South Pacific tides
Fiji changes government peacefully, Iranian & Chinese navies transit Pacific
26 December 2022
Seemingly against all odds, Fiji finally had a peaceful general election in which the Voreqe Bainimarama Government was defeated, and yet walked off without trouble into opposition. The almost stately Sitiveni Rabuka, 74, re-assumes the prime ministerial office he lost in elections in 1999 which led to the 2000 George Speight coup.
The new coalition government is on a bathtub majority now; lose one member of parliament in a slip on the soap in the shower, and Fiji could be headed back to elections. There are a lot of snags ahead for Rabuka’s Government, loyalty in the ranks being among the most obvious.
That said, Bainimarama’s 16 years of bully boy politics has worn out many people, not least the authors of it all: Bainimarama and Aiyez Sayed-Khaiyum. Both men are ailing, having had major heart surgeries. Losing this election might actually save their lives in the longer term
.On a personal side, I’ve had something of a personal association with Rabuka in other places, notably Guadalcanal, and it might result in me being able to re-enter Fiji. Bainimarama had me banned in 2007 and I’ve not been allowed back.
Meanwhile Victoria University’s Jon Fraenkel, posted in The Pacific Newsroom, a summary of the elections; “So we have a new government, and an end to 16 years of semi-authoritarian democracy. If it sticks, we also have Fiji’s first ever constitutional transition of power from government to opposition. Fiji still has some way to go, though, before it meets Samuel Huntington’s ‘two turnover’ test of a consolidated democracy.”
Meanwhile the Iranian Navy has showed up in the South Pacific.
Two Iranian Navy warships are sailing through the South Pacific, the French Armed Forces in the Asia-Pacific (ALPACI) say. In tweets they also report that their Falcon 200 Guardian, operating out of Papeete in French Polynesia, has spotted a Chinese destroyer in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
ALPACI said a Falcon had “established contact with two Iranian navy ships westbound French Polynesian EEZ.
“They have declared their intention to cross it south of the Marquesas for a transpacific transit. F200 are to provide situational awareness and contribute to the security of our EEZ.”
Earlier ALPACI said another Falcon had contacted a “Chinese destroyer transiting near French Polynesia EEZ.”
No other details were given but the photo and bow number indicates it is the eight year old Yinchuan, a Type 052D destroyer.
In other substack postings…
Tonga’s 71-year-old princess royal, Salote Pilolevu, has launched an outlandish attack on ‘little two-legged devils’ of democracy in her kingdom and Pacific region. Eighth-in-line to the throne, currently held by her 63-year-old brother, King Tupou VI, she is shamelessly propped up by China, in apparent opposition to the position of Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni who has a frail hold on power.
Somewhere in China’s security network sits a photo of President Jiang Zemin and me. I’ve never seen it, but now that Jiang has finally died, aged 96, I feel deep in the bones that I should be filing a story on it all. People might not know. This will have to do.
At The Pacific Newsroom on Facebook among the stories we linked too…
Sāmoa is reeling over the fatal shooting of 31-year-old policewoman Mele Segisolo Lapana, in what appears to have been domestic violence.
The US launches US$1M project to begin unexploded bombs clearing process in Solomon Islands
From my latest posting for Invincible Strangers…
Found to have been unnecessary
Within a couple of hours of the shooting, Allen had the police hosing the scene clean. There was no forensic investigation, no gathering of evidence. Braisby made no attempt to account for expended ammunition. There had been no proper autopsies; what weapon – pistol, rifle or machine-gun – killed or wounded who was never examined. New Zealand quickly returned to summer holidays and no thought was given to sending police investigators or mounting a commission of inquiry. Perhaps the realisation that the royal commission into the influenza epidemic had been damning meant that cynical politicians were not willing to hand over control of any outcomes.