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 self-
defeating 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 all-
too-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)