REPORTER: Mark Davis
PROTESTERS: Democracy! What do you want? Democracy! When do you want it? Now!
It's a long way from the islands of Fiji but today, the political tensions there are washing ashore in the western suburbs of Sydney. Fiji's unelected Prime Minister, previously banned from visiting Australia, is coming to garner support and he comes with the familiar trappings of a military ruler. Private muscle, police on hand, a ban on media...
MEDIA: We have been invited as international media...
...and a hand-picked crowd.
PROTESTERS: We are coming in!
MAN: You can now take your seats again.
At the beginning of this year, Voreck Frank Bainimarama renounced his military role and called an election…
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: Now I’m allowed to come back into Australia, because I was not allowed to.
…and is now entering it as a head of a brand-new party - Fiji First.
WOMAN: I am interested in how will you make the transition to democracy.
For eight years, Frank Bainimarama has ground the judiciary and media into total submission and demolished his political opponents with his typical forthright style.
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: You don't know? Are you really that ignorant that you don’t know?
And yet, to the utter surprise of international observers...
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: Are you really that ignorant that you don’t know? We have a constitution to run with!
...Frank Bainimarama is possibly on his way to a convincing electoral victory. And this blue book, his new constitution, is likely to be the key to the success. It's offering something that no previous Fijian Government ever has - the abolition of race in the electoral and government system.
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: One vote, one value.
Many in this crowd will no longer be branded as Indo Fijian. Their title and status now is simply Fijian and that is buying a lot of support for the strong ma of the Pacific.
WOMAN: I have not heard of any other leader or Prime Minister that has come forward like you have and has bought equality and freedom to Fiji.
The biggest losers in the changes are the traditional chiefs, who enjoyed a kind of an upper house role in politics - a role now abolished.
MAN: Why have you taken away the Great Council of Chiefs? I am an indigenous Fijian… Why did you take that away from us, the Indigenous...
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: I've given Fiji one of the best documents Fiji ever made.
It's Sunday in the village of Nai Lil Ili, across the River delta on the outskirts of Suva. It's the home turf of the woman with the best chance of stopping Frank Bainimarama. Ro Teimumu Kepa is virtual royalty in Fiji, a heredity chief, one of just Supreme Chiefs in Fiji, and now the leader of the main opposition party.
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: He likes his uniform. He shows this macho, macho kind of character. They're reinventing him or remoulding him into this persona.
The dominant, pro-Government media, are predicting, if they mention her at all, that she's heading for a resounding defeat to Bainimarama.
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: Maybe that is what he thinks, yeah.
REPORTER: Do you think he's in for a surprise?
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: He's in for a big surprise.
REPORTER: Because the papers, that largely support him, have been claiming 80% per Frank Bainimarama. You don't think it will turn out like that?
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: You will ask them where they've been going and those people are not going out in the rural areas. Yes. Ask them what their opinion is. Secondly, yes, there is fear factor. You can't take it away.
REPORTER: Yes.
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: If you're going to ask me, you know, "Who do you support?", I look at you and I think, "Oh, I better say Fiji First."
REPORTER: Give the right answer, yes.
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: Yes. So I will say to you, "Fiji First."
With little media coverage, Ro Teimumu and her social Democrat party SODELPA have be solidly building a grass roots campaign in churches and small villages across the country over the plast six months and it may yet deliver a surprise result.
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: I think with the media decree it makes it very difficult for us to give our side of the story, which means that for them to hear our side of the story we would have to physically go out and speak to them. But most people, because they've seen his bullying tactics, others who have been - who have been persecuted and tortured, those who have lost their jobs, they have no place for any redress. So there's still very much that fear factor.
REPORTER: He was certainly a man to be frightened of during the coup but he does seem to have changed. He's a dictator, but he's popular. How do you explain that?
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: We mustn't forget the fact that a person who is now showing himself to be very much a father figure, is the same guy who walked down the streets with 600 men behind him and told people, "If you're not careful, me and these guys behind me."
REPORTER: Will deal with you.
Chiefs, soldiers and coups have been the dominant features of Fiji since 1987, after the first Indigenous military uprising against what was seen as a Government too sympathetic to the Indian population of Fiji. Then in 2000, the government of Mahendra Chaudery, the first prime minister of Indian ethnicity was deposed. Chaudery and his Government were held hostage for 56 days while Indo Fijians, then almost half the population, were viciously attacked in the remote rural areas.
INDIAN WOMAN: The Fijian people take the knife and chase my son and three days we stay in the bush.
Houses were burnt, businesses looted, men beaten and women raped. Many of those whose homes survived were given just 30 days to vacate farms where their homes had been for a century.
MAN: Because I was trying to fight with a hurricane but I never thought about this.
It was into this environment that Commodore Frank Bainimarama entered the national stage. As army commander he arrested the coup makers and restored a civilian Government. But six years later in 2006 the Government proved to his unliking, he seized power for himself and has held it ever since.
