Radio Current Affairs Documentary: Fiji and Australia’s reaction
ELIZABETH JACKSON: This year marks the fifth anniversary of the military coup in Fiji. Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrew the democratically elected government of Laisenia Qarase on the fifth of December back in 2006. Most Australians probably know Fiji as a pleasant place for a holiday. but increasingly Australians have been affected by what’s happening in the South Pacific nation.Bruce Hill reports.(Music plays: “Fiji Coup” by the Rodrigo Brothers. “There’s nothing we can do, about the Fiji coup. It’s not up to us…”)BRUCE HILL: They are indeed having a few in Fiji but as for there being nothing we can do, let’s not be so sure. Certainly the people protesting outside Fiji’s diplomatic missions in Sydney and Canberra earlier this year felt this was an issue Australia should take a stand on. Paddy Crumlin, president of the International Transport Workers’ Federation, addressed the rally outside the Fiji Consulate in Sydney, and he was passionate in his denunciation of what he saw as the coup-installed military government’s crackdown of union rights.PADDY CRUMLIN: One of the problems here in this country, we’re so obsessed with our own internal machinations, that we forget that there’s a real world out there. It’s no good just to jump on a plane and go over to Fiji and ignore the human rights’ abuses and the fact that it is a bullying, cajoling government that is determined, not only to remove the rights of trade unionists and workers but also the freedom and assembly of churches and religious freedom, so I mean this a matter of getting Australians to look out externally and accept their responsibilities, particularly within our own region.BRUCE HILL: the interim government there says that they took power to try and introduce a non-racial Fiji; they were trying to actually improve the situation there.PADDY CRUMLIN: Oh that’s nonsense; I mean they’re just a military dictatorship that’s taken over the country to preserve their own elitism. That’s the reality and they’ve been doing it for a long time before 2006. I mean that’s just naive to the ultimate, to think that’s what it’s about. It’s just about power and preserving power and those tribal elites, always has been.And unless we go and do something about it, the only way you can do it is through action of boycott, personal boycott, economic boycott and industrial boycott. This government, this dictatorship has been in place since 2006 and they are getting more aggressive, more belligerent and through the latest legislative changes, and now the jailing of these trade unionists, that is clear that it is a rapidly deteriorating situation.BRUCE HILL: so why would people in this country get so worked up about events in Fiji? Australia may be a middle-ranked power by world standards, but in the Pacific it’s a giant. especially when the region’s other developed country, new Zealand, is included, which in the Pacific it almost always is.after the coup, Canberra and Wellington imposed what they call “smart sanctions” targeted at members of the Fiji regime and their families, preventing them from travelling through either country. with air links set up the way they are, that’s a major inconvenience. but trade and aid has not been interfered with.still, the travel bans clearly irritate the authorities in Suva, with interim Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum saying the country is ready to work with Australia and new Zealand once they treat Fiji as their equal. he says he’s frustrated with both countries and will only work with them if their attitudes towards Fiji change.AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: the fact is that the new Zealand government and Australian authorities failed to engage with Fiji. Equally they seem to always be pontificating. They do not have a willingness to engage on a level playing field. It’s either their way or no other way.In particular it’s the new Zealand media, has completely failed to be independent. In fact their approach to Fiji has been rather pedestrian, including some sections of the Australian media also – the lack of willingness to find out what is actually happening in Fiji. what they have simply done is followed the foreign policy of their governments.BRUCE HILL: the Australian Government has stuck firmly to its guns over Fiji for the past five years, but as time has gone on there’s been more and more activity aimed at Fiji by nongovernment groups, unions, churches and the legal profession.That’s actually the real story about the impact the Fiji coup has had on Australia and new Zealand – it’s provoked much more engagement and activity from civil society and individuals than from governments necessarily.Several groups of Fiji ?migr?s living here and in new Zealand have been formed to agitate for a swift return to democracy. They have not been very effective, partially because they can’t agree amongst themselves what it is they want to achieve.at one stage it was grandly announced that pro-democracy groups had been formed, but that collapsed when one of the groups named, the Fiji Freedom