The Republic of the Fiji Islands has been plagued by coups d’etat since 1987 following
elections at that time which had seen the first change of government since independence
seventeen years earlier. These elections had resulted in the defeat of an indigenous
chiefly elite by a broader coalition dominated numerically by Indo-Fijians. A military
coup less than six weeks later was justified almost exclusively in terms of the alleged
threat to indigenous rights posed by the new government. Further coups have followed,
with the rhetoric of justification again centering on indigenous rights vis-à-vis perceived
encroachment by Indo-Fijians. Images of politics in Fiji have therefore been dominated
largely by ethnically based struggles for dominance with indigenous Fijians generally
winning out by virtue of their control of the military. The most recent coup in December
2006, however, has revealed some significant contradictions and confounded
explanations of Fiji’s politics based on a simple dichotomy of interests between
indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians. In this instance, the commander of the Republic of
Fiji Military Forces led a coup against a government dominated by Fijian nationalists
claiming, among other things, that their government was based on racist principles and
that Fiji needed a new way forward. The paper provides an analysis of this most recent
episode in Fiji’s politics, focusing in particular on rival factions among indigenous
Fijians, and assessing prospects for the future of constitutional rule. More generally, it
considers the principles of indigenous political privilege vis-à-vis the rights of immigrant
communities and how these have played out in practice.