14th July, 2011

BRUCE C. WEARNE

The 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji: A Coup to End all Coups?

Jon Fraenkel, Stewart Firth and Brij V Lal (eds)

ANU E-Press, April 2009

ISBN-13 (print): 978-1921536502/ (online) 978-1921536519

http://epress.anu.edu.au/coup_coup_citation.html

"As you read it, ask yourself how much the political situation in Fiji has been a part of your prayers and the prayers of your congregation? How much do we really understand about our Christian calling in this region?"

This collection of articles is an important account of the background to the December 2006 military coup in Fiji. Recently a former military officer and close associate of Commodore Bainimarama, Tevita Mara, has defected from Fiji. His visit to Australia has given life to a political movement that seeks the restoration of a non-racialist Fijian form of parliamentary democracy.

The study confirms that there is a persistent structural problem which is going to have to be addressed if and when the Fijian miliary (the RFMF) returns to barracks. That is its place in Fijian governance. Fijian society now inextricably interwoven with the military institution which has only grown from strength to strength with the emergence of "coup culture" from Colonel Rabuka's coups in 1987.

Of special interest to Sight readers will be the chapter nine by Linda Newland 'Religion and Politics: the Christian churches and the 2006 coup in Fiji'. Back in the mid-19th century missionaries, as part of the taken-for-granted work of Australian and New Zealand Methodist colonists, brought the Gospel to the people of the South Pacific islands. Tonga and Fiji are very much indebted to their Methodist heritage.

Methodism remains dominant in Fiji having become absorbed into the culture. Colonel Rabuka, who led the 1987 coup preventing the recently elected Fiji Labour Party coalition from taking office, has been a Methodist lay preacher. Ever since, the Methodist Church has suffered from its association with that and a subsequent coup in 2000. And since the 2006 coup the complexities in the response of Fiji's Christian churches to politics has only intensified. The Roman Catholic Archbishop Mataca allowed himself to become co-chairman with Bainimarama of the council that would provide the military government with advice about building a better Fiji. This willingness was widely interpreted as an implicit endorsement of the 2006 coup. It caused deep division within among Fiji's Catholic population.

The ongoing problems in Fiji seem immune from any attempts at comprehensive resolution. The installation of the current "interim régime" by Bainimarama is no exception and Archbishop Mataca has sadly admitted that though all coups have had the aim of bettering the lives of Fijians they have instead "brought more fragmentation, hurt, and poverty".

This e-book brings together the contributions from leading scholars, local personalities, civil society activists, union leaders, journalists, lawyers, soldiers and politicians. Deposed Prime Ministers Chaudhry (2000) and Qarase (2006) have also made salient contributions.

Jon Fraenkel and Stewart Firth in their concluding piece, 'Fiji's Coup Syndrome' conclude the volume in this way: "The 2006 coup, more than its predecessors, introduced new and dangerous potential catalysts for future instability. Before that coup, it was possible to imagine that the coup phenomenon was dying out. First, despite some glaring exceptions, the core 2000 coup leaders - George Speight and his associates - had been sent to prison, serving as a seemingly strong deterrent to would-be future coup-makers. Second, as the Fijian majority grew, the likelihood of coups to establish Fijian paramountcy dwindled. Third, with the advent of a power-sharing government, Fiji seemed briefly to have found the seedling of a solution to long-tun and bitter antagonisms. After the 2006 coup and the associated destruction of power-sharing, such optimism was no longer possible. What was certain, however, was that Fiji's political future would depend on the place found for its military forces. On whether or not they could be reduced in size and whether or not they could regain the professionalism and subordination to civilian control that appeared to be growing over the 1990s. If civilian control, judicial integrity and constitutional authority were to be durably re-established in Fiji, the process of doing so was sure to be measured in decades, not months or even years."

This volume is an important one for Australian Christians developing a Gospel-directed, regional political consciousness. As you read it, ask yourself how much the political situation in Fiji has been a part of your prayers and the prayers of your congregation? How much do we really understand about our Christian calling in this region? Do we live with our eyes open to our regional responsibilities? Are we not called to lock arms with our South Pacific sisters and brothers in hopeful service that spills over into a political life in which justice can cascade down and righteousness well-up like an ever-flowing stream?

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