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: As of 6 o'clock this evening, the military has taken over the Government, has executive authority and the running of this country.
Unrepentant to international condemnation and scornful of persistent demands that he call an election.
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: Dictatorship, dictatorship as in what? What am I doing that…
REPORTER: You've suspended the constitution, you’ve sacked the judges, you’ve seized power...
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: I sacked the judges? Where did you get the brief that I sacked the judges... No, please, let’s get one thing right. That was not the only thing that was removed.
REPORTER: Everything was removed... Everything was removed except your power.
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: Exactly!
Since he seized power, he's had one constant confidant and adviser, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, a legal expert who crafted most of the PM's constitutional manoeuvres since 2006. Many in Fiji see Khaiyum as the true power behind the throne. As well as Attorney-General, he's also Minister for Justice, Minister for Tourism, Communications, Trade, Elections et cetera, etcetera - 12 ministries in all.
REPORTER: You've thrown away a lot of conventions and you've probably created a lot of enemies. Is it worth it for what you think you're trying to achieve?
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: But I don't understand your question? What do you mean, like you mean, building roads we've created enemies, or electricity or water?
REPORTER: No, arresting people, isolating people, careers have ended… anyone whose been seen to be an enemy of Bainamarama – is finished.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: I disagree with that, I disagree with that. I don't think there has been any victimisation or enemy of Bainimarama per se. Of course our ability to have a good pool of people to choose from was very limited by Australia and New Zealand because of travel bans, and the US at one stage.
REPORTER: But you brought a lot of it on yourself - the attacks on the judiciary and the magistrates.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: See, again, that's an unfounded statement. There is no attack on the judiciary.
REPORTER: Well, you wiped them out.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: No, we didn't. That is completely false.
Like his boss, Khaiyum won't wear the dictator tag lightly, despite ruling by decree for over eight years and overseeing an exodus of judges, lawyers and news editors.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: Well no, you see again I don't agree with the fact that the media is not free.
WOMAN: It is a privilege to see you here today and I firmly believe and strongly have faith in unity and I know this is what this party is all about, unity.
Whatever criticisms there are about the laws he's created in Fiji...
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: You must all think as Fijians...
...undoubtedly, his proudest achievement is in crafting the new colour-blind constitution.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: If you're going to have political parties that are going to contest elections based on religion, ethnicity denomination, how will they be as a government?
The abolition of racial distinctions in parliamentary seats, in government jobs, scholarships and housing has shaken the corner stones of Fijian politics…
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: I want to know what race the CEO is? I want to know what race the chairman is. No.
…drawing Indians away from their traditional parties, as well as many urban Fijians. Khaiyum, an Australian-educated lawyer, has imported multiculturalism into the laws of Fijian politics.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: You want the best person to do the right job.
And it may prove to be his most valuable contribution to the ongoing rule of Bainimarama.
REPORTER: I’ve got to say it feels like an irony to me, this government which is ruled by decree came in with the military and yet it got this kind of democratic flower that it’s trying to present to the people. No other party has ever done this before.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: No not at all. The type of analysis that you have is perhaps the type of misunderstanding a lot of foreigners, and indeed some of the other politicians have. It is a bit if a paradox.
REPORTER: It’s a paradox!
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: It is a paradox.
REPORTER: It’s a paradox, there’s no other party here saying, or that presented, that we want equality between races. No other party, or certainly delivered it.
But Khaiyum’s enthusiasm for multiculturalism is not shared by all across the land.
MAN (Translation): Thank you very much, High Chief, for coming today.
In the village of Draubuta, followers are coming to pay their respects to Ro Teimumu Kepa.
MAN (Translation): The gift I am holding…you will see it is a very small one.
The conventions that are followed here are much older than any parliamentary constitution.
MAN (Translation): But you can regard it as big for it symbolizes our great happiness. We are watching your number 371 closely.
Undoubtedly, Ro Teimumu can rely on the political support of a good number of her subjects. Indigenous voters now make up two-thirds of the electorate. How loyal they will be to Ro Teimumu is the wildcard of the election. But part of SODELPA message, the attack on Khaiyum and his constitution, is starting to bite.
MAN (Translation): As we can see, this government is controlled by Khaiyum.
CROWD (Translation): Yes, you’re right!
Khaiyum's constitution is being analysed line by line by SODELPA candidate Semesa Karavati.
SEMESA KARAVATI (Translation): He wants to give everyone equality, where everyone is equal. We know that within this equal citizenship, it is about breaking down everything Fijians stand for.
Dozens of roadshows like this are unfolding in villages across the country, with the central message that has long resinated here.
SEMESA KARAVATI (Translation): I cannot see how anyone could come from India and be called a Fijian. Because he is an Indian, if a Chinese were to come in he cannot be called a Fijian because he is Chinese. And now Khaiyum comes along and says “For goodness’ sake, your old chiefly system must go.”
