Fiji may not often cross the minds of many Americans except as a
distant South Pacific tropical paradise. But amid the palm trees
and coconuts, there is political and religious turmoil in Fiji.
Its military regime recently arrested top leaders of the Fijian
Methodist Church in a bid to squash dissent as the nation’s
largest church prepared for its Annual Conference and hymn
singing contest in August.
The Methodist clash with the Fijian military is a recent odd
twist for Fiji, where the church has traditionally been closely
associated with the military. In l987, the ethnically
Fijian-dominated army, led by a Methodist lay preacher and army
colonel with seeming Cromwellian ambitions, overthrew the newly
elected ethnically Indian-dominated Labour government. The army,
often with church support, wanted to protect ethnic Fijians, many
still living under the authority of chiefs in the villages on
communal lands, from the nation’s more commercially active ethnic
Indians, who descend from indentured sugar cane harvesters
imported under British colonial rule. By l987, the ethnic Indians
outnumbered ethnic Fijians in Fiji.
In an amusing aside, the first Fijian coup in 1987 was
coincidentally preceded by a brief visit to Fiji by retired U.S.
Army General Vernon Walters, the brilliant polyglot and frequent
translator for U.S. presidents, who among many government posts,
served as Deputy CIA Director under Nixon. The mere presence of
Walters, who was then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, for
a stop-over ignited leftist conspiracy theories that the Fijian
army was the agent of a CIA-instigated coup, à la
Iran in 1953. Alas, Fiji hardly
merited extensive geopolitical exertions from the CIA or anybody
else. But the mostly ethnically Indian Labour regime had been
left-leaning, while ethnic Fijians, most of them culturally
conservative Christians, were and are stalwartly
pro-Western.
If Fiji has international importance, it is for the Fijian Army’s
long-time role in United Nations-led peacekeeping. The originally
British-trained military is relatively large and very
professional for a tiny nation with under a million people. UN
peacekeeping has been a major money-maker for Fiji, which is
compensated for its military’s missions. And retired Fijian
soldiers often continue as well-paid security consultants in
places like Iraq, providing additional income for Fiji.
Fiji’s 1987 coup against a left-leaning Labour government was
repeated in 2000, when Fiji’s first ethnically Indian premier was
overthrown by the army. Over the last 20 years, discouraged
ethnic Indians have been emigrating from Fiji. Once a slight
majority, they are now only 38 percent of Fiji’s population. Most
ethnic Indians are Hindu, with a significant Muslim minority. Two
thirds of ethnic Fijians are Methodist, whose church has
experienced religious revivals in recent years, occasionally
arousing the interests of evangelicals among U.S. United
Methodists, who are frustrated by their own church’s decline in
America.
Previous Fijian military coups had overthrown ethnically Indian
dominated governments, but in 2006 the army overthrew an
ethnically Fijian regime accused of corruption. Dissatisfaction
with this new army-led regime among ethnic Fijians, including the
dominant Methodists, has grown. Even during times of previous
coups, human rights have mostly been safeguarded in Fiji. But
Fiji’s current military rulers, who instituted “emergency rule”
in April, now fear possible opposition from the powerful
Methodist Church, so long seen as protector of traditional ethnic
Fijians. Apparently Fijian Methodists have complained to the
United Nations and human rights groups about the military
regime’s suppression of traditional Fijian liberties.
A July 23 Fijian court order forbade the Methodists from
convening their Annual Conference in August. A military official
warned that the church had planned to feature ”political
issues” rather than only ”spiritual development.” When the
church declined to cancel what is for Methodists their chief
organizing event, the church’s president and secretary general,
with 6 others, were arrested and detained for several days. Among
the detainees was a female Fijian chief, herself Catholic, who
had offered to host the Methodist Annual Conference. Upon their
release on bail, their travel documents were withheld and they
are prohibited from public appearance.
The Methodist Annual Conference in Fiji is typically preceded by
a massive choir hymn singing contest of 10,000 enthusiastic
vocalists. According to “Ecumenical News International,” perhaps
20,000 to 50,000 Methodists may now plan to gather, in defiance
of the government ban. With the church’s leaders officially
silenced, the church is reportedly working through alternative
leadership to ensure that the Annual Conference, and the hymn
singing contest, proceed.
Having been converted to Methodism mostly by British missionaries
in the 19th century away from cannibalism and idolatry, Fijians
today are quite adamant about their church events, which
displaced the old pagan totems and interweave through every nook
of traditional Fijian culture. Fijian Navy Commodore Frank
Bainimarama, now prime minister, and himself a Methodist, likely
was unwise to challenge his church’s Annual Conference and hymn
singing festival. Can the attempted silencing of hymns topple a
government? Fijians may learn in the coming weeks.
