This week we continue to examine the findings of the
research book “Voices of the People: Perceptions and Preconditions for
Democratic Development in Fiji,” published by the Pacific Theological College’s
Institute for Research and Social Analysis.
Over the past two weeks we have looked at the findings of
the research project on what the focus group discussion participants and
interviewees thought of decision-making and leadership in Fiji. We now turn to
a summary of what participants of the research study had to say on the issue of
democracy.
Out of a total of
81 participants, 72 (89%) shared their views on different aspects of democracy
in Fiji. A comparison between responses of
participants in focus group discussions and interviewees shows some striking
similarities, but also some differences. The major differences between their
responses can mostly be ascribed to the different levels of formal education
and status of the two groupings.
Most participants
are representative of the majority of Fijians, with low to moderate incomes;
while the majority of participants have been formally educated to primary
school level, few have attended secondary school, and even fewer have undergone
studies at tertiary level. In contrast, the interviewees represent a much
smaller section of the social strata, with moderate to higher incomes, the
majority having degrees from tertiary institutions and being in leading
positions in Fijian society.
The majority of
focus group participants know little about the origins, history and development
of democracy, although a few participants in each group were familiar with some
of the key elements of democracy, such as equality, human rights, the rule of
law, and participation in decision-making through elections. Even so, focus group
participants clearly view the current system in Fiji as undemocratic because
the lawfully elected government was ousted through a coup in 2006, the
Constitution abolished, and Fiji ruled since then by a military government,
through the issuance of decrees. In addition, human rights have been violated
and there were (and still are) restrictions in place with regard to the freedom
of expression.
Given a choice of
governance systems, the vast majority of participants prefer democracy for
Fiji, and a substantial number of participants are - for a variety of reasons -
opposed to or critical of the current government. It should be noted, however,
that a small majority of participants expressed their appreciation for certain
programmes, projects and policies introduced by the military government.
Regardless, there is agreement between supporters and opponents alike that
there is a need for reform of the electoral system, and the introduction of
regulations for political parties and aspiring politicians.
Similar to focus
group participants, the vast majority of interviewees expressed their support
for democracy as their preferred model of governance, as well as reforms of the
electoral system, and rejected in principle the idea of bringing about change
through coups; they also rejected any sort of racially-based politics.
Most interviewees
and participants affirmed the importance of the role of political parties in a
democratic system, in particular their representation of the interests of
citizens. They were, however, critical of their performance, with the
accountability of political parties to citizens being a key issue. In addition,
many called for the reform of political parties and the system of governance,
so that these are grounded specifically in the cultural, religious and
political realities of Fiji. Such reforms are seen as imperative, not only for
strengthening citizens’ active participation in political affairs, but also for
curbing the excesses of individualism. However, the quality of political participation
depends on how citizens wish to participate in their systems of governance.
Taking into
account the different views with regard to elections and political parties, the
study’s key findings are:
(a) political
parties have not performed well in the past;
(b) political
parties are essential in any future democracy, but should be fundamentally
reformed; and
(c) Fiji needs to
search for a more appropriate form of representation.
Based on these
findings, there seemed to be three clear proposals emerging from most focus
groups and interviews for strengthening citizens’ participation.
·
Firstly,
race must be removed from the electoral system, and political parties’ agenda;
·
secondly,
citizens and leaders need to understand the purpose of elections and politics
in general - hence the need for an inclusive civic education programme; and,
·
thirdly,
the one-person-one-vote electoral system is the most appropriate system for
Fiji.
Based on this
analysis, it can be concluded that Fiji (like most ‘fully’ democratic countries
in the Western understanding) is still far from achieving the ideal of
democracy, which is, by definition, the government of the whole people by the
people equally represented. A major reason for this is that the underlying
economic structures in the globalized capitalist economy prevent the exercise
of democracy; thus, relying solely on voting every four or five years as a
means of controlling economic, social and other policies is inadequate.
Representation of the people through elections may be a necessary precondition
for democracy, but a state can only be genuinely democratic when elections are
reinforced by the enhanced participation of citizens at all levels of
decision-making in all spheres of public life.
The research team
therefore proposed that the liberal representative model of democracy needs to
be challenged and complemented by approaches aiming at ‘deepening democracy’.
In this view, democracy is not only a set of rules, procedures and
institutional design, nor should it be reduced solely to competition amongst
political parties; rather, it is a process through which citizens exercise ever
deepening control over decisions which affect their lives, and as such,
democracy is constantly under construction.
In the final
analysis, full democratic citizenship is achieved not only through the exercise
of basic political and civic rights, but also through social rights, which in
turn may be realized through participatory processes and dialogue. Famous
examples of this are the Porto Alegre
experiment, and what became known as ‘forum politics’, which preceded the
innovative activist-based movements of Eastern Europe in the late 1980s.
The focus of
‘deepening democracy’ is on creating new democratic arenas and spaces, and on
participatory governance at the local level in particular. This approach is
close to deliberative understandings of democracy, which shift the focus from a
‘voting-centric’ to a ‘talk-centric’ democracy, and to concepts of empowered
participatory governance. As a result, it is argued that contestation by
combative political parties is not the only possible democratic model;
consensus-seeking through village or town meetings is another real option.
Read more details of findings of the research study in “Voices
of the People: Perceptions and Preconditions for Democratic Development in
Fiji,” which is available from the Pacific Theological College, Suva.
Next week: What the people think of the Rule of Law in
Fiji.
“Simplicity, Serenity, Spontaneity”
ENDS
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