Fiji ruling correct, but hardly practical

Government in Fiji may become more correct, but it won’t be any easier as a result of an appeals court declaration that the island nation’s military-backed interim government is illegal.

The first test will be whether the military will support the ruling, which directed a return to power of the country’s democratically elected Parliament.

That would give lawmakers the seemingly impossible task of forming a new government. The last government, that led by Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, was overthrown last year by a violent coup. Chaudhry, the country’s first ethnic Indian leader, now says he won’t share power with anyone linked to the coup, while Fijian nationalists seem unlikely to accept Chaudhry’s return to power.

Fiji was thrown into turmoil when failed businessman George Speight led a gang of gunmen into Parliament on May 19, taking the government hostage. He and his henchmen now await trial on treason charges, but they left behind a Fijian-dominated interim government.

The appeals court, comprised of five foreign judges, declared Fiji’s 1997 constitution was never abrogated. They rejected the interim government’s argument that it should remain in power until elections in March 2002.

Of course, the panel couldn’t support the violent overthrow of a constitution and a democratically elected government. Unfortunately, it didn’t give Fiji a blueprint for what to do next.

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