Hoist by their own petard

When Fiji finally began its most recent transition to democracy in 2013, the coup regime stacked the deck in their favour, with a draconian political parties decree intended to outlaw the opposition. Dictator Voreqe Bainimarama then founded his own political party, FijiFirst, which subsequently held power until 2022. So its a delicious irony to see that party deregistered today, under Bainimarama's own anti-party law, for failing to comply with basic legal requirements around its constitution.

The proximate cause is an internal party dispute over MPs voting themselves a pay rise in violation of a party directive, which should have triggered Fiji's strict anti-party-hopping laws. But as a result of this dispute, the supervisor of elections finally noticed that the party constitution statutorily-required dispute resolution mechanisms. They were given a month to remedy this, but a mass-resignation of party officials prevented this, and as a result, the party has been dissolved. Its MPs will now be allowed to join new parties or become independents.

You may wonder how the party was registered at all if it had never had the required clauses in its constitution. The answer is simple: the regime's laws did not apply to the regime. The regime appointed the supervisor of elections, who ruthlessly enforced the law against the opposition (resulting at times in parties being kicked out of parliament). But it was never applied to FijiFirst, and clearly no-one ever bothered to even look at their constitution when the party was registered. That changed with FijiFirst's 2022 election loss, and the subsequent sacking of their election supervisor. Now there's some neutrality, and the regime's party is subject to the law like everybody else.

So now Bainimarama is in jail, his henchman Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum seems headed that way too, and his party has been dissolved. Hopefully the survivors of that party can build some new ones, and finally free Fiji of the legacy of the military regime.

Justice for Bainimarama!

In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs.

Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of overthrowing Fiji's democracy (he wrote himself an amnesty clause in his unilaterally-imposed constitution for that). Instead its for a minor incident later, where he perverted the course of justice by investigation into financial mismanagement at the University of the South Pacific. The habits built up as a military leader and a dictator - of authoritarian command, and protecting his cronies while punishing his enemies - turned out to be illegal. And when democracy was finally restored with the 2022 election, and he could no longer lean on the police and judges, he finally faced justice.

Its like Al Capone going to jail for tax evasion. But its good enough. And maybe now Fiji will be able to overturn his self-serving "amnesty" and prosecute him for his real crimes.

A dictator falls

At the end of last year, Fijian dictator Voreqe Bainimarama lost an election, and his grip on power. He didn't cope with the change very well, giving a speech denouncing Fiji's president which saw him suspended from parliament. While I was concerned about the length of the suspension, the point is now moot, because yesterday he resigned. And tonight, he's in a jail cell, having been charged with abuse of office for squashing a police investigation into fraud at the University of the South Pacific.

In a perfect world, Bainimarama would be charged with treason for his coup, and be in a cell next to George Speight. But he wrote himself and his fellow military criminals an amnesty not just for the coup, but for the years of torture which followed, which still hasn't been unravelled. Still, this is good enough. There'll be some justice, and if it sticks, maybe he'll get that cell next to Speight after all. And after all, they eventually got Al Capone for tax evasion...

OTOH, George Speight has now served twenty years, which is honestly long enough for what he did, and following the change of government there's no longer a dictator-shaped barrier to parole. Which means Bainimarama may be all alone. But hopefully other former members of his coup regime will soon be joining him...

A bad start for Fiji's democracy

Earlier in the week, former Fijian dictator (and now opposition leader) Voreqe Bainimarama gave a speech in parliament where he attacked Fiji's president for supporting the outcome of democratic elections and called on the military to carry out another coup to overturn them (and presumably return him to power). The speech violated the Fijian parliament's standing orders, which prohibit bringing the head of state into debate, as well as treasonous words, and he was referred to the privileges committee. Today, it recommended that he be suspended from parliament for three years, a recommendation which has just been confirmed by the House.

When he was in power, Bainimarama was ruthless in using suspension from parliament as a weapon against his enemies. In 2016 he had Tupou Draunidalo suspended for the rest of the term for objecting to one of his Ministers referring to the opposition as "dumb natives". She ended up resigning. In 2019 he assaulted NFP MP Pio Tikoduadua in the parliamentary precinct, then had him suspended for six months refusing to apologise to his attacker (the assault was captured on video. The parliamentary staffers who videoed it were fired). But as much as I enjoy seeing the dictator hoist by his own petard, this is excessive. While suspending an MP may be justified for a severe breach of standing orders, long suspensions of MPs are fundamentally unjust and undemocratic and effectively strip voters of their democratic representation. 136,829 people voted for Bainimarama at the last election. And their votes have now effectively been rendered null and void by the Fijian parliament's unjust and vindictive punishment. And that's a very bad start for Fiji's democracy.

