Fijian community leader calls for democracy's restoration
BY GRAHAM MATTHEWSBRISBANE â Fifty two homes have been broken into. Families are fleeing into the bush. Cattle are being slaughtered and police vehicles are being used for cartage, Fijian community leader Anukar Mishra told a Green Left Weekly forum on June 7.
While international media have focussed on the parliamentary compound, Mishra, chair of the Movement to Restore Democracy in Fiji (Queensland), described an increasingly dangerous situation for Indian-Fijians in the country's eastern provinces.
Indians own only 2-3% of all the land in Fiji, he said, rejecting charges by coup leader George Speight that Melanesian-Fijians were losing out to Indian-Fijians.
Even before the coup, some chiefs had decided to take back land leased to Indian farmers as their leases expire, Mishra explained, saying that control of the land was a central issue in the current crisis.
Mishra also argued that the coup against Chaudhry reflected a fear by those who had done well under the previous government of 1987 coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka that they would lose their perks and that Chaudhry would win an even larger majority in the next elections. Reactionary elements turned to Speight as their saviour.
Mishra argued that there was a growing convergence of the indigenous and Indian-Fijian masses, which was worrying both the coup leaders and the military, particularly in the urban areas but also in other regions, such as the west.
Violence is restricted to the eastern areas where Speight is based, Mishra said. In the eastern area, only 200 Indian-Fijians live alongside 5000 Melanesian-Fijian families. Racism is just from a group of people who have not lived with the other races, Mishra said.
Mishra supported sanctions as the only practicable way to restore democracy to Fiji. I have been through sanctions in 1987, but I am in favour of it he said. It is the only weapon we have.