Suchergebnisse

Practising political life writing in the Pacific /Jack Corbett --Political life writing in Papua New Guinea /Jonathan Ritchie --Understanding Solomon /Christopher Chevalier --The 'Pawa Meri' project /Ceridwen Spark --'End of a phase of history' /Brij V. Lal --Random thoughts of an occasional practitioner /Deryck Scarr --Walking the line between Anga Fakatonga and Anga Fakapalangi /Areti Metuamate --Writing influential lives /Nicole Haley --Celebrating my journey /Sethy Regenvanu --Reflections on a remarkable journey /Carol Kidu --Solomon Islands' biography /Clive Moore --Biographies of post-1900 New Zealand prime ministers /Doug Munro.

Preliminary -- Contributors -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Encouraging electoral accommodation in divided societies -- 2. Fiji Constitution Review Commission recommendations for a new electoral system for Fiji -- 3. Constitutional engineering and the alternative vote in Fiji: an assessment -- 4. Fiji's proposed new voting system: a critique with counter-proposals -- 5. Party cooperation and the electoral system in Mauritius -- 6. The recommendations on the electoral system: the contribution of the Fiji Constitution Review.

Coup -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- 1. FIJICOUP.COM -- 2. THE SUN SET AT NOON TODAY -- 3. AN HISTORIC VIEW OF FIJI -- 4. REFLECTIONS ON THE CIVILIAN COUP IN FIJI -- 5. AN ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT POLITICAL CRISIS IN FIJI -- 6. CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER IN MULTI-ETHNIC SOCIETIES -- 7. THOUGHTS ON FIJI'S THIRD COUP D'ETAT -- 8.ON BEING FIJIAN -- 9. OUTCASTS OF THE PACIFIC -- 10. RACE, SPEIGHT AND THE CRISIS IN FIJI -- 11. PEACE IN FIJI -- 12. ON RECONCILIATION -- 13. TWO COUNTRIES CALLED FIJI -- 14. LIVING IN UNUSUAL TIMES -- 15. WHO WILL PICK UP THE PIECES?

May 19, 2000. Fiji's democratically elected multiracial government is hijacked by a group of armed gunmen led by George Speight, and held hostage for fifty days. Suva, the capital, is torched and looted as Speight's supporters gather on the lawns of the parliamentary complex, dancing, cooking food, celebrating the purported abrogation of the constitution that brought the People's Coalition government to power. The country is plunged into darkness yet again, enduring the pain of three coups in a period of just thirteen years. The process of healing and reconciliation, symbolised by the enactment of a new Constitution, unanimously approved by Parliament and blessed by the powerful Great Council of Chiefs, lies discarded, as winds of ethnic chauvinism sweep through the countryside, damaging the fragile fabric of multiculturalism that was carefully constructed by so many over many years. The economy is on the brink of collapse, investor confidence has vanished, and the best and the brightest are seeking succour on other shores. Fiji falls victim, yet again, to the prejudice and greed of a section of its people. This book gathers together a handful of memoirs of those tragic events in Fiji. They were written while the gun was still smoking; personal, anguished reactions of people from all walks of life, concerned about a country they all love but deeply distressed by the developments there. They are first reactions. They will in time become essential building blocks for a larger interpretive framework of academic analysis about origins, processes and impacts. Straight from the heart, these memoirs will be remembered as the people of Fiji and their friends elsewhere contemplate the wreckage and ruin brought about by that act of madness in the month of May 2000.

This book aims to reflect on the experiential side of writing political lives in the Pacific region. The collection touches on aspects of the life writing art that are particularly pertinent to political figures: public perception and ideology; identifying important political successes and policy initiatives; grappling with issues like corruption and age-old political science questions about leadership and 'dirty hands'. These are general themes but they take on a particular significance in the Pacific context and so the contributions explore these themes in relation to patterns of colonisation and the memory of independence; issues elliptically captured by terms like 'culture' and 'tradition'; the nature of 'self' presented in Pacific life writing; and the tendency for many of these texts to be written by 'outsiders', or at least the increasingly contested nature of what that term means.

Elections can increase tension in ethnically divided societies, like Fiji. The way constituencies are drawn and votes counted can also affect the result. First-past-the post can deliver lopsided results, while proportional representation may give excessive influence to small, fringe parties. Fiji's Constitution Review Commission believed a system of alternative voting in ethnically mixed constituencies would encourage politicians, and parties, to take into account the interests of other ethnic groups. This book assesses their recommendations, looks at alternatives, and considers how they might work in Fiji.

May 19, 2000. Fiji's democratically elected multiracial government is hijacked by a group of armed gunmen led by George Speight, and held hostage for fifty days. Suva, the capital, is torched and looted as Speight's supporters gather on the lawns of the parliamentary complex, dancing, cooking food, celebrating the purported abrogation of the constitution that brought the People's Coalition government to power. The country is plunged into darkness yet again, enduring the pain of three coups in a period of just thirteen years. The process of healing and reconciliation, symbolised by the enactment of a new Constitution, unanimously approved by Parliament and blessed by the powerful Great Council of Chiefs, lies discarded, as winds of ethnic chauvinism sweep through the countryside, damaging the fragile fabric of multiculturalism that was carefully constructed by so many over many years. The economy is on the brink of collapse, investor confidence has vanished, and the best and the brightest are seeking succour on other shores. Fiji falls victim, yet again, to the prejudice and greed of a section of its people. This book gathers together a handful of memoirs of those tragic events in Fiji. They were written while the gun was still smoking; personal, anguished reactions of people from all walks of life, concerned about a country they all love but deeply distressed by the developments there. They are first reactions. They will in time become essential building blocks for a larger interpretive framework of academic analysis about origins, processes and impacts. Straight from the heart, these memoirs will be remembered as the people of Fiji and their friends elsewhere contemplate the wreckage and ruin brought about by that act of madness in the month of May 2000.