Democracy returns to Fiji?

In December 2006 then-Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrew Fiji's elected government in a military coup. While Fiji officially returned to democracy in 2014 with new elections, post-coup decrees on political parties, public meetings, and freedom of expression kept the opposition out. But now, its over: Fiji went to the polls last week, and despite opposition candidates being arrested and a convenient election-night "anomaly" with the results, produced a hung Parliament. And now, after a few days, the party holding the balance of power - SODELPA, the successor to the government which was overthrown in 2006 - has made its decision, and there's the happy sight of every opposition political party uniting to throw out Bainimarama and the coup regime. After 16 years, Fiji will finally be getting a new Prime Minister: Sitiveni Rabuka. Yes, this guy:

On the morning of 14 May, around 10 am, a section of ten masked, armed soldiers entered the Fijian House of Representatives and subdued the national legislature, which had gathered there for its morning session. Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, dressed in civilian clothes, approached Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra from his position in the public gallery and ordered the members of parliament to leave the building. They did so without resisting. The coup was an apparent success and had been accomplished without loss of life.

There's been a lot of water under the bridge since then, including seven years in which Rabuka was elected Prime Minister (under a stacked constitution he wrote, just like Bainimarama did), and apparently he now regrets his actions, but still: couldn't they find anyone better? Anyone not... tainted by dictatorship and authoritarianism?

Still, this is a moment of hope: the coup regime is out. Fiji once again has a chance to move back towards being a normal democracy. Hopefully the military won't fuck it up for them this time.

Fiji's election "anomaly"

Fijians went to the polls yesterday in the third post (latest) coup election. In the leadup to the poll, the (now elected) coup regime arrested opposition candidates and there were allegations that regime Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had visisted the ballot-printing centre and ordered the CCTV cameras turned off while he was there. Last night, the release of initial results was delayed. And then this happened:

Initial results indicated a strong, then very strong showing for opposition parties, before the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) advised of issues with the provisional count at around midnight last night.

Elections supervisor Mohammad Saneem held a press conference late in the evening, saying the FEO had detected an anomaly in the system.

"To cure this, Fijian Elections Office had to review the entire mechanism through which we were pushing our results," Mr Saneem said.

[...]

The updated provisional results published early this morning, with about 60 per cent of polling venues counted, showed a surge in votes for the incumbent ruling party.

Fiji First, led by incumbent Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, was narrowly ahead with 45 per cent of votes when the FEO announced it would stop processing provisional results this morning.

All of which invites the suspicion that the "anomaly" was that the wrong people were winning, and that the regime chose the Mexican solution: a "computer problem" followed by new results. And the opposition is already planning to challenge the results on exactly that basis (whether they'll get justice in regime courts with regime judges is another question).

There are international observers present, so it will be very interesting to see what they have to say about this "anomaly", and about whether the poll was free and fair and the results honest.

Fiji: Criminalising the opposition again

The Fijian government has introduced a Code of Conduct Bill, ostensibly setting standards for politicians and public servants and a body to receive complaints about them. But when you read the fine print, it turns out that its just a trojan horse for punishing people who complain about the government:

The bill lays out codes of conduct for public servants, politicians and judges as well as rules for a new Accountability and Transparency Commission which would enforce the code.

Under the bill, the commission must refer complaints it believes are malicious or politically motivated to Fiji's Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) and anyone found guilty would be liable to a fine of up to $FJ10,000 or up to five years in jail.

The terms "malicious" and "politically motivated" were not defined in the bill, Mr Naidu said.

Here it is worth noting that any criticism of the government by the opposition is deemed "malicious" and "politically motivated" by the former. So, if they make a formal complaint, they can be jailed (and unseated, and barred from public office) for it. Which when you look at the actual power of the ATC - all they can do is report things to the Fiji "Independent" Commission Against Corruption, and they are not allowed to investigate issues which have been raised in the media or with anyone else first - then it seems that jailing people who make complaints is the whole point of the exercise. The net result? Rather than building trust and accountability, it erodes them.

There's more from Richard Naidu about the bill here.

