2 weeks Ago By Subhash Appanna
Last week, we focused on the 1987 coup and how it forced our baby boomers to leave the country that they had grown so fond of. We said that those boomers were the pride of two generations who had toiled and shed sweat and blood amid an unaccommodating and hostile environment to get to where they could sit back – no matter how temporarily – and admire the fruits of their relentless efforts and sacrifices. All was dashed at 10am on May 14, 1987.
It was time for another Girmit in another foreign land. Much has been written and shared about the negatives of that father of all coups that PM Sitiveni Rabuka has recently taken full responsibility for. I mean responsibility for being the person who released the coup genie in this exemplary country that Pope Paul II had so admired during his visit in 1986.
He called it the “way the world should be”. Little did he know that this myth would be shattered in six months. Here, let me focus on the positives of that coup even though many of you will turn against me for doing this.
Short background to the 1987 coup PRIOR to 1987, the political environment had steadily deteriorated to a point of reckoning largely because of the unprecedented success of the Indo-Fijians as a very visible and clearly identifiable ethnic category quite apart from the indigenous Fijians. There were other factors at play like the national role that Indo-Fijian skills and investment played. Or the significance of the sugar industry that was largely in Indo-Fijian hands.
The GDP equation by and large had consumption by the whole country plus Indo-Fijian (and other) investment plus government outlays. This equation clearly encapsulated what made the Fiji economy and the powers at the time were well aware of this. There were only a handful of people at the helm of government prior to 1987.
These included Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and his advisors. Others in his government were not privy to direct power and its accoutrements. The Great Council of Chiefs was also merely an advisory body (as it was intended to be).
What is significant for this analysis is that these peripheral players either did not understand the significance of the Indo-Fijians for the Fijian economy or they knew, but still needed a scapegoat to get into or around the direct reins of power. Few realise that the various buttons and strings that ensured that the traditional power structure did not disrupt the national government system were carefully juggled and tuned to navigate a delicately designed government in Fiji. The 1987 coup disrupted this fatally.
This is why we have never been able to repeat the level of peace, progress and prosperity of the first 17 years of independence. This is why the progress and prosperity of the Bainimarama government (2006-2022) was ensured by a highly oppressive governing regime. This is why other runs at government have been highly unstable, fractious and fraught with infighting, political juggling and downright extortion.
This is also why after every election, the Fijian political party in power disintegrates and others sprout up around it until they find their rightful place and morph into one or two political entities to contest the next election. This is also why electoral outcomes are often rejected and we have repeats of the coup cycle that we are now so familiar with. I will elaborate on this further later.
Here we move to the positive fallouts of the 1987 coup as promised. Gains from the 1987 coup That father of all coups left behind much to be understood and appreciated if we are able to overcome our understandable hurt and outrage and look beyond the negativity to what has been achieved and gained since then. Last week, I talked about the successes of the Indo-Fijians who were forced to flee their homeland and seek out new opportunities abroad.
Many of these people are fabulously rich now and contribute significantly to the Fiji economy through investments, remittances and, when they visit, as highly sentimental (and sometimes self-righteous) tourists. A good chunk of these forced migrants were civil servants who were unceremoniously replaced through the wave of ethnonationalism that swept through the country at the time. This freed up space in the civil service for ethnic Fijians who felt entitled and denied by Ratu Mara who was simply allowing meritocracy to work as much as was practicably possible at the time.
I say “as much as” because numerous appointments (especially at the senior levels) did have ethnic considerations. This was one of the “buttons” that had to be pressed to ensure an even keel for the national canoe of those days. hus, the spaces vacated by one ethnic group and filled by another in the Fiji civil service eased off pressure on a powder keg that fuelled the seething anger that preceded the 1987 coup.
It needs to be noted that the Indo-Fijian exodus triggered by that coup never really dried up. It continued to flow, but in rises and ebbs that coincided with political upheavals and uncertainties. This outflow has helped ease off competition for jobs in both the public and private sectors.
This has warded off intensification of inter-ethnic competition and negativities in the job market that was seen in the leadup to May 1987. On the Indo-Fijian front, that first forced rush out of the country helped beat a path to foreign pastures. This has made it easier for followers to find their fortunes and build a life outside Fiji.
More importantly, it brought home the realisation that there was life outside Fiji. This realisation and its aftermath have continued to help release pressure on the Fijian economy. Keen observers will have noted that the Indo-Fijian demands on successive governments after 1987 have largely centred around political stability and security.
There has never been any clamouring for imagined entitlements aside from the usual expectations linked to citizens anywhere. The 1987 coup also prodded the Indo-Fijians to rethink their cross-cultural relationships at the micro level. It was now obvious who were true friends and who were mere opportunists.
That helped forge cross-cultural bonds that still endure today. A good number of Indo-Fijians joined Christian congregations out of necessity and have stayed there. This has opened up more cross-cultural bridges.
A good number began to realise that Fijians harboured unrealised aspirations and grievances no matter who was to be ultimately blamed for these. This helped foster socio-political understandings. On the property front, many of the properties of desperate emigrants were bought at a pittance by ethnic Fijians (and others).
The National Bank of Fiji was ever ready to assist. One of my colleagues was fond of telling us about how she acquired her property in Nailuva Rd; there were many stories of this type. This helped change the house ownership landscape to some extent.
This also presented opportunities for ethnic Fijians to learn about the responsibilities of keeping and maintaining properties. After all, it was not only a question of ownership. So yes, there were numerous positive fallouts of the 1987 coup that are subdued in the available literature.
I will add to this much more next week. The latest on boxing is that Udayd Haider remains in coma. We urge all our readers to keep him in our prayers as no one deserves to go through the ordeal that he and his family are currently enduring.
Until next week, sa moce toka mada. n DR SUBHASH APPANNA is a senior USP academic who has been writing regularly on issues of historical and national significance. The views expressed here are his alone and not necessarily shared by this newspaper or his employers subhash.
[email protected] The Fiji Sugar Industry was built on the backs of Indian labourers.
Picture: SUPPLIED Victoria Pde in Suva – no Fijian investment in the 1980s. Picture: SUPPLIED Ratu Kamisese Mara and wife Ro Lady Lala Mara. Picture: SUPPLIED.
