FUN FIJI FACTS 22

Continuing Changes in Government and Forgiveness by the Commonwealth

Let’s continue on today with the discussion of Fiji’s new government up to today. With the establishment of a new government in the 1980’s, a series of coups began to unfold.

Shortly after the election of the FLP and NFP, the birth of an extremist movement known as Taukei played on fears of Indo-Fijian political and economic domination. Only a month after the elections, Lt. Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka took over the government in a bloodless coup on May 14, 1987. A civil interim government was put in place and supported by the Great Council of Chiefs.

In September 1987, Rabuka again intervened with military force. The constitution created in 1970 by Fiji’s declaration of independence was invalidated. Rabuka declared Fiji a republic and proclaimed himself head of state. As a result of these actions, Fiji was dismissed from the Commonwealth of Nations the following month. The coups, which were supposed to benefit all indigenous Fijians seemed to have backfired and only caused immense hardship for the common people and benefited only an elite minority. With the removal of Indo-Fijians from the political process, tensions within the indigenous Fijian community were exposed. Conflicts between chiefs from eastern and western Fiji; between high chiefs and village chiefs; between urban and rural dwellers; and within the church and trade-union movement became apparent.

The economic consequences of the coups were drastic. The economy's two main sources of income, tourism and sugar, were severely affected and development aid was suspended. From 1987 to 1992 about 50, 000 people, mostly Indo-Fijian skilled tradespeople and professionals, emigrated.

Proclamation of a new constitution came on July 25, 1990. This new constitution increased the political power of the Great Council of Chiefs and of the military while diminishing the position of Indo-Fijians in government. Indo-Fijian political leaders immediately opposed the constitution, claiming it was racist and undemocratic. As the 1992 elections approached, the Great Council of Chiefs disbanded the multicultural FAP and in its place formed the Soqosoqo-ni-Vakavulewa-ni Taukei (SVT; Party of Policy Makers for Indigenous Fijians). Rabuka returned to the scene as interim prime minister and party leader of the SVT. By changing his hardline approach, he was elected for to more consecutive terms in 1992 and 1994.

Fijian men holding a tabua (a whale's
tooth given as a gift of esteem)

In 1995, a Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) presented its findings the the acting government and called for a return to a multiethnic democracy, proposing no provision of ethnicity for the prime minister, but allowing that the position of president be reserved for an indigenous Fijian,. The government acted on most of the CRC's recommendations and a new constitution was declared in 1997.   That same year, Rabuka apologized to Queen Elizabeth for the 1987 military coups and presented her with a whale's tooth tabua as a gesture of atonement. The following month Fiji was readmitted to the Commonwealth.

Here is a useful Fijian phrase for the day:

English                         Fijian (pronunciation)
Can I take a photo?      Au rawa ni veitaba? (ow rah-wah nee vay-tah-bah)