The Fijian election

Fijians went to the polls yesterday in the second elections since the 2006 coup. While bad weather forced polling to be suspended in some areas, and the final count is not yet in, the provisional results show coup-leader Voreqe Bainimarama's FijiFirst party has retained its majority. The iTaukei SODELPA party, led by another former coup-leader Sitiveni Rabuka looks likely to be the main opposition, with about 38% of the vote, the Ind-Fijian National Federation Party coming third on 7.5%. There's 30% of the vote left to be counted, and things would have to shift significantly for FijiFirst to be forced into coalition.

FijiFirst threw everything it had at this election, unsuccessfully trying to convict the leader of the opposition over his asset declaration (which, if successful, would have disqualified him from the poll and made all votes for him invalid, costing SODELPA around half its total vote), and prosecuting another high-profile SODELPA candidate for sedition (again, unsuccessfully), and disqualifying former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry from competing. Fiji's election system is built entirely on candidate recognition, with most votes going to party leaders - for example, ~over 70% of FijiFirst's votes were cast for Bainimarama - so eliminating high-profile candidates can have hugely disproportionate effects. And with their dirty tactics, they've managed to just retain power. Which suggests that in a fair election, they might not be so lucky. While none of Fiji's political parties is especially appealing, in order for the coup legacy to end, its architects need to be de-elected. The sooner that happens, the better.

A victory for freedom of the press in Fiji

For the past three weeks, Fiji Times executives and journalists have been on trial for sedition over a letter to the editor that they published. Today, they were acquitted:

Fiji's High Court has found three executives of The Fiji Times newspaper and another man not guilty of sedition.

The four men, and the newspaper itself, were charged with sedition over a letter published in the indigenous language publication Nai Lalakai in 2016.

[...]

During a three-week trial the prosecution had argued the aim of the letter was to sow feelings of ill-will towards Muslim Fijians.

But in handing down his verdict, Justice Thushara Rajasinghe said, "the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the letter was seditious" and he acquitted all four men of the charge.

Its a clear victory for freedom of the press, and an unexpected one - the Fijian judiciary is not noted for its independence (in part because they hire judges on short-term contracts, rather than appointing them for life). And I'm now wondering whether Justice Rajasinghe will have his contract renewed, or whether he'll effectively be fired by the government for failing to punish its enemies.

Fiji: You are not allowed to talk about torture

Last year, Fiji finally ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, almost thirty years after other countries had done it. At the time, they said they were goign to outlaw torture in Fiji. Instead, it seems they've outlawed protesting against it:

A man has been detained by Fiji police after making a lone protest march to mark the UN Day in support of Victims of Torture.

Jope Koroisavou was walking along the pavements of downtown Suva carrying banners with the names of men who have died in Fiji after alleged torture by the state.

The SODELPA youth wing leader was also carrying the Morning Star flag, used by supporters of West Papuan independence, which is banned in Indonesia's Papua region.

Mr Koroisavou's friend Viliame Waka said Mr Koroisavou was detained at the Suva central police station.

"Two guys came out of the 4x4 and took him. He was just crossing to cross and then the police came on the scene. He was alone. I thought it was really brave of him but ... plus today is a day of remembrance of all those who are tortured."

Viliame Waka said Mr Koroisavou was not disrupting traffic during his protest.

He has since been released, after two days of questioning, but it really makes you wonder about Fiji's commitment to ending torture - and to freedom of speech. After all, when you can't criticise the government for torturing people, what can you do?

Fiji: Going backwards

When Fiji was openly a military dictatorship, they banned criticism of the regime through formal censorship. Now they're supposedly a democracy, they're planning to ban criticism of parliament:

Under clause 24 of the [Parliamentary Powers and Privileges] Bill, any person whose words or actions defames, demean or undermine the sanctity of Parliament, the Speaker or a committee commits an offence and is liable upon conviction to a fine not exceeding $30,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to both, and in the case of a body corporate, to a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for each director and manager for a term not exceeding five years, or to both.

The purported power to prevent criticism of parliament is inconsistent with democracy. The penalties are simply draconian. The entire bill is an affront to the right of free expression affirmed in Fiji's constitution. But since when has Frank Bainamarama ever cared about that?

Embarrassing

Australia persecutes refugees by imprisoning them indefinitely in Pacific concentration camps. And now that has led to the obvious next step: someone has escaped one and claimed refugee status on the basis of that persecution:

A young Iranian refugee who was held on Manus Island for more than three years has fled to Fiji, where he is seeking asylum on the grounds he fears persecution if he goes back to Papua New Guinea.

