FROM THE ARCHIVES: More from 'Nurturing Justice'

We share again with readers, insights and commentary from FDP special contrtibutor, Dr Bruce Wearne, on the 2006 coup - its causes and consequences - written at the time. They should help us to frame our own understanding of the deep structural political problems faced by Fiji then and now:

PUBLIC JUSTICE: ON THE PATH TO POLITICAL LIFE

Nurturing Justice 13 (2007) 21 August

Last time I discussed the chaotic electoral spin in which our voting is now immersed. If we try to get involved in the election according to the ground rules that are already evident in the "campaign" thus far, we simply get ourselves exhausted by reacting to the silly antics of a confused parliamentarian who wants to be re-elected as Prime Minister. Yes, he seems to be calling all the shots, but if we take our eye off the principle of public justice as the raison d'être for our citizenship, we will soon come to a similar dead-end of incoherent politics. Let's instead look for another way - let us try and find another path upon which we reflect upon the forthcoming election. If we prayerfully accept the wisdom God has given us in Jesus Christ for politics - after all we confess that He is the Ruler of the Kings and Queens and Presidents and Prime Ministers of this world - should we not be able to avoid participation in what has become a grand satire if it is not a complete farce.

So, what I propose to present here is a provisional "think big" list of "public justice" issues which, over the next decade have to be reconsidered by us as we work for the reform of justice in Australian politics. These are issues for which we will need to generate a coherent Christian political vision. They demand a comprehensive approach to political life. There are twelve "issues" listed below and in this and future editions of Nurturing Justice we will comment on each of these offering a brief explanation of the significance of the issues listed and why that have to be considered in a comprehensive and coherent political vision. As we think about them over the next months and years we may find it necessary to add others, or some of the issues on the list may find themselves re-listed as sub-sections under other headings. This then is my suggestion for nurturing justice amongst ourselves as we approach the 2007 election. We commit ourselves to the long-term hard work of re-envisioning public justice for the Australian Commonwealth in relation to these and other crucial issues, issues that demand public justice "all the way down".

The twelve I have chosen are:

[if !supportLists]1. [endif]Overcoming Incoherent Political Conduct

[if !supportLists]2. [endif]Reconciliation & Rediscovering the Nation's Calling to Do Justice

[if !supportLists]3. [endif]South West Pacific and Regional Relations to the North and West

[if !supportLists]4. [endif]International Relations

[if !supportLists]5. [endif]Promoting an Economy of Restraint, Care and Enough

[if !supportLists]6. [endif]Climate Change and Environmental Care

[if !supportLists]7. [endif]Commerce, Industry and Trade Unionism

[if !supportLists]8. [endif]Issues of "Body Politics", Marriage and Family

[if !supportLists]9. [endif]Public Morality and the Reform of Mass Media

[if !supportLists]10. [endif]Health, Social Welfare and Education

[if !supportLists]11. [endif]Electoral Reform, Proportional Representation

[if !supportLists]12. [endif]Local Government and Australia's Constitution

And now to begin with a comment upon

1.Overcoming Incoherent Political Conduct:

How do we go about reforming our own political conduct in our complex differentiated society? First we may need to face the fact that we are all engaged in political conduct. That may be the biggest hurdle. A second hurdle may be the difficulty we have in admitting any incoherence in our political conduct. We would much rather locate the problem outside of ourselves, for instance in the major parties or among the politicians. But just as the Government has not absolved us of our national culpability toward the indigenous peoples of this land when individual office bearers claim that they have nothing to apologise for, so we, as Christian citizens, will miss the true state of affairs if we ignore the many good things which the confessors of Jesus Christ have failed to do politically. We have not only done things we ought not to have done; we have not done the things that we should have done. And if we start looking we may surprise ourselves by the long list we compile of sins of omission.

