 Hello, everyone, welcome to another International Relations capsule for Shankar High-As Academy. Today, we will discuss the latest developments in the South Pacific, particularly in Fiji, because of its special significance in the present context of the changing world order. Fiji is a small island state, several islands, with a population of less than one million. And I used to be Indian High Commissioner in Fiji from 1986 to 1989. And when I went there, it was a very peaceful place. It was a tourist attraction, mostly for Australia and New Zealand tourists who always went there. And 50% of the population was Indian. Indians who migrated from different parts of India, particularly from the North, Bihar and UP, and some from Tamil Nadu and Kerala also, who were taken there by the British during the British days. About 150 years ago, they started going there and they have all become settled there and they have become national citizens. But they are still called Fiji Indians. So when Fiji became independent in 1970, in the new constitution, every man was not given a vote. It was not a one man, one vote system. It was a representational system because Indians were more than the Fijians. And so the Fijians were worried that always Indians will rule the islands. And therefore, in consultation with Mrs. Indira Gandhi, who was the Prime Minister of India, they made a social contract by which the parliament will have certain numbers, that is 24 Fijians, 24 Indians, and the rest others, nine others. So it's a very strange constitution. It's a democratic constitution, all right. But it was a reserved, several equal number of seats were reserved for Fijians and the Indians. And there are others, that is the Australians, the white people and the Chinese, very small community. So 24, 24 plus nine was the division of parliamentary seats. And therefore, one community cannot rule by itself. And that was the calculation. So what happened was the Alliance Party, which was the party of the Fijians based on a kind of feudal system. And the chief, feudal chief, was became the Prime Minister of Kamise Seh Mara in 1970. And he had good relations with Indians, he had good relations with India. And this agreement among the communities carried on from 1970 to 1987, 17 years. So in between what happened was that a new party was formed called the Labour Party, which combined Fijians and Fijians. And the elections in 1987, the Labour Party, one a majority, which meant that the Fijian Party, the Alliance Party resided over by Rathu, Rathu means Lord, Rathu, Sir Kamise Seh Mara. He was Prime Minister for 17 years, and it was a peaceful nation generally. There were some prejudices against each other in the community, but they lived well. The Fiji Indians were mostly in business and cane cultivation, cane sugar cultivation, while the Fijians, the Melanesian Fijians, kinky hair, but not necessarily black. And they ran the hospitality industry. So it was pretty prosperous, like an outlying island of Australia. It had a very good existence, and they were not even in the non-aligned movement because they said we are so non-aligned that we are not even in the non-aligned movement, but they were in G77 in the United Nations. So, but after the elections, the government which came into being with the Fijian Prime Minister and a large number of Indians in the cabinet. So the Prime Minister was a Fijian, but the majority ministers were from the Fiji Indians. And this caused some concern on the conservative Indians in Fiji, and they got together and asked the third ranking member of the Fiji military called Sithivani Rambuka. It is written as RABUK, but it's pronounced as Rambuka, not Rabuka. So this man was in India at the staff college in Willingdon. And after his training, he came back to Fiji, and he was very friendly to the Indians. He played golf with me. We used to meet regularly, almost every day on the golf course, and everything was going smoothly, but then suddenly he staged a coup, ignoring his two seniors. He walked into the parliament, arrested all the members, including the Prime Minister, and not put them in jail, but put them to the Prime Minister's house. The Prime Minister and all his ministers were jailed in the Prime Minister's house. It was a very peaceful coup, in the sense there was no resistance, no bloodshed. But after the coup was over, there was some constraint in the Indian community, anxiety about the future of these people. So several days, tension continued, but subsequently the ministers were released. There was no bloodshed at all, and they simply changed the constitution. That no Indian can, Indians can never come to power in Fiji. And many jobs like the Prime Minister's job, the Governor General's job, various other high jobs, like the chief of the Supreme Court, all these were in our reserve for Fijians, the malinitians. And the Indians could be in parliament, they could do odd jobs, et cetera. But so this was such a constitution was formulated. And so there was general protest among the Indians and the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took a lot of interest. And as the High Commissioner, initially I could not contact Delhi because after the coup several days, I was not able to communicate. And in the meantime, the Prime Minister decided to impose sanctions against Fiji and also declared that we do not recognize the military regime. So I thought I would be immediately sent out because if you don't recognize the government, you cannot stay as ambassador for long. But Fiji government was worried that if they sent me out there could be a problem. And therefore they quietly allowed me to stay. So for two years, I was India's ambassador to Fiji