anglican taonga - special report fiji at the cross roads - april 2007

8/3/2019 Anglican Taonga - Special Report Fiji at the Cross Roads - April 2007

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Taonga

A N G L I C A N

EASTER2007|No.24|$4.9

5

TELLING THE STORIES OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN AOTEAROA, NEW ZEALAND AND POLYNESIA

Fiji at the cross roads: a special report


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Sione, my Suva driver, lets meinto a little secret: when the

Fiji side lost the nal of thisyears Wellington rugby sevens

tournament to Samoa, he says itdidnt hurt. Most Fijians in this sevens-mad

country were happy to see another islandnation take the spoils.

Fijis loss to Samoa in the nal was, Sioneexplained, almost irrelevant compared to

the almighty 310 hiding theyd handedto New Zealand in the seminals: in Suva,

that was the square-off that really counted,that was the result that had them honkingtheir horns.

The Fijian team had been pumped up fortheir match against Gordon Tietjens men

by a motivational talk by New Zealands

Minister of Sport, Trevor Mallard.

On the eve of the tournament, hedtold One News that the Fijian team wasntwelcome. New Zealanders were obliged tohave them only because the IRB wouldnt

allow Wellington to host the tournament

The Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia.

By now, that title such a mouthful at rst almost trips off the

tongue. Were sometimes asked: What does it mean?

One of the meanings, surely, is that Kiwi Anglicans are linked

with their brothers and sisters in the Anglican Church in Fiji andtherefore, some of us are groping for an understanding of the

dramas they must live through.

With four coups in less than 20 years, the country is at risk of

lurching violently from one extreme to the other; a middle way

seems dangerously elusive.

In February, at the invitation of the Diocese of Polynesia,

Lloyd Ashton travelled to Fiji. He struggled to come to some

understanding of how the tensions have come about, and he

heard some of the stories of how Fijis Anglicans are living through

turbulent times. This is his report.

Atsixes & seve


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in there somewhere. Where the

Wellington sevens tournamentwas concerned, the New ZealandGovernments pronouncements about

Fiji backred. Maybe, where this latestFiji coup goes, they havent been ofmuch help at all.

Perhaps it also shows that God ormore precisely, Fijian understandings

of God play a big role in the dramasthat have beset their country.

Cut-price package holidaysin resorts. Blue lagoons,

coconut palms swayingover white sands, beaming

waitresses with frangipani in their

hair, bearing ice-clinking drinks.Ukeleles. Firewalkers. Bula. Bula

vinaka.

Thats the extent of most NewZealanders experience of Fiji. Its onlypart of the reality, a part that Fijians

seldom experience, unless theyrewaiting on guests.

The reality is that one in three

Fijians live in poverty, they work

(if, indeed, they can nd payingwork) for pitiful wages, and theylive in ramshackle housing. Manyare malnourished, and 12.5 percent

of the population lives in squattersettlements. Those squattersettlements, says Bishop Gabriel

Sharma, are spreading like a brushre.Whats more, things are getting

worse. Mahendra Chaudhry, the one-time trade unionist, overthrown PrimeMinister and now Finance Minister

in the military-appointed interim

government, says the country is on thebrink of economic disaster.

Economic growth rates areplunging, 3000 jobs were lost in

December, and national bankruptcylooms.

In early March Mahendra

Chaudhry announced an emergencybudget, which cut the salaries of civilservants by 5 percent. We are, he

said, at a juncture where we eithersink or swim as a nation.

Many commentators and critics

of the deposed government say thatbleak picture has little to do with

the December 5, 2006 coup. Fiji hadbeen on a path to disaster for years,plagued by corruption, economic

mismanagement and racial tension.

Fiji-Indians had been subjected tohate speech and their temples andmosques were being desecrated on

an almost weekly basis. Indian canefarmers were being forced to walkaway from their plantations, homes

and livelihoods, because native landowners wouldnt renew their leases.

The best-educated and mosttalented of those Indo-Fijians usuallyed to other countries. Before the rst

coup in 1987 Indians had comprised50% of Fijis population. They now

make up only about 35% of thepopulation.

The Indo-Fijians are not the only

ones who want out. Two days before Ileft the country, I ew from Nausori toNadi. To my surprise, one of my fellow

passengers was the ofce secretary atthe Diocese of Polynesia.

Viti, who is Fijian, her husband

Eddie and their two daughters wereemigrating to Melbourne the nextday. Viti and Eddies goal? A brighter

future for their children.

#Coup culture. The December 5 coup

was the fourth Fiji has faced in 19years. Yet many Fijians say that this

last coup is fundamentally differentfrom the earlier three.

Sitiveni Rabuka, who triggered the

run of coups with the two he stagedin 1987, and George Speight, who led

the 2000 coup, did so in the name ofindigenous Fijian rights.

This last one, which was staged

by the whole military and not rebel

units, was carried out in the name ofmulticulturalism.

Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama,an indigenous Fijian, leading an army

and navy thats almost exclusivelymanned by Fijians, says they rose up toprotect the multi-racial makeup of Fiji;

to ensure the economy would be runfor the benet of all people, and not

just the business elite, and to root out

mismanagement and corruption.And the reality is that this coup

feels fundamentally different from the

earlier ones, says Archbishop JabezBryce.

