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The people of Fiji have been denied their basic human rights including the right to self-determination. Their cry for justice has fallen largely on deaf ears.
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Ruling by decree, without being accountable to anyone and not being scrutinized by the fourth estate has a considerable advantage: Reforms and changes can be brought about much faster than in a democratic society. There is no doubt, that pre-coup Fiji badly needed some reforms that would have been hard to legislate under the FLP/SDL government.
So Bainimarama took over claiming to clean up corruption, remove racism, establish a fair electoral system and build a strong economy through removing red tape. Many have supported this original agenda. In the meantime, however, supporters seem to grow weary and ask a legitimate question: Why would it take 8 years to put in place these reforms, given the speed by which a dictatorial regime can act? The answer is as disturbing as it is simple and obvious: It is just scale economies! Or better the scale of the Fiji economy. Mobutu Seze Seko, the infamous African dictator managed to steal 2 billion dollars in one single year from Zaire’s mining sector. Clearly, this sort of money does not flow through the Fijian economy.
Hence, Banimarama a garden-variety dictator with a strong sense of self-preservation and self interest (as he has so blatantly demonstrated with his 30 years leave pay out of $ 200,000 and his salary arrangement with Aiyaz’ aunty) needs more time to fill his and his cronies accounts. This is the only plausible reason why elections cannot be held earlier despite the severe penalties Fiji has to pay in lost opportunities, lost revenue and lost aid. But this simple explanation also hints at a solution to the current crisis: Just ask Aiyaz and Frank how much they need to go away and pay them out as Bainimarama paid himself out his leave.
Even if Fiji paid them 100 million US$ each to go the country would be much better off. And don’t forget that there are many indications that Aiyaz and Frank have no intention to go in 2014. Pay them out. Let them go to Saudi Arabia or Hong Kong or wherever disposed dictators go nowadays. Fiji is too small and cannot afford to bleed for 30 years under this dictatorship as Egypt and Tunisia did! Back
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