Crisis, yes, but Fiji doesn’t need Jack Bauer

Thursday 16 April 2009 - Filed under Life Outside Work

Fiji occupies my thoughts a lot these days. It must be the doomsday headlines delivered over the past week in much the same tone as the calamitous reports on North Korea, Sudan, and Thailand. But one thing is for sure: Despite all those perilous keywords and travel warnings, Fiji is no Thailand. It’s no war zone, it’s no axis of evil, it’s no culprit of the Ponzi scheme or mass shooting or satellite-turned-missile. It has been three and a half years since I left there, but I am certain that Fiji is still very much the same peaceful tropical island nation where I have fond memories of abundant tropical fruits, pristine beaches, Latin dance classes, frangipani shirts, and chicken palau.

From across the Pacific Ocean, it’s kind of hard to figure out what is really going on in Fiji right now. Locals seem to be saying that things are business as usual except for panic-stricken foreign journalists who have been kicked out of the country and some military guys dealing with foreign media. Foreign media, on the other hand, say it’s a crisis, a coup, a military crackdown, censorship, economic suicide, and citizens suffering from an unjustified absence of democracy; Fiji as a nation is doomed for the 15th time in as many years – or something along those lines.

Perhaps that is where the real crisis lies. More than anything, it’s Fiji’s battle against foreign relations and the media – one that is costing the nation dearly. Unlike what the news reports openly and subliminally purport, I cannot possibly imagine Fiji with bullets flying around or the safety of ordinary citizens threatened in any way. I certainly can’t say the same about the United States – but I digress.

If my local experience entitles me to a view on this matter, my speculation is that the world will never – underline never – see blood, torture, boat people, suicide bombing, or loss of lives coming out of the current crisis in Fiji and that the media frenzy will die down accordingly. That is because, as undemocratic as it is, things are firmly under control, so much to the point where the Republic is able to function without a constitution. One can find plenty of real examples of tyrannies and civil unrest around the world but Fiji can’t be placed under such a category. Perhaps Australia, New Zealand, the Commonwealth, and the UN should take a step back and take a breath before lashing out on the island nation for not reaching the same level of political maturity as the leading Western nations that have nurtured parliamentary democracy over a much longer period of time.

If all this was a season of LOST, the Oceanic Six could get on a plane, travel back in time to “the island” of 1971, and do something to change the course of history such that the people of Fiji would not have chosen the bumpy, painful road towards sovereignty and ethnic unity… Relax, I am just speaking hypothetically.

As for the sanctions Fiji’s neighbours are mulling over, I don’t think kicking the country out of the Pacific Forum or UN peacekeeping missions will have much of an impact on the lives of Fiji Islanders including the military regime. If, on the other hand, the New Zealand Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade were to threaten to pull the screening of Shortland Street on Fiji One, that would most devastatingly upset every citizen from grammar school kids to grandmas in villages… But no, strictly leave that as a last resort.

2009-04-16  »  JK