Crisis in Fiji

Press, 22 June 1987, Page 20

Crisis in Fiji

Sir,—The Fijian coup is less a rejection of democracy than a return to savagery. The ruling clique of hereditary chiefs are descended largely from “King” Cakobau, whose family gained their nobility with muskets bargained for sandalwood and beche-de-mer by the early traders. Cakobau ceded Fiji to Queen Victoria for recognition of land ownership in perpetuity. The pliant Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, is descended from Cakabou. Illegitimacy did not lessen the chiefly power of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, dethroned under his own constitution. When the fog of cordite subsides we shall see the real threat to the chiefs comes not from the Indians and partEuropeans, already on separate electoral rolls, but the recent movement of young, ethnic Fijians from village bondage, increasing, for example, the Suva-Rewa population by 50 per cent in 10 years at the expense of chiefly domains. —Yours, etc.,

VARIAN J. WILSON, June 14, 1987.