News of the death in Hong Kong of the Tongan monarch, King George Tupou V, came as a huge shock to his island kingdom and the Tongan diaspora. Although he’d had surgery to remove a cancerous kidney in Los Angeles last year, there had been no warning of any deterioration in the condition of the 63-year old and the announcement stunned everyone but … [Read more...] about #64 THE KING IS DEAD
#63 WHEN VIOLENCE THREATENS
Grubsheet's burgeoning number of opinion pieces on Fiji are largely designed to counter what we regard as the continuing failure of the mainstream regional media to come to grips with the reality of events there. They're especially aimed at an Australian audience, to highlight what we regard as the folly of Canberra having turned its back on Fiji … [Read more...] about #63 WHEN VIOLENCE THREATENS
#62 END OF A CHIEFLY ERA
The hereditary chiefs of Fiji are no more -at least in a formal sense - having been removed at the stroke of a pen from determining the country's affairs. More than 130 years of tradition was wiped from the history books in a surprise announcement by the Fijian leader, Frank Bainimarama, who described the Great Council of Chiefs as an anachronism … [Read more...] about #62 END OF A CHIEFLY ERA
# 61 ANOTHER LOOMING SHOWDOWN
The wave of optimism that's accompanied the Fiji Government's announcement of its constitutional timetable is likely to be short lived, judging from the public comments of Laisenia Qarase, the man deposed by Frank Bainimarama in his 2006 coup. Qarase has given an astonishing interview to Radio Australia in which he says his SDL Party (Soqosoqo … [Read more...] about # 61 ANOTHER LOOMING SHOWDOWN
#60 ROLLING BACK THE ROLLBACK
"What a difference a day makes", goes the old song, and never more so than when politics gets in the way of diplomacy. The incoming Australian foreign minister, Bob Carr, arrived in New Zealand yesterday for talks with his Kiwi counterpart evidently signalling an imminent change in Canberra's hardline stance against Fiji. News Limited papers in … [Read more...] about #60 ROLLING BACK THE ROLLBACK
#59 THE ROLLBACK ON FIJI BEGINS
Australia is set make a dramatic about face in its policy towards Fiji, re-engaging with Frank Bainimarama's regime and assisting it with its plans to return the country to democracy in 2014. After the Grubsheet/Sky News interview with Bainimarama at the weekend - which revealed the extent of Australia's isolation from its ANZUS partners, Australia … [Read more...] about #59 THE ROLLBACK ON FIJI BEGINS