From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 3, September 2000.

The Republic of Fiji, like the Republic of Pakistan, is being suspended from the Council of the Commonwealth of Nations for overthrowing its democratically elected government.

The Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Mr Don McKinnon, said in Nuku’alofa on August 19 that, “the coup d’Etat is a very old fashioned way of doing things, and the world does not like it any more.” He said that in the Commonwealth if one was dissatisfied with the government in power, “you swallow hard, and wait for the next election, then vote for a new government.”

“We would say to the people of Fiji, the issue that you are currently concerned about, is who is the Prime Minister and who is in the government, but that can be dealt with through elections, and there is no reason why you can’t have another election on this existing constitution.”

Mr KcKinnon said that once a country was suspended from the Council of the Commonwealth it was not permitted to attend a range of meetings, but the Secretary General was expected to maintain a level of dialogue with the country concerned, with the purpose of encouraging them back into the Commonwealth. As Secretary General, he had been to Fiji and planned to visit Pakistan on his way back to the United Kingdom after visiting New Zealand and Tonga.

He said that things were more stable in Fiji now with an Interim Government in place, “and we are encouraging Fiji to get back to full democracy. I hope they can do it in two years, rather than the three years that they are talking about. In some cases it can be done much sooner, but the Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said that he wanted to do the constitutional changes by June or July next year, then they will be able to put in place an election, so we want to watch this very carefully, and obviously any change to the constitution, which clearly marginalises the Fijian Indian will not be received very positively.

“We felt that the 1997 Constitution was a very good constitution for Fiji, it was supported by the Great Council of Chiefs, it was supported by the Fijian Parliament and it is still capable of supporting a democratic government in Fiji. The people who put the constitution together, the former Prime Minister Rabuka and the then Leader of the Opposition, Reddy, really worked very hard to get the consent of the Upper and the Lower House in Fiji,” said Mr McKinnon.

He visited Suva while George Speight and his band of rebels were holding hostage the Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his Cabinet in the Parliamentary Complex. He said that he met everyone that was to be met, including the former President Ratu Mara, but the only success that he could claim on that trip was heightening international concern about the Fijian crisis. “But I am very pleased, after what they have gone through, where they have come out is probably not unreasonable. Mr Speight is in jail and should be tried for the offences that he has committed. There is a lot of work to be done in Fiji, after all, this is the third coup in Fiji in 14 years, and if it becomes a bad habit, people like international investors will lose interest and start looking at places like Tonga and Samoa,” he said.

External forces

With regards to efforts that has been made by Mahendra Chaudhry to get the United Nations and the Commonwealth involved in some law and order operation in Fiji. Mr McKinnon said that Mahendra had been working very hard to get support for his government. “But we have to deal with the situation the way it is now. There is no determination nor do we see any concerted efforts to force Fiji by virtue of external forces to make these changes.

What we are talking about now is the kind of incentives and sanctions that have been put in place by Australia and New Zealand to effectively encourage them back. The Commonwealth is trying to work with carrots and sticks and I think many other institutions tend to wish to do the same.

“I was very pleased with the Forum Foreign Ministerial meeting in Apia last week, that there is a determination for the Forum to play a bigger role in encouraging better governance in the Pacific. And where possible to deploy preventive diplomacy, because up until now the Forum has been very silent about matters concerning two of its members (Fiji and the Solomons).”

Missed king

Mr McKinnon made a short notice  24-hour stop over in Nuku’alofa, August 18-19, the first by a Secretary General of the Commonwealth since 1993. While in Tonga he met the Speaker of the Tongan parliament, Hon. Veikune. He also held discussions with the Minister of Finance, Hon. Tutoatasi Fakafanua, the Minister of Labour, Commerce and Industries Dr Masaso Paunga, and ‘Akilisi Pohiva, the No. 1 Tongatapu People’s Representative, “and we discussed the usual thing.”

Initially, Mr McKinnon was hoping to have an audience with King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, but the king was recovering from an exhausting trip of  inspections of the national Agricultural shows, which began that week in the Niuas and continued in other island groups, and the Prime Minister Prince ‘Ulukalala Lavaka Ata, was still away at the shows.   

Solomon Islands

With regards to the conflict in the Solomon Islands where the Commonwealth had been directly involved in trying to restore peace, Mr McKinnon described the situation as being very sad. “The Commonwealth has been involved in the Solomons conflict since the middle of last year. We had policemen there and we had people on the ground trying to restore law and order.

“I had to withdraw the envoy a few months ago because life was just too dangerous there. Now we fully support the activities that have been encouraged by, principally Australia and New Zealand, to have a peace process to bring about a conclusion that Solomon Islanders can all live with. But I am not optimistic that it is necessarily going to happen, in the meantime the Solomon islanders are suffering immensely because of the battle between the Guadalcanalians and Malaitans.”

Mr McKinnon said that these two forces overturned the Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu. “Parliament met again with six members short and elected a new Prime Minister, Sokovale. It is yet to be seen whether he has broad support throughout the Solomon Islands. I think there is still some way to go before we can see a structure in place that everyone can prepare, not only to support, but to help with the institutional recovery. I don’t think any of us would like to put people in the Solomon Islands who will just get caught in the cross fire between the Malaitans and Guadalcanalians,” he said.