In the rst coups, people wereafraid to leave their homes. From dayone following this coup, the military

ns?without them.

After that little pep talk, the New

Zealand team was lucky to score nil.Two weeks later, in San Diego, Fiji

won the next tournament outright.

Fijis coach and most famous player

Waisale Serevi his face is plasteredon billboards throughout the country

told theFiji Times that he must givecredit where it was due.

I must thank the Lord, he said.

Without Him, we wouldnt haveachieved what we did

He told the reporters that theAlmightys favour was clearly evidentin the quarter-nal. Theyd faced

South Africa with just six men andhad snatched a victory only in thedying seconds.

God, said the great Serevi, wasthe seventh player for us...

So whats all that got to do withcoming to grips with the Fiji coup?

Well, maybe theres an analogy

Fiji had been on a path to disaster for years,plagued by corruption, economic mismanagement

and racial tension.

< Fiji at the cross roads >


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has encouraged people to go about

their normal, daily lives. The crimerate is down. People feel safer.

Thats a common testimony,and its not surprising. Withmilitary checkpoints at most major

intersections, youd probably expectthat.

Fiji has suffered from the samedisease as Northern Ireland.

Its been bedeviled by tribalpolitics.

Politicians stand for parties

representing their own ethnicgroups while doing their utmost toencourage the emergence of small

splinter parties in the other ethnicgroup.

Fijis 1997 constitution which ourown Sir Paul Reeves helped bring to

birth grappled with that reality. It

encourages the formation of multi-party cabinets.

The party that wins the majority of

the 71 seats in a Fijian election winsthe right to govern. Were used to

that idea. But whatever other partieswin, 10 percent or more of the seatsare automatically invited to join the

government, without conditions.In last Mays election Laisenia

Qarases Soqosoqo Duavata ni

Lewenivanua Party (SDL for short)won 80% of the indigenous Fijian vote,and therefore won the right to form a

government.Nine MPs from Mahendra

Chaudhrys Fiji Labour Party whichhad won 80 percent of the Indian vote

entered cabinet.

That was a hopeful sign, surely.

A move away from tribal politics.Trouble is, relations between thegovernment and the military werealready on the skids. Well look at some

of the reasons why in a minute.But rst, well note something that

Fijians who are sympathetic to themilitary are inclined to say.

Time and again, theyll

suggest, the army had warned thegovernment. It had made its demandsclear and said the government was on

a doomed course but the government

never seemed to heed those warnings.As if to say: what else could

you expect but a coup? To a NewZealander that sounds shocking. But

to many in Fiji, our thinking is naveand unrealistic.

For a start, theres the fact that

Commodore Voreqe Bainimaramahas been a popular hero he was the

military leader who freed the hostageMPs in 2000, and delivered thecountry from George Speights gang.

But it goes deeper than that. The

Republic of Fiji Military Forces(RFMF) believes it has a constitutional

mandate to inuence governmentpolicy in the interests of Fiji howeverthose interests may be dened.

Thats a claim that remainscontentious, and has not been tested

by the courts. Yet. David Robie, an associate professor

who heads a new school of Asia andPacic Media Studies at AucklandUniversity of Technology, and who is

a veteran observer and commentatoron Pacic affairs, has written that

Laisenia Qarase is not the paragon ofdemocracy portrayed by the media andcoup critics.

Bainimaramas hand was forced,wrote Robie in theListener onDecember 23, because an inefcient

police force failed to prosecute theSpeight coup perpetrators with

sufcient zeal, and by an arrogantand racist government hellbent ongranting a general amnesty to Speight

and the plotters.To understand where hes coming

from, we have to go back a few years.

Ten days after George Speightscoup of May 19, 2000, Commodore

Bainimarama declared martial law.Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, the

President, resigned (some say he wasforced to quit) and the Commodoreended Mahendra Chaudhrys hopes

of being reinstated as Prime Minister,justifying his actions by The Doctrine

of Necessity.(According to one theory,

Bainimarama removed them bothfrom ofce under pressure from the

Speight gang. And last Decemberscoup, those theorists suggest, was

the revenge of the Maras. One ofthe most outspoken supporters ofthe militarys move was Ratu Epeli

Ganilau, the late Ratu Sir KamiseseMaras son-in law and hes now aminister in the military-appointed

interim government).

In Mahendra Chaudhrys place,the Commodore appointed LaiseniaQarase, a relatively unknown banker,as caretaker Prime Minister.

New elections were called for 2001.Some say the Commodore expectedQarase to step aside at that point.

Instead Qarase contested, and won,the 2001 elections.

As time went by, the Commodorebecame suspicious, then convincedthat Qarases SDL government was

pressing ahead with George Speights

agenda, by more subtle means.He was alarmed at growing

corruption, by the presence of backersof Speights coup in Qarases cabinet,and in the senior ranks of the civil

service, and in particular by threebills that Qarases SDL government

was driving through Parliament. Theywere:

The Racial Tolerance and Unity

Bill, which aimed to grant a blanketamnesty to all those who had beenngered in George Speights 2000

coup; The Qoliqoli Bill, which sought

to grant indigenous Fijians the rightto claim royalties from other ethnicgroups using coastal waters a piece

of legislation which the Commodoreclaimed would have jeopardizedtourism and the livelihoods of all those

Fijians employed by it; The Land Claims Tribunal Bill,

which was loosely based on theWaitangi Tribunal legislation. But inFiji, where 83 percent of the land is

communally-owned by indigenousFijians and inalienable, the qoliqoliand land bills were seen as double-

dipping.There are ironies: Bainimarama

What else could you expect but a coup? To a NewZealander that sounds shocking. But to many inFiji, our thinking is nave and unrealistic.

