[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 25, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7528-S7530]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE SITUATION IN FIJI

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, let us imagine for a moment that a ragtag 
group of armed rebels in Australia was able to infiltrate the 
parliament in Canberra and put a gun to the head of the Australian 
Prime Minister. Let us imagine that these rebels, led by a failed 
indigenous businessman who claimed to speak for the native people and 
against those of European descent who had ``colonized'' the island, 
held

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the Prime Minister and members of his government hostage for several 
months in the Parliament building. Let us also imagine that, during 
this period, central government authority across Australia withered as 
armed gangs set up roadblocks, occupied police stations and military 
barracks, torched homes and businesses owned by those with different 
ancestry, seized tourist resorts, and generally terrorized innocents 
across the country.
  What would America's response be to such a violent takeover of a 
democratic government and the abduction of its prime minister by race-
baiters who proclaimed that under their ``new order,'' there would be 
no place in government or, indeed, in society for those with different 
ethnic roots, and who reveled in the armed chaos they had inspired? At 
a minimum, I would expect the United States to impose tough sanctions 
on the illegitimate regime; mobilize our allies in Asia and at the U.N. 
Security Council to speak forcefully and with one voice against the 
coup; and join like-minded nations in resolutely affirming that the 
country in question would suffer lasting isolation and international 
condemnation until constitutional governance and the rule of law were 
restored.
  Unfortunately, this scenario is playing out as we speak in 
Australia's neighbor Fiji, an island nation in the South Pacific that 
is home to some of the warmest, most gentle people I have had the 
pleasure of meeting. George Speight, an ethnic Fijian and failed 
businessman, led a coup on May 19 that toppled Fiji's democratically 
elected government and its first Indo-Fijian prime minister, Mahendra 
Chaudhry. Speight, whom the Economist calls a ``classic demagogue,'' is 
utterly disdainful of democracy, law, and Fijians of Indian descent, 
who constitute 44 percent of their nation's population.
  If Speight has his way, democratic rule, racial harmony, and basic 
justice in Fiji have no future, and nearly half of Fiji's people, 
disenfranchised by the coup, will have been relegated to the status of 
second-class citizens and unwitting hostages of a government that 
abhors them for the color of their skin. As Speight bluntly puts it:

       There will never be a government led by an Indian, ever, in 
     Fiji. Constitutional democracy, the common-law version--that 
     will never return.

  The hostages, including the deposed Prime Minister, have been 
released, and Speight's forces have apparently cut a deal with Fiji's 
military and traditional leaders for the composition of a new 
government--a government led by an ailing figurehead controlled by the 
coup leader. The new cabinet will be comprised exclusively of ethnic 
Fijians, with the sole official of Indian descent relegated to a non-
cabinet post as one of two assistant ministers for multi-ethnic 
affairs. The country's multi-racial constitution has been officially 
scrapped in favor of a document being prepared by the new government 
that ``is almost certain to reduce Indo-Fijians to political 
footnotes,'' in the words of one observer. The economy, and the tourist 
industry that sustains it, are in shambles.
  Democracy is dead in Fiji. Rule by law has succumbed to the law of 
the jungle and one man, in league with armed criminals, has personally 
destroyed a successful experiment in representative, multi-ethnic rule. 
The United States must stand firm in our absolute refusal to ratify the 
results of a coup that ended democratic governance in Fiji. We cannot 
and shall not condone the violent establishment of a government and a 
constitution predicated on racial exclusion. We should be prepared to 
suspend what little amount of assistance we provide to Fiji if the 
government remains intransigent. More importantly, we and our allies in 
Asia and Europe should make clear that Fiji will remain isolated until 
the interim government in Suva establishes a clear blueprint for a 
return to democratic rule by an administration that does not include 
George Speight and his criminal allies. We cannot compromise on the 
principle that the Indo-Fijians who constitute nearly half of their 
nation's population must once again have a voice in its affairs.
  The haunting words of an ethnic Fijian social worker vividly capture 
the agony of a nation that many people believe to be as close to 
paradise as can be found on this Earth. He laments: ``Fiji was such a 
nice place. We promoted it as `the way the world should be.' Now it is 
the devil's country.''
  Let us use the resources at our disposal as a great and moral nation 
to oust this devil and return Fiji's government to all of its people.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of an editorial from the July 
19th edition of the Wall Street Journal entitled ``Goodbye to Fiji'' be 
printed in the Record following my remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (See exhibit 1.)
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I have two additional comments.
  There is a lot of unrest in Asia today. Indonesia is ridden with 
ethnic strife, a very important country that is the largest Moslem 
country in the world and one whose fortunes, economically and 
ethnically, have declined severely.
  The Solomon Islands, an area where American blood was shed many years 
ago, has been mistreated by ethnic strife and armed gangs taking over 
and lawlessness and banditry being the order of the day there.
  In Fiji, we see, again, ethnic unrest that is harmful not only to the 
country, but the people who are most affected first will be the poorest 
people in Fiji, many of them the ethnic Fijians whose livelihood is 
gained from the now disappearing tourist industry.
  Finally, the United States has a special obligation as the world's 
leader. I think we as Americans are most proud that, following World 
War II, we began to redress some of the wrongs we had inflicted on some 
of our own fellow citizens. After a titanic civil rights struggle, we 
are at least on the path to assuring equality for all in this great 
Nation of ours. For us to sit by and watch an ethnic group be subjected 
to a constitution and rulers that place them in a permanent inferior 
status, flies in the face of everything the United States has stood for 
and, clearly, in our assertion that all men and women are created equal 
and endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.
  I hope the administration, the American people, and those of our 
allies, in Asia and all over the world, including at the United 
Nations, will do whatever they can to restore equality and equal 
opportunity in this very lovely island.
  It is important for me to note that I visited this beautiful country 
on several occasions, which is one reason why I have a very special 
feeling for it and a special sense of sadness because it is a beautiful 
country filled with very gentle people.
  I yield the floor.

