Freedom in the World 2001 - Fiji

2001 Scores

Status: Partly Free
Freedom Rating: 4.5
Civil Liberties: 3
Political Rights: 6

Ratings Change

Fiji's political rights rating changed from 2 to 6, and its status from Free to Partly Free, after rebels tried to depose an elected government and the military installed an interim civilian government.

Overview

Efforts to establish a multiracial democracy in Fiji were in tatters at year's end, several months after an attempted coup in May by ethnic Fijian hardliners led to the ouster of an elected civilian government headed by an Indo-Fijian prime minister. Installed by the military following the putsch, an interim administration headed by Laisenia Qarase began drafting a new constitution that would largely exclude Indo-Fijians from political power.

Fiji's paramount chiefs ceded sovereignty over these South Pacific islands to the British in 1874. The British began bringing Indian laborers to work on plantations in 1879. At independence in 1970, the indigenous-Fijian and Indo-Fijian communities were roughly equal in population.

Following 17 years of rule by the indigenous-Fijian Alliance Party, the 1987 elections brought to power the country's first government largely composed of Indo-Fijians. Backed by indigenous-Fijian hardliners alarmed at the emerging political influence of the economically successful Indo-Fijian community, Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, an indigenous Fijian, seized power in coups in May and September 1987.

An appointed civilian government introduced a constitution in 1990 that guaranteed that indigenous Fijians would always have a majority in parliament. It granted them 37 of the 70 seats in the lower house, and also required the prime minister to be an indigenous Fijian. Elections in 1992 and 1994 led to coalition governments headed by coup leader Rabuka.

Amid a continuing exodus of skilled Indo-Fijian workers, parliament amended the constitution in 1997 to end the indigenous Fijians' guaranteed parliamentary majority and permit an Indo-Fijian prime minister. The amendments created a 71-seat house with 25 seats open to all races; 23 reserved for indigenous Fijians; 19 for Indo-Fijians; 3 for "general electors" (mainly whites and East Asians); and 1 for Rotuma Island. The amendments also required the largest party in parliament to invite all parties gaining more than ten percent of the parliamentary vote into the government. In a nod to ethnic Fijians, the constitution also empowered the unelected Great Council of Chiefs to appoint the largely ceremonial president, and the president to appoint the 32-member senate.

Held in March 1999, the first elections under the new constitution brought to power a multiracial coalition government under Mahendra Chaudhry, who became the country's first Indo-Fijian prime minister. Final results gave Chaudhry's Indo-Fijian-based Labor Party all 19 Indo-Fijian constituencies and 18 of the 25 open constituencies; the ethnic-Fijian Fijian Association Party, 10 seats; Rabuka's Fijian Political Party, 8; four smaller parties, 11; and independents, 5.

Chaudhry was immediately confronted with sensitive issues involving land and logging. The prime minister angered indigenous-Fijian landowners by pressuring them to renew expiring 30-year leases held by Indo-Fijian tenant farmers. Indigenous Fijians own roughly 83 percent of the land, while Indo-Fijian tenant farmers are the main producers of sugar and other commodities. While many landowners favored putting their land to development use, Indo-Fijians complained about the lack of secure land tenure. The Chaudhry government also angered some indigenous-Fijian landowners by giving a contract to harvest government-owned mahogany plantations on their land to a British company, rather than to an American concern that had offered a more lucrative bid.

Amid a series of anti-government demonstrations, businessman George Speight and an armed gang that included some members of the army's Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) unit seized Chaudhry and other officials in the parliament building on May 19, 2000. A key supporter of the American-backed mahogany bid that Chaudhry had rejected, Speight held the hostages until July 13 while wresting concessions from the mainly ethnic-Fijian military, which agreed to scrap the 1997 constitution, replace President Ratu Kamisese Mara, install a government that excluded Indo-Fijians, and grant amnesty to the rebels.

Having defused the crisis, the military installed an interim government, headed by banker Laisenia Qarase, and appointed Ratu Josefa Iloilo as president. After Speight demanded a more hardline government, authorities arrested the putsch leader and more than 300 of his supporters in late July for failing to surrender their weapons as required under the amnesty agreement. A court formally charged Speight and 14 of his supporters with treason in August for having allegedly threatened the president over the composition of the government.

