Is a spat between regional power Australia and Pacific island Fiji an early indication of China’s future role in the Pacific?
Fiji has been back in the news, but this time not because of a coup or ethnic violence—problems that have wracked the tiny South Pacific island nation in recent years. Instead, it has been drawing attention for standing up to regional power Australia.
Last month, the island’s self-appointed prime minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, decided to expel acting Australian High Commissioner Sarah Roberts. Indeed, he went as far as to declare her a persona non grata—the toughest form of censure for a foreign diplomat.
The official explanation was that Roberts had been expelled for ‘interfering with the internal affairs of Fiji and conducting unfriendly acts.’ But the real reason was more likely pique at the cancellation, after Australian lobbying, of the five-member Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) over concerns about democracy and governance in the military-run country.
Bainimarama, who took power in a coup in 2006, has rejected such claims, although he also hinted at the possibility of cancelling the island’s planned return to democratic election in 2014 over what he argues is foreign meddling in Fiji’s affairs.
But his defiance hasn’t stopped there. Fiji has begun to act more assertively in other ways, for example proposing holding an ‘Engaging Fiji’ meeting as an alternative to the MSG.
So what has emboldened Bainimarama to turn against Australia? The answer is almost certainly the island’s warming ties with China, a country Fiji has courted since being expelled from the Commonwealth and Pacific Islands Forum, in an effort to legitimize Bainimarama’s rule.
The tack the prime minister is taking was clear during his visit to China earlier this month, during which he said he would distance his island from Australia and New Zealand in favour of a country he said better understands the ‘reforms’ he is trying to introduce.
Fiji has already started to relax immigration rules for Chinese students wishing to come to Fiji to study English, which some see as a more cost-effective destination than Australia or New Zealand (the island has also been working hard to counter any impressions of it being a banana republic or failed state).
Meanwhile, Fiji also appointed former Finance Minister Sir James Ah Koy to head its embassy in Beijing and China is set to reciprocate by sending a government delegation to the island when Fiji observes the 40th anniversary of its independence on October 10.
In return for these efforts, China gains the allegiance of a nation in a region that Australia has itself been wooing. Many South Pacific islands receive significant investment and aid from Australia, including Papua New Guinea, which relies on Canberra for 59 percent of its imports and which last year received A$457 million worth of aid. The Solomons, meanwhile, received A$226 million, while Vanuatu got A$66 million.
Such assistance helps Australia wield greater influence over the MSG, whose current chair, Vanuatu Prime Minister Edward Natapei, echoed Australian and others’ concerns over the legitimacy of Bainimarama continuing in power.
Photo Credit: Miguel Sanchez
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SE962582C
What Discrimination?!
The Readers would actually find that and discover that any perceived inequalities, injustices and so-called “discrimination” are absolutely nothing compared to and compared with that of Bhutan, and of Assam, of the North-Eastern India/Hindustan and of Maharashtra, where that there much Discrimination indeed, and where Discrimination is of a different form and also of a whole new level, where it is not even so much and necessarily based upon Caste and/or upon religious-confessional identities and backgrounds.
It IS indeed highly unrealistic, if not highly unreasonable as well, to expect for some “special” rights, freedoms and/or privileges that are not that generally and universally available even back in India the Hindustan.
For one thing, one does not believe that there are ever any known instances of any non-Protestants or non-Christians upon the Island of Fiji and the Fiji Islands who claimed to be forcibly converted into a different religion under physical duress and under the Pain of Death, unlike “some certain other” places.
Still, be that as it may, it is always unacceptable and wrong, if not also dangerous, and at the very least inadvisable, to attack especially the Fiji-based and Islander/Insular-based local Baptist and/or Methodist Protestant Christian Churches, directly or in any way; as to attack especially the Two or 2 Protestant Christian Churches would the same as and equal to a direct attack upon the Protestant Christian beliefs, religion and faith of the Fijians.
Huang
Fiji is a very good start for all the South Pacific island nations(including Australia and New Zealand)to follow. Being in the Asian neighborhood,it is only natural to be part of thee Asian Pacific family(old colonial attitudes no longer relevant in this new age of equality,respect of others,fairness,mutual trust). China is on the path of reaching and engaging the World community. China’s sincere actions inevitably caused a few ripples in the traditionally Western controlled(from the top down)governments in the region. China’s present in the region will positively create more constructive interactions between the island nations and the rest of Asia. This is truly a win-win situation.
SE962582C
The Island of Fiji and the Fiji Islands are NOT part of Asia, and neither are Vladivostok/Vladivastok, Ussuriysk nor Khabarovsk, nor Sakhalin nor Kamchatka, either!
If Tasmania and the Commonwealth of Australia cannot possibly be part of Asia, and indeed they are NOT, then how could the Island of Fiji and the Fiji Islands, being to the EAST of both Tasmania and of Australia, could somehow possibly be part of Asia somehow?!
They are NOT one’s or my words, but the not-so-exactly-worded sentiments of the Dr. (not Ph.D.) Mahathir-bin-Mohammed M.D. the Malayan and the Malaysian no less, and a real and a true Asian all-right.
SE962582C
Let’s have a bit of more of an Intellectual honesty, instead of Conspiracy Theories with both Ultra-Nationalist and Racial undertones, shall we?!
One of the Facts are that the City of Suva is never and NEVER going to be as Indian as and/or as Hindustani as either the Cities of Siliguri or of Simla; is it?! And that the Island of Fiji is never and NEVER going to be as Indian as and/or as Hindustani as the Diu, as the Salsette or as the Minicoy Islands; is it?! As well as that the Fiji Islands are never and NEVER going to be as Indian as and/or as Hindustani as the Ladshakweep Islands, as the Andaman Islands or as the Nicobar Islands; is it?!
VVN
“stoking internal resentment by making it harder for Fijians to emigrate to Australia and New Zealand” — this actually benefits Fiji by keeping skilled people and professionals in Fiji.
Common man
Funny isn’t it?
Fiji with its racism aimed mainly at Indians because they run most of the businesses. It now wants to be a smart arse and deal with China whilst most of the other South Pacific nations such as the Solomons, Nauru etc aim their racism at the CHINESE because THEY own all the businesses, and want THEM out of Dodge!