A POLICE has bloomed in Fiji. Local expatriate Indian Fijians report that when they phone rela- tives back home, there is no pro- blem with the telephone lines unless they ask a political ques- tion, like “How are sou being treated?” and, click, the lines go dead. The heavy hand of dictatorship is everywhere. On the islands, a grim, sullen. so far barely-physical strugele is taking plage — economic guer rilla warfare — with the Fijian tourism industry being the most obvious casualty. The long and the short of it is that Fiji has broken down into an apartheid system. And no one squawks about it, all the thunder about South Africa notwithstanding. It seems that in the crunch, most Commonwealth countries don’t give a damn about the fate of a bunch of East Indians in Fi- Ji, even if they happen to be se- cond and third generation — that is, about as indigenous as 90 per cent of all the Canadians you can name. I was appalled and disgusted, as they say, when the Queen ref- used to see the deposed prime minister of Fiji, Timoci Bavadra, after he arrived in London, exiled State Fe f : ervice to tens of 27th year of by his own vovernor-eeneral after aoamihtary coup obs Colonel! Sitivent Rabuka. The Queen clearly abdicated her responssbility to the majority of Fijian citizens, who happen, as the W-fated last elecuion showed, to be Indian ethinics, as opposed to “Voraditonal’ Fijians. She just threw them to) the wolves. The equivalent situation in Canada would be if Quebeckers sent a bunch of military nuts into Ottawa to arrest all the English- speaking cabinet ministers at gun point and ship) Brian Mulroney out of the country. If they then announced that there would be no further elec- tions until the constitution was re-jigeed to make sure that Quebeckers would always run the country, no matter how many non-French-speaking people came to live here, we would have roughly the sitvation which has developed in Fiji, Actually, if our native people did the same thing, that would be the exact parallel, the French having arrived in Canada, like the East Indians in Fiji, long after indigenous societies had established themselves. Wouldn’t the English-speaking majority in Canada have its ass in a knot if something like that thousands of domestic & foreign car & 1.C.BC. vendor BCAA approved A.R.A. certified Quality workmanship — Trustworthy service 174 Pemberton Ave. N. Van 985-7455 happened? The Queen would hear about a. alight. Phere is. mt faery. a tascinannye parallel here The recentiv-clected fifan prime muinister was a native Melanese, although the vast majority. af his party members were of [Indian descent. This is only because the Fijian constitution requires that the feuders of both parties be Milanese. Canada’s constitution makes no such demand, but Mulroney, a Quebecker, came to power with a omajerity of Enylish-speaking supporters. He is thus in a similar situation. In the event of a French- or native-led military take-over of Parlament, how happy would you or lobe if Brian Mulroney, the legitimate prime minister, having fled to London, was ref- used an audience with the Queen? We'd feel bloody betrayed, is what! Yet that’s exactly Queen did to Fiji’s Bavadra. What astonishes me is how fit- tle criticism she has received us a result, What further astonishes me is how litte criticism our own gov- ernment has received for refusing to so much as raise its voice what the deposed against the overthrow oof the patliamentary system in bij. Jou Clark, who bas so muck ta sav about apartheid in) South Africa, has pot uttered a single critical ward about what fas happened in bijt. A further intriguing parallel between bij and Canada is the matter of our senates, beth in- herited from the British as they withdrew. Ours is top-heavy with appuintees of the corrupt, former Liberal regime. In Fiji, while power was divid- ed in the lower house according to a complicated formula which left room for East Indians to eventually gain office, the senate was sel up — with veto powers — so that two-thirds of its aiember- ship would always be chosen by native Melanese. That would amount, in Canada, to a French-dominated upper house. We'd still be a unil- ingual country. And guess which language! Fiji is truly paradise fost. While oddball Tories dream of sending soldiers to invade South Africa, they don’t talk much about sending the Canadian Navy into Suva Harbour to restore democracy, Why the silence? And why is the media itself so uninterested? 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