"This is the end for me," said Loghman Sawari, whose time in PNG has been punctuated by beatings, bullying, imprisonment, illness, suicide attempts and living on the street in Lae, one of the country's most dangerous cities.

The 21-year-old Ahwazi Arab managed to board a plane under a false name after he said he was threatened by a PNG immigration official and lost hope of being resettled in the United States under President Donald Trump.

He has a good case: the UN has found that the camps constitute torture, while it is clear that refugees face ongoing persecution from an overwhelmingly hostile Papuan population. Legally, that should be enough for refugee status. Which is embarrassing for Australia that they're now the sort of country people can credibly claim asylum from.

Its time we ended this, by rescuing these people from Australian torture. Australia doesn't want them, PNG doesn't want them. We should take them and show them the basic humanity our neighbours are refusing to.

(And remember: until Australia reverses its racist anti-refugee policies, don't buy Australian).

Fiji: Still a dictatorship

Today's reminder that Fiji is not a democracy: A Canadian woman living in Fiji appeared before a Parliamentary Select Committee and criticised government policy. So the government deported her:

A Canadian woman living in Fiji has been forcibly deported just hours after appearing before a parliamentary select committee.

Karen Seaton, who holds a Fiji residency permit, was taken from her Suva hotel and forced onto a plane to Los Angeles without any explanation.

You can see exactly how this happened: someone important heard of the evidence and was upset, so they picked up the phone and called in the thugs. Because that's how things work in Fiji: its a dictatorship.

Its not just contemptuous of free speech - it is a clear contempt of parliament (interfering with a committee witness is a slam-dunk contempt, and Fiji nominally shares enough of the Westminster constitutional tradition for that to be the case). But in Fiji, the regime is above the law. Parliament's rules are there to be used against the regime's enemies, not to protect the operation of parliamentary democracy.

Fiji: Ten years on

Ten years ago today, the Fijian military overthrew its elected government to establish itself as a dictatorship. And ten years later, it is still in charge. Oh, there are officially elections now, and Parliament has been "restored", but Fiji is not a democracy. Political competition was hobbled to ensure that the dictators won while soldiers "monitored" opposition meetings in the name of "national security". The opposition still faces persecution and arrest, and opposition MPs who actually oppose the government are thrown out of Parliament. Meanwhile the police and military torture with impunity while an amnesty decree has allowed the military to literally get away with murder.

The coup happened because Frank Bainimarama thought he knew better than the elected government how the country should be run. It was fundamentally illegitimate. Political legitimacy comes from the consent of the people, not from torture and guns.

As for a way forward, Bainimarama and his cronies need to stand trial, and the country's utterly pointless military needs to be disbanded. Until that happens, there will always be a weapon pointed at Fiji's democracy, and people will know they can get away with using it. This is about as likely as turkeys voting for christmas, but we can always hope...

Justice for Vilikesa Soko

In August 2014, Fijian police arrested Vilikesa Soko in connection with a robbery. They then beat and raped him to death. Yesterday, eight police officers and a solider were sentenced to between seven and nine years jail for that crime:

Eight police officers and a military officer convicted of rape, sexual assault and perverting the course of justice in Fiji have been given custodial sentences by the Lautoka High Court.

The nine men attacked two prisoners, one of whom, Vilikesa Soko, died of his injuries while in custody in Lautoka Hospital in August 2014.

But note what they weren't sentenced for: murder. Despite beating and raping him so badly that he died, charges of manslaughter were inexplicibly dropped. And it will be interesting to see whether these criminals will serve their sentences, or be pardoned by the regime (the solider is a former bodyguard to Frank Bainimarama).

Vilikesa Soko's death wasn't political. Fiji's police routinely beat and torture suspects, with the result that serious charges are frequently dropped due to the "confessions" being inadmissible. Hopefully these convictions will help change that pattern.

Why are the NZ police working for Fiji's despot?

Radio New Zealand reports this morning that an online critic of Fiji's regime was approached by New Zealand police and warned to tone down his posts:

An advisor to two former Fiji Prime Ministers says the New Zealand police have asked him to tone down his Facebook page which posts messages criticising the current Fiji government.

Shailendra Raju used to work for the deposed prime minister Laisenia Qarase and is involved with the Fiji Labour Party. He now lives in New Zealand.

He said the police approached him in August about his postings.

Mr Raju said he had not broken any laws but now had a mutual understanding with the New Zealand authorities.

