Cover Story
The Quiet Coup
Commodore Bainimarama Finally Acts On Threats
For Fiji’s military commander, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama it was a “clean up campaign.” To Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer it was a “creeping coup.” And to ousted Fiji Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase it had “raped the constitution” and made Fiji “the laughing stock of the world.”
When Commodore Bainimarama declared on December 6 that he had taken control of the government—in Fiji’s fourth coup in 19 years—it was the climax of a protracted war of words between the military and Qarase's government.
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| Commodore Frank Bainimarama announces that the Fijian military have secured weaponry from the Police Special Response Unit headquarters as well the body guards of the Prime Minister and other Government ministers. [PHOTO: Jocelyn Carlin] |
Commodore Bainimarama had long been dissatisfied with the performance of the government, particularly its insistence on pushing through several contentious pieces of legislation, including the Reconciliation, Tolerance and Unity Bill, the Qoliqoli Bill, and the Indigenous Land Claims Tribunal Bill.
But in mid-2006 the commander had also begun to talk in more general terms of the need to purge Fiji of corruption.Bainimarama presented a list of nine demands to the government relating not only to these bills, but also to the status of investigations against him and operations within the police force. After much pressure, Qarase said the government had agreed to action on some of these demands. But compromise rather than unequivocal compliance wasn’t good enough for the Commander.
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The “creeping coup” began with the collection of weapons from the police armoury and bodyguards. Qarase was effectively put under house arrest. The vehicles of government ministers were seized. On the evening December 6, Commodore Bainimarama declared himself president and sacked Qarase.
Bainimarama said the military had watched with “concern and anguish the deteriorating state” of Fiji and that the country had reached a “crossroad.”
In a televised address, he outlined what he claimed was the legal basis of his takeover and the military's next course of action: to encourage an urgent meeting of the Great Council of Chiefs to reappoint President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, for the president to then appoint an interim cabinet, and for elections to be held after stability had returned.
A defiant Qarase said the same evening, “I am much heartened by the expressions of support the Government is receiving from right across the community. I make particular mention of the overwhelming backing from the vanua [people and the land] which is standing against any threat to our democratically-elected Government. The vanua does not want an unlawful seizure of power. The emphatic message I am receiving is in favor of the rule of law, parliamentary democracy, and the preservation of order by the Police.”
The next morning however Qarase had been taken to his home province of Lau, in effect exiled.
By days three and four, the Fiji military had tightened its grip, sacking a number of senior civil servants including the police commissioner. Vice President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi was also removed from office. After initial resistance, the civil service and police force decided to work with the military, although in some cases it was “under protest.”
The most crucial appointment though was that of Dr. Jona Senilagakali as interim Prime Minister. Dr. Seinilagakali was surprised to hear of his appointment, but said that he was bound to follow orders, and that he agreed with Bainimarama's motives.
At press time, Qarase was vowing to return to Suva from his village, and said there was a “good chance” that he would be reinstated as prime minister.
But in the space of a week Bainimarama has co-opted a number of institutions—albeit not always willingly. Qarase would need the support of the churches or Great Council of Chiefs, and in numbers, to force his way back into power.
Meantime, Bainimarama had taken the unconventional step of placing advertisements to fill the remaining spots on the interim government. He claimed several days after the ads appeared that more than 300 people had already applied.
There has been ongoing speculation as to whether Commodore Bainimarama has the support of the military’s officer corps. However, having learnt perhaps from the assassination attempt against him in 2000, Bainimarama had purged his senior ranks of dissenters in preceding months.
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| Secretary General of Parliament Mary Chapman condemns the action of the military as she leaves parliament after it was adjourned indefinitely. The Senate sat as usual in defiance of the military coup taking place in Suva before being shut down by soldiers. Chapman has since been sacked, ending a 40 year parliamentary career. [PHOTO: Jocelyn Carlin] |
Then Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes told ABC television “He doesn’t have the support of the government, of the President, of the police, of the churches, of the chiefs, of the people of Fiji and I can foresee a popular uprising…I hope it will remain non-violent, but my fear is that as the chiefs and the youths become more and more angry and incensed by what he’s doing, that we, you know, realistically it is a possibility.”
Hughes also alleges that Bainimarama is a front man.
"He's a front man as Rabuka was in '87 and Speight was in 2000. Bainimarama is a front man for power-seeking people in Fiji that failed at the last election who are not able to gain power legitimately, so they’re using him as a means to obtain that power.”
Very quickly, National Alliance Party President Ratu Epeli Ganilau denied he was one of the “power seeking people” Hughes had mentioned. “I am open to any kind of investigation if people think I am one of those shadowy figures responsible for this military move,” Ratu Epeli says.
For one of the architects of Fiji’s constitution, Australian National University Professor Brij Lal, these events reflect a fundamental transformation taking place in Fijian political culture.
