to change racist attitudes in the Vanua. A nice guy but a non event.
Ratu Joni was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The tragedy was that he was never groomd to be a true leader - someone who had the courage to stand alone and back his convictions at the risk of being criticisedm ostracised or condemned. Thank God for Bainimarama. Ratu Joni and the intelligentsia who pass judgement on the IG are the problem. They are not the solution. Wimps.
The truth is that most chiefs of Fiji nowadays are either degenerate or stupid. Ratu Jone is neither and has many admirable qualities. So please give him the respect he deserves. That said, the chiefly system is in trouble because all sense of duty seems to have gone, especially to the nation as a whole. Where are the great leaders like Ratu Sukuna. Ratu Mara and Ratu Ganilau? These were men of vision who had mana in the vanua and the respect of all races in Fiji. It's a national tragedy and we can't be surprised if someone like Frank Bainimarama embarks on a revolution to overturn the system. It hasn't been serving either the vanua or the nation well. But please don't lump Ratu Jone in with the others. He's a good man but doesn't have the mana to get the other chiefs to see the error of their ways when it comes to accepting a multiracial future.
Sorry being a good man is no longer enough for leadership. And why wait for leadership from the chiefs if they have failed Fiji? maybe the ordinary people in Fiji irrespective of ethnicity will now provide leadership. The chiefs are ultimately self-serving and weak. To say that they do not have the mana to change anything is not an indictment on the Fijian people, it is an indictment on chiefs like Ratu Jone.
@ Snoopy. I doubt that the majority of the people disagree with the Bainimarama reforms. The ones who disagree are the old and unscrupulous politicians and chiefs who have used threats of violenve and actual violence in the past to maintain power. If there is a backlash it will be from them. And these are the same people behind 1987 and 2000! So what are we saying? That as a nation we should live in a state of perpetual fear of a violent "backlash"? Surely we should not give in to thuggery. Isn't that the whole point of Bainimarama's intervention? If there is a real fear of a violent backlash aimed at the innocent and vulnerable people of Fiji, then this is nothing short of terrorism. Let us put the blame where it is due. Not on the people who are trying to reverse the power play of the thugs. Remember the obvious message behind the SDL election campaign of 2001 and 2006? Vote for us or there will be trouble!! And this was democracy?
@ Anon posting December 31, 2009 7:16 AM
You raise some excellent points. I did not say most people disagree with Banimarama's reforms. I think the majority support it.
However it will be easy for Nationalistic/Racist politicians in the future to say that Banimarama gave the rights/benefits of the Taukei away and use that to gain power. The risk is we will see more extremism in Fiji.
I love what Banimarama is doing but worry how we make it sustainable for the future.
How will it be that Qarase or someone pushing the same policies will not win any future elections in Fiji.
Bananabender a more suitable leader than Ratu Joni!? Thank you Anonymous and Anonymous Jnr - for injecting much needed humour into this most hackneyed of blogs.
Well you don't crack me up, big boy. Hackneyed? Pass this git a mirror. What a waste of space you are, entering a sensible discussion on an issue of national importance with only a wise-guy crack and no sensible contribution whatsoever. Do us all a favour and make a New Year's resolution to get a life.
@ snoopy
I envisaged the Fiji Military will still play a big role after election 2014. They will be the guarantor of the new constitution and I'm pretty sure the constitution will be written in such a way to ensure that extremist elements masquerading as Taukei nationalism will be classified as terrorism.
The safety of the Fiji of tomorrow will be guaranteed by the RFMF whether we like it or not. This will be their new role considering the changing nature of extremism and terrorism in the world. This is unfortunate for Fiji but it is necessary considering the elements that lurks in our midst ready to play the angles.
@Tui Makawa
A sensible discussion of national importance?
I have followed this site for the last 18 months and it really is quite a hoot - a coup apologist in the form of Mr Walsh who in his writings can barely hide his disdain for any notion of democracy, the rule of law, or for the large number of Fijians who actually think Bainimarama is a common criminal - to the two Anonymous(es), who must be members of a military media cell or some other gathering of plonkers, and who write nothing but regime news releases and propoganda.
Has it occurred to you morons that you are actually all talking to yourselves?
But don't let that stop you - I enjoy the laughs you guys provide, if only once a month when I come out of my cave to access one of these stupid machines.
PS Go UCrackmeup - you really do.
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