Most countries have laws that prevent religious and racial vilification. Most responsible media outlets – including those on the internet – excise comments designed to inflame religious and racial hatred. But sadly not the most prominent of the websites set up to oppose the government of Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama.
That site calls itself Coup Four and a Half – otherwise known as 4.5 – and is supposedly run by journalists. Its name denotes the four coups in Fiji’s post independence history -the two Rabuka coups in 1987, the Speight coup in 2000, the Bainimarama coup in 2006 plus what 4.5 regards as the half coup when Bainimarama’s takeover was declared illegal by the courts in 2009 and he abrogated the constitution altogether, sacked the judiciary and continued to govern by decree.
Now, Coup 4.5 is entitled to oppose the dictatorship, though many Fijians prefer it to the nationalist government Bainimarama overthrew. It’s also entitled to campaign for the restoration of democracy, though many Fijians are happy to accept the regime’s promise to hold elections in 2014. But there’s plenty wrong with 4.5 – unforgivably so – when it publishes the most vile attacks on people based on race and religious affiliation.
Grubsheet has taken the site to task before for publishing comments describing Indo-Fijians as “mongoose” or “mynahs” – the clear implication being that Fijians of Indian descent are imported pests. It regularly refers to the prime minister as “the Baini”, a disparaging play on words on the popular Hindi description of a person of low breeding or class. But now comes something far more grave, an all out attack on Fiji’s Muslims on one of the holiest days of the Islamic calendar – the birthday of the prophet Mohammed.
This wasn’t in the comments section of the site but in the main editorial column. And it deserves to be read in full, as it appeared, not only to appreciate the appalling nature of the attack itself but to appreciate why the Bainimarama regime is so determined to stamp out this kind of racial and religious intolerance in Fiji once and for all.
“Fiji is going through a false scenario of reforms and modernization to have a new Fiji. This was reiterated by the PM in his address during the November 2012 budget. Sadly it is bound to end up with civilization with darkness.
The truth is Muslims, through Aiyaz Sayed Kaiyum, is colonizing Fiji. They are deceiving the people of Fiji using nice phrases and words such as modernization, a new Fiji without corruption, transparency, fairness to justify their staying in power. Look at what has been happening:
Muslim riding hard on power (RFMF)
Rule by decree
Increase in the number of key positions in government being given to Muslims or those supporting Khaiyum
Weakening of Fijian institutions and culture and land ownership
Nepotism
Recruiting of non-Fijians, especially kaivalagis, to weaken Fijian’s capabilities
Wake up Fiji. Wake up to the radical changes in our beloved peaceful and friendly country. Regrettably, Banimarama will not do anything: only he knows why it is Yes sir, three bags full Sir!”
This grubby little offering isn’t just inflammatory but utterly false. Muslims constitute just 7 per cent of the population of Fiji – some 54,000 in a country of 860,000. They are hardly “colonising Fiji”, as the anonymous author of this rubbish asserts. There is one Muslim cabinet minister – Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Kaiyum – and one Muslim officer – Brigadier General Mohammed Aziz – in the RFMF, the Republic of Fiji Military Forces. These are hardly “Muslims riding hard to power”. In fact, they’re total exceptions in their own fields in a population utterly dominated by Christians and Hindus. So the notion that they pose any “threat” is risible.
There’s also a puzzling reference to the “recruitment of non-Fijians, especially kaivalagis, to weaken Fijian’s capabilities”. Kaivalagi is the indigenous term for a white man or European. On the latest figures available, a mere 0.4 per cent of Fiji’s population describes itself as European, under 3000 people in a population of 860,000. Perhaps the author was referring to the recruitment of American PR people or the odd expatriate lawyer. But this is clearly even more of a furphy than the claim about Muslims.
