The re-Mara-isation of Fiji

Also recently, the Great Council of Chiefs, after typical vacillation and indecision, finally announced its support for the Bainimarama coup, after executive authority was returned to the President, Ratu Josefa Ililo, and Commodore Frank took on the interim prime ministership. The GCC was later last week joined by the influential Methodist Church, and by the Catholic Church, both urging their members to pray for the interim government, while remaining opposed to the coup in principle.

Meanwhile, the military checkpoints strategically deployed around Suva and other key locations remain, driving peak hour commuters crazy; vocal opponents of the coup are out of the country, lying low, or being taken to military camps for a talking to and occasionally roughing up; some have been prevented from leaving Fiji; a small group of pro-democracy activists continue their Thursday lunchtime vigils at Suva's Anglican Cathedral; and Britain and New Zealand have relaxed their travel warnings somewhat. Australia's remain strongly in place, particularly for Suva, along with travel bans on the Fiji military and interim government officials, and the pragmatic as always business sector, particularly tourism operators, are quickly accommodating themselves to the new Fijian order. Oh, and Suva's water and electricity problems continue as if nothing has happened.

The coup's still in progress, as USP political sociologist, Dr Steven Ratuva, wrote in the Fiji Times a few weeks ago, and its consolidation and then governance transformation stages could take several years to run their courses.

Aside from the disgraceful monstering of its fairly few and harmless outspoken opponents, an emerging pattern of apparently random military intimidation needing prompt officer discipline to prevent, and its usurpation of civilian power, Commodore Bainamarama's coup appears to be proceeding along rather promising lines.