Fiji needs to return to Constitutional Govt.

It is 18 months until the date for elections under the plan agreed to by Fiji's interim government as part of an aid package with the European Union.

However, a return to democracy in Fiji, cannot mean a return to a business as usual, a status-quo-ante in which policies played a backseat to racial and religious bigotries. Democracy must mean exactly that.

So in the meantime, the interim administration should look at setting up processes that it can bequeath to an elected successor, i.e. the Commission Against Corruption is a good start, and provided it is not simply wielded as a political tool against the deposed Qarase government.

*Additionally, a Constitutional review along the lines of instituting a form of Proportional Representation as well as instituting triennial elections, thereby eliminating long periods under unpopular government elected on gerrymandered constituencies.

*The RFMF, frequented cited as an obstacle to constitutional government, needs to resign all of its bureaucratic leadership roles, be reformed from its professional-political role, and in a bid to boost Indo-Fijian participation, institute a compulsory military service 6 month stint to promote communal integration, with the proviso that in all barring military emergencies, conscripts are not involved in combat operations outside the homeland.

*Excepting the last month, the actions of then Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes was commendable, and in light of that experience, should be repeated in most senior bureaucracy positions, in the medium-term.

However, the most important element of democracy is the people themselves. They have the responsibility to vote for candidates and party slates that are free of corruption, divisive ideology, and whole-heartedly support democracy - "none of this foreign flower stuff", and in return, the peoples of Fiji should have the right to have their freedom of expression respected by all and sundry.

In a democracy, people are governed by the government they deserve. Fijians, since 1987, have only once had a government such as that. Only under such a deserved government, can Fiji return to a positive state of peace.