On the other hand, if start assuming that our own collective moral power will set things right then our impatience has got the better of us and we may well be on the way to adapting our political responsibilities to the reigning ideologies. Repeated appeals to “public justice” will not overcome the fact that our own conduct tells us we have lost insight into the true significance of God’s norms for political life. We might put all our effort into growing a Christian political viewpoint, but if we impatiently assume that norms only come into play when a majority of humans recognise them, then we have taken the path of political impatience, forsaking God's promises and adopting a deep-down belief that we humans have to create our norms for ourselves. No, one of the fruits of the Spirit is patience, and a Christian political patience needs to be aware that it is God's invitation to us to walk on the path of justice which He has laid out for us; our task is the thankful response of doing justice.

So, if public justice is a normative principle that binds citizens and government together in a political community with a common task, then its goal is none other than public justice for all, the formation of a just public-legal order. That is the kind of work that God calls us to, and that is the kind of work in which we are to be busy when Jesus Christ comes and brings God's Kingdom to its completion - "abounding in the work of the Lord we know with a steadfast and immovable knowledge that such labour is not in vain" (1 Cor 15:58). In that sense “public justice” can never become the possession or property of some or other elite, let alone the property of a group of "good guys". It is a path upon which all are called to serve their own communities and, more and more, their neighbours around the world. Political scientists, and all other scientific specialists in many and varied intellectual pursuits, have their own peculiar professional contributions to make which should also enhance public life and promote justice everywhere. But that also requires the development of a way of Christian thinking about the connections between all the diverse sciences and how they relate to and serve the diverse and distinct social responsibilities that constitute our ever-more- complex lives at home and abroad.

It's no use blaming the politicians; our instinctive habit of blaming politicians is one reason why we have lost ourselves in political incoherence. We are all accountable. This is all the more reason to turn again and renew authentic political reflection, and search for the path of "public justice”. By turning around politically, what better motivation do we have than God's own long-suffering over our political waywardness? We should not assume that what has taken 100 years or more to unravel will be set to rights after a few emails, a few elections or even a few hastily convened national conventions. Consider what the Bible teaches about God's patience and think about the way in which our current mode of politics encourages various forms of political impatience - by parliamentarians, by public officials, by political parties, by citizens, by the legal profession, by the judiciary, by ourselves. As a nation we need to re-capture a political style of quiet and steadfast patience in order to pursue public justice.

2. Reconciliation as First Step to Rediscovering National Identity

As we consider God's patient call to us, we should deepen our appreciation for those who have patiently waited for justice in our land, despite the fact that many of us continue to live in denial of the need to redress the historic injustice to Australia's indigenous peoples. We need to find ways of serving all our neighbours, particularly fellow citizens in need. We need to find ways of helping that enhance rather than retract the dignity of those we are called to serve. We need to discover how to listen to the oppressed, the marginalised and those tormented by the madness of a consumerist society. We need to develop a better understanding of how our Christian profession is compromised by our unfaithful "affair" with consumerism.

Reconciliation with Australia's first peoples will have ongoing repercussions throughout our social fabric and in the region and beyond. We will learn again that people matter more than things; that caring and sharing rather than mindless consumerist competition is the way to peace and blessing.

Sure we may have very deep disagreements that arise from different religious assumptions. But we need to find non-combative and winsome ways of conveying to all who take on citizenship in this country that they are indeed part of an ongoing reconciliation movement with the indigenous peoples of this land and region. National repentance is not merely a set of rituals; it has to become a way of life. To deny this is to maintain an unhealthy uncertainty that undermines our national community. The nation's youth - all of them - need to be nurtured in the importance of mutual forgiveness and compassion, between all people, between all generations, between ourselves and God. The constitution may also need to be reformed to better symbolise the importance to us as a nation of the descendents of the peoples who have inhabited this land for millennia. This reconciliation is also needed as part of our genuine care for this land - for what it provides and what it means and what it will mean in the future. Our national identity cannot be found without such reconciliation. And as Christians we confess that it is Jesus Christ's resurrection and ascension to God's Right Hand that provides is the firm basis on which reconciliation among can be achieved. This reconciliation will also be crucial if Australia is to fulfil its vocation as an advocate for justice in a world that will bring wave upon wave of asylum seekers, and environmental refugees, to these shores.

Next time 3. South West Pacific and Regional Relations to the North and West and 4. International Relations will constitute our focus.

