The Guardian 6 December, 2006
Growing resistance
to Australian colonialism in Pacific
Pursuing its grand design to re-colonise the Pacific Island nations, the Australian
Government hoped to line-up other Pacific Island governments to condemn the threatened
military coup in Fiji. It had convened a meeting of foreign ministers from the 16 South
Pacific Forum* countries in Sydney last Friday, the day of the coup deadline set by army
Commodore Frank Bainimarama.
But things did not go the Australian Government's way, the foreign ministers of the 26-member
Pacific Forum declared that there should be no military intervention in Fiji. As the only member
countries that could be even thinking of military intervention are Australia and New Zealand, it is a
clear warning to those two countries to stay out. The Forum also decided that a delegation from the
Forum would go to Fiji to help negotiate a way out of the conflict between the Fijian Government
and Commodore Bainimarama.
At stake are important political issues. The army leader insists that those who took part in the 2000
coup against the government of Mahendra Chaudhry should be excluded from the present
government and that legislation which discriminated against the ethnic Indian population of Fiji
should be dropped. He is also demanding that the Australian who is Police Commissioner of Fiji
should be sent packing — a step that would help consolidate Fiji against Australian colonialist
encroachments.
How or whether a military coup will actually take place is not yet clear as several deadlines have
already passed without any precipitate military action or take-over.
None-the-less the Australian Government, and in particular, Foreign Minister Downer continues to
rail against coups and defends the "democratically elected government" of Fiji forgetting that when
there was a real coup in 2000 to remove the "democratically elected" government of Mahendra
Chaudhry, the Australian Government did not lift a finger to defend that government.
More recently, it has been deeply involved in the coup that forced the resignation of Prime Minister
Mari Alkatiri in East Timor who also led a "democratically elected" government. In Tonga it has
shown its real face by rushing (with troops) to prop up the monarchy and bring under control the
"unruly mobs" who rioted in support of their demand for a democratic transition in this otherwise
completely autocratic state.
The double standards and the lack of principles of the Australian and New Zealand Governments is
not lost on the governments of the Pacific Island states. Across the region there is growing
resistance to the neo-colonialist administrations that they are attempting to install in the island
states.
*The South Pacific Forum members are: Fiji, the Cook Islands, Nauru, Tonga, Western Samoa,
Niue, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Federated States of Micronesia, the
Republic of the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu, New Zealand and Australia.