and Democracy Movement, based here in Australia, insisted that they had nothing to do with it. Its president, Suliasi Daunitutu, says there was a meeting of several organisations in Auckland during the Pacific Island Forum leaders meeting, and there were arguments about the idea of forming a government in exile.SULIASI DAUNITUTU: on Saturday I was the president of the democracy movement, new Zealand wasn’t there. It actually ended up in a very nasty way, that meeting. We walked out me and Colonel JB (Jone Baledrokadroka), walked out in a very angry mood because of what happened.They actually tried to put us in a spot where we could be, well we saw that as you said we are part of that meeting, but we really are not. I have told them at that meeting that I’m going to come back and ask all the members of the democracy movement in Australia about the concept and if they agree, then we will be part of it, otherwise we will stay with the vision and the concept that the democracy movement has already formed.BRUCE HILL: along with ?migr? pro-democracy groups squabbling amongst themselves, Australia has also seen attempts by individual Fiji citizens living in Australia trying to stay, on the grounds that they would face persecution if they returned home.One of them, Inoke Qarau, reportedly went on hunger strike while in Sydney’s Villawood detention centre, insisting he’d face problems if he were deported to Fiji because he talked to the Australian media about the treatment he says he and others received at the hands of the authorities after the 2006 coup. a Fijian pastor assisting him, Livai Leone, described Mr Qarau’s reaction to the deportation order.LIVAI LEONE: We can’t find a way out of this because he’s protesting; if he go back to Fiji he will surely face persecution.BRUCE HILL: why will he face persecution if he goes back to Fiji?LIVAI LEONE: Well, he was tortured before he came as he explained in his last interview on Radio Australia, that he was tortured in the island of Lakemba. there was about four or five of the workers. They were forced to swim in the open sea with heavy pine logs and they were forced to crawl and they were beaten in front of police and then he’s now having fears because he’s now in detention and they want to deport him.BRUCE HILL: That caused some political fallout here with a Green Party Senator saying she wants to make sure Fijians applying for asylum in Australia are being treated properly. Sarah Hanson-Young says Mr Qarau’s case concerns her, and she wants to know if authorities have up-to-date information about Fiji to help them decide whether or not to let people stay in Australia.SARAH HANSON-YOUNG: One of the things that we need to understand in this case is that many people who have been involved in fighting for proper, open, transparent democracy in Fiji have faced direct persecution and targeting from the government because of their desire for a more open, transparent and democratic process for their own people. We do have to take that on board. In this particular man’s case I can understand why, given the details of the way he was treated why he would not want to be returned to Fiji.BRUCE HILL: a particular bone of contention between the Fiji interim government and the Australian and new Zealand governments has been a crackdown on Fiji’s trade union movement.Fiji introduced an Essential Industries Decree this year, which severely curtails workers rights and makes it almost impossible for trade unions to operate effectively in many industries declared economically vital. Fiji’s unions responded by working closely with their international counterparts to get a campaign against the regulations going, including organising Australian and new Zealand unions to put pressure on the tourist industry by asking people in those countries not to travel to Fiji for holidays.the authorities in Suva subsequently arrested senior union leaders, including Fiji Trades Union Congress president Daniel Urai and secretary Felix Anthony. That triggered a strong response from the international trade union movement, with the Australian Council of Trade Unions leading the charge by urging Australians to boycott Fiji’s tourism industry.ACTU president Ged Kearney says unionists in this country are particularly concerned about what’s happening in Fiji.GED KEARNEY: I think for trade unionists in Australia this is qualitatively different. This is happening in our very own backyard, it’s happening to people that we know very, very well who have we have longstanding working relationships with and actually friendships.It’s happening to family and friends of the diaspora of Fijians who have moved to new Zealand and Australia. And in many respects I think it is quite, even on a personal level, something that we’re feeling very deeply here in Australia and something that we really want to do something about for our Fijian colleagues.BRUCE HILL: is this something that affects trade union leaders like yourself or does it really affect the rank and file unionist in Australia?GED KEARNEY: I think it does affect the rank and file unionists in Australia. Number one it really makes us think very