ON THE REGIONAL PATH TO POLITICAL LIFE

Nurturing Justice 14 (2007) 30 August

Last week I proposed a strategy to avoid the mind-numbing antics that are evident in our current election campaign. We need to grow up. We need to avoid childish and immature behaviour that perpetually draws attention to ourselves and own self-interest. So, I suggested a provisional "think big" list of "public justice" issues which will still be with us over the next decade. The aim is to challenge ourselves to think again about the way we fulfil our calling as Christian citizens. What does Christian citizenship mean? I am assuming we have to find a modus operandi for the reform of Australian politics that avoids the all-to- evident weaknesses of our current consumer-oriented, poll-driven, tabloid electioneering. If a coherent Christian political vision is to be generated, it will only come from a comprehensive approach to which argues coherently and forcefully for specific policies which promote justice. It's about politics for justice and good governance rather than politics manipulated for self-interest. Let me list again the twelve "issues". (You will notice I have reworded No. 2.) They are:

[if !supportLists]1. [endif]Overcoming Incoherent Political Conduct

[if !supportLists]2. [endif]Reconciliation - Recovering our National Calling to do Justice

[if !supportLists]3. [endif]South West Pacific and Regional Relations to North & West

[if !supportLists]4. [endif]International Relations

[if !supportLists]5. [endif]Promoting an Economy of Restraint, Care and Enough

[if !supportLists]6. [endif]Climate Change and Environmental Care

[if !supportLists]7. [endif]Commerce, Industry and Trade Unionism

[if !supportLists]8. [endif]Issues of "Body Politics", Marriage and Family

[if !supportLists]9. [endif]Public Morality and the Reform of Mass Media

[if !supportLists]10. [endif]Health, Social Welfare and Education

[if !supportLists]11. [endif]Electoral Reform, Proportional Representation

[if !supportLists]12. [endif]Local Government and Australia's Constitution

This week we comment briefly on No. 3. The next edition will be concerned with some thoughts about how we can understand the path of international justice (No.4).

3. South West Pacific and Regional Relations to North and West:

This week, as the Australian media tells us about Australian successes at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, the XIIIth South Pacific Games are being held in Samoa. Take a few minutes to surf the web-site http://www.samoa2007.ws. Note that, for instance, cricket is alive and well in the South Pacific. Note also that the site tells us that "Wallis et Futuna va participer pour la première fois à des compétitions de voile à l’occasion des Jeux du Pacifique Sud 2007." "Who is 'Wallis et Futuna'?" "Why is the report in French?" This is our region. Can we deny that we should be more aware of what is happening here, in our South West Pacific neighbourhood? Can we deny that we should be more aware of who is living next-door and the games they play?

Every so often I have the chance to speak to young people who have done the "travel overseas" thing. Some return with a lament - Australia seems so insular, they say. Australia is a country obsessed with its own self-interest. These young people return to discover their growing sense of embarrassment about their own country, about the way we have misunderstood our place in the world. They may be right. But it is worthwhile listening to the experience and emerging consciousness of such young people. It might aid our political education. They may help us see things about our nation's spiritual direction which we would prefer to ignore or leave in the "too-hard" basket.

Geographically, of course, Australia for most of its life, has been a long, long way from where the ancestors of the settlers lived. The descendents of the settlers, with the later migrants, are now the clear majority. But in the 200-plus years of settlement and the 30-plus years of increased Asian migration, we are still asking ourselves about Australia's place in the world, and the contribution that should be made in this region. No doubt, the colonial sense of being far away is still a big part of Australian self-understanding. And a profound historical irony opens up to many sensitive people, young and old alike. A serious injustice has been done by a nation tracing its "Christian heritage" to "settlement" while it has, at the same time, aided and abetted the profound spiritual unsettling of the indigenous peoples and leaving them feeling far away from their own ancestral lands even as they live on them.

Now read and ponder what one leading Tongan Christian, Lopeti Senituli, says in response to the efforts of Australian capital to patent the Tongan gene pool.

We really cannot afford to go back to the frontier days when it was open season on all things indigenous to the Pacific Islands including Australia. Instead we must build on the new foundations found in the Mabo and Wik decisions which the Australian High Court handed down in the early 1990s. That is the way forward.

