Asia Times: Fiji's election: The race for parliament


	September 11, 2001	atimes.com

Oceania

Fiji's election: The race for parliament
By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE - There has been a big swing against moderates in Fiji's recently concluded elections, as race-based politics takes center stage in the formation of a new government in the tiny Pacific Island nation.

After the official counting of the elections for the country's 70-member parliament ended on Friday, the conservative indigenous nationalist party Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) of caretaker prime minister Laisenia Qarase ended up with the largest number of seats at 30, while the Fijian Labor Party (FLP) of the ousted Indo-Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry finished a close second with 27 seats.

A coalition deal with minor parties will mean that the balance of power in the parliament will be held by the extremist, indigenous nationalist party Conservative Alliance-Matanitu Vanua (CAMV), which won six seats.

One of these six seats was won by George Speight, who led a coup against the Chaudhry regime in May last year. He involved support from native Fijians and called for indigenous Fijian political leadership, in a coup that revealed once again the long-festering ethnic tensions in the country.

During the standoff that followed after the May 2000 coup, Speight held most members of the FLP led government hostage in the parliament house in Suva for more than a month. He is currently in jail facing a possible death sentence on treason charges.

But, with his party holding balance of power, and Speight himself now an elected member of parliament, CAMV has made it a condition that he be freed and charges dropped, before it joins any government.

Analysts in Suva have said that the three contenders for power are all parties with extremist positions on Fiji's simmering race issue, while those parties with moderate platforms have been virtually wiped out from the island's political map.

"The people have spoken and decided to go for politics of extremism as against the moderation policy of the New Labor Unity Party (NLUP)" observed Dr Tupeni Baba, deputy prime minister of the deposed Chaudhry government.

Baba left Chaudhry's party and formed NLUP two months ago after a disagreement with Chaudhry on race and economic policy matters. While NLUP won two seats, Baba failed to retain his seat, losing to the SDL.

"We've been through a very difficult time," Dr Baba said. "We've been through an economic crisis, we've been through a bloodbath, and it appears now that the people don't want to go for moderation."

His co-deputy prime minister, the leader of the Fijian Association Party (FAP) Adi Kuini, was another indigenous Fijian moderate politician to lose her seat to the SDL, along with the leader of the former ruling party Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (SVT).

SVT, which was set up by former prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka, was the biggest loser of the election since it failed to win a single seat in the new parliament.

When he staged Fiji's first coup in 1987 to depose the country's first Indian-dominated government, Rabuka said he did it to safeguard the interests of the indigenous Fijians. But, ironically, today he is seen as a moderate in comparison to Speight and Qarase, both of whom also talk about safeguarding Fijian interests.

Today, Rabuka is a great supporter of the 1997 multiracial constitution, which he was instrumental in drawing up with the leaders of the Fiji-Indian National Federation Party (NFP), which was again routed by the FLP in the Indian electorates.

In an election analysis in the Fiji Sun newspaper last week, the University of the South Pacific professor Vijay Naidu argued that it would be a cruel irony to allow coup leader Speight's party to hold any balance of power in a governing coalition. "Do the people of Fiji want to reward those responsible for the atrocities, the bloodshed, the displaced families, the downturn in the country's economy and the loss of jobs, with political leadership?" he asked.

Naidu said that two trends have emerged from the elections. First, moderate leaders and their parties were swept aside by the voters disposed to more extreme positions. Second, there has been a consolidation of ethnic support for their parties.

While indigenous Fijians saw SDL as their party, the Indo-Fijians have identified themselves with the FLP. Thus, Naidu argued, "the best way forward is for Cahudhry and Qarase to bury the hatched, reconcile, heal the wounds of Fiji and together lead us forward."

But Qarase has ruled out working with Chaudhry. Asked about this by journalists, he replied: "No, I'm not prepared to work with Chaudhry. Either he form the government or I form the government."

Chaudhry is already crying foul and claims that he has been robbed of at least five seats in the Suva area by massive vote rigging by electoral officers posted to polling stations by the Qarase government. He claims that they spoilt the ballot papers of thousands of his voters - including more than 2,000 votes in his own seat - thus making these votes invalid. "We'll go to the courts, only the courts can order a new vote and we'll be certainly taking this up," Chaudhry said. He warned that he will not let this issue lie low. "The fact is that if an election has been won through fraud that has to be corrected. In a democracy, we cannot let it go," he said.

Chaudhry's Fijian Labor Party was widely tipped to win the elections and analysts have been taken by surprise at the impressive showing of Qarase's SDL. But then, "at a time when you have a crisis or a confrontation, people will immediately retreat to the party they see as serving their own communal interests", argued constitutional lawyer Richard Naidu. "People have voted for the Labor Party because they believe that the Labor Party will most clearly protect Indian interests," he said. "On the indigenous Fijian side, people are most simply retreating to the party which has most clearly stated that they will preserve Fijian interests."

(Inter Press Service)