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Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Interim Prime Minister of Fiji.

ONE can only admire the intellectual consistency of "Lew" at Kiwipolitico. His condemnation of Fiji's military rulers' entirely predictable response to the neo-colonialist diktat of the all-white (and Australian to boot!) judges of the Fijian Court of Appeal, is all of a piece with his energetic defence of the equally disconnected judgements of the NZ Geographic Board. "Lew" is, after all, the same man who sneeringly refers to his fellow countrymen as "settlers" - happily echoing the ideas of the kupapa pakeha responsible for allowing the politically reactionary agenda of Maori nationalism to gain such firm purchase in this country's key institutions. When the most progressive elements of the Fijian people, having been prevented from modernising their country by democratic means, resort to the force majeure of military intervention to achieve their goals, one might have hoped the likes of "Lew" would offer their solidarity and support. Especially when the government overthrown by Commodore Frank Bainimarama was itself the product of a coup d'etat staged by para-military forces bought-and-paid-for by external commercial interests, and facilitated by a reactionary gaggle of self-serving hereditary chiefs and right-wing Methodist fundamentalists. But of course they have not? Clearly, "Lew" prefers these sort of indigenes to the patriotic officers of the Republic of Fiji's Armed Forces. The great foe of "settler" culture in New Zealand, is apparently a fan of the corrupt kleptocracy that has ruled Fiji since the granting of independence nearly forty years ago. "Lew", like the New Zealand and Australian Governments, sees nothing amiss with bestowing swift diplomatic forgiveness upon the brutal interventions of Rabuka and Speight. The latters' violent restoration of the corrupt status quo ante, which the democratic modernisers, Bavadra and Chaudhry, had so courageously challenged, certainly suited the Anglo-Saxon powers' neo-colonialist ambitions of in the South Pacific - and, seemingly, "Lew's" too.

However, "Lew's" moral smugness (a condition he shares with "Idiot Savant" at No Right Turn) prevents him for seeing the glaring inconsistencies in what passes for his political thought processes. To right a 170-year-old "wrong" in the spelling of Wanganui, "Lew" is willing to completely set aside the fundamental principles of democracy. In Fiji, however, the letter of the democratic law must be upheld - even at the cost of restoring the corrupt, quasi-feudal, and blatantly racist former regime. As John Key wings his way to Thailand, a nation ruled by a thoroughly undemocratic and constitutionally illegitimate government, whose flagrant flouting of the most basic civil and political rights our Prime Minister is, for the purposes of consolidating our trading links, willing to overlook, "Lew" is only too happy to lend his support to the punitive and selfdefeating anti-Fijian policies of Murray McCully. The desperately poor Fijian population - victims of the diplomatic and economic sanctions already in force - should now, in the lofty opinion of "Lew" and his ilk, be further afflicted by the complete cessation of all diplomatic relations and all international aid. Instead of calling upon our government to lend its support to Commodore Bainimarama's campaign to rid the Fijian polity of its endemic racism and corrupt practices, "Lew" and McCully have siezed upon this latest crisis to give full and unrestrained expression to their neo-colonialist hypocrisy. It will, of course, only make things worse. Soldiers have never been the most reliable custodians of the democratic flame. Putting them under further pressure is unlikely to improve its chances of remaining alight. What we've being treated to in "Lew's" latest posting at Kiwipolitico, is a startling, but alltoo-typical example of the indefatigable hauteur of the New Zealand intellectual, whose crowning conceit - that knowledge equals wisdom - has for far too long contributed to the moral weakness and political unreliability of New Zealand's intelligentsia in the struggle to preserve what remains of our progressive heritage. Posted by Chris Trotter at 3:39 PM Labels: Bainimarama, Fiji, La Trahison Des Clercs, McCully 0 comments: Post a Comment Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)