DEMOCRACY HELD HOSTAGE

By Joy Pincus, Fiji

When I finally catch up with Sharon Bhagwan Rolls via cell phone in Suva, the capital of Fiji, she sounds tired but graciously agrees to talk with me, despite the late hour there.

"It's been very chaotic here," she says.

It's no wonder. As Secretary of the National Council for Women, Fiji (NCWF), Rolls has been helping lead Fijian women who support a return to democratic government. Four months ago, the elected prime minister of Fiji was overthrown during a civilian coup in which members of parliament, the prime minister and even his son were taken hostage for two months before being released without harm. A new interim government, claiming to represent the interests of the indigenous population, remains in power. 

Since the coup, the NCWF, a coalition of 50 women's organizations, has initiated peace vigils, a candlelight campaign and a petition drive to support the hostages and protest the coup. The crisis has even spurred the creation of a new women's organization: the Women's Action for Democracy and Peace (WAD'aP), a subsidiary of NCWF, dedicated to working for freedom and human rights, promoting multiculturalism, reconciliation and healing. The WAD'aP will document human rights violations, provide educational programs to promote tolerance and justice, and lobby for a return to democracy. The interim government has made promises that the country will be returned to democracy within three years, but the WAD'aP wants it sooner, said Rolls, who is now WAD'aP Coordinating Secretary. 

"The NGO movement, in particular the women's movement, has a critical role to play in national reconciliation and peacemaking, in bringing the communities of our country together again and addressing and understanding the issues of concern of the indigenous community," said longtime women's activist Rolls, who has received some threats for her actions. 

The new government is bad for all Fijians because of its undemocratic nature, said Rolls. But -- as is often the case in political upheavals worldwide -- women end up among the biggest victims both economically and politically. The Fiji Women's Rights Movement, speaking at a recent peace vigil in Suva, highlighted their concern for the economic plunge the country has taken since the coup, and the impact this will have on women workers, especially those in the garment business and in tourism. 

"Women have been badly affected. They worked in [the] garment industry and many [were] laid off as a result of the crisis," Tanya Ali and Shailendra Singh, respectively webmaster and editor for Fijilive.com, told WIN. "Ethnic Fijian women used to sell artifacts to tourists and to hotels [but now there is a] loss of revenue and tourists [are] not coming to Fiji. Women in Fiji were already lagging in health, education and other areas. This crisis has worsened the situation." 

Added Rolls: "Women, especially those in the lower income bracket, are already experiencing immense emotional and psychological pressure and bearing the financial brunt of the current situation." 

The coup comes after 1999 elections in which the largest number of women ever was elected to office. This included eight of the 24-member parliament, five government ministers -- including the Minister of Fijian Affairs/Deputy Prime Minister - and three assistant ministers, said Rolls. The interim government has only one full female minister -- Minister for Women, Culture and Social Welfare -- and four assistant ministers, including two ministers of women's affairs. 

"Our stand remains that the inclusion of these five women is not a democratic representation of women nor women's issues," said Rolls. ""We question the rationale of appointing two Assistants to the Minister of Women and Culture. These appointments do not further any commitments made to the women's movement."

This lack of commitments is evidenced by release of a new government budget that "lacks any gender specific affirmative action.[and] any commitment in supporting current women's NGO initiatives and projects," said Rolls.  

Outside funding is also in jeopardy. Several foreign countries whose donations comprise a major portion of the budgets for women's NGOs -- most notably Australia and New Zealand -- have put a hold on sending money there following the coup. 

But women's activists are hoping that countries that will no longer fund the Fiji government will begin to send money directly to the NGOs.

"Those NGOs that were tied in with government are now threatened, but I don't think that will stop the NGOs from doing any work...funding is out there and it's up to NGO programmers to implement their ideas and move ahead with it," said Rolls. 

More worrying is the future of the Women's Plan of Action (WPA), legislation formulated through intensive consultation between the now-overthrown government and NGO's and adopted in 1998, and now suspended. The WPA calls for the integration of women and gender concerns, the promotion of gender equity and the improvement of the legal status of women. It calls upon the government to honor its international commitments, including compliance with the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ratified by Fiji in 1995; the Jakarta Declaration for the Advancement of Women in Asia and the Pacific, endorsed in 1994 and the Beijing Platform for Action and Beijing Declaration, endorsed in 1995. 

