Unfortunate. Inevitable. Sad. Fiji is fully suspended from the Commonwealth.This outcome was obvious months ago. Ever since the Commonwealth followed the Forum's lead on insisting on conditions that would not --and could not -- be met if Fiji were to carry out the reforms chartered by the Bainimarama government before elections were held.
One can, of course, see where the Forum and Commonwealth are coming from. They had to react to what they saw as an illegitimate regime imposed by the military. The pity is they could not also see that the regime that was deposed was far from democratic, even though it had the support of most ethnic Fijians. And that the only way to break the cycle of coups, and establish a just and more genuine democracy, was to remove race as the inflammatory accelerant from Fiji politics once and for all. The party leaders, Qarase and Chaudhry, the Commonwealth insist Bainimarama include in dialogue do not want this. Race-based parties and electorates guarantee their re-election. That's why their recent letter to Bainimarama copied the Commonwealth's insistence on inclusive dialogue with no conditions and no determined outcomes, and why the Government will always resist this sort of dialogue with politicians like this.
The situation is anomalous but the irony is not hard to see. Read it slowly. Two democratic, non-racist institutions oppose a military regime -----and so unwittingly continue to extend support for undemocratic, racist politicians----- and so undermine the wobbly efforts of the military regime (sic!) ---- to impose democratic, non-racist political procedures.
One can only hope that Sir Paul Reeves' visit later this month and the probability that talks and some contacts will continue off stage, will ease the pain the Commonwealth's decision will inflict on ordinary people in Fiji.
Meanwhile, massive Commonwealth financial support for the ailing sugar industry remains frozen, and the industry, the country's third largest employer, that also needs major reform, totters close to the edge of collapse. Thousands of ordinary people are affected.
I can only echo Ratu Epeli Ganilau's words: "Hopefully by the time we get to elections in 2014 all these things can come back to normal ... [These are the] sacrifices that have to be faced, in order to achieve what we’ve set out to do. Reforms don’t happen overnight. We’re talking about major reforms to the political process.”
Read the Fiji Times story.
Correction: It is the EU, and not the Commonwealth, that is withholding support for the sugar industry. My apologies. But, just as Australia and NZ influence the Forum, and the Forum the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth influences the UN and the European Union. The "succession" is captured in the old nonsense poem --
Big fleas have little fleas
Upon their backs to bite 'em.
Little fleas have lesser fleas
And so on, ad infinitum.
Upon their backs to bite 'em.
Little fleas have lesser fleas
And so on, ad infinitum.