Simply put, Coup 4.5 – with this base offering – has become the local equivalent of a Nazi hate sheet. It’s designed to provoke and exploit the long-standing and deep-rooted fears of uneducated indigenous Fijians and turn them against Muslims in particular and Indo-Fijians in general. And it does that in the crudest way possible – to spread the lie that indigenous people are being marginalised in the land of their birth and robbed of their jobs and land.
There is also the implicit message that Fijians could be forced to abandon Christianity and live under the diktat of an Islamic state. How? Because Coup 4.5 positioned this vile piece of misinformation right next to the text of a routine message from the Prime Minister to Fiji’s Muslims to mark Mohammed’s birthday. The contents of this were totally inoffensive – indeed, sentiments universally shared of unity and tolerance. Yet it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Bainimarama’s adoption of the Muslim customary greeting ” Peace be upon him” when referring to the Prophet, was being exploited to carry a deeper message of a leader dancing to the tune of both the Muslim religion and his Muslim right hand man, Khaiyum. Or as the “article” put it – “Yes, sir. Three bags full, sir!” Presumably no “no sir’ – as the nursery rhyme usually goes – because, in 4.5’s view, Bainimarama never says no to his attorney-general.
Who are these people? Well, they’re always anonymous but are said to be a group of Fiji journalists running their site out of Auckland, with contributions from members of the deposed SDL government, ex civil servants and a hard core of anti-regime “human rights” advocates. One thing is certain. As well as permitting overtly racist content on the site, they routinely censor any comments they don’t agree with – unbridled hypocrisy from a site that continually castigates the regime for its own censorship of the media.
The wonder is that some of 4.5’s content is written by respected journalists and academics who are Indo-Fijians to boot. There are contributions from the Oxford-based Victor Lal – arguably Fiji’s finest investigative journalist – and from the economist Professor Wadan Narsey, currently working in Japan after falling out with his superiors at the University of the South Pacific. Grubsheet recently asked Professor Narsey how he could possibly have anything to do with a website that carried overtly racist content. His response was that he’d been told by the “journalists” at 4.5 that it was preferable to allow people to “let off steam than have them bottle it up”
How any responsible person can accept such a notion is frankly beyond Grubsheet’s ken. This is bottled venom that would bring prosecution in New Zealand – the country from which Coup 4.5 supposedly operates – and, for that matter, in all of the bolt holes of the disaffected Fijian diaspora. Imagine the furor if any Muslim in Fiji had launched a similar attack on local Christians, and on Christmas Day? It’s inexcusable and unacceptable. No buts.
An abbreviated version of this article has subsequently appeared in the Fiji Sun. It has also been reproduced on Crosbie Walsh’s influential website – Fiji the Way it Was, Is and Could Be – and Cafe Pacific, the blog of Professor David Robie, head of the Pacific Media Centre at Auckland’s University of Technology.
SEQUEL : Predictably, the Coup 4.5 article has triggered a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in the comment sections of the blog, along with a series of personal attacks on Grubsheet for having the temerity to criticise the piece.
Here’s a sample that has all the hallmarks of fascist propaganda – the bigger the lie the more believable, for those inclined to believe in the first place.
Freedom Seeker said…
While the followers of Islam seek to control the country- through
subtle infiltration into the senior executive management of Fiji’s leading corporations and conglomerate companies- they will not be too pleased to discover that the religion they so vehemently follow with extreme devoutness – is, in fact, a sham.
There is increasing archaeological and documentary evidence being
discovered which clearly shows that Islam was developed by the Vatican for the sole purpose of eliminating Jews.
While many may be shocked by this revelation- there are a group of
people who are privy to the authenticity of this fact- in fact, they may even hold key evidence and documentation which exposes Islam as a false religion- and an off-shoot of the Roman Catholic faith.
And then this:
Anonymous said…
Prophet Mohd also had sex with 9 yr child. He also had sex with his sons wife.This man was a con artist who held knife against few christains forcing them to write quran based on his fantasy.