Raju's Facebook page is here. He's a racist, anti-Muslim bigot (sadly, Fijian politics has become more racist and bigoted since the coup, on both sides). His numerous posts criticise the government for corruption, disrespect for the rule of law, and attacks on Fiji's indigenous people. But having skimmed back to July, there's no obvious threats of violence or anything which could be considered illegal in New Zealand. Which invites the question: why are the New Zealand Police "warning" people about behaviour which does not violate the law? And isn't this a direct and unlawful interference with the right to freedom of expression?

Criticising the government and saying nasty things about Fiji's Attorney-General may be a crime in Fiji, but it isn't one here. Unless there is a clear incitement to violence in New Zealand, this is none of the police's business.

We should not welcome a dictator

Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has been acting like a dictator again, shutting down meetings, arresting opposition leaders, and suspending opposition MPs from parliament for pretend offences. So naturally, John Key isn't just going to let him into New Zealand, but give him a state welcome too:

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama will likely receive a state welcome when he visits New Zealand for the All Blacks test.

Talk of the abrasive leader's visit has been circling for months and on Tuesday Key confirmed it was "highly likely" he would come for the Bledisloe Cup match at Eden Park on October 22.

Fijian media reported he would leave later this week to make an official visit to Australia, where he is opening a symposium in Sydney, and then go on to New Zealand where he would make a speech in Auckland.

Fuck that. Bainimarama is a dictator and he should not be welcome in New Zealand. Our government should not grovel to foreign authoritarian bullies.

Fiji is not a democracy

The Fijian regime has just abused its Parliamentary majority to kick an opposition MP out of Parliament:

Fiji's parliament has voted out a third opposition MP, dismissing calls that a suspension until the end of the term is too harsh.

Sodelpa's Ratu Isoa Tikoca went before the Privileges Committee this week over his speech in July which government members branded as racist.

Ratu Isoa was found to have breached parliament's freedom of speech rules by his listing of Muslim officials serving in high offices.

You don't need to support Tikoca's speech to think that this is unacceptable and undemocratic. Whatever his views, he was elected by voters. The Fijian regime has effectively vetoed their decision - and in the process, denied those voters their voice in Parliament (while bolstering their own numbers, of course).

This isn't an isolated incident. The regime has indefinitely suspended two other opposition MPs on similar pretexts - in one case apparently because they responded in kind to government insults. The overall impression is of a regime intent on silencing the opposition and disenfranchising their voters. And that simply isn't democratic.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand government is trying to mend fences with Fiji. It shouldn't be. While they've held elections, the regime's behaviour shows that they're a long way from democratic norms. Our sanctions should be reimposed until they start behaving properly.

Frank Bainimarama should not be welcome in New Zealand

Over the weekend Fiji took another step back towards dictatorship with the arrest of the leaders of all opposition political parties, apparently for taking part in a forum which discussed Fiji's constitution. They have since been released, after being detained without charge for 48 hours, but it casts Fiji's status as a democracy in grave doubt. To point out the obvious, in a democracy people should be able to discuss changing the constitution by peaceful, democratic means without fear of arrest or prosecution. Clearly, that is not true in Fiji.

Coincidentally, Fijian Prime Minister (and former dictator) Frank Bainimarama is scheduled for a state visit to New Zealand next week. Labour's David Shearer suggests that this visit should be cancelled, and he's right. Given Fiji's questionable democratic status, we should not be rewarding its leadership with state visits - and if the persecution of the opposition increases, we should be re-imposing sanctions and travel bans.

More torture in Fiji

Last year, Rajneel Singh was tortured by Fijian police after reporting plans to destabilise the Government found on a compute rin his internet cafe. And now they've done it again:

A Fiji businessman was left for dead after being attacked in his home on Tuesday allegedly by security forces.

Rajneel Singh had earlier blown the whistle on an assassination attempt against senior members of the Fiji government.

Mr Singh's lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh confirmed Mr Singh was attacked in his home on Tuesday afternoon.

A video also emerged on social media showing the attack and his lawyer has confirmed it is genuine.

[...]

In the latest incident Mr Ravindra-Singh says two men in police attire arrived at Mr Singh's home while his family were out.

He said Mr Singh was beaten, a plastic bag was tied over his head, his hands and legs tied and he was left to choke.

"This was an attempted murder on Mr Singh," said Mr Ravindra-Singh.

Meanwhile, the government has restored relations with Fiji. Shame that John Key's new best friend is a torturer. We really shouldn't be talking to a regime which encourages or permits this.