“The army wants a prominent, permanent, public role…it doesn’t want to simply be an institution, it wants to be a partner in government,” Lal says. “For the first time the army is publicly saying we don’t respect the decision of the Great Council of Chiefs…This public snubbing of a once revered… institution, I think is opening a kind of Pandora’s Box.”
GCC Chairman Ratu Ovini Bokini has condemned Bainimarama’s takeover as illegal and stated that the GCC, the appointing body of the President, would not recognize any interim regime. The council was scheduled to meet as Pacific Magazine went to press. Its deliberations will be crucial. If they urge resistance, or a tangible expression of support for the ousted government, Bainimarama will face the opposition the army has been working so hard to quell since December 6. However the chiefs themselves are known to be divided on the coup—Bainimarama does have some support within that institution—and this may prevent them from arriving at a strong position. In addition, calls from some chiefs—for example to soldiers from their vanua to leave the barracks—have fallen on deaf ears, and others may be convinced by arguments to “return to normalcy” as quickly as possible.
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| Women singing hymns outside the home of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase the morning after the military coup in which Commodore Frank Bainimarama assumed executive powers and dismissed Qarase. [PHOTO: Jocelyn Carlin] |
Lal says migration from Fiji, mainly of Indians since 1997, the rise of a Fijian middle class, and now the absence of paramount chiefs with overarching “mana” has created space for debate amongst Fijians that wasn’t there 20 years ago.
Lal cautioned that in terms of international response, “it’s a delicate situation that calls for delicate diplomacy, not gunboat diplomacy.”
The New Zealand government, particularly Prime Minister Helen Clark and Foreign Minister Winston Peters, had tried to broker peace between Bainimarama and Qarase in the lead up to the coup. But by the time Bainimarama had wrested control, there was no diplomacy from Clark.
“This is an outrage what is happening in Fiji today,” she said. The same week, New Zealand froze Fiji’s participation in the recently announced seasonal employment scheme, instructed all Fiji military personnel training in New Zealand to pack their bags, and stopped any new development initiatives.
The coup saw Fiji once again suspended from the Commonwealth. And Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said, “I think the ordinary people of Fiji and the institutions of government in Fiji should show passive resistance to this imposition of dictatorship on their country.”
Among the most vocal opponents to the coup locally have been human rights organisations and individuals, who say they were threatened with violence, including rape, for speaking out on the Fiji impasse.
Whatever the long term outcome of the current troubles in Fiji, the damage has already been done.
School of Economics head at the University of the South Pacific, Biman Prasad, says the country’s economic performance prior to the coup was already very poor, which will make recovery all the more difficult.
“However, if things stabilize very quickly and if there is no violent resistance, then we can see a quick recovery of the tourism industry and this may help.”
“International visitors and investors would be watching the state of law and order in the country and if this maintained and improved then we could be heading towards a quick recovery by the end of 2007 in terms of investment.
Senior Fellow in Governance at the University of the South Pacific’s Pacific Institute of Advanced Studies in Development and Governance, Dr Steven Ratuva, says “stabilizing the economy will not be easy. Tourism is in free fall. Foreign investment is coming to a halt and confidence is quickly fading. One of the problems with our economy is that we have always relied on industries such as tourism which make us quick returns but which are subject to quick demise when the political situation deteriorates.”
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| Retired Fiji army physician Dr. Jona Baravilalala Senilagakali has been sworn in as Fiji’s interim Prime Minister at the military headquarters Queen Elizabeth Barracks. [PHOTO: Jocelyn Carlin] |
In the week of the coup, the country’s main carrier Air Pacific said, “customers substantially continue to travel as booked although a higher than normal cancellation rate has been noted. The number of travellers departing Fiji has grown, from tourists revising their departure date and from residents electing to leave the country.
“New bookings for the period from January to March 2007 have slowed to a trickle and an increase in the number of changes to planned arrival dates and cancellations are being experienced. It is too soon to place a specific percentage on overall reduction in demand but the rate of new bookings has declined by over 40% versus normal levels.”
Indeed the Cook Islands Times reported that Cook Islands and Samoa were each enjoying about a 20% increase in New Zealand visitor bookings following Fiji’s coup.
The President of the Fiji Australia Business Council, Caz Tebbutt Dennis said investor confidence has taken a big hit.
She told Radio Australia that “Our concern that the international community tends to react very swiftly and quickly to put in place sanctions and bans on aid and trade, and this is just a second layer of, I guess, tragedy for the business community. It makes it difficult to operate.”
Dr Steven Ratuva says after 2000, when the military undermined the coup, “one would have thought that the coup cycle was broken once and for all. However, contrary to optimism and hopes, the 2006 coup in fact opens up what may be a new cycle. If one doesn’t like the government, then one can simply ‘clean’ it up through a coup. The question is: what will happen to the next elected government if it is perceived to be corrupt and ‘dirty’? More ‘clean up’ campaigns? This is the challenge which we are facing in Fiji.”
