Our troops are fighting in Afghanistan to stop the Taliban from imposing a draconian religious autocracy on it's citizens, welcome terrorist training camps on it's territory and attack it's neighbours in a bombing war - and yet we have an emerging state with similar potential on our own doorstep
The media refer to Frank Bainimarama as the " Fiji prime minister ". In fact he is a military dictator, who seized power by force and has progressively transformed his country into a lawless fiefdom since his 2006 coup.
No form of dissent is permitted. The country has been expelled fro the Commonwealth and the Melanesian Spearhead group. Judges have been dismissed and laws passed to shut down newspapers and other media, and diplomats - including both the Australian high commissioner - and now the acting high commissioner - have been ordered out of the country.
Democratic elections are promised for 2014, but these are now unlikely.
So - What is the future for Fiji ?
Obviously this degeneration of human rights will eventually cause the world to stop the inflow of tourist traffic. It will be just too dangerous to allow our citizens to visit such an unstable country - and with the cessation of air traffic Fiji will be left to stagnate.
History tells us that the last resort of dictators is usually to turn their country into either a narco state - or become the source of income by welcoming terrorist organizations to bankroll in return for terrorist training facilities.
The time is fast approaching when the democratic countries of the Pacific must face the fact that a serious threat is emerging in our region. If we do nothing now - the future may be as bleak as the present conflict in the Middle East !
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