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BULA FIJI: Australians should keep holidaying in Fiji in greater numbers for Democracy's Sake!

24/9/2014

4 Comments

 
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September 23, 2014

Peter Reith
Columnist
Sydney Morning Herald


Incoming Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama put himself before the citizens of Fiji and gave them the opportunity to decide the future of Fiji.


It is decades since I was on a family holiday in Fiji but I can report it's still a beautiful place and the people are still friendly. And now that Fiji has voted for democracy, the best Aussies can do for Fiji is to continue holidaying in even greater numbers.

Last Wednesday's election and the transition from military government and return to democracy could not have gone much smoother. There are a lot of dictators around the world who will never give up power. Putting the recent history behind, it has to be said that it is to the credit of the incoming Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, that he put himself before the citizens of Fiji and gave them the opportunity to decide the future of Fiji. He won 32 seats out of 50. Many Indo Fijians voted for Bainimarama; an outcome that the Opposition needs to consider in the future.

There were two significant catalysts to this shift to democracy. Firstly, a switch in Australian policy towards Fiji announced by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in February 2014 and the decision by the Fiji government in March 2014 that it would hold elections by the end of September. The last Fijian election was 2006 and until this year, elections were twice promised but not implemented.

Needless to say, democracy is not a one-day wonder: Fiji will need to continue and improve the practice of democracy. The next step will be the opening of the new Parliament which will give the opposition a legitimate platform. All sides of politics in Fiji will need to adapt to the new democratic standards; the opposition needs to behave responsibly and to establish itself as a viable alternative to the government. The government's challenges include the need to bring civil society into the democracy tent and lessen restrictions on the media. 

Once again, Bishop has demonstrated that she is a quality minister.  Two things stand out. Firstly, the February policy change involved taking a punt that Fiji would move towards democracy. It was clear from the outset that no one really knew how well the voting would be conducted and no one was sure what would happen if the government lost office. It was a classic case of taking a risk to get a worthwhile outcome. And secondly, rather than shunning Fiji, she worked with the Fiji government and put in place the resources needed to complement Fijian efforts to run an election at short notice. In both cases, the approach turned up trumps for everyone.

The Multinational Observation Group (the MOG) was co-ordinated by Australia and we managed the involvement of more than 90 international observers through the Secretariat staffed by Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Training staff. Australia was co-leader with Indonesia and the India and, separately, we also funded Australian experts to work inside the Fijian election office.

The observation work was not just on election day. We wanted to know what was happening on the ground well in advance of the election so we could understand the context for the vote. The task was to monitor and report back; the MOG was not running the election and it was not a commentator on politics. It was however, not shy in saying that its final report would not only suggest improvements for the future but it would point out what needed to be done before the election.  

The preparation was comprehensive. Young Australian staffers were dispatched to remote islands to talk to local people about the election and people like former Kiwi MP, Wyatt Creech was walking the back blocks of Fiji for weeks before the election. Where there were complaints or otherwise, they were passed on to MOG.

On election day, the MOG covered 455 polling booths and about 31 per cent  of all polling stations. The MOG also had its own discreet tally room thereby providing an independent check on the national results. On the day after the election, the MOG announced the "outcome of the 2014 Fijian election is on track to broadly represent the will of the Fijian voters and the conditions were in place for Fijians to exercise their right to vote freely".

It was the first time Australia had been given the lead for a MOG.  I knew it went well when I heard that the observation specialists from the European Union said that we had done a good job "for non-experts". Maybe now Australia, India and Indonesia will build on the template established in Fiji for other elections in our region.

A new start for Fiji has much promise; an important role in Pacific affairs, economic growth, resumed relations with Australia and the Commonwealth and the benefits of democracy.  

Peter Reith, a former Howard government minister, was appointed by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop as co-leader of the Multinational Observation Group  for the Fiji elections on September 17.

Source:http://www.smh.com.au/comment/keep-holidaying-in-fiji-for-democracys sake-20140922-10kab6.html#ixzz3EBLcIF3k

Fijileaks Editor:


The Fijian Elections Office has clarified that provisional results for SODELPA candidate Vane Seruvakula were wrongly entered.


When provisional votes were released on the night of elections, Seruvakula had up to five thousand seven hundred votes – however this was not reflective in her final result.

“The provisional result for Vane Seruvakula was higher than the final and we found that in data entry there was a typo error and that’s what caused the high number of votes. But with the final results – with the three audit systems there is no mistake for the final vote.”

Saneem says they had insisted from the beginning that provisional results were to be dropped once final results were released. Source: FBC News.



4 Comments
Aussie Holidaymaker
23/9/2014 05:57:03 pm

Vinaka Fijileaks!

Reply
why the high praise for the dictator link
23/9/2014 06:56:15 pm

let me explain the reason for the high praise for the dictator by the international gang. you see despite his blatant violation of all the international conventions of democratic governance the international gang could not bring the dictator to heel. their feeble attempts met with pathetic failure and ridicule. the dictator ruled for 8 long years while the international gang watched as an impotent spectator with no control over the political game unfolding in Fiji. now to cover up their failure and to save face the international gang have been bending over backwards to help Fiji with its elections so that they can feel good that they too had a hand in getting Fiji back to democracy so that everyone can return to doing business as usual. first stop for the dictator turned democratic leader - the UN General Assembly to make a lofty speech about his commitment to democracy and the rule of law and respect for human rights etc. We saw very little of all that during his 8 years of dictatorial rule.

Reply
no depth link
24/9/2014 12:53:38 am

His opening first sentence gives Peter Reith away as an Australian who has but a superficial understanding of what has been happening in Fiji since the Bainimarama dictatorship's takeover 8 years ago.
No Frank Bainimarama did not "put himself before the citizens of Fiji and [give] them the opportunity to decide the future of Fiji".
The future of Fiji was pre-determined by the Bainimarama dictatorship BEFORE the elections. The Peoples' Charter, the new imposed constitution and the hundreds of decrees all already charted the future. The people were simply to follow. And that's what they have done and even the civil society quietly accepted this reality.
Bainimarama did not put himself before the citizens and all that. He was forced into it. He tried to avoid this for as long as he could but he realised that if he was to benefit from the goodies the international community would provide he had no choice but to hold an election. So he decided to do that but only AFTER he had organised everything to ensure his return to power. The election was a sham election under an imposed system.
It had one object : to give the dictator an opportunity to go democratic and become a member of the international democratic family. And, save the international community the embarrassment of not being able to do anything to the dictator for the last 8 years despite his flagrant disregard for international norms.

Reply
Tomasi
24/9/2014 04:29:50 am

Thank you gentlemen for your candid remarks. There is hope yet for Fiji. Voreqe has created zombies of so many of our citizens, but I am glad there are still many free citizens around who still think and see things clearly for what they really are. Despite our many attempts at sounding the alarm to our opposition parties, they mistakenly thought they were living in the same country they did way back in 2006. We begged them to protest and get the fundamentals right. But it seems that Parliament was more important for them. Now, many of them must be realising how sadly wrong they were. But yes, let us learn our lessons and become wiser next time. But who know what, when and how that time shall be.

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