The news that the new Labour Government in Britain intends to abolish the remaining hereditary peers in the House of Lords – the upper house of the British Parliament – shows just how backward Fiji has been in restoring the Great Council of Chiefs.
This is especially so when chiefs like the Qaranivalu – the high chief of Naitasiri, Ratu Inoke Takiveikata – have said that the GCC will be telling our elected representatives in the parliament what to do from now on and the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, has declined to contradict him.
On any reasonable assessment, Fiji is going backwards across a broad front. The gap between rich and poor is widening, our politicians are engaged in an orgy of spending on themselves and the drug menace is out of control and threatening the very foundations of the state. But we are also going backwards in terms of participatory democracy – the ability of ordinary working men and women to have a genuine say in the country’s direction.
Even with a history of more than a thousand years of hereditary privilege, Britain is leaving that behind at the very time that Fiji is strengthening hereditary privilege. And the erosion of our democracy is contributing to the current stampede for the exit – the depopulation of the country as tens of thousands of Fijian of all backgrounds simply give up on Fiji and leave.
More on that to come.
With the Council of Chiefs reinstated we will have an unelected Head of State, an unelected Council of Chiefs with oversight role of parliament and a parliament where a person with just 50 votes can gain a seat and become a Cabinet Minister while one with 5000 votes can’t even get into parliament.
And we have the temerity to point fingers at China and Russia.