In the verbal sparring between the Fijian government and its mutinous military today, an interesting quote stood out. According to Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama,
"Democracy does not mean numbers in elections. Democracy is about good governance."
This is simply a perversion of the term. Democracy is first and foremost about the power of the people to appoint and control their rulers through regular, free and fair elections. That's what the word means - demoskratos - "(the) people rule". "Good governance" follows when the people use that power to chuck out corrupt, venal, and incompetent politicians in favour of better ones. Looking at history, this sometimes takes a while - it took the UK hundreds of years to establish a "clean" political culture and end the system of "rotten boroughs", patronage, kickbacks and corruption which held sway in its early Parliament, while in many ways the US still hasn't managed to do so. And while there are clear problems with Fiji's political institutions, the "solution" Bainimarama is proposing is worse than the disease. If he thinks the government is corrupt, then he should present evidence so they can be prosecuted. If he thinks the laws they are proposing are unconstitutional and illegal, he should take them to court and seek to have them overturned. But if at the end of the day this is about his disapproving of an elected government's chosen course of action - a course of action which is both legal and within their power to choose - then he should take off his uniform and fight them at the ballot box, rather than trying to hold a gun to people's heads until he gets his own way. Otherwise, he's not supporting democracy, but dictatorship.
people tend to confuse certain words, such as democracy, with the term "good stuff". So for a Bainimarama the word seems to mean good governance, to others it means all those things that they think are good (for example socialism etc). I think this cripples a lot of debates – particularly political ones.
ReplyDeleteas a neutral term of course it refers to the sum of the people controlling policy, even if they do things like use that power to do stupid or evil things.
Neither should the PM be appealing to the Great Council of Chiefs to resolve the issue. Or funding American evangelists who preach reconciliation with coupsters.
ReplyDeleteTribal hierarchies and religion still play a big role in Fiji politics. It is a fragile democracy and corruption is rife. Bainimarama's threat to use force against the elected government is wrong and anti-democratic. So, too, is the government's attempt to allow coupsters to evade the rule of law through the Reconciliation Bill.
Bainimarama is simply following the lead of the world's great democracies - Democracy is OK as long as the people elect the "right" government.
ReplyDeleteIf you're Palestinian or Spanish you made the wrong choice.
me thinks they need to read Orwell's essay, 'Politics and the English Language.'
ReplyDelete~ Josh
"Democracy is OK as long as the people elect the "right" government."
ReplyDeleteand then you have cases like Zimbabwe where "democratic" elections keep returning the "wrong" guy.
I must admit that I find this a terrible situation and certainly not as clear cut as is being made out.
The current Fijian givernment itself is rewarding *previous* coup instigators - and they are able to do so because of a geryymandered agreement that lead to the end of the 2000 coup. The crooks behind that coup and the attempts to murder the likes of Bainimarama (who stayed loyal) should be in gaol. I use the word "crook" advisedly as their concerns had very little to do with indigenous rights and more to do with lining their own pockets through the sale of Fijian timber.
Another coup would be pretty dreadful, but so would letting off the criminals behind the last coup.
Noddy: The current Fijian givernment itself is rewarding *previous* coup instigators
ReplyDeleteAs much as we might hate it, it is clearly within the constitutional power of the Fijian government to do this. They're corrupt, venal crooks, but they're elected corrupt, venal crooks, and the way to remove them is at the ballot box, not at gunpoint.
I/S sure, but by its actions the Fijian government is condoning coups. If they want to live by that particular sword then we should maybe not be too surprised if they passaway by it as well (figuratively speaking).
ReplyDeleteJosh - Great source, thx.
ReplyDeleteApart from nailing the spurious vague and emotive arguments nice around terms like democracy, he was a plain english advocate 50yrs ahead of the rest.
For others, link here:
www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm
Democracy is also about respecting rights, though - it doesn't give a license for oppressing minorities, even if the majority agrees. That would be undemocratic. I'm not saying thats the case in this situation but clearly there are limits, and in some cases that would justify violent resistance.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth remembering that American democracy began with the overthrow of a legitimate government. From the Preamble to the American Declaration of Independence:
ReplyDelete"Prudence indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security."
Perhaps that's where Bainimarama is coming from when he says democracy is about good governance, though he could hardly claim that Fiji is suffering under totalitarian rule.
One thing's for sure, poverty will rise with the increase in VAT from 10% to 15% announced in the budget this week and that won't help build stability in the Pacific.