Fiji regime attacks ‘dogmatic’ Australia

June 30, 2011

Filed under: fiji story — admin @ 5:17 pm

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Fiji’s military regime has taken a fresh swipe at Canberra for its “dogmatic” and “dictatorial” attempts to force early elections in the Pacific nation.

Both Australia and New Zealand have employed a tough love strategy of minimal diplomacy and travel sanctions on Fiji as a penalty for delays by the military regime in returning the country to democracy.

The regime has repeatedly set back plans to hold elections, with the latest poll date set down for September 2014, almost eight years after it took power in a December 2006 coup.

Canberra and Wellington have remained critical of human rights abuses and the lack of progress with electoral reforms, which self-appointed prime minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama has promised to carry out.

Regional relationships have broken down further in recent months as one of Bainimarama’s former frontmen, Colonel Ratu Tevita Mara, defected to Tonga and was granted entry into Australia for a Fijian pro-democracy rally.

Samoa has also weighed into the debate, backing Col Mara’s plight.

The frustrated Fijian government has issued a string of press statements critical of regional “interference”, with Australia the prime target of most attacks.

The latest, released by Fiji’s foreign affairs minister Inoke Kubuabola, calls on Australia and New Zealand to stop calling for early elections.

“The stubborn dogmatic insistence on “early elections” as a panacea to all of Fiji’s deep-seated problems only reflects the lack of understanding by (Australia and New Zealand) of Fiji’s desire to return to a sustainable form of democracy,” Kubuabola said.

He said his government had a “credible” road map to democracy that would address “the problems of the country head on through a reform process running concurrently with preparations for elections”.

Kubuabola accused Australia and New Zealand of trying to turn other countries against Fiji, saying this “smacks of a superiority that assumes they know better than any other country what is good for Fiji, including Fiji itself.”

He warned them against “dictating from the sidelines”.

Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd has said Australia will continue “vigorous” calls for democracy, saying it is the Fiji regime’s strategy to blame other nations for its predicament.

“Bainimarama is the one who must change here,” Rudd said in March.

Justifying Canberra’s tough approach, Rudd said: “We’re not in the business of legitimising what has been a very ugly military coup.”