without recognizing the Fiji government. You can imagine someone who comes to India and Indian ambassador saying he doesn't recognize the Indian government will be thrown out the next day. But it did not happen because the Indian community was very strong and they expected a kind of reaction. And so they continued, they changed the constitution several times making new combinations and so on. But final constitution was to be imposed in 1979, sorry, 1978. They asked me to leave. So I had to leave the country in two days. 72 hours they gave me, but I left them in 48 hours. And we did not have an ambassador there for some time. Then they closed the whole mission. So our diplomatic relations were broken for about 10 years. So during this period, many things happened in Fiji. And finally a second coup for several, whether four coups, but the last was a coup in about 10 years ago by a naval admiral kind of person, Venaima Rama, Venaima Rama is his name. And he converted himself to a politician and so it was made into some kind of a democracy, but Indians could not occupy any important positions. But the Indians were consigned to that. And so for 10 years also, Venaima Rama was prime minister and there were some Indians also in the cabinet and so on. So then there were elections last month, end of November. And there was a hung parliament this time. There were four political parties, but the total majority, no particular party had. And therefore several days it happened before a new coalition government was formed. So it has four parties. One is Alliance Party of Sarkamisya Semarra led now by Mr. Colonel Rambuka and the National Federation Party of Fiji Indians. And also there was a group of fundamentalist Fijians having a small party. So these small parties got together, had one extra seat in the parliament. So Venaima Rama lost his job. But surprising thing was this report came out in the New York times, even before Rambuka was elected. They said that one co-leader places another co-leader. And it said that this is the beginning of increase of US influence in Fiji. This was reported by New York Times. Five days before the government was formed. This was peculiar. That is the reason why I'm taking this up because obviously there are things have been happening in that part of the world, the South Pacific. And now there is a great power confrontation that is taking place there. That is why I'm inviting your attention to this. And I have written a couple of pieces so you will see them in the newspapers. But so what I'm explaining to you is that this election and the selection of Prime Minister which was the old, the first co-leader Rambuka who was against the Indians joined together with the Indian party and the fundamentalist party together and isolated Ben Aymarama's Fiji first party. And therefore now there is a government with one majority, one seat majority with three political parties. That is the Alliance Party, which is old Rathumaras Party, which is led by Rambuka. Then there is the NFP, National Federation Party which is an Indian party called by Beeman is now the Deputy Prime Minister. And they had five seats, three of them were Indians and two of them are Fijians. All the five have become ministers including the Indian leader as the Deputy Prime Minister. So with one seat. So why was New York Times so excited about it? Because they were getting very concerned about the influence, growing influence of China in Fiji. When the first coup occurred, there was really no international implications. It was mainly a coup against the Indians and therefore only India took action against Fiji in various fora. We raised it in the United Nations and the Human Rights Commission. We agitated very much. But Australia and New Zealand, which are the closest neighbors and were friendliest towards Fiji did not take any action. Initially they were a bit worried because the Fijians assert their nationality. Then what happens to the indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand? They're already being treated badly. And so they were a bit scared in the beginning that this might become a movement in the South Pacific. But that did not happen. And so quickly Australia and New Zealand became friendly with Rambuka and continued their support for him. And India alone was fighting and me as the ambassador there was myself leading the kind of movement. And this was the first time probably government of India was supporting an Indian community. Earlier wherever there were Indian communities were in trouble. We just brought them back like in from Burma, from Africa, from Uganda, from Latin America, et cetera. They were welcome to come back, but we didn't protest. But this time we protested very, partially and very hard because Mr. Rajiv Gandhi's idea was that he needed support of the Indians abroad. And if Indians abroad are in any trouble, so India would go to their rescue. And so we got them even thrown out of the Commonwealth which is something very difficult for Fijians to accept because they were very loyal to the British crown. So they declared themselves a republic. It is not a dominion anymore. But still having appointed a president, they went to the British crown and said, please keep us as a member of the Commonwealth because they have taken back. And also they said in spirit, we are still part of the British empire. So that was the loyalty that they had. Indians had no such loyalty. They wanted independence, complete freedom and so on. So the Chinese influence started growing in the last few years because earlier in South Pacific, many of the smaller countries had Taiwan representing China, not China. But in Fiji itself it was China only. And in some of