This raises a most important question about the regional implications of the Australian Government's attitude to the land rights of indigenous people, but it not only about what goes on in Australia but about how policies of just respect (or unjust disrespect) have a way of making waves, ensuring their impact upon the region as a whole.

This sounds as if I am simply repeating my previous "big issue" - Reconciliation and Rediscovering a Nation's Calling for Justice - but as our Tongan brother reminds us, these issues cannot be separated. Australia, like all the nations of the world, is called to do justice in all of its life. Having said that, we cannot avoid the bequest of a prevailing Christian ethos among the island nations of the SWP, particularly in Polynesia and Melanesia. When we as Australia's Christians answer the call of God and seek justice within the Australian polity, then we are also called to join with our sisters and brothers among these island nations in the neighbourhood, who are likewise seeking for God's justice at home and abroad. Bob Goudzwaard, an ecumenical economist, has noted:

Paul once wrote that it is only together, with all the saints, that we can begin "to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ" and in knowing that this love surpasses our separate understandings (Ephesians 3:18-19). This is true with respect to the deep social problems of our time as well as for every area of human life as well.

If we are to participate in a Christian political movement within Australia then we cannot avoid participating in the political development of the wider South-West Pacific neighbourhood and being willing to serve in that by taking the lead from our SWP brothers and sisters. But it must be the way of service along the path of promoting public justice. To forget that is to forget God's call.

So let me suggest one question we can ask ourselves to clarify how we view ourselves as citizens of the SWP neighbourhood: what do we really know about our region? In what ways can we begin to show (ourselves) that we truly care for the South West Pacific? Why not put yourself on the mailing list for one of the pacific newspapers we can access on the web - the Solomon Star or the Fiji Daily Post? Let yourself be surprised at the Christian orientation of the editorials that remind readers of the Christian calling to do justice.

There is another issue that can help us focus upon the reality of our situation. It is population and the dispersion of population. Australia accounts for 55% of the population of the South West Pacific region which has roughly 45 million people. Is that surprising? (I suspect that many Australians will be amazed by these figures. I wonder why?) Indonesia has a population of 235 million and Malaysia has 27 million. We are a country of extremely large distances within our borders - an important facet of our national identity. Large distance gives the appearance of independence if not self-sufficiency. Most of our population is found in large cities, our two biggest cities account for almost 40% of our 20 million. But I have been suggesting that as well as thinking beyond our immediate urban neighbourhoods and thinking of the country as a whole, we also find a way of thinking about Australia in our region, to think about the regional neighbourhood in which we live. We will return to this next time as we explore International Relations as a focus for Christian political reflection.

JUSTICE AND GLOBALIZATION

Nurturing Justice 15 (2007) 12 September

This comment on International Relations is the fourth on our list of "big issues". If you wish to refresh your mind on the list just click on "PREVIOUS" at the top of the page. As we work through a provisional "think big" list of "public justice" issues which will still be with us over the next decade, the aim is to challenge ourselves to think again about the way we fulfil our calling as Christian citizens. So what does Christian citizenship mean for our lives on the global stage? How should we understand globalization? What of global warming and climate change? And what we do to act responsibly in the face of the still widening gap between rich and poor, not only between the "North" and the "South" but also within our own nation and region particularly when we, in GDP terms, are said to be among the world's wealthy?

The first thing that should be said concerns our need to know what is going on in the world and what is driving the major forces which shape international society. That means research; historical study, sociological analysis, economic evaluation and political diagnosis. It will also mean developing a sense of solidarity with all those people, wherever they are, who are trying to find an alternative path to materialism and the policies of those who still cling to the doom-filled scenario that without growth in consumption and production we will all surely perish. But to find and express this solidarity requires patient research: reading and listening to what others are doing. Here's two items that have come my way in the last two days:

Have you heard of Raj Patel? He is the author of Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System. This is what he says about his book:

"It's a story of the global food system, about why there are one billion overweight people and 800 million going hungry, and about the millions of people who are fighting back".

That simply by-line for the book says a lot.