                               Exhibit 1

                            Goodbye to Fiji

       Say goodbye to Fiji, and say it soon. The country is going 
     rapidly down the tubes.
       Two months ago, Fiji wasn't such a bad place. It ambled 
     along at a South Pacific pace. The locals were laid back and 
     well fed, and prone to a languor induced by regular cups of 
     kava, the narcotic beverage of preference in those parts. 
     Tourists flocked in from Australia and New Zealand, attracted 
     to resorts with names like Buca Bay, Rukuruku and Turtle 
     Island, where ``The Blue Lagoon''--an execrable film that 
     launched the cinema career of Brooke Shields--was shot 20 
     years ago. In a nutshell, Fiji was so serene that even 
     honeymooners from the American Midwest were not ruffled by 
     the grueling journey it took to get there.
       All that changed on May 19, when a man called George 
     Speight barged into parliament with a throng of thugs and 
     took Mahendra Chaudhry. the Prime Minister, hostage--along 
     with most of the country's cabinet. They were released only 
     last week, and have all been stripped of office.
       Mr. Speight is an ethnic Fijian, of Melanesian stock, and 
     Mr. Chaudhry is of Indian descent, as is 44 percent of the 
     country's population. The former maintains that he was acting 
     in the interests of the Melanesian majority, who constitute 
     just over half of all Fijians. The Indians, he declares, are 
     ``the exploiters'' and ``the enemy.'' Unabashedly racial in 
     his vision of Fiji, he insists on the permanent exclusion of 
     Indians from government office. He calls also for curbs on 
     the commercial mobility of Indians, who control a lion's 
     share of the Fijian economy.
       The Indians, cast as ``outsiders'' by Mr. Speight, are 
     descended from indentured plantation workers who were brought 
     to the archipelago by the colonial British administration a 
     century ago. Most Indians are fourth-generation Fijians. From 
     where we stand, that makes them no less entitled to all the 
     rights of citizenship--whether political or commercial--than 
     an ethnic Fijian might be.
       Mr. Speight doesn't see things that way. Neither, alas, 
     does Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs, a body of tribal elders 
     that enjoys ill-defined, but very real, powers under the 
     country's racially skewed customary law. To their discredit, 
     the chiefs have given their

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     imprimatur to Mr. Speight's objectives, as have sections of 
     the armed forces.
       The country's interim prime minister, appointed by the army 
     chief while Mr. Chaudhry was hostage, last week unveiled a 
     ``Blueprint'' for the ``protection'' of indigenous Fijians. 
     The document comprises an ill-judged plan for commercial 
     affirmative action, designed to ``advance the interests of'' 
     the country's ethnic majority. Indians are to be excluded in 
     areas where they are ``over-represented,'' and ethnic Fijians 
     are to get preferential royalties, subsidies, tax breaks, 
     rents and licenses.
       The problem with this ethnic gravy train, of course, is 
     that Fiji will soon run out of gravy. The sugar industry, 
     manned by Indians, is in disarray. Tourism, which contributes 
     $235 million per annum to the economy--and which is second 
     only to sugar in Fiji's economic schema--has ground to a 
     jarring halt. After the recent invasions of luxury resorts by 
     knife wielding ``traditional landowners,'' it's hard to see 
     those Aussies, Kiwis and Midwestern honeymooners coming back. 
     A flight of disenfranchised Indo-Fijians to Australia and New 
     Zealand is under way. This will drain Fiji of its best 
     technical and entrepreneurial stock.
       Mr. Speight and his cohorts will learn swiftly that running 
     an economy is a lot harder than storming a parliament. Theirs 
     is no more than a blueprint for economic suicide.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. ASHCROFT. Mr. President, I thank my colleague, the Senator from 
Arizona, for his remarks in regard to this challenge, especially as it 
relates to the South Pacific.
  Today, we have received very troublesome information about parts of 
Indonesia where there is this kind of tension which is threatening the 
peace, well-being, and the capacity of individuals to exercise their 
own religious beliefs in ways they see fit. This troublesome disorder 
is to be noted and understood, and we should speak out on it. I thank 
the Senator from Arizona for his remarks.

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