(+B) Fr Barr's Letter for the New Year (extracts)
Everyone who writes to me wants to know how things really are in Fiji as they get such negative reporting of our situation in their national newspapers. In fact life goes on very normally for most people. A military dominated Interim Government under Commodore Frank Bainimarama has been in place since the coup in December 2006. The aim was to clean up corruption, oppose racism and recognize that Fiji is a multi-cultural country (while appreciating the privileged place of the indigenous Fijians), and to work for a better distribution of the country’s wealth in the face of so much poverty (about 40%).

Unfortunately, while much has been achieved, strong opposition from Australia, New Zealand and the US (and also from the EU and the Commonwealth to a lesser extent) has meant that development has been slow and barriers have been set in place to economic development. Travel bans from Australia and New Zealand have slowed down progress and have created ill-feeling. Instead of helping the much needed reforms they have put obstacles in the way. Yet when the previous Qarase government was pursuing its racist agenda and mismanaging the economy, they said and did nothing.

Within Fiji we have about six or eight people who are constantly on TV or in the newspapers speaking out against the Interim government. Some have termed them the “cry-babies” because they are constantly lamenting, condemning, and finding fault. They are courted by all our local (and overseas) media who themselves have proved to be extremely biased in their reporting. (Who owns them anyway?) They regularly publish articles from critics of the Interim government but rarely publish articles from those who have something positive to say about what it is doing. Actually many of those who have only negative things to say are those who have lost political (or religious) power and influence or prefer to pursue a racist agenda.

It is understandable that outsiders are concerned that military personnel have been put in positions of authority in the country – as Police Commissioner, Commissioner of Prisons, Director of Immigration etc. Yet the immigration office has never been run more efficiently and the compassionate prison reforms that have been set in place are achieving wonders. It seems that most of the military people who have been given these roles are very competent and disciplined and have really got things moving and achieved what has never been achieved for years.

The size of government and the civil service has been cut back. Although there is a lot of wrangling among lawyers, judges have been appointed to clear up a big backlog of cases. In the coming year plans are underway to improve roads, ports, airfields and to build more low-cost housing (15% of the population live in squatter settlements). New Labour legislation and environmental legislation (which had been moving slowly under the previous government) has been put in place. Indigenous Fijian landowners are getting better returns for leases and are encouraged to become partners in business enterprises.

The military do want a return to real democracy but there has been a reluctance to have elections until electoral reforms are put in place. Otherwise if elections are held under the present system they will always be racially biased and are also biased against urban Fijians who make up 50% of the Fijian population. Currently Rural Fijians get 17 seats while urban Fijians only get 6 seats. The current obsession of Australia, NZ, US, EU and the Commonwealth to have elections as soon as possible is most unrealistic until electoral reforms are set in place.

Seemingly Australia and New Zealand etc do not want to assist for fear of giving approval to an illegal regime. But the regime is trying to accomplish a lot of good things despite some occasional big and small mistakes.

Recently a well-known academic said that Fiji was becoming the laughing stock of the world. Yet at a recent NGO meeting held in Papua New Guinea, representatives of the various Pacific Island countries loudly applauded Fiji’s military leader for his courage in standing up against the neo-colonial and bullying tactics of Australia and New Zealand and demanding respect for Fiji’s independence.