5th December, 2006

Dr BRUCE C. WEARNE

Sometime on Sunday afternoon, the Commander of Fiji's Military Forces, Commodore Vorege (Frank) Bainimarama made a slip which involved an important admission, the significance of which the international media has thus far failed to note. He as good as admitted to the entire Fiji people that he is making up his "coup" as he goes along.

Why do I say this? During his nation-wide television interview on Sunday afternoon, the Commodore refuted a report in the Sunday Post newspaper, which claimed military action would begin early Monday.

"That is not true. We don't announce our intentions," he said in the Fijian language interview. During that interview he is also reported to have said: "We have a plan, my officers are now meeting to polish that plan, but we had it six to 12 months ago."

What is the Commodore trying to say? To try and understand his erratic pronouncements, I would like to put forward a statement that I think can help us understand what he is wanting not to say:

To all my fellow Fijians, of all races, tribes, and families, of all our institutions, organisations, corporations. I am glad that the Government has gone as far as it possibly can under the constitution and, according to legal process, to accept the matters that have been put to it by myself on behalf of the Fijian military. We have done what we have done out of loyalty to our nation, to our constitution, to our system of government.

    And so I acknowledge that my failure in the past few days to be gracious and accept the Prime Minister's concession has been due to my initial inability to face up to the gravity of the situation. The PM has tried from his side. But I have refused to desist from the position that has taken this country to the brink of disaster. In fact, having rejected his concessions, I put myself in a position where for a few days I no longer knew how to carry on in my military tasks under the constitution.

    But now I have seen the errors of my ways, and I am calling off this "clean up" campaign. I am asking for the people's forgiveness and I am ordering all officers in the Fiji military to return to barracks. We will continue to work with the Government, now that concessions have been made, to ensure that any future military does not get into the no-man's land in which I have been in the last few days. Please forgive me. Now I know I should have been more conciliatory. My fellow Fijians, I ask your forgiveness. I ask God's forgiveness. Let us all work for justice and peace in our country."

That, clearly, in not what the Commodore is wanting to say, at least not at this point. Let us pray that it become so sooner rather than later. This is the miracle that we need to pray for. And let us be forgiving and forbearing just as God in Heaven is patient with us and all people.

When the Commodore says, "We don't announce our intentions!", he assumes he is in control or that he should be in control. This amounts to the same thing, the same problem. "We don't announce our intentions!" Really? He's been announcing his intentions for months. And now he says he doesn't announce his intentions. Over the last week it has become clear that he has one plan in mind. That plan is clearly that the Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, must concede totally. That is his intention whether he puts it into words or not. Hiding behind ambiguous "clean up" phrases, he must also be wondering whether the military circle promoting his "clean up" has leaked his plans. But then what plan? What kind of plan is it if after "six to twelve months" he claims that his intentions are still unannounced?

The interview was in Fijian, and clearly was an important message from the Commodore. One thing seems to have become clearer by it and the events of the last few days. The Commodore's modus operandi, his way of describing his "coup", is not all that different from the way other powerful holders of public office around the world have described their actions at critical times in their own careers as public servants. I think here of the explanations that have been given by US President George Bush and Prime Minister John Howard for the invasion of Iraq. The goals keep changing in order that these leaders maintain the appearance of being in control.

There is an important difference with the Fijian situation, however. Unlike these other "career politicians", Commodore Bainimarama is a military officer, head of Fiji's military and he has actually been making his political threats to the Fiji government for "six to 12 months". His political threats bind his own (military) career to an unjust political threat of military force against his own country's government. His unconstitutional action is now well and truly indistinguishable from his own personal career aspirations, his own career path. And so his plans and intentions are in tatters. That is precisely why the situation is so dangerous. The comparison between the Fijian military leader and political leaders from near and far is not all that outrageous or ridiculous. Such world leaders are not engaged in a threat of a military takeover of their own country, but they have challenged their own nation's respective constitutions by assuming that justice is a consequence of mere goal-seeking, in which political action becomes too tightly bound to political career aspirations.

So how does a person find one's calling in one's office? The way to do so is first to ask a simple, but also difficult-to-answer, question: from whom do we humans gain the authority to be human and to do the tasks that have been asked of us?

We can only answer this question in faith. Every office holder must answer it. It is unavoidable. That is the way that God asks us to come to Him. Remember. Without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to God must believe that He is the One who made the path on which we approach Him? But we don't approach God at the end of our goal-seeking, at the end of our path when things get out of control. Faith to be faith is at the beginning of our office-bearing. It underlies everything we do. The authority to be human, and hence the authority to do all the various tasks we are called to do, does not come from within, or from our own goal-setting, or our own self-control. Appearing 'cool' at the rugby is not the God-given way to relieve a nation's fears when you've gone beyond the bounds of office. But repentance will begin the process of what is needed to get ourselves out of a jam of our own making when we have assumed that it our goal-setting that will bring justice.

Go back now and read the newspaper reports of the tension between the Fijian Prime Minister and the Military Commander. Read the minutes of the Wellington meeting (www.fijitimes.com) including the letter of Prime Minister Qarase to the Commodore. Consider the above quotes again. From whom does the Commander take orders? What is driving him? It is clear that the Commodore is seeking to present himself as a man on a mission, a man in control of himself, the military and his nation. But who has sent him on this "clean up" mission? His problem is that his goals cannot be reached without the total capitulation of the lawfully elected Fiji Government. And so rather than the Prime Minister being in a corner, it is actually the Commodore who has nowhere else to turn. When the Prime Minister acceded to his demands he wasn't able to say: "Enough. Yes. Good. I now retreat." But he hasn't faced up to the fact yet. He must. He must repent.

He demanded total capitulation. To whom? The answer is, whether he likes it or not, his words and deeds demand a total capitulation of the Prime Minister to himself. This is to ignore the Prime Minister's office. This is to ignore the authority of the Prime Minister and, ultimately, to ignore the One who has given that authority. And so the Commander is left trying to find out why he and his country are now in this strange nether-world. He is now trying to discover the limits of his office having ignored his office, having stepped outside the limits defined by the Fijian constitution. And that is why he is unable to keep his word; this is why he no longer knows the capacity in which he is acting. This is man who cannot now take "Yes" for an answer because to do so will require that he step back, and turn around and admit that he has overstepped his office.

It is now a matter of open conciliatory negotiations on the one side and implacable demands that simply ignore the fact that the Prime Minister would be violating his oath of office under the constitution if he now were to capitulate. This is not to suggest that Mr Qarase has not erred in the past. Nor is it to suggest that he has never deceived the military commander. Nor that the Fiji Constitution doesn't ongoing careful reform. But the Prime Minister would be going outside his office if he were to capitulate if he were to publicly capitulate on his own authority, and meet all of the Commodore's untenable demands. That he cannot do without denying his own office. In other words, the Government has said "Yes" and will agree with the military should the police and the public prosecutor and other statutory bodies and committees be willing to recommend the military's line of action.

And so the Commodore is stymied and does not now know how to retreat. More basically, he doesn't know how to repent. He doesn't know how to "clean up" his violation of his own military office. And so the threats continue. The "clean up" will go ahead. And the Commodore's bottom line is now clear - he has left the path of public service to relentlessly resolve his own career goals. It's sad but true that this could lead Fiji into deeper confusion and injustice.