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: They said to us, they talked about the word Fijian, in many perspectives it is superfluous. In a country like Australia we don't have a debate about whether somebody is called an Australian or not.
REPORTER: This is a controversy, this is a big controversy.
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: The point is if you're born in France, you're French - Period.
REPORTER: On a personal level, how do you feel that if you pass a law that you can be called a Fijian, what were you called before?
AIYAZ SAYED-KHAIYUM: That's precisely the point. It was quite silly. I don't know whether you know or not but when you fill out the immigration card if you left the country and you have entered your country it says if Fijian citizen, fill out race. We had to do that all the time. You're constantly reminded of that. It's quite, in a way, quite tragic.
The constitution probably is a threat to chiefly power. Is a possible threat to Indigenous land and to this crowd, its secular nature is a threat to God himself.
SEMESA KARAVATI (Translation): The highest principle in the constitution should stress the principals of the Church of Jesus Christ. But it is not there, so if we put together Muslims, Hindus and Christians what god will we be serving?
It's hard to see what Ro Teimumu makes of the discussion here. As is appropriate for a chief in a village setting, others do most of the talking, but undoubtedly some of it would resonate with her.
REPORTER: How do you view the non-Indigenous population in Fiji?
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: You know, that is a very interesting question because I have been labelled by certain people as racist. Now, from my position, we look at Indigenous as being the first people that arrived in this land and as such, they have certain rights and privileges. But that doesn't mean that it overrides any other rights and privileges of any other group. This is what makes Fiji.
REPORTER: Of course. It makes it a great country but it's also made it a very dark country at times, like during the first coups. The position of the Indians was horrifying, and that came through some of your fellow chiefs. Do you regret those times?
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: I regret some of the things that happened at that time. You know, in hindsight, you can say, you know, we would have done this differently or, you know, if I had been there I would have done things different. But it happened, and those are some of the things that you have to learn from, that it doesn't help anybody in any way. It doesn't help the Indigenous, it doesn't help any other group.
Part of the problem with the constitution is that it dropped almost from the sky - no vote, no discussion, no consensus. Unsurprisingly, it's being torn apart in villages like this, where the bulk of the electorate live on the eve of the election.
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: Just take it to the people and see what the people think. You can't make any unilateral decision thinking that you know best.
REPORTER: Yes.
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: And there, you know, hundreds of thousands of people out there that have their own opinion as to how they want this country to be.
Bainimarama's iron rule has undoubtedly provided security to the Indian community, and he brings an alluring promise of racial equality. But it's yet to be seen whether he can smash their own loyalties to their own ethnic parties - essential, if he's to win. Ominously, some of the Indian parties have begun to resist the one Fiji message.
MAN: Indo Fijian.
REPORTER: You like Indo Fijian, do you? You don’t want a national name you want to keep the Indian, OK.
But most are enthusiastically embracing the concept.
REPORTER: Are you comfortable to be called Fijian?
WOMEN (Translation): Yes because we live in Fiji we should be called Fijian because we are staying in Fiji. If Fiji, we're Fijian. We're born in Fiji so we have the right to say Fijian.
REPORTER: “I'm of this nation?" Yes.
REPORTER: What do you think, to be called Fijian, do you like it?
MAN: Yeah, I like it.
REPORTER: Yeah.
Pre-polling has begun in remote, mostly Indigenous villages, and these are the hardest places to judge whether they'll vote for Bainimarama. It would be impolite to publicly oppose Ro Teimumu's party here, but Fiji First needs about a third of them to do just that in the privacy of a ballot-box. The big end of town - Indigenous, Indian and all in between seem firmly in Bainimarama's camp.
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: I've said in the last couple of days that I've been very disappointed that some of the forces who are responsible for much of the trouble we suffered in 1987 and again in 2000 have re-emerged from the shadows in this election campaign.
Roads are being built, hotels are back in the black and the first skyscrapers are appearing on the Suva skyline. Bainimarama is not giving any interviews to foreign media in this campaign. He holds his antagonisms deeply. Almost as deeply as his conviction that he has saved Fiji from catastrophe.
REPORTER: You've been judged harshly internationally but do you think you've got enough credit for the things you've tried to bring into this constitution?
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: Yes, I think we have and we intend to keep Fiji first.
REPORTER: One way or another, an era is coming to an end. How do you think you'll be judged?
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: Look at this. This is how I'm going to be judged.
REPORTER: Any regrets? Any regrets?
FRANK BAINIMARAMA: None, none whatsoever. None.
Tomorrow will tell whether he'll become what he's most wanted for eight years - to be the undisputed and totally legitimate ruler of Fiji.
ANJALI RAO: Mark Davis filming and reporting there. And Mark's been covering events in Fiji for more than a decade, building an extensive archive of stories on that country. You can view them all on our website.
Reporter/Camera
MARK DAVIS
2nd Camera (Syd)
JACK DAVIS
Fixer
NETANI RIKA
Producer
ASHLEY SMITH
Editor
MICAH MCGOWN
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