Archbishop Jabez Bryce


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vehemently opposed the blanket

amnesty proposed by the RacialTolerance and Unity Bill. But, as

his opponents quickly point out, theCommodore has insisted on absoluteimmunity for his actions when he

(allegedly) deposed a president in2000, and last December.

Theres another twist here. In

November 2000, rebel soldiers (whowere secret Speight supporters)

mutinied and tried to assassinateVoreqe Bainimarama.

They almost succeeded. He escaped

only by dashing through a cassavapatch behind Suvas Queen ElizabethBarracks. Four soldiers from this rebel

unit were later beaten to death byloyalist troops.

That atrocity, say those opposed toBainimarama, is the real reason forhis December coup: they say the police

commissioner, an Australian calledAndrew Hughes, was hot on the trail,and that arrests were imminent. The

Commodore himself, they suggest,

would have been charged.On the other hand, commentators

like David Robie say that ifCommissioner Hughes had shown

more energy in chasing the real

perpetrators of the 2000 coup, theDecember crisis would never havehappened.

Following the 2000 coup, a numberof soldiers who had joined Speights

coup were jailed for long terms.This too angers Voreqe

Bainimarama. While the small sh

have been caught, he says, the bigsharks get privileged jobs and power.

He seems to have a point.

The police commissioner at the timeof the 2000 Speight coup, Isikia Savua,

was widely believed to have helpedSpeight with his coup master-plan.Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara accused him,

on television, of being a key plotter.Savua denied the allegations, wasnever charged and duly became Fijis

Ambassador to the United Nations.Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, who played

a part in the earlier 1987 coups, wasFijis ambassador to Japan and Korea.Several people accused or convicted

of involvement in past coups were inQarases cabinet.

The rebel President in 2000, RatuJope Seniloli, served less than fourmonths of a four-year jail sentence fortaking an illegal oath as the usurper

head of state.

Archbishop Petero Mataca, theleader of the countrys RomanCatholics, summed it up this way in a

letter to theFiji Times.Australia and New Zealands

shunning of the Bainimarama

administration, he said, wasregrettable and shallow.

Some Fijians, he wrote, believe

that democracy and the rule of lawwere abused and circumvented long

before the military ousted the Qarasegovernment.

At the very top of the frontpage of each days issueof theFiji Times theres ared banner, on which the

following words are set in white italictext: We will uphold media freedom Cmdr Bainimaramas promise.

On the face of it, the Commodore

appears to have kept his promise.TheFiji Times had publicly said

it would refuse to publish unless it

considered there was freedom to

publish: and it is still publishing.The military has imposed a State

of Emergency but there is not theharsh censorship there was after the

1987 coup. The report of the Eminent

More than 300 Solomoni people live at Matata, about 4km from

downtown Suva. Its a community that has no proper road

access or rubbish collection, and a tful water supply. Many

adults in Matata are unemployed, and the community doesnt

have a secure lease on its land. Until the 1980s, the people of

Matata lived and farmed a 32-acre block. But when their lease

expired in the early 1980s, they had to make do with 8 acres. The

Solomoni descend from Melanesians blackbirded to work on

Fijis copra and cane plantations. The Diocese of Polynesia does

its best to improve their lot.


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Persons Group, for example which

says the military takeover was un-lawful, and unconstitutional, and thatit should go back to the barracks wasfront-page news in theFiji Times.

But there is, says one of Fijis mostsenior journalists, a degree ofself-censorship. The media doesnt go

where it knows therell be trouble.One newspaper photographer has

been beaten, reporters have receivedthreatening phone calls, and editorshave been summoned to the barracks

for questioning.

Under the circumstances,explained my contact, the media

continues to do a good job. Themilitary does come up for regular

criticism and question, oppositionvoices are regularly aired, and there isactive debate in the letters section.

But sometimes the military is notquestioned hard enough. Other times,there is glowing and undeserving

coverage of military and militarygures which is a bit disconcerting,

especially when one knows that some

of these gures are behind some of thehuman rights abuses and degradation

of people.The militarys intimidation of its

most outspoken critics is, says this

journalist, the most despicable

thing about the coup and quiteunnecessary.

A lot of people from all races were

supportive of the overthrow of theprevious government, which really

was quite corrupt (Fiji had become ahaven for conmen like Peter Foster andothers) and which was running the

country into the ground with recordbudget decits, dangerously increasingdebt levels and a lethargic response to

rampant crime.But the abuse, he says, is very

damaging for the military, andquite stupid. There have been twoconrmed killings and the military

and interim government now haveblood on their hands. This makesit even harder for the international

community to make deals with them.Bainimarama has said he respects

human rights, and the AttorneyGeneral has said that no one will betaken to the army barracks. But this

is still happening, and it has created avery oppressive atmosphere.

It gives the impression that arenegade army unit, beyond even thecontrol of Bainimarama, is at work.

The thought of that, he notes, is

rather spine chilling.

So where to from here?

