Former Fiji vice-president criticises interim government
Updated
One of Fiji's most respected political figures has called on the interim government to stop ignoring the issues facing people's lives here. Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi was Fiji's Vice President until Commodore Frank Bainimarama staged the country's fourth coup in 20 years, in 2006. His comments reflect a growing concern in Fiji that the interim government is growing too comfortable.
presenter: Campbell Cooney
speaker: Former Fiji vice-president Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi
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COONEY: A High Chief and former High Court justice, Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi was Fiji's Vice President until the December 2006 coup, when he was dismissed from office. He is one of Fiji's most respected political figures, and since the coup he has been critical of the actions of the military backed interim government. But it is criticism which is measured, and strategic, made during presentations and speeches, primarily delivered overseas. His views aren't a regular feature in Fiji's media, but when he does say something it is taken seriously.
This week it was a book launch in Suva where his latest concerns were raised. The book is a Fiji language edition of the "Tirukkural". It's a collection of short, rhyming verses, focusing on ethical and humanitarian issues, written around two thousand years ago in Southern India. It's hoped, publishing it in Fijian, and providing copies of it to schools will help end some of the ethnic division which still exists in the island nation. At the launch, the gathering of academics, diplomats and government officials, were left in little doubt about Ratu Joni's feelings about those divisions, and the part the current political situation in Fiji has played in enforcing them.
JONI: The recent coup has been divisive and there are still fractures in our midst. But there is also a significant amount of goodwill as well. The Tirukkural speaks to the goodness that is in all of us, we must persuade by reason and love and not by brute force, that which is imposed on us will not last but that which is freely consented to will. As a prominent member of the Indo-Fijian community has funded this project reflects a confidence in the relationship of all our communities at a basic everyday level whatever the temperature of the political climate.
COONEY: Since I arrived in Fiji this week, people I've spoken to say they believe the interim government has stopped listening. They feel concerns about the economy, jobs, the cost of living, crime and their children's future, are being ignored by a military backed interim government comfortable in its role, and happy with the power it holds.
Many now feel the military, and its leaders, have no intention of getting out of government any time soon, despite what they tell people at home and governments overseas. But concerns about the repercussions for themselves and their families, if they speak out, means those conversations are definitely off the record. At the book launch in Suva, in the politest and most diplomatic way Ratu Joni put a voice to the worries of many Fijians.
JONI: And those who presently govern us must show good faith and not take advantage of our stoicism and our apparent acceptance of all that has happened, and a convenient means of extending their tenure in power. Power is a trust that is so easily and readily abused, more so in situations where a government is only answerable to itself like a mindless echo.