the island states it was only Taiwan. So China was quite worried about it. And therefore they slowly increased their influence giving money and scholarships and various things. And they got Taiwan out of all these islands and Chinese embassies were established. This happened some time ago. And recently, a few months ago, China signed for the first time a pre-tea with one of the small islands of Solomon Islands. Solomon Islands will come in the news only when there is a huge hurricane or the storms and storms hit Solomon Islands. They used to lose a lot of property and then it is rebuilt by insurance. That is the usual thing in these islands because when the storms come there's a lot of damage and then the insurance companies in the West generally paid for it. And that is how these countries survived for a long time. But very secretly the Chinese discussed security arrangements with Solomon Islands. And for the first time in the South Pacific, which was considered an American lake according to geopolitics, China for the first time had a security role in the South Pacific. And this is causing concern. And the US did not want this to happen. And so the US must have started working in Fiji and the other islands to get back their prominence. And it's quite possible that US discovered Rambuka because of his political skills and some kind of courage, courageous kind of person. So they must have cultivated it. This is speculation. Otherwise, I don't know how he could have come back to power and supported him. And because the Indian community supported him, the Fijian fundamentalist supported him, his own party supported him. And therefore Benayama Rama lost his majority. So and that too, the story broke in New York first. They had not yet elected the Prime Minister before that. They said this is a surplus victory for US and this was carried by several Western newspapers. So the important thing about this is that now there is rivalry between China and the US in the South Pacific. And since it is considered an extension of the Indian Ocean, they are worried that the Quad, which you all know India, US, Australia and Japan was supposed to counter or at least contain the Chinese influence in the Indian Ocean area. And so though we are not part of an alliance, other three countries are in a military alliance. We have been added because of our concern with China. And so the emergence of the Quad in the Indonesia and Asia and the Pacific. And subsequently, the influence that China has gained there by signing a treaty with Solomon. All this has created a big kind of, or shall we say, relocation of political parties and interests. And Ramukha seems to have been picked up by the Americans to do this work and he has got the Indians with him and he has got also the Fijian fundamentalist with him. So with all this, we have a new situation and this is something that we have to note. Immediately, there's nothing will happen, particularly because the new majority under Ramukha is a kind of a rainbow coalition. All parties are there, all interests are represented. And Benayama Rama has his old people who they were Indians also, but they are now out of power. So we have to watch the situation in the South Pacific. Earlier, it was not so much of interest for people. There was no, when the first food to places it said, there was no international implications for it. But this school has international implications because Mr. Ramukha is considered to be friendly to the United States as New York Times has itself acknowledged. And the Indian party is loyal to India. Fiji Indians are very loyal to India. They expect us to be supportive of them. And therefore they can also be anti-China. So both Ramukha and the main opposition party might be against China and therefore they may try to upstage this because since there is only one seat majority despite possible that something else can happen. So this is the situation. I started by saying that we had 50% of the Indian population, 50% of the population in Fiji was Indian. They were all working in the sugarcane farm. In fact, they were taken from India there because the Fijians were not able to work and they were not tough enough to work in the cane farming. And that is why the British took them by ships all the way. You know, these are people they picked up from the streets of Bihar at UP and told them that there is a paradise called Fiji just across the ocean. And they had to travel for months together very terrible conditions. The British did not look after them. But when they liked the place, they turned it into a paradise themselves, you know, sugarcane and health. And they were better off than all the other South Pacific Island states and fairly peaceful. But once the first coup took place, it was not peaceful anymore. But still they are not very violent people. They don't hit each other or kill each other. But they make their protests even when I was continuing there as an enemy of the government. Still they did not do any harm to me. They'll come and sit in front of my house and sing prayers when I come out. They all stand up and cheer and so on. So it was a very friendly atmosphere. But the political atmosphere was bad. They were trying various constitutions. And finally they came to one. And then 10 years ago, the democratic constitution was set up. And just been going on. Accordingly, these elections were held. In between in 2014, even though Mr. Rambuka had expelled me from Fiji, I was invited back to Fiji 25 years after I left. Because they felt that it was the action by the government of India at that time which saved their majority. And therefore they invited me as a private citizen to visit Fiji. And Colonel Rambuka decided