When last Decembers crisis wasbrewing, the Pacic Forum (a kindof mini UN of Pacic states) resolvedto send the Eminent Persons Group

to Fiji to investigate the crisis, andto produce a report on the best waysahead for Fiji.

That group visited Fiji from January29 to February 1. Their report said the

RFMF takeover was unconstitutionaland unacceptable.

It urged the RFMF to return to

barracks; the commander to step

aside as interim Prime Minister;and a lifting of the present State of

Emergency.In one sense, their ndings werent

a surprise the Pacic Forum couldhardly be seen to condone a coup.

But the EPG report didnt call for

the reinstatement of Laisenia Qarasesdeposed government. Instead, it urgedthe interim government to commit

without delay to a roadmap withmeasurable milestones for a national

election.

The military and the interimgovernment agree that new elections

are needed, but say they cant be helduntil at least 2010.

Why not? Well, for one thing,

The building above is a church or more accurately, its a worship centre at the Solomoni squatter community at Kalekana, near

Matata. Joseva Volivolitigau is a lay leader there, and the worship centre is in a spare room in his mothers house. Thats her standing

next to Joseva.


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theres the clean-up many of the

senior gures in the judiciary andthe civil service have been dismissedor suspended, and the investigationsinto alleged corruption and

mismanagement arent over.For another, the military and

interim government say a new census

must be held before another electioncan be held so electoral boundaries

can be revised, and voters registered.That seems like a fair call, too. For

one thing, the 1997 constitution says

a census should be held on a regular

basis. The last Fijian census was held11 years ago, and given the chaos at

the last elections, a new one is badlyoverdue.

But no one, it seems, quibbles aboutthe need for Fiji to return to being afull parliamentary democracy.

The press release from theRev Tuikilakila Waqairatu,

President of the Fiji Councilof Churches and Assembly

of Christian Churches in Fiji, pulled no

punches:The overthrow by the army

of the democratically electedgovernment, said the statement, is themanifestation of darkness and evil.

Maybe. Maybe not.

In terms of numbers, the AnglicanChurch may still be the top dog in NewZealand, but its a relatively minorplayer on the Fijian church scene.

Over there, its the Methodistswho rule the roost. That goes backto the 18th century when Methodist

missionaries evangelized theindigenous people of the Fiji Islands.

The Anglicans came later and itwas hands-off where the indigenouspeople were concerned.

Instead, Anglican work focused on

Indians; Solomon Islanders (who, incolonial times, had been virtual slave

labour for the plantations); expatriates and people from other Pacic

Islands. Archbishop Jabez Bryce,for instance, leader of the Dioceseof Polynesia for more than 30 years,

was born in Tonga and has Tongan,Samoan and Scottish ancestry.

The relatively few indigenous

Fijians in the church have mostlymade a personal choice to move away

from their birthright Methodism

to embrace being Anglican. BishopApimeleki Qiliho is one; Fereimi

Cama, Dean of Suvas Holy TrinityCathedral, is another.

One upshot of this is that Fiji

Anglicans are used to worshipping

with folk from other cultures andethnic backgrounds. Many Fijians, onthe other hand, are not. The pews inFijian Methodist churches are almost

exclusively populated by Fijians, andin recent years, theyve often heard ano-compromise nationalist line.

And sometimes the lines betweenMethodism and militarism have been

blurred. Some of the decision-makersin todays Methodist Church were inthe forefront of the 1987 coup.

On the New Zealand scene, its

hard to imagine the Methodists andPentecostals as soul-mates. But thats

not how it is in Fiji.While the Pentecostal and

fundamentalist churches dont startfrom a nationalist perspective, theyend up in the same place. They believe

that Fiji will be blessed only whenthe heathen gods of other peoples aredriven out.

When Dean Fereimi Cama ran thegauntlet and took Holy Communion to

the hostage MPs in 2000, he observed

that not all the ministry given to thosehostages was helpful.

Most of the Pentecostal churcheswere given the freedom to go in andout, and take their services. But they

These three men are gathered on the veranda of St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, Matata. They are, from left: Sione

Makasiale, the Deans warden at Suvas Holy Trinity Cathedral; Joseph Abunios, a community worker; and Fr Jeke Samisoni Abunios.

Matata is struggling Solomoni community, on the edge of an industrial area about 4km from downtown Suva.


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would be using the scriptures in aquite specic way theyd pick from

the scriptures to support what wasgoing on.

For some, it seems, theres nothingto stop them going even further.

The Hindu temples that have beenbroken into and desecrated I think alot of us know that its Christians whoare doing this, says Archbishop Jabez.

Through his long ministry,Archbishop Jabez has been big on

mission. The churchs rst task, hesconvinced, is to proclaim the goodnews.

But thats hardly proclaimed bydesecrating Hindu temples andmosques.

If youre talking about Fiji as a

nation, he says, it is for everybody.There are Hindu people here, there areMuslim people here and you dont

just rubbish them.

And that statement from RevTuikilakila Waqairatu, Presidentof the Fiji Council of Churches and

Assembly of Christian Churches inFiji?

Well, Rev Tuikilakila is a Methodist,

and the Methodists presentlyrule the roost at the FCC. And the

Assembly of Christian Churches in

Fiji is dominated by Pentecostals andfundamentalists who want Fiji to

be a Christian state with only goodChristians in positions of leadership.

