Editorial: He just doesn't get it

OPINION: Fiji Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama must have had a bad kava day.

That is the only plausible explanation for his decision to expel the top New Zealand diplomat remaining in Fiji, Todd Cleaver, and the Australian High Commissioner, James Batley.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully diplomatically termed the action "capricious".

At the heart of the matter is the refusal of New Zealand and Australia to go along with the myth that the commodore is a legitimate leader of a legitimate regime. He is not. The commodore overthrew an elected government, seizing power at the point of a gun. His thugs have beaten and bullied his opponents. He has put censors in the country's newsrooms, effectively shutting down public criticism of his regime.

He promised there would be an election by March this year and then walked away from that promise. He is, in short, rapidly becoming a South Pacific version of Robert Mugabe.

It is hard to be certain what New Zealand's sin is, but it appears to revolve around the case of Fijian Family Court judge Anjala Wati, who sought to bring her 20-month son to New Zealand for medical treatment. The ban was waived by the New Zealand Government and Judge Wati and her sick child came to Auckland's Starship hospital. The assumption must be that the commodore felt that the decision was not sufficiently speedy.

Fijian Chief Justice Anthony Gates has talked of the visa being "begrudgingly" granted. That is hardly enough even if true – and it is doubtful that it is – to warrant a step as serious as the expulsion of the most senior New Zealand diplomat in Suva.

The commodore's anger at Australia was ignited by its attempts to dissuade Sri Lankan lawyers from taking up judicial appointments in Fiji, and a warning to them that they would not be able to travel through Australia once they had done so. The commodore believes the Sri Lankan lawyers coming to Fiji will contribute to the enforcement of the rule of law and that "it is my government's duty to ensure that no foreign government should interfere with such judicial independence and integrity".

His sidekick, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khayum, speaks of the need for credible judges and says "please give us a single shred of evidence to show that the judiciary is being interfered with by the executive".

Both are deluded. Both neglect to mention that the Sri Lankan judges are needed because in April President Ratu Josefa Iloilo sacked all of Fiji's judges because some had shown true independence and integrity and declared the commodore's regime illegal.

The Fijian regime and its apologists seem to believe other nations should behave as if it is business as usual in Fiji, that tourists should continue to come, and that other Pacific nations, especially New Zealand and Australia, should treat the commodore as if he were a legitimate leader.

No matter how much he and his cronies seek to convince themselves that is true, he is not. The sooner he recognises that, and acts to restore democracy to Fiji, the sooner the restrictions he finds so irksome will end.

- © Fairfax NZ News