But now the Beijing Women's Plan of Action and the WPA have been relegated to the agenda of the assistant ministry of women's affairs, separate from the mainstream program of the Ministry of Women and Culture, said Rolls.

Moreover, the so-called "Qarase blueprint," an affirmative active policy passed by the new government and named after the new prime minister, gives priority to indigenous Fijian and Rotuman women, the latter an indigenous group from the island of Rotuman, part of the greater Fiji Islands group. This policy constitutes a rollback from the advances made by the 1997 constitution, which strove to create a situation of equality between the races, said Rolls. 

"This undermines the principles upon which the Women's Plan of Action is based -- on equality and the development of all women," said Rolls. 

Ethnic conflicts were at the center of the coup in Fiji, a tiny cluster of some 300 islands in the South Seas. The nation's population of some 800,000 is divided between indigenous Fijians and the ethnic Indians who were brought to the islands some 200 years ago by the British as indentured laborers and are now a majority of the elite in Fiji. The Fijian constitution of 1990 called for a Parliament whose representation was along racial lines and guaranteed a majority of indigenous Fijians. 

But a new constitution, drafted seven years later, includes a Bill of Rights guaranteeing freedoms, rights and protection for all citizens of Fiji. This opened the door to the 1999 election, which was won by Mahendra Chaudry, the first ethnic Indian to be elected prime minister of Fiji. It was in response to this election of an ethnic minority as prime minister and in the interest of his indigenous population that George Speight, a former businessman, said he staged the coup, his actions playing off of the long-existing dissonance that has existed between the two groups. 

When asked how ethnic conflicts in Fiji played itself out in the women's movement, Rolls was vague, hinting at differences between the races but not wanting to address it directly. 

"As with any community grouping, it's what you make of it as a person, but at the end of the day, I guess there are many issues that still divide the races, that's why it is imperative that women play an active role in the process of action building and reconciliation," said Rolls, who is of mainly Indian background. She calls herself a "fruit salad" using the Fijian slang for those of mixed heritage. 

The NCWF, founded in 1968 to improve women's status in the community, primarily by acting as a go-between for government and civil society, has members from various cultures and ethnic groups in Fiji. 

One of the most active organizations is the Fiji Women's Crisis Center. Current rape laws do not recognize rape within a marriage to be a crime, and also require the victim to prove the rape through independent evidence. The victim's past sexual history is raised in court, although the assailant's is not. 

"In many cases the trial becomes a kind of circus with everyone coming to stare and talk. This increases the suffering of the victim. Under the law in Fiji, it is possible for the trial to be held in closed court but this has to be requested well in advance and, in fact, almost never happens," according to an article at Fijiwomen.com: www.fijiwomen.com/faqs/rape. Then, sentencing is often lax and the prosecutors lack the qualification of the defense lawyers. 

In addition, one of the customary practices protected by the 1997 constitution and an example of how tradition can be greatly prejudicial against women, is that of Bulubulu (traditional reconciliation). When applied in a rape case, "often the perpetrator may approach the victim's family for forgiveness and reconciliation without consulting the victim. The need to maintain communal cohesiveness takes priority over the victim's right to claim legal redress," writes Florence T. Fenton, Director of the Fiji Law Reform Commission.   

But Shamima Ali, head of the Women's Crisis Center, now spends much of her time focusing on the acts of terrorism growing around the country and the lack of response by authorities. Indians have been subject to systematic racism and racist attacks since this hostage taking, including the burning, looting and ransacking of Indian owned businesses throughout Suva. 

"We urge the military and police to act immediately to ensure the safety of these families, and the punishment of those perpetrating these cowardly and opportunistic acts of racist violence," stated Ali in a recent press release. "It does not bode well for the reconciliation process in this country, if no action is being taken at this stage to ensure law and order for all citizens of Fiji."