Islands Business - Views from Auckland: QARASE’S COUP

The world offers very different perspectives from the top of a coconut tree and from the middle of a cane field.

Dev Nadkarni
If the road from being a political lightweight with little grassroots experience to going up to be a two-time Prime Minister of Fiji has been a quick, short one for Laisenia Qarase, his quantum jump from being a politician to acquiring a statesman-like quality has been even quicker.

Nearly every political move he has made since winning the national election this year has been accompanied with great deftness, finesse and élan—a far cry from the tentative, sometimes seemingly diffident steps he appeared to take on a number of occasions when he headed his previous government.

Qarase... second innings characterised by swift, calibrated, yet sure moves. Picture: Dev Nadkarni

Understandably, owing to the forces that put him in power the first time round, he seemed guided by, and fiercely committed to, their ideologies and causes. He appeared to strongly push through the affirmative action policies and the controversial reconciliation bill much to criticisms from many quarters both at home and abroad. His government’s toying with the idea of a bill to regulate the media also brought him a fair share of brickbats.

His government’s ongoing spat with the commander of the armed forces sent alarm bells clanging across the region on more than one occasion. Many political pundits darkly predicted an imminent coup. The Australian and New Zealand media considered ominous scenarios. But it is by and large his restrained approach that turned the tide of foreign public opinion in his favour towards the close of his first tenure.

His relationship with the opposition Fiji Labour Party (FLP) was no less rocky. It was often acrimonious. He and FLP leader Mahendra Chaudhry locked horns on every matter of significance. And when Qarase seemed intent on extending the olive branch, his move appeared tentative and prone to being shot down by an opposition ever dripping with vitriol.

His offer to Chaudhry to join him to form a multiparty government during that first tenure is an instance. Though his intentions seemed honourable and genuine, his offer lacked the critical mass to actually build that crucial bridge with Labour.

The portfolios he offered were lightweight and the offer was promptly shot down as being insulting and insincere, thereby making the exercise counterproductive—that ostensible act of sincerity—therefore, turned quite the opposite for Qarase.

It could have possibly turned out differently had he offered more important portfolios to Labour then. But quite obviously, he did not have the mandate to do so from his coalition that had a significant right wing faction to which he owed much. In any case, throughout his first tenure, he never really looked like someone who was leading from the front.

There is a sea change in that perception in Act II of his leadership. In swift, calibrated, yet sure moves, he has exorcised most of the political spectres that haunted his first tenure, so early into his second one. One of his most significant early moves is Olive Branch Version 2.

Quickly learning from his rather limp offer earlier to Labour to join a multiparty government that came a cropper, he repackaged it with not just prime cuts of meat but also bells and whistles this time around.

It was an offer none could refuse: not elected Labour MPs, not most people—particularly Indians—who were tired of Fiji’s confrontational style of politics and wanted to give the country a chance—even if an odd element or two from within Labour’s old guard fought hard to invent reasons to refuse.

What is commendable is the manner in which Qarase has managed the contradictions within his own winning side, convincing his team to share plum portfolios with an archrival like the Fiji Labour Party. Not a single voice of dissent was reported from his rank and file as he offered some important ministries to the nine Labour MPs. That has amply demonstrated strong cohesion not just among SDL (Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua) MPs but the entire party. Unlike the last time, Qarase appears to be firmly in the driver’s seat, leading from the front, as any Prime Minister should be.

Contrast that with the controversies that Labour has invited upon itself after the election. Firstly, Chaudhry did not seem as enthusiastic as his MPs at Qarase’s multiparty offer and there was obvious pressure on him to accede to their wishes. Then, the senate list imbroglio made the party look fractious with members openly speaking in many voices to the media. Chaudhry threatened disciplinary action against erring members and there was a rebellious tone in which some members reacted.

In all this, Qarase hasn’t had to do much more than just standing by to watch Labour’s self-generated, post-electoral ferment.

Among other recent developments: armed forces chief, Commodore Bainimarama, has showed initiative to start a dialogue with the Home Affairs Minister, which Qarase has predictably welcomed. Qarase has also promised the people of Fiji that his new government will look afresh at the reconciliation bill. His pronouncements are increasingly reflecting ideas of greater inclusiveness, especially in the interests of the country as a whole. All this encouragingly points to the dawning of a new era of glasnost in a country that has suffered many schisms for decades.

But a word of caution here: with nine Labour MPs in his multiparty government, Qarase has in effect un-fanged his arch-rival. Power sharing of this sort will necessarily make Labour’s backbenchers restrained in their approach in parliament. Moreover, the Mick Beddoes-led opposition is not likely to generate any significant bumps in the road for his government. Which is why he will have to demonstrate utmost restraint as he rides through his second tenure. Or else, it will be easy for him to be seen as riding rough shod.

He will also need to follow up on the signals of glasnost that he has sent both to the people of Fiji and the world at large with action to match, particularly in the area of racial equity. He must have his wits about him to counter any situation the rightist elements in his government and party may suddenly raise at some point in time. Most of all, he will need all the equanimity and ingenuity at his command to deal with the surprises that will be sprung his way by Chaudhry, who undoubtedly has still a lot of them up his sleeve.

But going by the moves Qarase has made so far in the couple of months since the election and assuming he will stay that course, one may not have to worry too much on those counts. He has differentiated himself from his rival in having elevated himself to a position of being able see the big picture for the country and not get lost in the details at the cost of the nation’s progress.

In fact, one Labour stalwart who obviously believes this multiparty government deserves a very fair chance, mentioned exactly this in a recent speech in parliament—the need for leadership to look at the big picture for the country’s good.

The world offers very different perspectives from the top of a coconut tree and from the middle of a cane field. One of them offers the bigger picture with a view of several possible roads ahead—that difference in perspectives is also what sets apart a politico from a statesman.