BY NICK EVERETT
SYDNEY — Several hundred people gathered to hear deposed Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry speak at the Marrickville Town Hall on August 12.
Also speaking were Fiji Trades Union Congress general secretary Felix Anthony and Timoci Naivaluwaqa from the Fiji National Union of Hotel and Catering Employees. The meeting was organised by the Movement for Democracy and Human Rights in Fiji.
Anthony argued that the treason charges laid against coup leader George Speight were a sideshow; those really responsible for the coup were members of Fiji's military-supported "interim government". At least five members of the illegal administration were active in the coup plot, he said.
Anthony said the coup was designed to shore up the rule of Fiji's elite. "It was the politicians who lost out at the elections and the business people who owe and evade tax. It is not a race struggle, it's a class issue", Anthony declared.
Naivaluwaqa said that the issue of Melanesian Fijians' rights has been dishonestly represented by the coup leaders. Whenever there is a conflict between indigenous rights and other ethnic groups and they can't be resolved amicably, indigenous rights prevail under the 1997 constitution", he explained.
Chaudhry echoed this: "Those parading 'indigenous rights' before the world are the biggest enemies of indigenous Fijians. They have been having a ride on the gravy train and each time their rule is threatened they stage a coup."
Chaudhry said that Speight's coup had spurred a wave of terror against Indian Fijians far more violent than that initiated by Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka's coups in 1987. "The Australian and New Zealand governments must not permit an apartheid government in the middle of the Pacific", he said.
Various speakers pointed to the hypocrisy of the Australian government in advocating "smart" sanctions while continuing to provide aid, including training, to Fiji's armed forces. Anthony stated: "The army has a political agenda. It has assisted in overthrowing the government. It is guilty of the same crimes as Speight. The Australian government should cut off all ties with Fiji's military."
Anthony said the Australian government's soft line on sanctions was a rerun of the Labor government's capitulation to 1987 coup leader Rabuka. "The international community should take some blame for not taking a stronger position when this happened before", he said. "Unless there is a strong and immediate response from the international community, we could see a situation develop like we had in 1987 where supporters of democracy in Fiji had to fight for 10 years before the democratic and racially legitimate 1997 constitution was put in place."
The meeting unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the restoration of the 1997 constitution, for all Fijian citizens, regardless of their ethnicity, be treated equally, and for the independence of Fiji's judiciary. The resolution also called on the Australian government to withdraw all aid, other than humanitarian aid, to Fiji and isolate the military-backed government.
On August 13, more than 800 people attended a meeting with Chaudhry in Liverpool in Sydney's west.