carefully about what’s happening in our region as far as human rights. It also makes us focus very much on our own situation and is cause I think for pause and reflection on just how far we have come in Australia, how lucky we are to have the trade union movement that is so effective and in some ways powerful I guess in Australia to look after worker’s rights. when something is taken away like we’re seeing in Fiji it certainly is time to stop and look at your own situation.BRUCE HILL: Australia’s a big country, especially when you look at it in relation to countries in the Pacific and when Australia or elements within Australian society do things in the Pacific, often it can be perceived as bullying.the Fiji government is pretty against the idea that you guys have had of trying to institute some sort of a trade boycott, of trying to persuade tourists not to go to Fiji for holidays. not buying garments made in Fiji. Could you perhaps be accused of bullying and interfering in Fiji’s internal affairs?GED KEARNEY: I think there is a possibility of that but it needs to be understood that we have always worked very, very closely with our Fijian colleagues, our trade union colleagues and certainly right across the Pacific we have longstanding relationships with the unions in the Pacific region and we have never ever imposed our will, it’s always been a very collegiate arrangement, indeed a very friendly and personal arrangement and we would never do anything without the auspices of the Fijian people or the Fijian trade union movement.And that’s part of what we’re trying to do right now, we are going to go to Fiji, we are going to actually have those conversations face-to-face in Fiji to try to gauge the feeling for what it is that we think needs to be done.BRUCE HILL: but if you do these things, this tourist boycott for example, won’t workers in Fiji suffer?GED KEARNEY: unfortunately with boycotts, workers will, and that’s why it’s very important for us to make sure that this is something that is supported very much on the ground in Fiji.We also know that Fijians very much value democracy, they would like to go back to free elections, they are concerned about not having a free media, they are concerned about not being able to assemble freely as they once used to be able to, not even in their religious practices.the decrees and the regime is actually impacting on their lives and their rights in ways that we know that is concerning Fijians, so I guess, any struggle has its impositions but one has to look at the end and one has to look at what one is fighting for I guess.BRUCE HILL: the Australia Government added its condemnation of the Fiji interim government and maintained targeted sanctions this year. Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd, speaking rather hoarsely at the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Perth, defended Fiji’s ongoing suspension from the Commonwealth.KEVIN RUDD: the fact that here in Perth we still have absent from our number, Fiji, represents that this family of democracies has some fundamental rules when it comes to those who use extra democratic means, namely a military coup, to seek to replace a democratically elected governments. That is why Fiji is not with us.And therefore I think it is important that you take a longer view about the value which the Commonwealth provides, both in developmental areas, both in democracy building and drawing an absolute line when it comes to military means of solving political problems such as we’ve seen in Fiji, where you had a democratically elected government overthrown.BRUCE HILL: And Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs, Richard Marles, dismissed claims from the interim Fiji government that Australia was interfering in Fiji’s internal affairs by speaking out.RICHARD MARLES: the notion that some way we are interfering is ridiculous. having, expressing an opinion about what is happening in the world and what is happening in Fiji is something that Australia has a right to do, as does every country in the world. Certainly Australia from time to time is the subject of criticism and Fiji doesn’t have a right to be exempt from that.BRUCE HILL: again, it wasn’t just governments that responded to that issue. People attending the Rugby World Cup clash between Fiji and South Africa in new Zealand were urged to show solidarity with trade unions in Fiji by wearing white armbands. the call came from human rights organisation Amnesty International, whose new Zealand CEO Patrick Holmes said sometimes sport and politics do mix.PATRICK HOLMES: the reality is that sport and politics are inextricably linked and you can’t separate the two. so Amnesty is not suggesting and we would not support any kind of disruption to the game, any kind anything other than purely peaceful demonstration, but you can’t separate politics and sport. It’s just not possible. Anytime anyone pulls on a sports shirt for their country, they are walking into the realms of politics, that’s just a reality.BRUCE HILL: but the Fiji interim government insists that Fiji Trade’s Union secretary Felix Anthony has been simply misrepresenting the situation in the country to overseas unions. Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum accuses Mr Anthony of disloyalty to the country, and potentially endangering Fiji’s economy and threatening jobs.AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: We are very concerned about the fact that these Fijians are now asking unions in Australia and new Zealand and maybe other places to boycott, for example, the aeroplanes that come into and out of Fiji. This means it will affect our tourism industry.when you talk about the tourism industry, you’re not just talking about hotel owners, you’re talking about the lady in the village who makes handicraft and weaves baskets and sells it to the tourists. You’re talking about people who grow paw paws from the village or along the roadside and sell it to the hotels. You’re talking about taxi drivers, security guards, gardeners, affecting tens of thousands of people, you’re affecting their livelihoods. This is what Felix Anthony is advocating. Now, one questions his loyalty to workers which he apparently is representing.BRUCE HILL: As well as trade unions, the Fiji interim government this hear also came down hard on the influential Methodist Church, which a majority of the country’s indigenous Fijian population belong to. It cancelled their annual conference, and forbade it from holding any sort of meeting other than normal Sunday worship services. That sparked a backlash here, with Reverend Dr Kerry Enright, national director of Uniting World, the Uniting Church in Australia’s international section, condemning the move, but admitting the power of international churches to influence Fiji is limited.KERRY ENRIGHT: It’s difficult to know what has effect on the Fiji interim government. Clearly Australia and new Zealand are somewhat limited. but we’re talking about what might be possible. It’s just a wee bit early because we haven’t had an opportunity to speak to people across the globe.I think that particularly the interference with the proper functioning of the president and the general secretary in the conference represents a very significant interference in the Methodist Church. Clearly that goes beyond what would be an accepted church-state relationship.BRUCE HILL: but not all groups in Australia and new Zealand have taken an antagonistic stand. Business leaders have come out in opposition the trade union movement’s campaign to persuade Australians not to travel to Fiji or buy garments made there. Frank Yourn, executive director of the Australia Fiji Business Council, says such a boycott would only end up hurting the very Fiji workers the unions say they want to help.FRANK YOURN: They have no back-up cash reserves, there’s no social security system, if they’re laid off, many people in Fiji are on a very fragile economic basis and sanctions of any kind that limit tourism, or that limit the capacity of Fiji to sell its manufactured goods in any market is going to have serious consequences for people. And I don’t really believe that the people of Fiji would want that.BRUCE HILL: but there are other views within the business community about what’s best for Fiji. the International Labour Organization has condemned the actions of the interim government and wants to send a delegation there. This was backed by the Australia delegation at the ILO’s regional meeting in Japan, which included Peter Anderson from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who says this is not simply a trade union issue.PETER ANDERSON: no it’s not unusual because the International Labour Organization is comprised of representatives of the region’s governments, business and trade unions. And the rights to associate, the rights for trade union officials to move freely around the country and for workers to join trade unions is protected by international labour standards as is the right of employers and businesses to join their employer and business associations. And for those associations and persons like myself to move freely around our country and also attend international meetings.And so a breach of freedom of association in this instance has occurred in respect of trade union officials, there are other instances where unfortunately and regrettably other countries have imposed restrictions on employer associations. And it’s important that we as a business community act consistently where breaches occur.BRUCE HILL: This year saw the coup-installed military government of Fiji crack down on almost all elements of civil society. Unions, the church, academics, the media and the legal profession were all affected.their counterparts in Australia reacted by stepping up their campaigns against what’s happening. but as the British writer George Orwell once observed, such governments can withstand moral pressure until the cows come home – what they really fear is physical force. And no one in Australia is advocating that.(Music plays – “Fiji Coup” by the Rodrigo Brothers: “They’re having a coup, they’re having a coup in Fiji, they’re having a coup…”)ELIZABETH JACKSON: That report by Bruce Hill. And you’ve been listening to a radio current affairs documentary.