Coup 4.5 could excise this but won’t, even as it censors political comments that don’t suit its agenda. In other parts of the world, accusing the Prophet of child abuse and claiming Islam is a construct of the Vatican to eliminate the Jews carries the potential to spark rioting, fatwas, even Jihad. Yet at Coup 4.5, it’s all a legitimate part of the debate. The politics of hate.
Graham,
C4.5 should be thanking you for getting their name out to the general public in Fiji. I am sure after your article in the Sun we will see an increase in their page views.
I do not condone that piece in C4.5 In my view it has no value. I do think you should let the worl know they were more than happy to post your comment. In fact if you look at c4.5 they seem to allow most comments both for and against the regime. Of all the websites talking about Fiji they have the most comments and they can only achieve that by allowing both sides to give vent to their feelings.
This piece on C4.5 is merely a side show. Why don’t you pass comment on more weighty matters on Grubsheet. Perhaps the lifting of PER and its replacement with the amended Public Order Act. Perhaps the failing economy. Perhaps The new State Proceedings Amendment Decree which gives all the dictators cronies the power to libel and slander their enemies without redress in the courts.
Grubbers, old boy, start talking about the important things in Fiji and stop sucking up to your friends Frank and Sharon.
Guy, “old boy”. I can “tell the world” that Coup 4.5 published two of my comments yesterday and declined to publish another. So their censorship – and that’s what it is – is entirely capricious, just like the censorship they campaign against on the part of the regime. Except that official censorship of the media in Fiji has now ended and regime personnel have vacated the country’s newsrooms. The gatekeepers at Coup 4.5 are still in place.
Their promotion of racial and religious extremism deserves the widest coverage and, yes, I’m gratified that the Fiji Sun chose to publish an abbreviated version of my original piece locally. You seem to think this will benefit Coup 4.5 in some way by exposing them further to ordinary readers in Fiji. I somehow doubt it. It’s a bit like saying that sales of Mein Kampf are bound to go through the roof if anyone mentions Hitler’s tome. Rubbish is rubbish and ordinary people everywhere tend to know it when they see it.
Thank you for suggesting the alternative range of topics you would like me to cover in future. Most solicitous of you. Journalism on demand is evidently part of the new media landscape. I will consider it after, of course, I consult those I “suck up to”.
A belated Happy New Year to you,
“Grubbers”
Although very few of us have much interest in the mental ramblings of Coup 4.5, one must comment as follows –
1. They are forgotten Nationalists, Pathetic.
2. Why are they in N.Z – obviously because they are scared to be in Fiji. Pathetic.
3. With the likes of Barbara Dreaver, Sean Dorney and Michael Field arund, it is easy to see that so-called “respected Journalists” are not really respected for anything truthful they say, but for the lies and crap they use to sell a programme, paper or earn their wages with. Pathetic.
4. Dr. Wadan Narsey is supposed to be so brilliant, but is not very clever at all, by the sounds of his ramblings, Pathetic.
5. Your friend – Guy old boy, sounds like he is married to a Nationalist, or was working for the Nationalists in Fiji for a good salary, and can exploit us no more. Pathetic.
Graham,
One foolish article does not make for a bad blogsite. If you look at Coup 4.5 over the past 2-3 years they have uncovered a lot of the dirt the Dictator and his cronies try to cover up. I will not condone the muslim article. It is racist, it is rude it is pointless. However, I have learnt many things from C4.5 and a lot of which have proven to be true over time.
If we had a truly free media in Fiji we would have a papers and TV documentaries that could publish investigative pieces on the regime. These pieces would be tempered by having to comply with laws of libel etc and so are better researched. But because Khaiyum and the dictator has seen fit to censor the press we have unregulated blog sites such as C4.5 delivering the news.
“I can “tell the world” that Coup 4.5 published two of my comments yesterday and declined to publish another. So their censorship – and that’s what it is – is entirely capricious,” THEY HAVE THREE OF YOUR COMMENTS POSTED. No censorship there.