Or try this News Hour item titled:

Companies Race for Oil and Gas Reserves in Arctic. Norway's state-owned oil company, Statoil, recently opened Europe's first large-scale liquefied natural gas plant in Hammerfest, Norway. As global warming melts Arctic ice and makes reserves more accessible, companies are racing to the Arctic to stake their claims.

It seems that life around the globe is so incredibly developed that we could spend all our time listening to news reports, reading Nurturing Justice, trying to catch up with what is going on, on our doorstep, in our nation, in our region and beyond. We will also find it hard to avoid cynicism. So, how do we start to consider these issues? Web articles are sometimes so full of links to other pages and other links, that we find ourselves overwhelmed. Is there any way to get a grip on what we see before our eyes? Is wisdom and insight in these matters a thing of the past?

Wisdom is supreme, therefore get wisdom.Though it costs you all you have, get understanding (Prov 4:6-7).

Can we obtain understanding? With ourselves caught up in the whirlwinds of globalization is it still possible to gain wisdom and insight? Are there grounds for hope?

For starters, let me recommend a study written by a banker and an economist. Leo Andringa and Bob Goudzwaard with Mark Vander Vennen have written: Globalization and Christian Hope: Economy in the Service of Life. Read it and think about its argument. Consider the examples they give of local initiatives - Focolare, Oikicredit. How do you think about money? What place does money have in our life? What has changed in the world of finance?

Can I also draw your attention to the "Letter to the Churches of the North" on pages 23-25. It was drafted by the participants of a Symposium of South Asian Christian churches on the Consequences of Economic Globalization (November 12-15, 1999, Bangkok, Thailand). Note the date. Remember the Asian financial crisis? This is a letter that is 8 years old. But its message is still fresh. Have you read it before? Have the churches of Australia heard this call?

Next to the pain and suffering in the South, there are the threats in the North. We heard about poverty, coming back in even your richest societies; we received reports about environmental destruction also in your midst, and about alienation, loneliness and the abuse of women and children. And all that, while most of your churches are losing members. And we asked ourselves: is most of that not also related to being rich and desiring to become richer than most of you already are? Is there not in the western view of human beings and society a delusion, which always looks to the future and wants to improve it, even when it implies an increase of suffering in your own societies and in the South? Have you not forgotten the richness which is related to sufficiency? If, according to Ephesians 1, God is preparing in human history to bring everyone and everything under the lordship of Jesus Christ, his shepherd-king – God’s own globalization! – shouldn’t caring (for nature) and sharing with each other be the main characteristic of our lifestyle, instead of giving fully in to the secular trend of a growing consumerism?

The letter is worth reading in its entirety. Why not set aside a whole day - or even half a day - to discuss this letter with a couple of friends and think about your response. If you are Christian the letter must have a particular prophetic poignancy. It reminds us that we have lost the cutting edge of our faith. We have become slack with lives that simply accommodate the ruling neo-liberal ideology with "There is No Alternative" as we take another Tim-Tam. Any challenges that might be mounted are usually short-circuited by a determination to maintain levels of material comfort. But how did Christianity in the Western world fall into its grovelling posture to the god of Mammon? Could it be that we have accommodated to global finance as to an imperial power and thus put ourselves radically at odds with the religion we profess?

We are convinced that the time has come for a return to the fundamental and undiluted teachings of the Gospel. It is time for all of us to make a choice: God or mammon. We know that some churches in the North are very active in this regard and we feel strong solidarity with their actions. But the present situation invites us to stand up all together. We call for concrete acts of solidarity to alleviate the massive suffering of our nations in the North and in the South.

We call for urgent action on your part to address your governments and the institutions that are designing and implementing the present globalization project.

We call for a process of study of the current economic system and its consequences in our midst, in the light of our common faith in Jesus Christ, the Saviour, who showed us caring and sharing as members of God’s family.

Economic injustice is a violation of the basic tenets of our common faith. We call on you to join us in confessing that the economy is a matter of faith.

This is a clear and forthright Christian call for repentance. Think back over the events of the past week and the APEC gathering. Was the contribution of Australia, this professedly Christian nation, inspired in part by this 1999 call by the churches of the South to forsake consumerism? Forgive me for saying so but reading between the lines it seems we, and the other nations present, were more concerned with reassuring the money-markets that they will indeed work to maintain consumerism as a sine qua non of our political and national life.

