Editorial: Don't ever bank on multiracial Fiji

One year ago today, George Speight and special forces soldiers seized Fiji's Parliament and claimed power in the name of indigenous Fijians. The putsch ultimately failed and Speight and 11 of his supporters continue to be held on a small island east of Suva awaiting trial on treason charges.

Increasingly, however, it appears that Speight's racist agenda permeates Fijian politics. Hopes that the putsch's wretched ambition might foster a spirit of reconciliation and a government of national unity now seem totally misplaced. Fiji, as much as ever, is splintered on racial grounds.

That unfortunate state of affairs will underpin August's general elections. Amid a confusing factionalism, all parties are, of course, making the correct noises about a multiracial Fiji. But in reality they are polarised along racial lines. The 1997 multiracial constitution and the success of Mahendra Chaudhry's Indian-led Labour Party in the 1999 election now seem almost an aberration. Mr Chaudhry took advantage of divisions within indigenous Fijian political ranks to claim the prime ministership. Now, it seems, the most significant rifts are within the Labour Party.

Mr Chaudhry's authoritarian style, one of the factors which incensed indigenous Fijians, this week prompted his deputy, Tupeni Baba, to walk away from Labour. Baba and other former Chaudhry supporters have formed a breakaway group, the New Labour Party. The split will probably be enough to give the election to the indigenous Fijians, especially if they are able to form an alliance ahead of the poll.

At the moment, several high-profile indigenous Fijian names are in the election mix. They include Sitiveni Rabuka, the former coup leader and former Prime Minister, and Laisenia Qarase, the military-installed caretaker Prime Minister. Even Speight is threatening to run as a candidate, despite the rather severe electioneering constraints imposed by his island prison. A preliminary trial, which will determine if there is sufficient evidence to charge him with treason, finally begins late this month. It should finish about the time of the election.

It may be tempting to see the fact that an election is being held as an optimistic sign for Fiji. The poll is the result of a Fiji Court of Appeal decision that the military-backed Government was illegal. The military, to its credit, has respected the rule of law. In the face of international pressure, it could have either called new elections or tried to form a new government of national unity under Mr Chaudhry. That second option, it seems, was unthinkable not only to the military but to an increasing number of indigenous Fijians.

When the Labour Party won the 1999 elections, Mr Rabuka observed that "the Fijians may not take it too kindly." Two years on, international condemnation of Speight and his policies appears to have had little effect. Indeed, political and racial polarisation seem to have increased, a trend that can only promote disharmony.

Just the other day Mr Rabuka voiced his worries about this tendency to the management of the STV party, the leading voice of indigenous Fijians. "Most ... at the meeting did not agree with the concerns I submitted," he observed.

A year on, Speight's attempted putsch remains mired in mystery. Was he merely an opportunist or the frontman for powerful figures? The truth may not emerge even from the preliminary inquiry. And even if Speight is jailed for treason, the damage may have been done. Racist doggerel of the sort that supports reserving the prime ministership for an indigenous Fijian under a new constitution is now common political currency. Speight has released the genie from the bottle and the future appears bleak indeed.

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