The ousted government won a small victory on November 15, when the high court ruled that the Qarase government was unconstitutional and ordered the Chaudhry administration reinstated. The military government said it respected the decision but did not indicate what it would do if the ruling is upheld on appeal. In a sign of rifts in the army in the aftermath of the coup, members of the CRW attempted a mutiny on November 2 that left eight soldiers dead and 22 civilians wounded.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Fiji is headed by a military-appointed, interim civilian government, which said in November that it would hold elections by March 2002. At year's end a government committee was drawing up guidelines for a new constitution. As amended in 1997, the now-defunct constitution had ended the indigenous Fijians' guaranteed parliamentary majority. However, it had partially maintained the electoral system's division along ethnic lines by reserving 46 of the 71 lower house seats for the various ethnic communities. The constitution also had explicitly stated that ethnic-Fijian interests have primacy over those of other ethnic communities, though it also contained a fairly comprehensive bill of rights.

While authorities generally respect individual rights, some media and nongovernmental organizations have criticized the potential restrictions on civil liberties contained in the 1998 Emergency Powers Act. The act authorizes the president to declare a state of emergency, under which parliament can impose broad press and communications censorship, seize private property, conduct searches without warrants, and ban public meetings.

The judiciary is independent. After beginning operations in early 2000, the official Human Rights Commission received some 50 complaints by May. Most complaints alleged employment discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, religion, language, and age. Another continuing problem is police abuse of detainees and prisoners, although the government has punished some offending officers.

Immediately after the rebels seized parliament in May, indigenous Fijians looted and burned some shops in downtown Suva owned by Indo-Fijians. In June and July, gangs of indigenous Fijians looted and burned numerous Indo-Fijian shops and homes on the two largest islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, forcing hundreds of Indo-Fijians to flee their homes.

Fiji's private media vigorously report on alleged official corruption and ethical violations, although journalists practice some self-censorship. Both the Rabuka and Chaudhry governments had criticized the political coverage in the country's newspapers, generally without providing any factual grounds for the criticism. Shortly after taking office in 1999, the Chaudhry government ordered official advertising to be placed only in the Daily Post, on the grounds that the government was the paper's largest shareholder. The move disadvantaged the Fiji Times, whose news coverage the government had repeatedly criticized. The government also refused to renew the work permit of the Fiji Times' editor-in-chief, a foreign national, on the grounds that there were Fijian citizens capable of filling the job. The Chaudhry government also began several court proceedings against journalists. In a positive development, a high court judge dismissed in April a defamation action by an assistant minister against Fiji One, the lone noncable television station, and three of its journalists.

No government has used the Press Correction Act, which authorizes officials to arrest anyone who publishes "malicious" material, or to order a publication to publish a "correcting statement" to an article. However, both the Rabuka and Chaudhry governments initiated actions against newspapers over their coverage of parliament under the Parliamentary Privileges and Powers Act. While the act authorizes jail terms of up to two years for breaches of parliamentary privilege, no actual disciplinary measures were taken.

Radio is a key source of information on the outer islands, and there are both publicly and privately held stations. The provincial governments hold a majority stake in Fiji One, which generally provides balanced news coverage.

Rape and domestic violence are serious problems. In some rape cases, the practice of bulubulu (traditional reconciliation) allows the offender to apologize to a victim's relatives to avoid a felony charge. In addition, courts frequently impose lenient sentences for rape. Women are underrepresented in government and politics, although they have made significant inroads in the civil service and professions. Indo-Fijians are underrepresented in the senior civil service and the military leadership.

Trade unions are independent and vigorous. Factory conditions are often poor, particularly in the garment and canning industries. The country's tourism industry said in July that the May coup attempt had already cost operators $93 million in lost business and forced them to lay off 20,000 staff. Tourism contributes about 20 percent of Fiji's gross domestic product and is the top foreign exchange earner.