If our Government, or Opposition, were to take seriously the poverty in the world in the knowledge that "economics is a matter of faith" would this somehow indicate that the church had somehow taken over politics? Of course it wouldn't. But we, as a nation, don't seem to be concerned about walking the path of stewardship and justice among the nations of the earth. Rather, we seem more concerned with winding ourselves up to maintain the same old discredited nature-destroying, poverty creating course. Are the APEC nations really committed to working together to overcoming the increasing poverty, the land degradation, the environmental catastrophe, and other burgeoning problems in the Asia Pacific region, let alone the dispossession of indigenous peoples and the export of natural resources to deepen the poverty cycle of indigenous peoples everywhere? Why haven't we, and other rich countries, decided to heed the mounting evidence and adopt a more restrained pattern of production and consumption by a joint and unequivocal commitment to refocus our economies towards care for nature and finding mechanisms that share the resources of the earth with true equity? Are we really serious about the massive re-direction of resources that will be needed to ensure basic necessities for increasing numbers of those who need them but don't have them? Are we now filled with urgency to live moderately, to avoid foolish consumption?

By simply asking ourselves these questions, we begin to sense the unreality of global politics of the APEC type - the unreality of an idealistic globalization that assumes that more and more production and consumption is the way to achieve the greatest happiness for the greatest number. It is the corollary of the crazy view that building more and more sophisticated defence weaponry is the sure way to guaranteed security. APEC has come and gone but is it still the Dow Jones, FTSE100 and Nasdaq indices which we rely upon to tell us how to interpret our immediate and long-term future?

Clearly, Christianity needs to rediscover itself, its own faith. In recent times there has been a modest revival of Biblical scholarship that has begun to explore the possibility that the early church was indeed a contra-imperial movement. The writings of Bishop N T Wright, and many others, are worth reading in this regard. Wright also offers a cogent explanation for the way in which English-speaking Christians have accommodated their reading of the New Testament to the privatisation of their religion and to latter imperial and colonial world-views. Many of his contributions are available at the N T Wright Page. In one recent lecture on the book of Romans he made the following remark:

What Paul is talking about must have been heard by his Roman readers and must have been intended by Paul as counter-imperial theology. Paul ... fell heir to the long Jewish tradition in which the Creator God was the King of the world and relativized all pagan Kingdoms. God could use them and indeed God wanted there to be authority in the world but God was over against them particularly when they vaunted themselves over against Him. And when Paul talks about the Gospel of God in the Son of God who is the Lord of the world, who is the Saviour of the world ... through whom is revealed justice and freedom and peace - these are all part of the Roman Imperial rhetoric of his day. The Caesar cult was the fastest growing religion in Paul's world in his day - that is the world of the eastern Mediterranean - and Paul must have known that what he was saying is "God is King and Caesar isn't!" "Jesus is Lord and Caesar isn't!" "It is God's justice, not Caesar's, that will win in the end".

If that is indeed what Paul was teaching, then this Christian revival in biblical studies issues a challenge to rethink our attitude to the New Testament. But not only that. Wright and others indicate that the Gospel always confronts its political context, and so we are encouraged to read the bible in a fresh way in order to derive decisive guidance for making a political contribution in our world today. After all the confession "Jesus is Lord" carries with it the belief that God knows that we are citizens in various political communities at various levels. And God is not surprised by globalization. In fact, as the letter from the churches indicates, the Gospel is the heraldic announcement of God's specific globalization project (See Ephesians 1:10). We are called by these churches to discover citizenship as one of the ways in which the Gospel calls us to served our neighbours with love, to make economic confession with our lives. The question then is: how then is it possible for us not to develop a better understanding of what is required from us in the life of nations. Contribute we must. We cannot avoid it. And so some serious questions face us about the concrete steps we should be taking to walk the path of justice, of loving mercy and with a genuine intimacy with our neighbours. We keep close to the Good Shepherd, because we believe He has come close to us for our rescue, for the survival of those who are weak and cannot support themselves.