There was collusion between the

SDL Party and the ACCF. Since lastDecembers coup, its emerged that the

previous government had bankrolledthe ACCF.

So perhaps its not surprising that

when the military ousted the SDL-ledgovernment, the ACCF saw forcesof evil and powers of darkness at

work.A senior Fijian journalist described

the situation this way: Race, andunfortunately Christianity, were being

used by the government to dividepeople and keep their minds off its

failings. The government was foreverinvoking Gods name.

It had cleverly and successfullybought off the Methodist Churchhierarchy with senate positions andgenerous donations, so the church

remained a staunch supporter of theQarase government and turned a blind

eye to all its failings.

The New Zealand and

Australian governmentshave condemned themilitary takeover out

of hand, and adopted a variety of

measures that punish Fiji and itspeople.

The Australian Foreign Minister,Alexander Downer, from the safety

of Canberra, has even urged Fijiansto rise up against the military andsupport Qarase a call which an

Australian clergyman whos lived inFiji for almost 30 years describes asstupid, unrealistic and part of the

reason we have a State of Emergencyin the rst place.

Nevertheless, if you look at the

military takeover from the perspectiveof democracy it stands condemned

in principle. The illegal removal of ademocratically elected government iswrong.

Archbishop Jabez agrees but atthe same time, he gets frustrated.

Fiji has been a democracy for lessthan 40 years, while the countrieswhich have no difculty condemning

whats happened (including the UKand the USA) have had hundreds of

years to ne-tune their systems. When

those countries were on the path todemocracy, they had ructions too.

Quite bloody ructions, at times.

In the last 10 years, says BishopJabez, people in the Pacic havecome to realize that the Westminster

system is not ideal for us. Its onlythe educated elite who know how the

system works.He points out that when you y

from Suva to Nadi, and look down at

the villages beneath, the prominentbuilding is always the church, theprominent person is the chief. In

essential ways, much of Fiji is still afeudal society. So if the chief says: vote

this way, the villagers obey. Obedienceis the will of God.

Some of us have come to the

conclusion that we have to go throughsome of these upheavals to try to

sort out what is the best system ofgovernment for Fiji. And to sort outhow we understand democracy.

We live in a multi-ethnic, multi-

religious, multi-cultural society. Ithink democracy will take time, and

there will be friction. Theres got to bereligious toleration, theres got to beunderstanding and respect between

the races.These are some of the things that

have to be taken into consideration

when you talk about democracy. What

some of our people are puzzled about,is why our neighbours and friends,like New Zealand and Australia whoknow some things about Fiji why

dont they say: how can we help?Rather than just sit there and say:

get back the elected government.

When we ourselves, sitting here, arelearning that it was a very corruptedgovernment?

Are we going to live throughanother ve years of that or should

we correct it now?

That is the question.Its one question, at least.



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Bishop Gabriel Sharmas shoulders almost sagwith relief. This time, he says, its clear that

Indian people cant be blamed.An open and shut case, surely. The Fijian

army under a Fijian commander rose up and threw out aFijian-led government. The Indo-Fijians had nothing to

do with it.Trouble is, the Fijian nationalists dont see it that way.

They see one thing, and one thing only: they see payback.Revenge for the previous coups, which had overthrownIndian-led or Indian-backed governments.

And in the minds of some Fijian nationalists, theirsuspicions are conrmed when they look at the manwho is the Finance Minister in the interim government:

Mahendra Chaudhry the countrys rst Indo-Fijian

Prime Minister, who George Speight overthrew in 2000.Never mind whatever ne things Chaudhry may be

saying. In the minds of those nationalists, hes still afterthe one thing hes always wanted. Land. He wants to

prise loose the grip of Fijians on their beloved vanua.One things for sure. Suspicions runs strong in Fiji,

and Fijian politics are unstable. And thats why, says

Bishop Gabriel, many people feel insecure about makinglong-term plans.

People who are educated, who qualify to migrate toNew Zealand and Australia especially - are movingon. They are saying: lets nd a better place for our

children.

Not just Indian people, either. The day before wespoke, Bishop Gabriel had own back from Auckland.

I was sitting beside a part-European, part-Fijian fellowwho was coming back for his sisters funeral. Hed leftFiji in 1997 for the sake of his children.

Its a dilemma that Bishop Gabriel and his Fijianwife Ana have struggled with themselves. In 2000, the

Sharmas were living in Auckland while he rounded offhis studies at St Johns College. Their third child had

been born while they were living in Auckland.

When George Speights gang overthrew the Chaudhry

what the next one will be like? It might be like what has

happened in Tonga: 100 mad people, and in an hour 300-

400 torched houses. It still bothers me...But Bishop Gabriel also has hope. He believes that

if Voreqe Bainimarama achieves his stated goals anddoesnt get sidetracked then it will be for the bettermentof the people of Fiji as a whole. And especially for the

underprivileged people.In fact, hes convinced that the events which have

unfolded since December 5 are an answer to prayer.When the tension between the government and thearmy was really high last year, the Great Council of

Chiefs urged us to pray for the nation, so that Gods willwould be done.

And everybody prayed. We prayed here at St Peters,

and we continue to pray. I believe strongly that God hasanswered those prayers. Its just that people cant acceptwhat the answer has been.

