An interview with former Australian Prime Minister, The Rt. Hon. John Howard, conducted by the Royal Commonwealth Society as part of the Commonwealth Conversation.

Do you have any thoughts on how the Commonwealth should be re-engaging with Zimbabwe?

I have a strong view about Zimbabwe: I think the Southern African countries let everybody down. They should have caught up with Mugabe years ago and, if they had done so, I think he would have gone a long time ago. But asking how we re-engage with Zimbabwe is truly the wrong question.

I think we have just ended up with the worst of all worlds in Zimbabwe. We have an apparent solution that is no solution at all. That’s probably not the view of the majority of countries now, but it’s my view. I was very directly involved in this and nothing has changed my opinion. I think the failure of the Southern African countries to stand up to him was very bad indeed.

There should have been greater strength shown by the Southern African countries and the fact that they didn’t is the major reason why we have this appalling outcome where Mugabe is still there and there’s the pretence of a power sharing arrangement. I don’t have a lot of faith in it and nor does the rest of the world. And unless the rest of the world has faith in it you?re going to have a great deal of difficulty.

Do you think something similar is going on with Fiji?

No, I think Fiji is a bit different. People are actually doing things with Fiji. Fiji is in no way near the condition Zimbabwe is and the rate of decline in living standards has not been as precipitous. It’s got worse but it?s not precipitous the way it has been in Zimbabwe.

You didn’t have Commonwealth observers reporting corrupt election practices [in Zimbabwe]. Both African and European Commonwealth groups are doing that in Fiji. I think the Commonwealth is doing what it can in Fiji and an active role for the Secretary General in that would be very good.

In a way, many people say that the Commonwealth’s handling of Zimbabwe really chipped away at its moral authority because here was an association that was supposed to be about democratic values ?

Yes, but at the end of the day nobody could do anything about it without the lead being taken by the Southern African countries, otherwise the colonial card would have been played. Australia and Canada and New Zealand and Great Britain could have a strong view, but it was very easy to say ‘well that’s the old white Commonwealth pushing us around’ and the responsibility really rested with the Southern African countries. I don’t think they came to the crease.

Sir Paul Reeves, the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Fiji, says that the suspension of Fiji from the Commonwealth does not mean the expulsion of her people. In an interview just prior to his visit to Fiji on 8-9 September 2009, Sir Paul, who is the former Governor-General of New Zealand, said that he hopes the Commonwealth can continue to offer assistance in restoring democratic governance in Fiji.

In wide ranging other remarks, he said that he thinks that?conflict resolution, support for small states, and climate change should be the Commonwealth’s focus?for the 21st century. What do you think about what Sir Paul said? Let us know by leaving a comment below…

On the day Fiji is fully suspended from the Commonwealth, Dr. Mere Tuisalalo Samisoni, legal elected member of Lami Open Consituency in 2006, gives her thoughts:

The reasons put forward by Bainimarama for carrying out his 2006 coup provide a good parallel of Fiji’s post-coup state of instability. His justifications have been wandering all over Fiji’s political landscape and represent the height of insincerity.

These started off in 2004 with (1) ‘national security’ to get the military on side. Once that was ?done? he moved on to (2) ‘corruption’, to get the general public on side. Then when that did not work, he moved to (3) ‘multi-ethnicity’ or race, to at least keep his Indian-Fijian coup support intact. It then morphed over to (4) the Role of the Military as he began to fill the ‘civil’ service with Military Officers for their loyalty. When the lies of 2006 and the treason of April 2009 began to cause rifts amongst the troops, he again re-invented the 2006 coup as (5) the only ‘intervention’ that could right the wrongs of the killing of loyalists in the November 2000 Mutiny. Meanwhile, the public rationale for the coup has now moved on to (6) the need to fix the purported ‘damage’ of the past 20 years of alleged ‘divide and rule’ government policies (none of which has been named or explained).

The real reason for the 2006 coup is of course completely different, and is well known to people like former Police Commissioner Hughes who had the evidence to expose it in 2006, before soldiers were sent to arrest him.
The problem for institutions like the Commonwealth is that they require honesty, legality, co-operation and good faith, to be able to achieve much. It is evident from the above that the Commonwealth is unlikely to get any such thing from the Fiji Regime whose interest in subjects other than its own survival and self-preservation, are easily expendable.

CMAG stressed that such a Dialogue must be independent, inclusive, time-bound and without any pre-determined outcome, and lead to credible elections in the country no later than October 2010. If these conditions are not met by 1^st September 2009, Fiji will be fully suspended from the Commonwealth.

FULL TEXT OF 31 JULY 2009 CMAG STATEMENT

The CMAG is the Commonwealth’s mechanism to deal with serious or persistent violations of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political values laid down in the Harare Declaration.

Fiji was suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth in December 2006, following the military overthrow of the Pacific Island state?s democratically elected government. Fiji remains in contravention of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. See here for an example.

Do you think the Commonwealth should have acted more decisively today to suspend Fiji from the Commonwealth? Or do you think Commonwealth Foreign Ministers are right to try to affect change in Fiji by keeping her, at least partially, within the fold?

Let us know by posting your comments below?

“Media organizations through the Commonwealth have compared notes to conclude that Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s prime achievement as dictator of Fiji is to have attained the worst media reputation in the Commonwealth. With that comes the paralysis of basic human rights – free speech and free press – and the pursuit of policies so retrograde as to drag down his beautiful country socially and economically at huge price to its wonderful people,” the Commonwealth Journalists Association says.

Click here to read the rest of the article on the Commonwealth Journalists Association website.

And then let us know what you think below . . .