Your fellow Dictator’s apologist Crosbie Walsh does censor comments. He stopped one of my own and he kindly emailed to explain why.
“Guy, I posted John Adams’ comments which were on the same wavelength as your comments which I nearly did publish. The tipping factor was that you made very serious claims that I had no way of verifying. To have published them as stated with no further explanation would have given them undue credence. I concluded that you were genuine about your fears (and those of your friends) but what you told me is very different from what I am being told by a dozen or so people of different backgrounds who also live in Fiji and who also support democracy. They dislike the PER restrictions that affect what people feel free to say but they do not express fear or expected detention. This made me think you were probably close to the core of people who are trying to topple the Bainimarama government and so abort the promised constitutional and electoral reforms that I deem essential for Fiji’s future wellbeing. Your use of the “Thumbs up” pseudonym reinforced this opinion and identified you with the Ratu Tevita and “pro-democracy” people whose motives and reputations I hold suspect. These people, and I thought you one of them, have access to many media outlets and do not need more exposure through my blog.”
I did offer to provide verification for my claims but he still refused to publish my comment.
Happy new year to you too and may 2012 see freedom in Fiji
@Gay Maxwell
Although very few of us have much interest in the mental ramblings of Gay Maxwell, one must comment as follows –
1. They are vibrant bloggers writing their way to freedom
2. If they were in Fiji they would be locked up for exercising the human right of freedom of speech.
3. For every article put out by field, dorney and dreaver we have to suffer 10 from Sharon Smut Johns
4. Wadan may not be clever but he certainly comes across as much cleverer than Fiji’s Minister of Finance, none other than the dictator himself Frankie Bananas.
5. Not married to a nationalist. Like Graham I was born here more years ago than I want to remember. Unlike Graham I stayed here. Unlike Graham I have opposed every coup in Fiji. Unlike Graham, because I still live in Fiji and do not approve of dictatorship, I have to write under a Pseudonym.
Guy Threesomefell
Why are you so scared to write your real name. Are you scared of a knock at your door in the middle of the night with someone yelling ” open up Gestapo”.
Guy – Have you ever met Gay Maxwell?
Not that I am aware
“Guy” ( for we now know it’s not your real name ), let me just clarify one thing.
I submitted four comments to Coup 4.5 and three were published. The fourth I wrote AFTER our previous exchange. So my original point stands – that there is censorship at Coup 4.5 and it is capricious.
What happened between you and Crosbie Walsh is not my affair. But I can scarcely believe that he would censor you for anything other than obscenity or defamation. Reading between the lines, I suspect it was the latter in the instance you cite. In my experience, he is scrupulously fair, respects the facts to the point of pedantry and doesn’t baulk from castigating the regime when it’s warranted.
You’re a funny old thing, aren’t you. You seem to be implying that me leaving Fiji and you staying confers some sort of special status on your pronouncements about the country compared to mine. That may well be so. But there’s also something called the clarity of distance. And it strikes me that some of your wilder enthusiasms indicate that you are far too consumed with the static of the everyday rather than the big picture of how to best achieve a prosperous multiracial nation
I’ve yet to see you enunciate any cogent alternative blueprint for the country beyond your continual lament about the failures of the current government. If you have one, let’s hear it.
Grubbers Old Boy (Sorry it makes me think of Henry Blofeld of Test Match Special)
1-C4.5 has not posted any comments for about 24 hours. I am sure your fourth will be posted, just like your other three, when they get round to it.
2- Croz is very upfront and there is no need to read between the lines. He is clear in that he did not publish me because I was pro democracy and therefore suspicious.
3- I was making the point to Gay that I was not married to a nationalist and by implication I supported the previous coups because they were pro Fijian and I benefitted from them but anti this one because it was for a racist free country.
In previous debates you have agreed that Fiji is a dictatorship. I don’t think you have any idea what that means if you oppose the dictatorship. Now Gay implies I disapprove of this regime because I am a nationalist. I disapprove because dictatorship is wrong. I disapprove because the economy of this country is failing, I disapprove because there is no open debate in this country, I disapprove because I have to write this under an assumed name.