NURTURING JUSTICE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC I

Nurturing Justice 1 (2009) May 6th

From now until the end of this year (at least), Nurturing Justice will address the question of developing genuine Christian democratic politics in the South Pacific region. For these issues to be raised and discussed in an appropriate way, we must try to scrupulously avoid a "hit 'n run" approach merely to keep some journalistic endeavour alive. That style, to which we occasionally draw attention, conflicts with the need to engage in basic self-criticism. When we are nurturing justice in our public life, self-criticism is no private or individualised affair. In this sense, Nurturing Justice attempts to encourage an opened-up and public Christian self-criticism about political responsibility - it seeks to engage all Christians in this reflection, attuned to our local context, global in its implications and directed by the biblical teaching that in calling us to walk in His ways, the Lord God allows the rain and sunshine to fall upon all His image bearers. By following patiently in Christ's footsteps, we seek justice for all. We do not aim to secure special privileges or rights for ourselves that are not granted to all other citizens, whatever their status, whatever their beliefs, whatever their way of life. Christ calls us to serve all our neighbours with love and in our shared political life that means that we seek genuine public justice.

An important part of this Nurturing Justice contribution to Fijian and South West Pacific Christian political reflection, will be the launching of a Fiji edition of Bob Goudzwaard's classic primer in Christian politics A Christian Political Option (1969/1972). This work discusses and explores a Christian way to approach political life in the concrete deeds that citizens and government are called to perform.

NURTURING JUSTICE IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC II

Nurturing Justice 2 (2009) May 13th

As indicated last time, Nurturing Justice seeks from hereon to address questions of developing genuine Christian democratic politics in the South Pacific region. Currently our concern is with the questions arising from the abrogation of Fiji's constitution. What is the political viewpoint that undergirds this allegedly decisive act?

The decision of the Fijian Appeals Court that the December 5th 2006 coup was illegal, has convinced the illegal elite to decide that Fiji's constitution could no longer provide the framework they require to change Fiji in the way they want. The court had ruled that the coup was illegal. This also meant that the presumed reserve power of the Fiji military to control whatever government gets elected could not ever be sustained by the current (1997) constitution.

When the judgment was handed down no stay in the proceedings was granted, although counsel for the Interim Government was granted leave to prepare an appeal. The request for a stay, together with the stated intention on the side of the (illegal) Interim Government to appeal, along with the Military Commander's television appearance assuring the republic that the RFMF would abide by the court's decision, all suggests that the final decision to abrogate the constitution had not been taken. But then it was taken and that decision - despite all the assurances of a Commodore Bainimarama that a future non-racist election would be held in September 2014 - means that a clear choice was taken to impose a Military Régime upon the Republic of Fiji Islands.

In other words, the abrogation of the constitution now implies that those who claim control of the government, make an appeal to a presumed higher law than the constitution itself. What is that higher law? That law is none other than the (presumed) reserve power of the military.

The critical question we now have to ask is whether a constitution that is reinstated under these circumstances, which mandates anything less than the subservience of the military to civilian control, could ever be able to actually promote a constitutional approach to Parliamentary Democracy? We have to now ask whether Fiji's Constitution was in fact abrogated by the 2006 coup.

If the constitution does not clearly and unequivocally provide for a military under civilian control via the parliament, then such a constitution put in place by such a military dictatorship will be purely a matter of play-acting. The limits of Military authority are now undefined. They are simply what the Military commander and his band of thieves say it is. And a constitution that avoids defining the limits of a nation's strongest pressure group, in this case the military, allows that pressure group to stand outside the constitution as a higher law by which alone the constitution can be effective. That is the standpoint in constitutional law that the Military Commander and his nominated Attorney General (and, by implication, Graham Davis) have now adopted for Fiji. They have adopted it whether they intended to or not. Putting it in these terms Fiji can never have anything but a military government - parliamentary democracy at the behest of a military dictatorship is simply military dictatorship by another name, by other means.

