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FIJI HELD A GENERAL ELECTION IN FEBRUARY 1994. IT WAS THE SECOND GENERAL ELECTION UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION PROMULGATED IN 1990 AFTER THE TWO MILITARY TAKE-OVERS IN 1987. THE ELECTION WAS NOTABLE FOR TWO REASONS, FIRST, COUP-LEADER AND INCUMBENT PRIME MINSTER, MAJOR GENERAL SITIVENI RABUKA, WAS NOT EXPECTED TO DO WELL AS DISSIDENTS IN HIS PARTY HAD BROKEN AWAY TO FORM NEW POLITICAL PARTIES TO CHALLENGE HIS RULE. SECOND, RABUKA'S PERSONAL STANDING WAS AT A LOW EBB AS A RESULT OF BEING IMPLICATED IN A FINANCIAL SCANDAL. ADDITIONALLY, THE INDO-FIJIAN QUESTION WAS STILL UNRESOLVED. DESPITE THESE FACTORS, RABUKA WON THE ELECTIONS AND STRENGTHENED HIS POSITION.

Abstract
Why did Fiji Indian political rhetoric shift, at Fiji's independence, from Gandhian political grievance to nation, development and harmony? The Indians were brought to Fiji as plantation labor in order to protect the indigenous Fijians from wage labor. A romantic vision of the indigenes guided colonial policy, and became law at Fiji's independence, in a constitution giving indigenous Fijians and their chiefs special privileges. Despite the appeasing rhetoric, an electoral defeat of the indigenous chiefs was followed by military coups, for protection of indigenes against Indians and consolidation of chiefly power. Fiji has proved difficult to 'imagine' as a nation.