to meet me on the golf course where we used to play golf every day. And he had become older and fatter, but he still played golf. And we sat together and talked about the old days things which had happened in 1987. So we discussed the things that had happened. He was saying how sorry he was to ask me to go, which was a politically sensitive situation. I said I was also very sorry to live in Fiji without being recognized by you. So we did not recognize each other. And he said, well, we are acting under instruction. So we have no ill will towards you. You should have no ill will towards us because we both are our bosses instructed us to do so. And so we came to an agreement that we are friends once again. That is just by the way. But I had not expected at that time that he'll stage a comeback again. So he has now staged a comeback and has become Prime Minister. And hoping that I can visit Fiji one of these days to understand the situation and have a talk with him. So this is the situation. So India can expect to be more friendly to Fiji and this government can also be friendly to us. As a result, the Chinese would be concerned about the new developments. And I don't know what they will do. They will of course try to do out of this. And since all of you know there is a whole change in the whole world, the whole world order is changing Russia and China come together most recently. There are other situations. India's relationship with Russia has come into question because Russia's war in Ukraine which we are neutral about all these stories we have already told you. So the point that I'm trying to flag for you for your examination is that you should be familiar with this evolving great power politics in Fiji. Normally it would be a very peaceful place. In fact, when I was appointed ambassador to Fiji I called my predecessor who was still in place. I asked him, what is this place? Looks like it's too quiet a place that won't be anything interesting to do. I asked him. So he said, no, no, no, don't worry. By the time you come it will become too interesting, he said. And it became very, very interesting because there are a lot of threats and problems and demonstrations against India. And many things happened and Indians expected us to support them militarily which of course we are not willing to do but we supported them in the UN and in Geneva, et cetera. And that is why finally the democratic constitution came but still there is discrimination against the Indians. And many Indians have left for Australia and New Zealand. I was willing to give everybody a visa if they wanted to come back to India but nobody wanted to come back to India. India is too big and too unknown for them. And they only some names and some places they didn't know even know where they came from. This is third generation or fourth generation in games. And they had their Ramayana, the Hindu religion in an old kind of fashion. They spoke Hindi fluently. And all this made us, it was like a small India in the South Pacific, it was very far away from us but we took a lot of interest. We used to send good and bad ways there to take care of them and everything. So now we are once again in a granted disposition because the government consists of the Indian party also. So it's not likely to be any action against the Indians and things will be peaceful, at least for the timing till China manages to upstage the situation. That is likely to happen but we'll also be careful and I'm sure our Australian, our mission in Australia and New Zealand will be following events there. And we also have an ambassador in teaching. So this is the interesting developments. Not very well reported in many papers but in the West it was reported but in detail there was an editorial by the Hindu which some of you may have read asking Mr. Venayama Ramat to leave now that he has no majority but there was some suspicion that he may stage another coup. So in the Hindu newspaper wrote an editorial asking Venayama Ramat to leave the position for Ramukha. Other than that I didn't see much report in any of the Indian newspapers. But this is of interest because of the, when you talk about the regrouping of nations in the world and rearrangement of the world as it were a new dispensation which is coming up not yet come but where it is going and that time you may be asked about what is happening in South Pacific and particularly Fiji. Simply the fact that China was getting an influence there Mr. Venayama Ramat was supportive of China. He was an activist in the climate change. That was like he was not, Fiji was also known because an association of a small island states is very active in the negotiations on climate change because what they are saying is that we will not have time to leave up to the time when you reduce your clean house emissions because before that all of us will be wiped out. I was high commissioner to eight countries including Fiji, you know Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Nauru, Vanuatu all these countries I was high commissioner to Kuala Lumpur. It was to go there once in a while fly the flag and come back. Nothing much, nothing much to do but now it has become quite active. And so please give attention to this fact somewhere in the corner of some examination paper you might find Fiji a lot of Indians still in Fiji 30% and a lot of interests are there particularly in UP and Bihar about what's happening. Fiji and also the kind of Hindutva people who follow Hindutva also have interested in the Indians and Hindi and Hindus in Fiji. So a lot of interests might come even though I haven't seen anything so far. So please keep an eye on this developments that might be productive. Thank you very much.