Politics: Fiji: New strategy proposed for coping with constitutional and military crisis in the Fiji Republic

Fiji Daily Post carries an Editorial that deserves thawtful consideration from friends of the island Republic around the world, "State of emergency brings peace to the nation" (May16,2k7). Hat Tip for the heads-up from correspondent Dr. Bruce Wearne. The Editor-in-Chief of the independent and courageous Fiji Daily Post is Dr. Robert Wolfgramm.

The decision to extend the state of emergency decree is a wise one. Without the furtherance of the decrees, the nation would surely disintegrate into violence of a scale sometimes warned about by our traditional prophets and doomsday commentators, but (thankfully) not witnessed on these shores in the past.

Every passing day brings more economic slowdown and unrelenting signs of a military clamp-down on free speech of some of our alleged dissidents. Qarase remains island-bound and his court case appears moribund in the administrative and legal processes of the courts.

The SDL case likewise appears becalmed. The combination of an economic downturn with no sign of a speedy return to democracy, coupled with the selective repression of the freedoms of some, is a recipe for turning patience into anger. And if the bubble of security is going to burst, the question is when and what will trigger it. The Interim regime knows that and so it is to their great credit and for the safety of all citizens that we must all put up with more, not less, state of emergency. It is the only way to keep a lid on potentially growing dissent and mounting opposition to Interim control. That is to say, we are as far from satisfying the doctrine of acquiescence as we ever have been and may be even further now than we were on December 5.

Yes, there are a few scattered voices raised here and there in support of the interim regime, but their influence and representativeness, is far from known or acknowledged. On the other hand, anti-Interim websites proliferate. Until the conditions which give rise to opposition to the Interim regime are moderated or allayed completely - that is, until democracy is restored and in its train assistance packages refurbished to our ailing economy and the rights of dissidents respected - a state of emergency is the best option for the foreseeable future.

We must get back top democracy as a priority, but not if an all-out war between the political factions that currently divide the nation is allowed to erupt. The state of emergency may not be pleasant, but like a leash on a dog, it restrains tempers and lets most people walk the streets and sleep safely at night. It allows for a sense of well-being for most and ensures the nation is at peace.

I chime in, thinking Dr Wolfgramm has alerted us in the past to the antidemocratic and unconstitutional actions of the military in dismissing the elected governmtment of Quarase, while replacing it with an illegal "Interim" government by the self-appointed "guardians"--namely, the military. At this distance, I find myself trusting editor Wolfgramm, a principled Christian-democratic thinker.

The fleeting glimpses the Editor-in-Chief gives us of the economic downturn (resulting from the withdrawal of aid packages from New Zealand, Australia, and the European Union -- if I recall correctly); and of the understandable rise of militant blogging against the military regime; both of these glimpses lead on to certain geostrategic considerations that make the overall picture in Fiji grim, to say the least.

SouthWest Pacific > Fiji

Undoubtedly there are countries who would want a SouthWest Pacific listening post and puppet showcase--Russia, even more so China, and not forgetting the India-heritage population-segment now in Fiji for generations, let's add India to this list. One or all of these could suddenly prioritize Fiji by offering an aid package that could outdo whatever the island Republic was receiving from elsewhere. To my mind, what argues against this scenario is the military leadership's apparent adulatory cultivation of American politicians and Survivor-escape tourist ventures. But, I don't think these affinities are enuff to push aside the constraining American reliance on the New Zealand + Australian sphere of influence in the SouthWest Pacific. [I've further thawts on all these countries in relation to Fiji, from the stamdpoint of world geostrategic reflection, but that's for another time; and I would pursue them in my Neo-Constantinian Horizons blog, not here in my refWrite frontpage column.]

Rookmaker Club geostrategic analysis

As to the proliferation of militant regime-overthrow bloggers (I may be forecasting instead of reporting by using the term "regime-overthrow" here, as such trends sometimes develop an inner dynamic all their own, sometimes becoming dominated by forces without a peaceful democratic society honestly in mind as their goal and at heart as their envisioned norm), Dr Wolfgramm states simply that "anti-Interim websites proliferate." Who is financing them, just the irate citizens that have had enuff? Or do we look to countries or corporations that would have an interest in financing such dissidents and which have a new or old interest in Fiji--an interst in Fiji not for its own sake, but for its value as a stepping stone to other countries in the region? Does China want a capitalist-communist pro-China base--a Hong Kong?, a Macao?, a Cuba--nearby its prized customers / espionage targets New Zealand and Australia? Just asking. Or, turning the question about, is such worriment precisely what the Interimist-military complex fosters and seeks to use as leverage in furthering its own ends. So the residual questio: whether only an Interimist fictional scenario is behind anti=Interimist support for anti-regime bloggers?, or whether a real political praxis by an expansive Chinese communo-capitalist state (for instance) is behind much / some / a few of the dissident bloggers?

Dr Wolfgramm concludes:

Until the conditions which give rise to opposition to the Interim regime are moderated or allayed completely - that is, until democracy is restored and in its train assistance packages refurbished to our ailing economy and the rights of dissidents respected - a state of emergency is the best option for the foreseeable future.

Sadly, I have to concur. I do so out of a Christian-democratic neo-Constantinian anti-revolutionary framework of political values and geostrategic thinking. But the anti-revolutionary component has its limits, as does the neo-Constantinian.

Yet, we should keep in mind, sometimes the doctrine of acquiescence is definitively blocked in a potentially revolutionary situation, and intransigence prevails past its shelf-date. If one can't retreat from Fiji and the kairos moment comes when the peace on the street is broken, even for the general public of the island once-upon-a-time Republic, what criteria could be proposed for direct action to preserve / restore the Republic in democratic fullness? By peaceful means only, in the first instance? How to coalesce bloggers calling for direct action yet wanting peaceful democracy in an independent Republic distinct from any bloggers who may turn to revolutionism that really works toward a dictatorship alternative to the military-Interimist regime? How to discern the spirits if direct action becomes a cause? How to configure a coalition that isolates out from the circle of democratic and Christian-democratic co-belligerents, those others following a revolutionistic path pure and simple? Fiji is not Nepal, but....

Could Christian-democratic discussion clubs focused on these issues help in this situation at this moment?

Speaking in regard to action, one could ask: How to divide the bloggers who are authentic Fijian patriots from those who are serving foreign interests (whether foreign states or mega-corporations which may be the root of the military's coup, or may be a new force seeking to wedge its way into influence / power in this moment of weakness for all Fijian democracy and constituitonality)?

I will be posting further on the Fiji dissident bloggers on refWrite refBlogger Insert--a reformational blog which is devoted to exposing blog abuse and to supporting bloggers who are repressed, denied at least a modicum of freedom of speech in various represssive countries. As regular readers will know, I do not believe in an absolute freedom of speech, but there is a time and place for much expression that you or I may detest and consider to be quite anti-normative. In that lite, we must search for guidelines for our communal Christian reformational stance, an intelligence-fortified basic argument to defend the freedom of speech / blogging by the new Fijian extra-parliamentary opposition (a very mixed designation, I'd guess), freedom of speech within normative limits, and opposition to any imposed illegal extra-constitutional regime--that principled core of ideas remains de rigeur.