And that, actually, puts the shoe on the other foot. Bainimarama and Davis defend the current state of affairs on the grounds that to have acted constitutionally would be an accommodation with racism. That itself affirms the inherently racist view that Fiji and Fijjians have an exceptional and inherent weakness which demands that they have military rule rather than a constitutional democracy in which the military finds its subservient place under law. Those who are to be ruled have to be rid of racism; those ruling them, presumably, are above all ethnicity. They simply have the destined role to cleanse these people prone to such regrettable tendencies. In other words the Bainimarama régime, and those who apologise for it, advocate the worst kind of racist view to maintain their own beliefs that they alone can administer the purge of evil. They are the special people, with the special discipline, who alone are fit to do so. Thus their view of themselves and the law to which they appeal is inherently racist. By adopting this view they have effectively declared war upon the people of Fiji. Their demand that they, the nation's military, be accepted as the rulers of the Republic, implies that these subservient people are inherently weak and in need of military governance.

It is a mythic and idolatrous standpoint. And so Bainimarama and Davis seem impelled to paint Qarase as a racist - there is no clear argument; it is all slurs - and this leads me to conclude that they are avoiding an argument that goes into their consciousness, they are arguing with themselves and allowing us to overhear their self-hypnotic claims to have found a "cause" about which they neither need to show forgiveness nor be forgiven. This sounds to me that at the point of judging Qarase both men have abandoned any desire to be self-critical and hence are trying to put distance between themselves and their "Christian" backgrounds.

So if we are to develop this Nurturing Justice contribution to Fijian and South West Pacific Christian political reflection, we will to deepen our insight into what is a neo-pagan idolatrous world-view that stands poised to envelope the political life of Fiji.

STIFLING FIJIAN JOURNALISM I

Nurturing Justice 3 (2009) May 6th

In Fiji, as you may know, there is a ban on publishing newspaper articles which contain views critical of the illegal régime; media items cannot go to air if they fail to get the censor's "OK". The Fiji Times and other newspapers and media outlets like The Fiji Daily Post are subject to this unjust imposition. But it is somewhat alarming that, while responsible political journalism at The Fiji Times has been suppressed by an illegal military dictatorship, its News Corp sister, The Australian, has decided to publish articles that effectively commend the military régime, and commend the régime to Fijian readers by way of the internet. The Australian has now published articles in which the leader of the illegal régime attempts, once again, to justify his actions. By publishing this material the newspaper has, in effect, taken on the role which the Fiji Human Rights Commission assumed for itself in the immediate aftermath of the December 2006 coup. Those supporting Commodore Frank Bainimarama and his band of robbers are obviously desperate for media coverage to draw attention to the views of their military "superstar". When his voice is heard, as in these articles, it continues the same old complaint - his critics in the region have never really listened, they have not tried to understand, they have no knowledge of what is happening "on the ground" in Fiji, they fail to allow Fijians to solve Fiji's problems in Fiji's way.

But the Commodore continues to stand in the way of Fijians solving Fiji's problems in a Fijian way. And now, even more than ever before, the Commodore is the problem. His views have indeed been heard, loudly and clearly. He has made promises which he has repeatedly broken, he has continued to justify his illegal rule as if he should be congratulated for the stand he has taken, claiming to be doing something "necessary". The Commodore has taken decisive aim at the attempts by the Qarase-led government to promote republic-wide peace and reconciliation, and meanwhile the decay of just governance has become the hallmark of his contribution. The justification that he and his minions have given for the military takeover in December 2006 has changed repeatedly to meet new criticisms and unanticipated circumstances. Now that has changed - the deadline has passed for the Interim Régime to give the Pacific Forum a timeline for a return to parliamentary democracy and Fiji is not only expelled from the regional body but the usurper claims to have abrogated the country's constitution. The reason for the military takeover is no longer merely the racism of the Qarase-SDL Government; now the judiciary has been sacked and it is the 1997 Constitution which is the problem - allegedly it was racist through and through. By clearing the slate, Bainimarama claims to be able to start again - a non-racist future beckons under his hand.

The way the Military Commander puts it one could easily draw the conclusion that he thinks that the 1997 constitution was created by none other than Laisenia Qarase. That kind of blurred historical mythology not only shows Bainimarama's desperation, it is further evidence that he and his supporters are very confused. Qarase is no racist. Bainimarama's accusations, backed up by some highly uncritical journalism, have no basis in fact