Fiji

Review of Papua New Guinea not included in this issue.

The year 2011 was the first since the December 2006 coup to occur without a major political crisis in Fiji. In every previous year, the regime faced stiff tests that potentially threatened its very survival: public sector strikes in 2007, the rupture with Mahendra Chaudhry's Fiji Labour Party in 2008, a ruling on the unconstitutionality of the government followed by the abrogation of the constitution in 2009, and schisms among the military top command in late 2010. By contrast, 2011 passed without major domestic challenges, although harassment of trade unionists, the Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree 2011, and cuts in pensions encouraged a significant reconfiguration and internationalization of the opposition. Fueled by the silencing of domestic critics, the foreign sympathizers of the Frank Bainimarama-led government became more outspoken but carefully couched their urging of overseas "reengagement" as a sensible strategy for protecting Australia's sphere of influence from Chinese encroachment. By the end of the year, the Fiji interim government had hired Washington dc-based spin-doctoring firm Qorvis to bombard the world's media with positive news stories about Fiji.

The fifth year since the 2006 coup initially commenced, as 2010 had finished, with more signs of top-level schisms. Two of the most senior officers in the Republic of Fiji Military Forces—Land Forces Commander Brigadier General Pita Driti and Third Battalion, Fiji Infantry Regiment Commander Roko Tevita Uluilakeba Mara—had been, without official explanation, told to use up outstanding leave in October 2010. In February 2011, they were replaced in their substantive positions, respectively, by Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga and Lieutenant Colonel Jone Logavatu Kalouniwai. Tevita Mara, the youngest son of the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Fiji's former president, had until 2008 been a strong backer of the 2006 coup and a loyal ally of Bainimarama. He was the officer who urged the military's case at Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs at the time of the December 2006 coup, and he later carried out a mini-coup to secure for himself chairmanship of the Lau Provincial Council. In 2010, he had been overheard denouncing the regime while overseas, in transit through South Korea, and the matter was reported back to Bainimarama. Mara and Driti were brought before the Suva Magistrates Court in May 2011 on charges of sedition and incitement to mutiny, but they were released on bail. Coming close on the heels of the November 2010 resignation of Defence Minister Ratu Epeli Ganilau, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara's son-in-law, the new dismissals signaled a broader breach with a once-powerful dynasty. Yet the president, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau—who like Ganilau is married to one of Ratu Mara's daughters— remained at his post. Rumors spread of an impending showdown, which even extended to draft presidential decrees dismissing the prime minister, circulated on the feverishly anti-Bainimarama weblogs.

Nailatikau's predecessor as president, Tui Vuda Ratu Josefa Iloilo, died in February, and was given a full state funeral in recognition of his almost consistent willingness to follow a script written for him by military officers. Traditional presentations (i-reguregu) honoring Ratu Iloilo at Vuda were made by both Bainimarama and his senior military officers as well as by their arch-adversary, Tui Cakau Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, whose family is closely tied to that of Ratu Josefa (FijiLive, 15 Feb 2011). This was one of many events, as required by protocol in Fiji society, during which fierce opponents came together in ceremonial contexts, despite the bitterness occasioned by the 2006 coup and its aftermath.

Bainimarama's indigenous opponents were less vociferous in 2011 than in earlier years, but tensions still festered just beneath the surface. In February and again in March, international human rights watchdog Amnesty International reported that "the human rights situation in Fiji is worsening," pointing to a new spate of arbitrary detentions and beatings of trade unionists, politicians, and youth activists (Amnesty International 2011). Sam Speight, brother of 2000 coup leader George Speight, was badly beaten for distributing a video denouncing Bainimarama's government. Other forms of intimidation were subtler. Economist...