FIJI - An Island Nation In Crisis

by Vinepa Aiono

Should we send in a peace keeping mission or should we leave Fiji to sort out its own affairs. Who are we kidding? Fiji is in crisis. There are so many in the once prosperous island nation of Fiji who are suffering. Do we have a duty to intervene or is the recession such an obstacle that we cannot allow ourselves to exercise more than diplomatic talk sessions to assist Fiji to navigate itself toward a style of island democracy that will set the course for a lifestyle of positive multi-coexistence.
I am shocked over the current comments from our Foreign Affairs office. "There is nothing (NZ) can do but allow Fiji to sort out it's own problems." If we are not careful the political ideology of the East will surely offer Fiji a solution that will mean the end of NZ/Australian influence in the Pacific. And the economic recession is certainly offering our cousins in the East a prime platform to move closer. Tonga has made no secret that it looks to the East for economic assistance, do we all remember the seating arrangements at the funeral of Tonga's last monarch.

Do we have a duty to assist Fiji to steer it's course? I think so. As long as there are citizens suffering in our Pacific backyard, it will always be wrong to ignore that. To do so is political cowardice, a trait that our previous Prime Minister could never be accused of exhibiting. She understood the importance of the Pacific.
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