Fiji: Backwards to barbarism

Floggings. Forced labour. Dress codes for women. Taliban Afghanistan? No - it's Bainimarama's latest plan for Fiji:

VILLAGERS who break the law will be flogged in public under proposed village bylaws.

But flogging will only be used as a form of punishment if the accused refuses to have his or her case referred to the criminal court.

Other penalties will require offenders to work on a farming quota or clean the village.

[...]

Also included in the bylaws are dress codes which will stop women from wearing long and short pants or short dresses.

Men will not be allowed to wear headgear unless this is approved by the turaga ni koro.

This plan would turn every village chief into a little Bainimarama, enforcing their whim through brutality and sadism. Fiji's dictator is remaking its society in his own image. As for the dress codes, I guess if there aren't enough petty criminals around, they get to subjugate and victimise women instead. Bainimarama calls this modernizing Fiji. But it is simply a return to barbarism.