:: OP-ED

Games ban hurts Fijians the most

Shubha Singh

Oct.16 : The Commonwealth Games Federation suspended Fiji from its membership during its meeting in New Delhi earlier this week. The decision was a consequence of Fiji’s formal suspension from the Commonwealth in September this year after its military regime failed to set a timetable to hold elections in the country by 2010. Fiji has been facing international isolation since a military coup in 2006 and suspension from the regional body, the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth. It has also been facing stringent sanctions from its two large neighbours, Australia and New Zealand.

It is, however, the ban on participating in the 2010 Commonwealth Games that is hurting the sports-crazy people of Fiji, many of whom are fervently hoping that some way could be found to reverse the decision. They are drawing hope from the Commonwealth Games Federation’s plan to make a representation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to remove sport from the sanctions imposed on any member.

The Commonwealth had set a deadline of September 1, 2009, for the Fiji government to resume negotiations with the Opposition and to set a timetable for holding credible elections by October 2010. Interim Prime Minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, however, stuck to his proposed Strategic Framework for Change that plans to put in place various socio-economic, political and legal reforms under which general elections would be held by September 2014.

This is not the first time Fiji has been suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth. It has twice earlier been suspended from Commonwealth meetings, both times after the democratically-elected government was overthrown in 1987 and 2000. Both times Fiji was re-admitted into the Commonwealth as it made its way back to democratic functioning. But this time, the Commonwealth’s disapproval goes a step further — it means cutting off Fiji from all contact with the Commonwealth, including stopping of all aid and assistance programmes.

In 2006, Fiji’s military commander, Cmdr Bainimarama, overthrew the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase with whom he had a fraught relationship. The military commander asserted that he had acted to protect the rights and interests of all the people of Fiji; he vowed to clean the system of corruption and ensure equity among the ethnic groups. Fiji’s multi-racial population comprises of the majority indigenous Fijians community (57 per cent), a large minority of people of Indian origin (37 per cent) and other Pacific islanders. The two earlier coups had been carried out by people who claimed to be protecting the interests of the indigenous Fijians and ensuring their political supremacy in the country. Both coups resulted in violence and rioting that targeted the Indian population. Cmdr Bainimarama’s was a bloodless coup and the Army kept a firm grip on the law and order situation.

Shortly after he took over as interim Prime Minister, Cmdr Bainimarama had promised to hold elections by March 2009. He went back on the promise, saying more time was needed to root out corruption and reshape the country’s political system, especially its race-based electoral system. In the past year, Cmdr Bainimarama tightened his hold on the country as he abrogated the Constitution and sacked the higher judiciary after an appeals court held his government as illegal.

Cmdr Bainimarama’s critics have charged that since he took over the government, Fiji’s Constitution has been suspended, opponents have been detained without due process of law, the media has been censored and individual freedom and freedom of speech has been suppressed under "emergency" regulations.

Over time, Cmdr Bainimarama has steadily lost the support he had received when he first came in with his promises to clean up the corrupt system. The campaign against corruption did not net any major gains, but there is a general view that the military commander has raised many critical issues on the need for land reforms, reform of the electoral system and non-discriminatory policies. Cmdr Bainimarama proposed a draft "charter for change" but his attempts to initiate a political dialogue on the charter with the Opposition parties have not made much headway.

According to the charter for change, Fiji’s electoral system is racially discriminatory and undemocratic. Under the recently abrogated 1997 Constitution, the 71-member House of Representatives had 46 communal seats and 25 open seats. Out of the 46 communal seats, 24 were for indigenous Fijians, where indigenous Fijian voters elected indigenous Fijian candidates, while ethnic Indians voted for Indians in 19 constituencies. Three seats were reserved for "the other races" while only 25 constituencies had mixed voting. According to Cmdr Bainimarama, this race-based voting had perpetuated an unequal polity and had contributed to the "coup culture" by not providing one value for one vote.

The charter proposes to "establish a system of voting so that all the interests and wishes of the people of Fiji can be represented in the Parliament through an Open List Proportional Representation Electoral and Voting System". It also plans to incorporate specific anti-discrimination measures into Fiji’s electoral laws to ensure that no person is discriminated against by political parties on the grounds of race, religion, gender or circumstance.

Fiji Labour Party leader and former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, whose government had been deposed in the 2000 coup, had joined the interim government as finance minister. But Mr Chaudhry quit the interim administration in 2008. Just days before the Commonwealth deadline expired, Mr Chaudhry joined his political rival, Laisenia Qarase, in sending a joint letter to interim Prime Minister Cmdr Bainimarama suggesting ways in which they could work together to resolve the situation.

Meanwhile, some of Fiji’s Melanesian neighbours have re-opened talks with Cmdr Bainimarama to encourage him to continue with his plans for reforms.

The European Union, a major donor, that had stopped its aid programme, has resumed discussion with the Fiji government. The World Bank is also holding discussions on the government’s reforms agenda. But there is greater interest in Fiji on whether their sports contingent will be there at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October 2010.