Frank dealings

OPINION: It isn't easy to maintain an attitude of patience, not petulance, as Fijian strongman Frank Bainimarama and his unlovely military government continue to keep a return to democracy way down their To Do list, writes The Southland Times in an editorial.

The international community hopes that such a return is inexorable, and is trying to maintain enough pressure to ensure some sort of impetus in this direction.

But this is not easy, particularly if we are – as we should be – aware of the potential for extravagant harm done to innocent Fijians as a result of the diplomatic pariah status that Bainimarama just keeps invoking.

Another complication is that the curmudgeonly commodore is not entirely without options when it comes to looking further afield for buddies, notably China.

Elections that Bainimarama had earlier committed to hold this year have now been dispatched to, oh, 2014, and the reproach has been significant, not only New Zealand, Australia and the Commonwealth, but also the typically more hesitant and accommodating Pacific Forum.

Sanctions have been measured in their effect, ranging from the big gestures such as suspension from the Commonwealth to the stiletto jabs of travel restrictions that have hampered the comings and goings of significant figures in the spurious new regime.

The tit-for-tat expulsions of recent days are symptomatic of the continuing sour status of the relationships.

Fiji alleged New Zealand had blocked a Fijian judge from bringing a sick child to treatment here.

This was nonsense. In truth, a dispensation had been promptly issued, albeit with what Fiji clearly found galling – a "no shopping" proviso. Where's the respect?

Sure enough each government's top diplomats have now been sent packing – they started it – and it's been the same with Australia, which got in the way of Bainimarama's importation of some Sri Lankan judges to replace the rather too independently minded jurists he regrettably had to let go.

If this all seems rather petty, yes it is. But not entirely inconsequential. Those ousted diplomats aren't typically idle figureheads. Dispatch them like so many pawns and you lose potentially significant agents for change.

What next? Whopping trade sanctions?

Not yet, anyway. Hopefully, not at all. We have the ability, but this would be a bludgeoning move.

Temptingly emphatic though sanctions may be in this case, particularly when we are reminded of the ugly penchant for cruelty, even brutality, from the worst depths of the military, we must not kid ourselves about the consequences. As things stand, too many innocent people would be too dramatically affected.

Then there are the efforts to have Fijian soldiers rejected from United Nations peacekeeping roles. The idea is that a dispirited and sulky military would at last get the message.

The question here is whether this is simplistic. The third-largest military force in the Pacific is reportedly already quite seriously conflicted about the situation at home, and there's a case to put that reducing the military's capacity to do, let's face it, good work overseas would somehow mean it would default to taking a nobler path at home.

So now, when Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegoi calls for a lot of prayer and patience, it's not as if the rest of the Pacific is spoilt for other options.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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