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| The typical Australian stereotype of Fiji (Photo: Tourism Fiji) |
As argument rages over Japan bowing to Australian pressure to exclude
Frank Bainimarama from the forthcoming PALM summit of Pacific leaders, we’re newly reminded of the striking disconnect between the attitude of the Labor Government and ordinary Australians towards Fiji. Pick up any
newspaper and the tough rhetoric of its politicians in the news pages about Fiji’s “draconian” regime gives way to glowing articles in the travel pages extolling the country’s charms.
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| Among the locals (photo: Tourism Fiji) |
It’s worth reading the latest –
this offering in the Fairfax Media listing “Twenty reasons to visit Fiji”.
Why is it worth reading? Well for a start, most locals wouldn’t be able
to give you 20 reasons off the top of their own heads so it’s worth
reminding ourselves of the attractions all around us that are sometimes
taken for granted. But it also explains why Australians keep coming in
large numbers even as their government imposes sanctions on the country
and Australian trade unions leaders urge them to stay away.
Of the
631,000 visitor arrivals in 2010 – the latest figures available – more
than half – 318,000 – were Australians. Why do they come? Well, cheaper
air fares, a four hour daylight flight and the strong Aussie dollar are
undoubtedly part of the answer. But the relationship goes far beyond
that.
The recent floods threw up countless examples of the strong bonds
forged between Australian visitors and the ordinary people they meet in
Fiji. It wasn’t just the gratitude expressed by individual visitors in
the media for the assistance they’d received, sometimes from people
who’d lost everything in the disaster. Many people back in Australia
who’d holidayed in Fiji dug deep to support the various flood appeals in
ways that were sometimes deeply moving for the expatriate Fijians
involved. One of the organisers of the Sydney appeal, Joweli Ravualala,
tells of bursting into tears when an elderly Sydney woman gave him two
weeks of her pension.
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| One Australian's story: Ken Lamb ( Photo: Mining "Our story" campaign) |
There are countless stories of friendships forged during Australian holidays to Fiji.
Grubsheet made one of the mining ads currently screening on Australian television that
features a man called Ken Lamb, a real life Crocodile Dundee who
supplies heavy equipment to the mining industry in the South Australian
outback. Every year, Ken and his wife, Val, like to get away from the
dust and heat to unwind at a resort on Viti Levu’s Coral Coast. And over
the years, they’ve formed close friendships with some of the resort
workers and their families.
A couple of years back, Ken took over a box
full of those instant prescription glasses you can buy at any chemist in
Australia to distribute to the surrounding villages. I’ll never forget
the look of delight on his face as he told of the looks of delight on
the faces of many of the elderly Fijians who’d benefited from this
simple gesture. They were able to read again for the first time in
years.
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| Still doesn't get it: Bob Carr with his Fijian counterpart, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola ( Photo: Australian Govt) |
This is the real glue of the Fiji-Australian relationship, not some
here-today-gone-tomorrow politician like the miserable Bob Carr,
Australia’s verbose and ultra-nerdy foreign minister. Like his
super-arrogant, Napoleonic predecessor, Kevin Rudd, Carr displays a
disturbing ignorance about the factors that brought about the 2006 coup
in Fiji. It’s perhaps understandable that an Australian politician who
owes his very existence to the trade union movement should be so
obsessed with the fate of one or two Fijian union leaders who’ve fallen
foul of the regime. Yet it beggars belief that while he acknowledges
that Fiji is taking “credible steps” to return to democracy, Carr wants
to maintain sanctions and keep up the pressure because Fiji “hasn’t done
enough”.
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| Blissful ignorance: The Australian way ( Photo: Tourism Fiji) |
Done enough of what, Mr Carr? For the first time in more than a
decade, Fiji has a government committed to multiracialism and – for the
first time ever – creating a level electoral playing field for all its
citizens. It is providing basic services to areas of the country sorely
neglected by previous administrations. It is fighting corruption and
instituting a raft of measures to ensure proper standards of governance.
It is maintaining its regional obligations and providing troops to the
UN to maintain order in places like Iraq. It is formulating a new
constitution to provide Fiji with real democracy – one person, one vote –
for the very first time. Yet it “hasn’t done enough” because it hasn’t
bowed to Australian demands for an immediate election that would alter
nothing because none of the reforms the country so badly needs will have
been instituted.
How ironic that a nation that prides itself on its own multiracial
and multicultural success can have so strongly supported the previous
Qarase Government, with its corruption and blatantly racist agenda to
disadvantage 40 per cent of the population. How lamentable that the
Australian Labor Government does everything it can to weaken the
Bainimarama regime in its quest for racial equality and good governance
in Fiji. How out of step is Labor on this with the sentiments of a great
many ordinary Australians, just as it is on so many other issues.
Fortunately for Fiji, all the opinion polls tell us they can’t wait to
turf Labor out.
FURTHER READING : Here’s a link to a devastating critique of Bob Carr’s “underwhelming” performance as foreign minister by academic commentator Peter van Onselen, writing in
The Weekend Australia.
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