Fiji’s coup culture: Rediscovering a voice at the ballot box

Commentary: The second Fiji General Election in 12 years, since the fourth coup in 2006, took place on 14 November 2018, and once again the key players were the three parties that gained seats in Parliament in the 2014 election. The three parties: FijiFirst, the incumbent government led by the 2006 coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama; the preeminent opposition, Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), whose leader was the instigator of the first two coups, Sitiveni Rabuka; and the National Federation Party (NFP) which was led by former University of the South Pacific economics academic Professor Biman Prasad. The 2018 election was widely seen as another sign of progress for Fiji’s fragile democracy and both the significant protagonists were former military commanders and coup leaders seemingly committed to democracy. The media remained cowed, a legacy of the 2010 Media Industry Development Decree (MIDD, 2010), giving rise to using other forms of media such as social media platforms, with Facebook being the most popular. This commentary reflects on the experience of a journalist on a postgraduate assignment to report on the 2018 election.

II. Pre-War Political Influences in Postwar Conservative Parties

In normal times and as to normal countries, the study of the continuity of political party life would be of interest mainly to the political scientist. But these are not normal times, and Japan today is not a normal country. In 1948, the subject holds far more than academic interest, and it is intimately affected by the supervision of Japanese administration by the Allied Powers.Allied policy affecting the continuity of political influence is shown in the famed “purge directive” of January 4, 1946, known as SCAPIN 550, “The Removal and Exclusion of Undesirable Personnel from Public Office.” This article, however, is not concerned with that directive but with the character of the pre-war political influence that remains after the purge has cut out affected elements. It is concerned with the element of pre-war political leadership present in the founding of the two major postwar conservative parties, the effect of the purge directive upon their leadership, their organizational and institutional character, the political influence of governmental bureaucracies, and the problem of party finance. Finally, attention is given to the possibility of a merger of the prewar elements into one post-war organization.The two conservative parties contending for political supremacy today are the Democratic-Liberal party (Minshu Jiyu-to), and the Democratic party (Minshuto), respectively the direct lineal descendants of the Liberal party (Jiyuto) and the Progressive party (Shimpoto), both of which were organized in November, 1945.