What to do with Fiji reneging on a promise

Elenoa Baselala
After a slap in the face, it will be interesting to see how the region’s key political institution will handle the Fiji case including Commodore Bainimara after he reneged on a promise he made at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Summit in Tonga last year.

When the Forum leaders meet in Niue this month, they will have the daunting task of deciding what to do with Fiji bearing in mind that never before had leaders experienced such a problem.

New Zealand has asked Fiji to reconsider its decision of not holding an election next year in the interests of its relationships with its closest regional neighbours within the Forum, as well as with other international partners and in the interests of promoting a peaceful and stable Fiji for the future.

“It remains for the Forum Leaders meeting in Niue to decide, taking into account the report of the Forum Ministerial Contact Group and what their message should be to the interim government at this crucial time,” New Zealand’s foreign minister Winston Peters told ISLANDS BUSINESS.

Peters made the comments days after his visit to Fiji as part of the contact group.

While the group headed by Tonga’s foreign minister, Sonate Taumoepeau-Tupou said they ‘saw and heard nothing that would prevent a 2009 election”, Fiji’s interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama announced there would be no election until electoral reforms were put in place.

Bainimarama, a man who keeps changing his tune, maintains he made no promise to the Forum leaders when they met in Tonga last year.

In fact, he says, he was led to believe that the leaders would be flexible if more time was needed to hold an election.

The Pacific Forum Ministerial Contact Group during its two-day visit of the country last month made it clear that an electoral reform must be carried out by an elected Parliament thus Fiji needed to hold elections first.

“The undertakings Commodore Bainimarama gave to Forum Leaders at their meeting in Tonga last year were very clear,” New Zealand’s Peters said.

“They include having an election by March 2009, that the election would be in accordance with Fiji’s Constitution and electoral laws, and that the outcome of the elections would be respected by the interim government and the Fiji Military Forces.

“Those undertakings—very solemn ones as they were made to Forum Leaders—were welcomed at the time by New Zealand and other Forum members as well as other members of the international community who shared the Forum’s concern to see Fiji return to legitimate government.

“It goes without saying that a decision by the Fiji interim government to disavow those undertakings would be a very serious slap in the face to the Forum, which remains the region’s key political institution.

“It remains for Forum Leaders meeting in Niue in August to decide, taking into account the report of the Forum Ministerial Contact Group, what their message should be to the interim government at this crucial time.”

Peters adds that if Bainimarama wanted to reform the constitution or electoral system, he would have to do so through legal means and that Fiji’s political leaders needed to be asked on whether they wanted to participate in an election held under illegal reforms.

Deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said in an interview after meeting the leaders that it was vital to hold the election under the 1997 Constitution.

Qarase and other political leaders including Pramod Rae of the National Federation Party and Mick Beddoes of the United General Party are understood to have told the contact group  they are willing to be part of a political forum organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat provided the process is truly independent and inclusive.

The political forum initiated by the President of Fiji, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, follows the refusal of these leaders to be part of the interim regime’s People's Charter.

It was the National Council for Building a Better Fiji (the body responsible for the charter) that wrote to Iloilo asking him to ask the Commonwealth Secretariat to arrange the forum.

NCBBF chair John Sami told the contact group that key issues such as the electoral reform would be discussed at the political forum.

However, Peters said outcomes of any political dialogue cannot be pre-judged and that the implementation of any decision or reform arising from such a political dialogue can only be implemented by Constitutional means.

So, is there hope for Fiji?

“If the interim government is prepared to change its current tack and instead work together with its regional neighbours to progress the restoration of democratic and constitutional government within Fiji in accordance with the undertakings it has earlier accepted, then there is certainly hope,” Peters says.

“As the Ministerial Contact Group made clear at the end of its visit to Suva, there is nothing standing in the way of an election in Fiji by March 2009, other than political will on the part of the interim government. I think it’s very clear from the very negative reactions, not only from outside but also from within Fiji that have greeted the interim government’s statements highlight just how deeply concerned people are about elections.”