FIJI
This Pacific Island nation posses a mixture of English tradition ( and law ) , local custom and Indian ( from the country of India ) culture .
A little information about this part of Pacific Paradise :
Australia has some historical responsibility in the events which led to to the present constitutional crises . Fiji is relatively close to Australia and exported a range of products to Australia . It was a popular local tourist destination .
The present
problem revolves around the indigenous population not wishing to share control
with the Indian population ( which was originally imported to work in the
cane
fields , etc . )
Several coups have taken place , the last was a few months ago . Today ( 19 February , 2001 ) a legal challenge to the recent coup is being heard in Fiji .
A team of international experts will present the ousted governments case . This will be an interesting test of the British justice system at work .
You may well like to compare these proceedings with those recently before the U. S. Supreme Court .
You may like to reflect upon why this case will not rate much of a mention in the world media .
Is it alright to depose a popularly elected government ? Well we will see what happens .
Let us hope that individual rights ( and common sense ) will prevail .
There should be information here over the coming days :
To anyone with a passing knowledge of Constitutional Law it will not come as a surprise that the Court declared the Interim Government unconstitutional . So we are back to the fundamental issue of who runs the Country , is it the elected government or the Council of Chiefs . At least to date it has been relatively bloodless . Not very much coverage in the world media , democracy is on trial but lacking a body count , who is interested ?
Well , now is to be an election . Some of the candidates are the present Prime Minister , the ousted Prime Minister and the coupe leader .
Democracy , really is a system of government which is in accordance with the wishes of the people . Fiji is lucky because the so called major powers do not overly care about the outcome of the election and the locals can therefore make their own decision , in their own way .
