The Economist ran as its cover story this week a feature on the struggle between left and right in the Chinese Communist Party over a law on property rights. The ChiChomms (I feel relaxed and comfortable using this abbreviation since Peter Costello has taken us back to the fifties with his “Reds under the beds” mudslinging) are well known for repression of dissent and human rights abuses, and the suppression of the intertubes. In fact, when Howard wants to claim that our foreign policy is somehow distinguishable from that of Bush, he points to China. Yes, folks, we care even less about human rights in China than does our “great mate”. Yet, our modest Commonwealth is normally hailed by the Dear Leader and Dolly as having its own “sphere of influence” in the Pacific – “good governance” is our civilising mission, lest countries like Tonga and Fiji become failed states and terrsts take shelter (or more likely, people with dark skins want to immigrate here without “waiting their turn” etc, etc). When the Fiji coup happened last year, Dolly couldn’t have spoken with a louder foghorn (there was even a bit of gunboat diplomacy) about what steps Australia and New Zealand would take to restore democracy. All that now seems forgotten. Kiwi blog No Right Turn reports on the silencing of the blogosphere in Fiji:
Last week the Fijian military went hunting for the authors of the blog Intelligentsiya, accusing them of accusing them of “portraying a negative image of the Interim Government”. They haven’t caught them yet, but their hunt has had other results: Fijian blogger Ms Vakaivosavosa, who had previously been a strong critic of the coup and interim regime, has decided to call it a day rather than risk being dragged in for supporting “incitement”.
So, in the space of just four months, Fiji has gone from a (albeit flawed) democracy to a place where people are afraid to criticise the government for fear of being dragged from their beds in the middle of the night. And some people still consider Commodore Bainimarama to be a “progressive” dictator…?
Good post.
The question, of course, is what else Australia should be doing about the situation in Fiji. Is there anything more that can be done?
And that’s a good question. I don’t know the answer. But surely if the government and the media were to keep the issue (and the abridgement of fundamental liberties) in the public eye, then that would add to pressure. Both have gone quiet, as far as I can see.
Yes, there is something else Australia can do, get that buffoon Downer out of his position and out of Australian politics, this idiot is hated in the Pacific and that reflects on all of us, what a bloody clown, what a bloody ponce..Mind you the Rodent gives this moron his dog whistle and Downer , yapping and pissing goes crapping on our neighbours and humping the Rodents leg. Makes me bloody sick.
This is an important issue. Australia doesn’t have the option of not being involved because our previous involvement in regional politics means that we are all implicated in whatever human rights abuses now take place. Australian influence has set these events in motion. Unfortunately we don’t seem to have an adequate public understanding of our quasi-imperial position, and it isn’t aided by the fact that Australia is always characterised as a small country in the grand scheme of things. The current government has done little, rhetorically, to change this. We are punching above our weight economically and in terms of regional influence. This is one context where Australians need to think of themselves at more than the national level.
I stopped visiting the place when Rabuka pulled out his gun for the first time and deposed the Fiji Labour Party Government all those years ago.
Buggered if I’ll be back too.
The place has been like something out of Gilbert and Sullivan since. Bainimarama is just the latest in what no doubt will be a long line of little tin-pot dictators, all deposing Parliament, grabbing at the treasury cash-box and wanting to the the Ruler of the Queen’s Naveee.
As for what we can do: Nothing-much. They’ll have to fix themselves.
I thought that was the lesson of Iraq, wasn’t it? You can’t fix other people’s problems by force. If you try, no matter how well-intentioned you may be (and I don’t beleive we were well-intentioned in Iraq at all), you just end-up resented by one or other or both sides.
The Fiji people will wake-up one day, decide they’re tired of being a laughing stock and do something about it. Getting their army to behave and to accept duly-elected civilian command would be a good start.
But until they do,I would not be in favour of expending Australian lives and treasure in trying to make the military there behave themselves by force.
We might publicise the goings-on there and try to stop the International Arms trade flogging-stuff to them, but direct military action is a no-no.
Anything else turns you into Cecil Rhodes, and I think we’re a well past the White Man’s Burden thingie.
Agreed, Evan, but let’s get with the publicising! And I’m sure there are heaps of diplomatic channels that could be explored.
As Hugo Chaves is a populist militarist and Bob Brown, here in Oz, has already voted to censor the net I think – as leftists – we may have to reconsider the ‘progressive dicatator’ statist, top-down, command-and-control, representational ,trad-bourgeois, Marxist model of rapid evolution.
Democratic – socialists might want to consider the Zapatistic directly democratic, anti-state, grass-roots, bottom-up model and Libertarian-socialists more classic guerrilla warfare and more propaganda-of-the-deed.
That would be the truly progressive way, imo, to tread water until the cavalry* arrives. ( *The first world wide social revolution arrives)
Local State dictatorship bad – Intercommunal social revolution good.
Countries bad – federations good
Army bad – internet good
Dictators bad – bloggers good, and so on. The politicians around here nearly all seem to have a fear and loathing of the net that is looking increasingly pathological for many. They could require interventions for rehab and yes…re-education.
I agree that military action is no kind of answer, Evan, but it is difficult to argue for a totally hands-off approach, since it’s been hands on for half a century now. We are already Cecil Rhodes!
There is some aid money floating around: perhaps it could be targeted towards projects that help develop the existing forms of civil society? I don’t think there is the domestic will in Australia to fund critical media or oppositional politics though.
Blogosphere means more than just 2 blogs. Fiji has about 17 or some of which are still blogging. Perhaps you were expecting some to be frog-marched to prison.