ACT Party leader Don Brash promised that he would encourage the Government to re-engage with Fiji if his Party returned to Parliament after the general election on November 26.
“This would be in the interest of both Fiji and New Zealand,” he said, addressing a dinner meeting organised by Friends of Fiji and Fiji People’s Group at the Chandni Chowk Event Centre in the South Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe on September 23.
Dr Brash was critical of New Zealand’s policy towards Fiji, which he said was harmful to the interests of both countries.
He criticised New Zealand’s foreign policy as inconsistent.
“New Zealand does not ban visits by the leaders of countries which fail to live up to our standards of democracy. We have normal relationships with countries that have a wide range of systems, some of which are even brutal dictatorships,” he said.
According to Dr Brash, it was clear that most of Fiji’s immediate neighbours wanted to engage constructively with Suva.
He said that at a recent Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) meeting in Fiji, representatives of 11 Pacific Island countries had expressed their support to allow Fiji to to seek its homegrown solution towards parliamentary elections.
The Sydney-based Lowy Institute for International Policy Survey on Fiji released in August did not escape Dr Brash’s observations.
“The Survey found that 75% of Indo-Fijians and 60% of indigenous Fijians felt that (Commodore Josaia Voreqe) Bainimarama was doing a ‘good’ or ‘very good job’ as Prime Minister. Despite all the objections and criticisms, the regime enjoyed popular support within Fiji,” he said.
He attributed political instability and ‘coup culture’ to Fiji’s constitutional arrangements, which was designed to entrench the power of indigenous Fijians and traditional chiefs.
Equal Rights for all
He said Mr Bainimarama wanted a ‘colour blind’ constitution that granted equality to all Fijian citizens.
“The objective of ‘People’s Charter for Change, Peace and Progress’ was to rebuild Fiji into a nation that sought progress and prosperity through merit-based equality of opportunity and peace.”
Dr Brash recorded good attributes of Fiji’s Charter for Change, which wished Fiji to remove all race-based and narrow communal considerations. He said Fiji’s electoral system was racially discriminatory and undemocratic.
“The current communal system of representation entrenches inequalities, not providing one value for one vote, has contributed to the ‘coup culture.’
“The Charter wished to remove ethnic-based politics that has impeded Fiji’s development and to have a free and fair electoral process that promoted a united
Fiji based on equal identity,” he said.
Dr Brash equated this vision for equality in Fiji’s Charter to his Party’s manifesto.
“A constitution where every citizen is equal under the law is exactly what the ACT Party stands for in New Zealand – one law for all, irrespective of race and irrespective of when people arrived in New Zealand,” he said.
He added that he had read the ‘People’s Charter’ and found hardly a word that required change.
Indian candidate
ACT MP John Boscawen (who has since announced his decision to retire from politics and not contest in the ensuing election), former Auckland Mayor and the Party’s Epsom candidate John Banks, electoral candidate Pratima Nand (Mt Roskill) and a number of Indo-Fijian community leaders were present at the dinner.
Earlier, former Fiji resident and diplomat Surendra Sharma said the New Zealand government’s policy of non-engagement and so-called ‘smart sanctions’ treating Fiji as a rogue nation and a pariah, was the reason why the concerned group decided to invite Dr Brash to the meeting.
He said the objective of his Group was to make fellow kiwis and political leaders aware of Fiji’s fundamental issues and their help in opening up dialogue.
Political commentator and academic Subhash Appana said that outsiders had imposed models of democracy on Fiji in the past.
“Fiji now wishes to have its own home-grown solution and New Zealand should offer its support in this process,” he said.
Thakur Ranjit Singh is a political and media commentator based in Auckland.
Email: thakurji@xtra.co.nz
