The following Editorial was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, May 31st, 2000. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> Subscription rates on request. ****************************** Editorial: Restore elected government It was, perhaps, inevitable that the seizure of power in Fiji by a terrorist would be followed by the establishment of military rule. With the Prime Minister and all elected members of parliament held as hostages at the point of a gun and given the failure of the President to act decisively when the attempted coup first occurred, no power existed which could face up to George Speight and his henchmen in crime. It remains to be seen whether this is the intention of the armed forces. This is no ordinary coup, given that its leader is not only a terrorist but is also deranged. This is the second coup attempt. The first was in 1987 when Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka seized power. He had the same basic intention as the present coup leader -- to re-establish the undivided authority of indigenous Fijians over the political, economic and cultural life of the country. It is an attempt to turn the clock back to a time that has passed. The traditional power structures which were vested in unelected hereditary chiefs and communal land ownership have been replaced by an elected parliamentary form of constitutional government. Speight played on these traditions and the undoubted difficulty that many of the indigenous people have in coming to terms with the multi-national and multi-cultural nature of today's Fijian society. It is also a fact that the emergence of a capitalist economic and political system, has left many with poorly paid jobs ($60 per week), unemployment and no clear understanding or acceptance of the changes taking place in the population mix. Capitalism breaks down the system of communal land ownership as well as creating wage workers who are dependent on an employer for even a pauper's wage. George Speight is one such employer and speculator who is reported to have been less than honest in his economic dealings. He is hardly a friend of the working people although he has attempted to pose as such. Given the historic changes that have taken place in Fijian society, Speight's attempt to reverse the process will fail. He cannot succeed in re-establishing what has already been swept away any more than the 1987 coup leader, Rabuka, was successful. Rabuka came up against, first of all, the reality of today's Fijian society as well as the pressure from other countries, including Australian governments which are fervent upholders of the Westminister system of parliamentary bourgeois democracy. Contrary to the situation at the time of Rabuka's coup when the indigenous Fijian society was united in its support, the indigenous Fijian population is now split. This is indicated by the fact that Rabuka is now a supporter of the restoration of constitutional government although he also sympathises with the aims of the Speight coup. A Fijian middle class has emerged which is moving away from the tradition of unelected chiefs and moving towards an elected government based on a constitution. The dismal failure of the Great Council of Chiefs in the current crisis may well have delivered it a fatal blow although such anachronistic organisations often take a long time in the dying. Furthermore, the military will also find that rule by martial law is not acceptable for long, either to the Fijian people or to the international community. It is not possible to foretell the time it may take to unfold but it is absolutely certain that not only will Speight be chased out for the charlatan and terrorist that he is, but an elected government based on a more-or-less democratic constitution will be restored in time -- just as Rabuka was forced to do. This is a necessary historic process that is unfolding or has already unfolded throughout the world. The immediate demand must be for the unconditional restoration of the elected government led by Mahendra Chaudry. In time, the Fijian people, indigenous and non-indigenous together, will find the way to move their society further forward, establishing really democratic governments which will implement social and economic policies which will give to all the Fijian working people a place in the beautiful Fijian Sun and sharing the wealth that they already collectively produce. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: EDITORIAL -- RESTORE ELECTED GOVERNMENT
Communist Party of Australia Wed, 31 May 2000 04:04:08 -0700
