Fiji: Religion/Chiefdom Used for Political Ends?

Recently a Fijian high chief and several senior ministers in the Methodist church were arrested and later released on bail. Casually informed readers outside Fiji would probably take this as further evidence of abuses of human rights by the Fijian military government and so, in normal circumstances, it would be. It is difficult to conclude otherwise given our mainstream media's generally superficial coverage of Fiji events? But, as is often the case, all is not as it superficially seems.

The general situation resulted from the Government's refusal to allow the annual meeting of the Methodist church to be held in the province of Rewa unless the church stepped aside from politics, and removed two senior minister, former church presidents Tomasi Kanailagi and Manasa Lasaro, from the church's standing committee. The arrests arose because of actions that breached PER, the public emergency regulations, that restricts media freedom and normal rights of assembly. But PER itself was probably extended from its initial one-month in June precisely to stop the Church's Conference unless Government was assured it would not be used for political purposes. The church failed to give this assurance.

Knowing this, it is easy to see why a week-long meeting of over 10,000 Methodists, likely to be roused to fever point by the two extreme Fijian nationalist former presidents (who had supported the supposedly "ethnic Fijian" Rabuka coups in 1987 and the Speight coup in 2000 -- but not, significantly -- Bainimarama's "all Fiji citizens are equal" non-racial coup of 2006) was considered likely to create problems for public order. The Rewa venue is a short bus ride from Suva and the military barracks. The Government could not risk a Methodist-Army confrontation, especially when most soldiers are Fijian and Methodists. There is no way to know how such a confrontation would turn out, but it is significant that the ministers and chief were prepared to risk the outcome.

The immediate situation --the arrests-- resulted from the Church's breach of the PER. They broke the conditions of the permit to hold a standing committee meeting by allowing Kanailagi and Lasaro to attend. Ro Teimumu Kepa, the parmount chief of Rewa and the powerful Burebasaga confederacy, was arrested because she also broke the PER by publishing an on-line notice saying that the Conference would go ahead as scheduled, whatever the Government might say. The Conference was to be hosted by her home village of Lomainikoro.

Just as Kanailagi and Lasaro are no ordinary churchmen, in that they are outspoken advocates for ethnic Fijian privilege and extreme Christian evangelism, Ro Teimumu Kepa is also no ordinary high chief. She is a former minister in the ousted Qarase SDL government whose uneven treatment of Fiji's multi-ethnic communities was a major reason for Bainimarama's 2006 takever. She led the opposition within the Great Council of Chiefs that saw the President's (and Bainimarama's) nominee for vice-president denied. She pleaded with the Catholic Archbishop to have nothing to do with Bainimarama's Peoples' Charter, the vehicle intended to lead to a fairer Fiji for all its races.

Seen from this perspective, the acts of those arrested were political acts designed to bring down the Bainimarama government and return Fiji to the very unequal and unfair country it had become since the Speight coup of 2000 and the subsequent election of the Qarase SDL-led government. It is, of course, unfortunate that Government cancelled the Conference and its annual fund-raising but eventually more limited gatherings were allowed.

So, depending on your perspective, there has either been a breach of religious freedom and chiefly prerogative, or an abuse of religious and Fijian tradional authority, for modern political ends. Remembering the furore when the Brethrens took a politcal stance in New Zealand, I doubt the Fijian ministers and chief would find much support among more fully informed New Zealanders. More recently the Bainimarama government has given support to the breakaway New Methodist church and its Jesus campaigns the police are using to combat crime. This development does not fit comfortably with Bainimarama's stated aim of racial and religious equality. I do not like this development but until I know more about the forces at work, it will have to remain a story yet to be told.

For a deeper interpretation of events, and more background on Fiji, readers are invited to visit my blog "Fiji As it Was,Is and Can Be"
http://crosbiew.blogspot.com

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