MUCH OF FIJI WAS BUFFETED BY BAD WEATHER conditions mid-last month. The main streets of Ba and Nadi were both under water.
The lush cane crops on the banks of Ba and Sigatoka Rivers were covered in mud. The cleanup has begun and will last weeks. The recovery will take years.
Infamous for coups and prone to cyclones, devastating floods of the nature just experienced in much of the country is not a common occurrence.
The damage bill from this national disaster will tally into hundreds of millions of dollars. And the effects will hit the poorest the hardest.
Lives and livelihoods have been washed away by the fast flowing waters. A few more (man-made) disasters and Fiji would be brought to its knees—a nightmare scenario that no one wishes to see.
Nonetheless, some thought must be given so as to avert avoidable disasters.

Is Fiji prepared enough for disasters? I argued in my piece of last month that disasters are a permanent and an unpredictable reality of life in the islands.
Preparedness is the key. Fiji floods and the response to the above by the authorities is a timely reminder to our neighbours of the need to prepare.
My hope is that this story will help us prepare better for the next disaster. And for Fiji, at least one (man-made disaster) is already looming.

Neighbourly love
New Zealand was quick to respond to the floods with a NZ$100,000 emergency aid. Australia joined a day later with a promise of AU$150,000, which was revised upwards to a total of AU$3 million for relief efforts. The US and China have both committed US$50,000 each to disaster relief.
Funds from Australia and New Zealand are to be channelled via the Red Cross. That from the US is to be channelled via unnamed non-governmental organisations.
China, in contrast, is providing cash directly to the Fiji Government. This is a nice opportunity to gauge the effectiveness of the different channels used for delivering aid.
Absent current diplomatic strife between Fiji and its near neighbours, the machinery of the state would have been employed to deliver the assistance.
Military personnel and equipment from Australia and New Zealand would have been on the ground and in the air, dropping supplies to areas inaccessible by road.
Red Cross, despite the best of its efforts, is no substitute for the apparatus of the State. It is quite likely that people in the interior of Viti Levu, for example, will have to do without much assistance.
As an Australian taxpayer, I am relieved by the A$3 million contribution to humanitarian assistance. Circumventing the machineries of the state in delivering this support is less than ideal, however.
Could the near neighbours not have put their political differences aside to help those in desperate need? Surely, the Prime Minister of Fiji could have made a direct appeal to his counterparts in Australia and New Zealand for assistance in this hour of need.
My own (unsophisticated) rural villagers come together, forgetting their differences, during such disasters. Why not our leaders?
Neighbours, be that at the level of the village or the region, must learn to live with each other. Fiji is an island, but only in a physical sense.
Economically and socially, Fiji is deeply integrated with the rest of the world. A large chunk of Fiji nationals (and former nationals) live in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the USA.
Many commute regularly between Fiji and their newly adopted home. A number remit money to relatives, and remain connected to their old homeland through the worldwide web and telecommunications.
There is a myriad of ongoing appeals in Australia and New Zealand for funds to assist in relief efforts in Fiji. The Diaspora will remain as will the neighbours.

Poor preparedness for disasters
The response of the Fiji Military Forces (FMF) to disaster relief has been disappointing. The FMF is capable of a lot better.
As a well trained and manned force, the FMF could and should have done a lot more. The force is equipped to do much of the heavy lifting in relief work. This is expected of the FMF during a disaster.
Such action would have earned the FMF accolades both at home and abroad.
Donors also need to be prepared for such disasters. At a minimum, they must be prepared to use the mechanisms equipped to reach those worst affected.
If this entails putting aside old animosities, then so be it. Donors may also consider quarantining of funds specifically for disaster relief.
And the festering political differences need to be resolved. I have argued strongly and repeatedly for Australia’s reengagement with the interim government in Fiji.
This argument applies just as strongly for New Zealand. But the ball has for most part been in Fiji’s court.
It is the Fiji interim administration that has often fired the first volleys.
It was the interim Prime Minister who reneged on his promise at last year’s Forum Leaders’ meeting of holding elections in March 2009.
It was his administration that kicked out the New Zealand High Commissioner last year and again just a month ago. And the interim administration has kicked another publisher out of the nation—the third in its two-year term!

Charter chatter
I have sympathy with the aspirations of the Interim Prime Minister. Rooting out corruption is an honourable goal. Ridding the nation of racism is a commendable objective. Sorting out problems with access to land for enterprise is long overdue. And past governments did little on any one of the above.
But rhetoric has raced ahead of reality on these issues since the coup of 2006.
FICAC was created to bring the corrupt to the courts. Some progress has been made in prosecuting a few individuals. Admittedly, this is inherently a painstakingly slow process.
Charter chatter continues with questions over its legality, the capacity to implement the proposals and the ownership of these initiatives by the wider population.
A close colleague lamented to me recently that the Charter has created a lot of chahaata (mud in Hindi), thus is in ‘free spin/skid’. This, admittedly a cynical view of the Charter, has some truth to it.
There is little escape from the fact that Fiji must have national elections soon. This is an issue that has preoccupied the international community and is a subject on the agenda for the meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum.

The nightmare scenario for Fiji
Fiji must prepare for truly democratic elections. This is important so as to allow Fiji to return to active membership of the Pacific Islands Forum but also to create the conditions for economic prosperity.
Democracy and development have a lot in common; absent one and life becomes difficult for the other.
The recent Leaders’ meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum in Port Moresby has given Fiji until December this year to hold national elections.
Fiji must thank Papua New Guinea and PM Somare in particular, for this lease of life given that there was a push to have Fiji expelled.
The nightmare scenario for Fiji would have to be being kicked out of Forum and the Commonwealth. And the first could trigger the second. Such action would have given the EU the excuse to withhold its support for adjustment assistance to the (already sick) Fiji sugar industry.
The economic fallout of the above would have been disastrous. It is a nightmare that has been averted, but only for now.
As is, the sugarcane crop and milling infrastructure has been extensively damaged. Sugar exports for 2009 will be a lot less than envisaged in the last budget.
Tourist arrivals are likely to fall as the global economy cools down. Remittance receipts are also likely to fall (see my commentary on this in the last issue of ISLANDS BUSINESS). All of the above will put considerable pressure on the foreign exchange reserves and thus the local currency.
The confluence of natural and man-made disasters of late will hurt the poor and those at the margins of poverty. Disasters, like devils, prey on the weak and vulnerable.

What may be done to avoid a nightmare scenario?
Revive the economy. But economic prospects in contemporary Fiji are tethered tightly to political developments there.
As a first step, the decision makers in Fiji must agree to a non-negotiable date for national elections. Rules for open electoral competition may have to be put in place prior to this. These preparations better happen soon.
Relations with Australia and New Zealand must be mended. The Interim Government in Fiji has appointed a committee to progress the above. But little ground has been made to-date.
More urgently, greater thinking on disaster response by Pacific islands governments and their donors is overdue. Fiji floods of the recent past may be a timely reminder for preparatory action.
Finally, the current military government in Fiji needs a credible opposition to ensure those in power are held accountable to their actions.
The media, both local and foreign, have a critical role to play in the above. Provide them with legislative protection. And Fiji has to part company with the past practices of harassing diplomats and journalists, period!