Im reminded of the story in Acts 12: Peter was in thejail, and his followers and disciples were closed up in

a room, praying fervently: Lord, have your hand uponhim, and release him!

But when Peter was miraculously released from the

prison, and he came knocking at his followers door the people wouldnt accept that their prayers had beenanswered, and that it was him at the door.

We have prayed here in Fiji and this is theoutcome.

Gabriel acknowledges that sometimes his wife isunconvinced by that logic. Ana, an ethnic Fijian, isinclined to remind him that the overthrow of an elected

government is illegal. Plain and simple. Illegal.At times, says Gabriel, we have heated arguments.

Thats because of who we are! But then, after we talk

some more I think we realize that there are certainthings that we both need to leave behind.

When both of us come to glimpse the reality ofwhat is happening in Fiji, then we tone down ourdiscussions

How many more coups?

government, they had real misgivingsabout returning to Fiji. It felt like the

last place that responsible parentswould want to bring their Indo-Fijian children to. They went home,

nonetheless, in obedience to Godscall as they understood it and their

trust in Gods protection has beenvindicated.

Gabriel Sharma is now a bishop,

and he wont be leaving his ock.Thats guaranteed. But in his humanside, as a husband and father, Gabriel

confesses that sometimes he stillstruggles.

Im thinking how many morecoups? Whats going to happen next?

I mean, this one has been different

from the last one but who knows


Gabriel Sharma and family in more relaxed times.


10/15AnglicAn TAongA10


Flashback to May 19, 2000.George Speight and his gang of armed rebel

soldiers have stormed the Fijian Parliament andtaken the Prime Minister and 35 MPs hostage.

They are imprisoned in Parliament, the Indians separatedfrom the Fijians, with hundreds of Speight sympathizers

inside the grounds, acting as human shields.At the cathedral, meanwhile, Fereimi Cama (shown

opposite), is very much nding his feet: hed been appointedDean just ve months earlier.

There are two Anglicans among those hostage MPs.

One, an Indian, shares a cigarette with a rebel soldier andpersuades him to ask for an Indian priest to bring HolyCommunion to the hostages.

The rebel soldier made contact with Bishop Jabez Bryce.

When the Bishop told me, says Dean Cama, I said thatsending in an Indian priest wasnt a good idea. Most of thosepeople who were in Parliament supporting Speight werefrom the interior and they were people who had terrorized

Indian farmers.Theyd forget that he is a priest theyd only see him as

an Indian. It was going to create a lot of problems.

I said: Ill go myself.His plan was to go to the parliament after church on

Sunday: hed call the mobile of the soldier whod given the

green light for Communion to be brought and follow hisinstructions. Carefully.

On the Saturday evening, Bishop Jabez called him again

when he realized there was no guarantee for the Deans

safety. Time to back out, if he wanted to.I said to him: I will go.

On the Sunday, after Id called my contact, I asked mywarden, Sione, to drive me down to Parliament because

the people at the Parliament were hijacking cars that wereleft unattended.

I was robed. At the gate I introduced myself, gave the

name of the person who was my contact and they openedthe gate for me.

I could tell those who were soldiers and those who

were not. The frightening thing was that the ones who werehandling guns were not soldiers. And they were jumpy.

Inside the gate, Speights men looked through the

Communion set: The books, the wafers, the wine and waterasks. Everything was scrutinised.

Then they escorted him to George Speights second-oorofce. Speight himself inspected the Communion set, whilethe Dean was made to sit outside.

And then, at gunpoint, Dean Cama was escorted to therst-oor room where the Indian MPs were being held behind a door guarded by two armed soldiers, with a

further one inside.I was left alone with them. I introduced myself to the

gentleman who was an Anglican and he then introducedme to Chaudhry and everybody else.

And after that, we had a

Communion service. There wasonly one Christian among them

and 20 Hindus and Muslims.But they were so glad to see

me. And on that rst day, they all

received Communion Hindu,Muslim and Christian alike.

After that, Dean Cama was led

to the parliamentary chambersthemselves, where the Fijian and

female MPs were being held.There were about 20 there, andalthough most were Christian,

there was only one Anglican, andtwo Roman Catholics.

All, however, were deeply

grateful to see him.The Eucharists he celebrated

at Parliament was just part of his

ministry during the crisis.When the coup had rst broken

out, the wives and families ofthe hostages had approached theDean and asked to hold a prayer

vigil at the Cathedral. Hindus,Muslims and Christians, all

wanted to gather to pray for therelease of their trapped familymembers.

With the blessing of BishopJabez, the Dean gave that idea the

Vigils and vigilantes

Every Thursday lunchtime since the December coup, folk have gathered at Suvas Holy

Trinity Cathedral for an interfaith peace vigil. Their meeting has an honourable history: in

2000, dur ing the 56 days the MPs were held hostage by George Speight, the wives and fam ilymembers of the MPs Hindus, Muslims a nd Christians alike would gather at the cathedral to

pray for the safety of their family members.

The leaders of the present vigil are Sharon Bhagwan Rolls (in wh ite, kneeling) and Tessa

McKenzie, standing at the right. On the day the photograph was taken, the women were joined

by Archdeacon Taimalelagi Leota (left), the former Anglican Observer to the United Nations.