Get down from your ivory tower and come to Fiji again. But don’t hang around Sharon and Frank too long. Meet the business people, meet the legal fraternity, meet the people. All your conversations will have to be off the record. But come and try and understand what it is like to live in a dictatorship as a dissenter.
I will take you up on your challenge and will write down the way forward as I see it. It will take a few days.
@Jone
Yes I am worried about that. The Junta has taken in many people for writing or speaking out against them. I know of 2 prominent lawyers who were taken in and questioned for being suspected bloggers.
But it is not just the being taken in that is a problem. I have a business to run, I employ a number of people and I have a family who rely on me to feed and clothe them. It is oh so easy for the regime to create problems for a business which they have done out of spite on many occasions.
FRCA Investigations, hold ups ob business licenses, Town and country planning delays, documents lost at the registry. All of these things go on on a daily basis in Fiji.
I do not know one businessman who is pro this dictator except for those directly benefitting. Chamber of Commerce meetings used to be lively, informative and educational. Now no one speaks except to agree with Peter Mazey and Nur Bano Ali singing the praises of Khaiyum and Bainimarama. No business person will speak out in public against the regime. That is Indian, Fijian and European businessmen.
Guy
Before you used to grease the palm of some ministers or government officials to get what you want. Those good times have gone and will never come back, thats why you are crying you coward!!
The Bainimaara supporters have 2 standard lines they always use to describe people who oppose Bainimarama.
1- We enjoyed the benefits of corruption under previous governments.
2- We are all racist nationalists
There is no consideration that some of us have opposed all coups in Fiji. Some of us have never got involved in the bribery and corruption of Government and the PSC. That some of us are not racists.
Jone get it into your thick head. Coups are wrong. Dictatorship is wrong. Corruption is wrong.
Bainimarama and Khaiyum got into power with a gun. They remain in power through the use of draconian decrees and the gun. Bainimarama is a dictator. Even Graham admits he is a dictator.
Jone instead of making wild and inaccurate accusations why don’t you stop and think for a minute about the state Fiji is in. Why don’t you look around you and see that Fiji is in a far worse state than it was in 2006. Economically, Socially andpolitically.
Response to threats by Onward Christian Soldier…
“Onward Christian Soldier” is a coward and a disgrace to Christianity and his people.
He is typical of the bullies and thugs you find in Fiji who pick on those who are smaller – Christian bullies is what I call them.
They think the rest of Fiji owes them a living while they live it up in bars and clubs, and sleep off Friday and Saturday nights’ hangover by missing work on Monday.
If they use their size and strength for productive use on the farm, like the Chinese in Colo-wai-Siva, Fiji will be a better place.
But no – it’s easier to steal from farms, intimidate, demand, bully and blame everyone else for everything.
This attitude is self-destructive and soul-destroying and needs to stop if a people is to progress.
Narrow-minded, intellectually challenged bigots like Christian Soldier, who perpetuate such thinking, are very destructive and dangerous for their society.
They are pathetic role models for the young, and should not be allowed to dominate the more educated and reasonable voices in their society.
Give these unproductive, lazy, big-for-nothing thugs control of Fiji and the country will go from being a banana republic to a fully-fledged failed African state run Rambos who will prey on their own kind because everyone else would have left godforsaken Fiji by than.
This is not just a figament of the imagination – Liberia and Monrovia are living examples; closer to home, consider where Solomon Islands has been, and where PNG is headed.
Consider what makes Fiji strong, the envy of the Pacific, and the world.
Appreciate the strength in diversity instead of trying to destroy it, because all of Fiji will down with it.
Do not just think of the fun you will have today beatuing up people, burning and looting, as some on couop 4.5 are espousing.
Think of what will happen the next day, week, year. Stop living for today only.