'The country won't enjoy stability and hence peace, progress and prosperity unless Fijians remain on top politically. That is the way it is in Fiji.'



Fiji's condition is deteriorating. Few people, least of all those in government, want to admit this. The political climate is far unstable than it appears on the surface. Actually, even on the surface it looks rather bad, with relations between the army and government sinking from bad to worse, and gloomy predictions about what the next election will produce.

The economy is in a worse state than the country's reserve bank wishes to admit, according to gossip from the direction of some commercial banks.

Laisenia Qarase... perceived to be driven by acute nationalism

Growth is sinking to next to nothing and may remain there for some time.

If it weren't for the gloss and apparent boom of tourism, how could the country cope with the social and economic consequences of the failing garment industry, the possible collapse of the still vital sugar industry, the sudden decline of the once buoyant fishing and gold mining industries, and the government's complete inability to curb costs and serious public service deficiencies, not to mention numbers?

Poverty now afflicts a substantial portion of the community. In a population of 860,000, much more than 80,000 people live in 80,000 squatter shanties.

Privatisation is becoming a joke and along with it some of the monopolies that in one way or another it has created. So is agitation to proclaim Fiji as being a “Christian state.”

The government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is perceived by many non-Fijian citizens, and not an inconsiderable number of Fijian ones, as being driven by acute nationalism.

Everything possible has to be Fijianised because Fiji is the land of the Fijians. A lot of citizens feel they are second-class ones.

Mr Qarase's government is condemned by its bitterest critics as being racist. Nationalism can't help but be flecked by racism, but we don't agree that racism is at the heart of the matter. Mr Qarase frankly admits he is a nationalist and stoutly denies he's motivated by racism. It's just that as far ahead as he can see, he says, the country won't enjoy stability and hence peace, progress and prosperity, unless the Fijians remain on top politically.

Mr Qarase is correct. It's hard cheese, for say at least about 20 years, for non-Fijians with great political ambitions. That is the way it is in Fiji. It will remain so until indigenous Fijians feel confident about their place in a land where they are now nearly 54 percent of the population, having recovered from a minority position.

Preaching tenets of multi-racial democracy and equality is all very well. But as the elections of 1987 and 1999 showed, put democracy into practice and, in an inappropriate environment, emotions will prevail, black and bloody ones perhaps.

In the place that was once the Holy Land, relations between the Jews and Palestinian Arabs appear to be intractable. Real peace is far away. Neither side will commit themselves absolutely to concessions that would achieve some sort of a lasting pleasant co-existence.

Relations between Fiji's Fijian and Indian citizens are far removed from the Palestinian tragedy, but nor can they be said to have much improved since the events of an anti-Indian coup in 2000.

Still, the country is perfectly capable of plodding on. Sugar can be saved, parts of the garment trade salvaged, and there are prospects for more gold mines.

Forestry, manufacturing, and service and information technology industries offer great prospects for a small country with still a lot of go where it is needed.

The state ship isn't sinking yet, but numerous holes will need to be plugged during the long voyage until the day that a different captain becomes acceptable in the command position on the deck.