11/15AnglicAn TAongA 11

thumbs up, and every day of the crisis, from 12noon till

2pm, the women gathered.When the hostages had received Holy Communion,

they would give messages to Dean Cama to relay to their

families, who would be anxiously waiting for his return to

the cathedral.The wives would show me photos of their menfolk, so I

would know who to pass the messages on to. One would sayto me: What about this gentleman?

And Id say: Oh, hes OK.It was, says Dean Cama, an intense and emotional time.

And so it continued, Sundays and Wednesdays, for the

duration of the 56-day siege.I was once asked a very awkward question by one of the

rebel soldiers: As a Fijian, what do you think about what we

have done?I said: First and foremost, Im a priest and I preach

about love and care for all. That is all I can tell you at this

point in time.Naturally, when the hostage crisis was nally over, many

people no longer felt the need for the vigil.Even so, on the 19th of every month (the 2000 coup

broke out on Thursday, May 19) women still gathered at the

cathedral to pray.And when last Decembers coup happened, it was easy to

reactivate the vigil.

A number of women, dressed in black and wearing skyblue ribbons the colour of the Fijian ag gathered in a

central Suva park in a demonstration of peaceful resistanceto the military regime.

The women, who were from civil society groups and non-

government organisations, walked through the streets ofthe capital to the cathedral.

And every Thursday, between 1 and 2pm, you will see

women there still, bearing witness to their hope for a justpeace, non-violence and a democratic future for Fiji.

Dean Fereimi Cama: The frightening thing was th at the ones

who were handling guns were not soldiers. And they were

jumpy.



The in memoriam columnsin the February 10 edition oftheFiji Times displayed vephotos of dearly departed

souls. One catches my eye: an informal

shot of a handsome young Fijian manwith a three-day stubble, reectivesunglasses pushed up on his forehead

and the stock of a military rie nes-tled against his right shoulder.

Blessed are the peacemakers, the

text says, for they will be called sonsof God. The serial number beneath

the photo conrms that this was a23-year-old private, killed on someforeign eld.

There are now more than 2000Fijians serving with the British Army,mostly in Southern Iraq, with another

1000, mostly ex-RFMF soldiers, inIraq as hired guns for security rms.

A University of the South Pacic

economist has said that mercenarywork was transforming Fiji into a

remittance economy like Tonga andSamoa.

The hired guns and the soldiers

send home about $F300 million, whichnow makes up almost 10% of Fijisgross domestic product.

Last June the veteran Pacic Is-lands reporter Michael Field wrote:

Iraqs mess swallows up as manyunemployed young men as Fiji canprovide.

Peace in the Middle East, he wrote,would be Fijis worst economic night-

mare.There is, as the in-memoriam photo

suggests, a cost in shed blood. In the

six weeks before Michael Field wrotethe paragraph above, 14 Fijians hadreturned home to Nadi in body bags.

The irony is that in death thosesoldiers and hired guns present theirfamilies with a gift unthinkable had

they survived. Where the securityguards are concerned, Lloyds Insur-ance pays NZ$252,000 to each family,

which is wealth beyond measure in the

villages.Since the coup, however, the British

Army has stopped recruiting Fijiansinto its army.

Tourism? That was to have been the

saviour of the Fiji economy, and may

still be but the December 5 coup andmilitary checkpoints at most majorintersections havent done much for

the Friendly Fiji image.Sugar, meanwhile, accounts for 35

percent of Fijis GDP, and the incomesfrom the cane elds keep 40,000 fami-lies going. The sugar industry has been

heavily subsidised by the EuropeanUnion, but thats about to end, and

world sugar prices are expected to fallthis year.

Worse still, the Europeans hadpromised to come up with a F$350

million investment and loan packageto upgrade the 100-year-old sugar

mills and their infrastructure. Withinhours of the coup, the EU warnedthat this desperately needed package

would be reviewed.If the sugar reforms dont take

place, says an economist at the Uni-

versity of the South Pacic, thousands

will lose their jobs, and this will leadto further political and social strife.

On the day of the coup, in unrelatedbut equally bad news, Emperor Gold

Mines announced that it would shutits Vatukoula mine, with a loss of morethan 2000 jobs. Emperor has been

operating at Vatukoula for 71 years,and last year gold exports tallied

F$218 million, around 7% of Fijis totalexports.

All this in a country where the going

rate for labourers is $1.75 an hour. And

the picture isnt too appealing for thecountrys brightest and best-educated

young people either: in February theHealth Ministry reported that 102 oflast years medical school graduates

couldnt nd work, and the ministrywas still trying to nd jobs for gradu-

ates from the previous year.The public sector unions, on the

other hand, which were a powerbase

for the deposed government, havedone their best to insulate their mem-

bers from hardship.

Public sector salaries and wagesaccount for around 40% of govern-

ment spending with debt servicingaccounting for another 43% leavinga mere 17% for social services or devel-

opment projects.

Yet in April last year on the eveof the May 2006 elections the nowdeposed SDL government struck a

Partnership Agreement with the Pub-lic Sector Unions under which they

would be granted generous, automatic,cost of living adjustments (COLA).

In July last year when the rst

COLA was paid out the deposed gov-ernment only managed to scrape to-

gether enough dollars to pay the COLAby shaking down various ministries,and putting a halt to all governmentcapital projects.

