Command Reformer

Source: Time

Preamble: This is an article found on the Time website which discusses the reasons behind the coup and the future of Fiji - a brighter and corruption-free one.

For Commodore Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama, the decision to remove the government of Laisenia Qarase in a coup on Dec. 5 was painful but simple. "The racist policies of the past," he says, sipping coffee in his office at the Republic of Fiji Military Force Strategic HQ in Suva, "would have taken us to hell—and we would never have come back." For many observers in the outside world, most vocally Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Bainimarama's actions were an unacceptable interference in the democratic process, but the armed forces chief and now interim Prime Minister is unrepentant. "If you want to stop the coup cycle, you have to get rid of the ugly side of Fijian politics," he says. "If the Qarase government had done what we're doing now, they would still be there."

Bainimarama says entrenched corruption, race-based policies that favored the 51% of Fiji's population who are indigenous, and runaway crime drove his intervention. He rejects Downer's suggestion that he has acquired a taste for power as "the height of insensitivity and arrogance," saying he didn't want to be Prime Minister, and accepted the position only at the urging of his military council. "I hate this job," he says, "but it has to be done. And we are going to stay until we complete this business."

How long that will take is anyone's guess. The interim government's "road map" for elections and a return to democracy had a scheduled arrival date of 2010, but Bainimarama now fears the process may take longer. "We earmarked six months for the Electoral Commission to redraw boundaries [unchanged since the mid-'90s]," he says, but he was told by officials the day before he spoke to Time that the work will take 18 months. "So even before we have started, 12 months have been added to 2010."

That news won't please Australia, New Zealand or the U.S., which have demanded a swift return to civilian rule. But if foreign disapproval counts with Bainimarama, he's not showing it. "They want to bully the small nations of the Pacific," he says. "Downer's policy is to ensure there is weak government in Fiji so they can take advantage of it." If outsiders really want to help Fiji, he says, "they should just lay off. Stop attacking what we're trying to do here, because it's not going to make any difference to us." He relies instead on popular support, which, he claims, "is now at 95%. People are only now understanding what we've told them over the past three or four years about crooked chiefs and corrupt politicians," he says. "They believe us now."

But while there's wide agreement that corruption needed to be eradicated, the FMF is accused of murderously heavy-handed tactics. On top of many allegations that political opponents and criminals have been beaten and intimidated, the past month has seen the deaths of two young men, allegedly at the hands of soldiers. There are murmurs that the FMF commander either endorses the brutality or has lost control of his men.

"I have told my troops that power corrupts only if you abuse the authority given to you," he says. "I am continually telling my people, 'This is the line. You can't cross this line. It doesn't do us any good.' "While unwilling to comment on specific cases, which he says are under police investigation, he suspects some soldiers may have misunderstood their mission. "I have no doubt that some guys have crossed the line thinking that's the right thing to do," he says, adding that any wrongdoing will be punished.

The military, he says, don't want to do police work, although he points to their results. "Under Qarase's government, every day of the week people were jumping on counters with cane knives to steal," he says. "There hasn't been a major crime since Dec 5. None." And when lawlessness has decreased to his satisfaction, his men will be withdrawn: "We want to give that power back to the police, but at the moment people don't have confidence in them." He notes a fall in police morale since the departure of Commissioner Andrew Hughes. "He ran away," says Bainimarama. As for reports that the Australian left after threats that his family would be kidnapped, "It's all rubbish. Who would want to kidnap him? He is insignificant."

He says Hughes was ignorant of Fijian politics, a charge he lays at many doors. Foreign politicians like Downer and his New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters are getting bad advice from their Fiji missions, he says, and don't know what's happening on the ground. "The diplomats got along better with Qarase's people," he says. "They want business as usual—even if it's going downhill." Last month Fiji's Reserve Bank predicted the economy would shrink 2-4% this year; before the coup, it had forecast growth of 2%. Speaking the day before his government's first Budget, Bainimarama blames Qarase's team. "If the economy falls," he says, "then 2% of the fall can be attributed to the events of Dec. 5. Ninety-eight per cent is the fault of the previous government. We were already going downhill, but we need to pick it up very quickly."

Meanwhile, he stresses his successes: government agencies are operating with military efficiency after a "change of attitude"; the streets are so much safer that checkpoints will be removed "maybe by the end of March"; an Independent Commission Against Corruption will soon be established; and expatriate Fijians are returning to the country. For good or ill, Bainimarama has pressed the reset button on Fijian politics and is prepared to wait while the program reloads. He is "very confident" the country is on the right path. "We've set our target and we're heading towards it," he says, with a determined smile. "We're going to win."