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marguerite_kruxSo, how about that dictatorship happening in Pakistan
It is a little horrifying at the moral level but infinitely fascinating in the way of wish fulfilment to contemplate being the one staging a coup, removing the elected leader and installing yourself in his place. Then, when the courts label your government illegal, simply FIRING ALL THE JUDGES and REVOKING THE CONSTITUTION, which effectively hands back control of the country to- you. What a power trip! Imagine the bragging rights- ‘I revoked the frakking constitution’. DUDE. There is very little that can possibly compete with the inherent awesome of that one line.
My family never seems to be around when the drama goes down. We moved to
Now, I find it interesting that
Someone wrote to the paper pointing out the hypocrisy in condemning Bainimarama while conducting business with
Probably nobody’s going to care about a history lecture, but I found it interesting enough that I kinda bonded with my father [!] in a discussion of
A Fijian, Rabuka, who was third in command of the military, led a coup in ’87, and appointed himself Prime Minister.
- he was in power unofficially til ’94
- he won the election and was the officially in power til ’99.
This dude ended up spending more time as head honcho illegally than legally. [No fuss from overseas nations, btw.]
An Indian, Chaudhry, won the ’99 election but only retained power til the 2000 Speight coup. This guy wasn’t too bright or ambitious, it seems- who goes to the trouble of turfing out the government and then doesn’t take the top spot? It’s baffling!
- Instead, a Fijian, Qarase, is appointed PM and is unofficially in power from 2000-04
- He wins the election and from 2004-06, he is officially in power
Qarase’s power is short and sweet, for in 2006, Bainimarama, the leader of
What I find interesting are the motivations behind each coup.
Rabuka’s coup was staged on the vague premise that the evil Indians were taking over the country and stealing opportunities away from the native Fijians. However, he gradually softens his stance and becomes- well, not exactly pro-Indian but he eliminates some of the inequality between the races. Good for him. It takes a big man to admit when he's wrong and then do something about it.
The truly sucky thing is that once he becomes moderate and governs more fairly, he loses the next election. *facepalm* This is a major simplification, but basically, some of the Fijians voted for another party because they wanted a PM who would favor them instead of being fair to the Indians, and of course all the Indians voted for Chaudhry because- well, the guy’s Indian and it’d be a grand thing to have one of their own in power, right? WRONG. Admire the irony that embracing democracy and giving a man of his background a fair go and being rewarded with this position ended up being the worst thing for the country. They JUST had a coup based on racial disharmony little over a decade ago, it was WAY too soon to have an Indian in power. It’s bloody unfair, I know that, but there was little point in achieving such a historical moment if it fractured the country and resulted in him being ousted from power. I mean, come on, how long did it take for
Speight’s coup against Chaudhry was thus based on the threat that an Indian PM posed to the country. Rabuka’s was all about generalities, here, we have a specific ‘wrong’ to be addressed. Qarase’s time in power was a stark contrast to Rabuka’s- the latter changed his policies and became friendlier to the Indians, but Qarase’s government was corrupt and discriminatory and prejudiced. [Or so the rhetoric for the next coup goes]
Which is where Bainimarama stepped in. Knee-jerk reaction: military dictatorship BAD. But if you have a corrupt government legally in power, don’t his actions seem a teensy bit better, a little more justified? He’s taking steps to eliminate the inherent racism in the system and make things fairer for all Fijians, whether they have Indian backgrounds or not. Can’t the ends justify the means every once in a while? It's a difficult moral dilemma. I don't know the answer. Maybe he'll turn out to be as corrupt as the rest of them, maybe the power will go to his head and he'll abuse his position and make life a living hell for everyone. Or maybe he'll resolve all the nation's problems, but encourage the precedent of taking power by force, which could be abused by other people with less altruistic purposes. But everyone's all over the condemnation of his actions, I just thought it was interesting to take a look at another perspective, rightly or wrongly.
What I get pissed off about are the stupid journalists that comment ever so condescendingly, so arrogantly, that they are ‘surprised by the lack of civil disobedience’. Yeah. In the last coup, we had people’s homes being burned down, shops being vandalized, people getting bashed in the streets- that really helped matters, right? STFU. It’s like they want people to get killed to make the news more interesting. Disgusting.
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Onto a shallower and infinitely prettier subject, Summer Glau, dancing! I was all kinds of gleeful at that brief ballet scene in TSCC, so I'm thrilled to see this!
She is so amazing. *sighs* Guess how jealous I am right now? >:P
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