By the start of this year, the govern-ment was already $80 million in ar-

rears in its scheduled payments underthe Partnership Agreement. Had theCOLA payments and other public serv-

ice salary increases continued, F$250million in total would have been paidout by the end of this year.

How had the deposed government

intended paying for this years COLAadjustment and salary increase? TheSDL governments budget for 2007would have increased the VAT tax by

2.5 percent to 15 percent, which wouldhave dragged in another $90 millionin taxes.

In simple terms: poor people werebeing forced to stump up for civil

service pay rises under a deal hatchedbetween the public sector unions andthe Qarase government on the eve of

an election. Some might call it vote-

buying.When the interim government

came into power in January Mahen-dra Chaudhry a former trade unionofcial himself made clear that it

would scrap the VAT increase and thePartnership Agreement.

And in the emergency budget thatChaudhry delivered on March 2, pub-lic salary salaries and wages were cut

across the board by 5%.It remains to be seen what the fall-

out from that move will be.

But theres little doubt that the mostserious opposition to the interim gov-

ernment comes from within the civilservice.

And more will be heard from them.

Blessedare the peacemakers


AnglicAn TAongA1


13/15AnglicAn TAongA 1

When Monica Raghwan reects on hercountrys turmoil shes just thankful, she

says, that many people in Fiji know theLord. When people know Christ, they have

an understanding of love, patience and tolerance. If theydidnt, wed have a major problem.

She pauses: I just thank the Lord that we havent come

to civil war.Monica is a committed parishioner at Suvas Holy Trinity

Cathedral, and Polynesias representative on the Youth

Covenant Commission.And for six months last year, Monica was an MP. She

contested and won the open constituency of Samabula-

Tamavua for the Fiji Labour Party at the May 2006elections.

Why did she stand for Parliament?Im the fourth generation here, she says. My dad, Vijay

Raghwan, had been in local politics for 12 years. He was

the Lord Mayor of Suva immediately after the rst coup.Weve been in business (Raghwan Construction, one of Fijislargest rms) for 37 years. We had no intention of migrating.

The logical thing, given that we want to stay on, is thatwe needed to give back something and we wanted to be

part of the decision-making. If everything was ne, I thinkI would have just stuck with our business.

Shes one whos convinced, for example, that the civil

service is in urgent need of reform.You might assume, therefore, that Monica whose

boss, for those six months that she was in Parliament, wasMahendra Chaudhry is quietly comfortable with theevents that have taken place since December 5.

Many are. And indeed Monica is convinced thatMahendra Chaudhry is the right person to deliver thereforms her country is in dire need of.

But the coup itself?To me, you look at the principles: if 1987 wasnt right, if

2000 wasnt right I cannot possibly see how 2006 can be

right, either.

It shouldnt be happening in this way. Thats why youhave laws. Thats why you have things in place to x theseproblems. Why else do you have a Constitution?

A cleanups good. Were all happy to be getting rid of

corruption. But what happens when the army moves out,and the next government comes in? And what happens if

you get people back who are corrupt?

How do you secure yourself against those things? Aslong as you have corrupt people, youll have corruption.

How does all this help us 20 years from now?One fundamental problem, Monica believes, is that Fiji

doesnt have the legal checks and balances in place to nip

corruption in the bud.

The 1997 Constitution said that within ve years weneeded to have a legislated code of ethics, a code of conduct.

Its been almost a decade now, and nothing has happened.Unless and until we get those checks and balances into

place, theres almost no point

Giving something back





Nathaniel Raj is Bishop GabrielSharmas right-hand man.

Hes the vicars warden at StPeters Church in Lautoka.

In 1998 Nathaniel started Potent

Electric, an electrical contractingbusiness that now employs 23 men.

When I visited Nathaniel and his

wife Rachell in mid-February, theoutlook for business in Fiji wasnt too

bright. Its the credit squeeze. Since

the coup, lending has dried up. Thebanks in Fiji arent giving out any more

loans.And if youve got a business thats

linked to the construction game, thats

a problem.If it werent for the credit squeeze,

prospects for Potent Electric would

be quite rosy. Theyve already beenawarded the wiring contract for a new

F$8million accommodation block atthe University of the South Pacic inSuva. Thats another eight months

work for those 23 men. And there areother even bigger jobs in the pipeline.

But with loans frozen, constructionwork at the USP has ground to a halt,and that means Potent Electric cantdo its thing, either.

When I spoke to Nathaniel and

Rachell in February, their men wereworking six days a week to complete

jobs they had started last year. Theyhad enough to keep them going likethat for another couple of months.

After that? Well, that was a matterfor prayer.

At all costs, Nathaniel told me,

theyd try to avoid laying people off. Ifthe work began to dry up, theyd eke it

out by cutting the mens hours back.Nathaniel and Rachell kept their

business together through one coup,

and survived the crisis when theirfactory was accidentally burned down,so they know how to ride out tough

times.The Bible says we have to face

these kinds of things, Nathaniel says.Our Lord Jesus, he faced a lot ofthings. So whatever comes our way, we

just pray, and we know that our Jesusis in front of us, and hes going to carryus through.

Rachell agrees: The Word of Godsays that in the last days, these things

are going to happen.Theres contentment and peace in

that understanding, she says. The

only thing is we are thinking about ourworkers and their families

potency of prayerTrading on the


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anglican taonga - special report fiji at the cross roads - april 2007

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