{"id":1136196,"date":"2023-07-16T02:09:54","date_gmt":"2023-07-16T02:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=90717"},"modified":"2023-07-16T02:09:54","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T02:09:54","slug":"fijians-are-fed-up-no-more-coups-in-modern-politics-says-ratuva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/07\/16\/fijians-are-fed-up-no-more-coups-in-modern-politics-says-ratuva\/","title":{"rendered":"Fijians are \u2018fed up\u2019 \u2013 no more coups in modern politics, says Ratuva"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Shayal Devi in Suva<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our people are fed up with coups&#8221;\u00a0 &#8212; this is the message from renowned Fijian academic Professor Steven Ratuva as he reiterated the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fijitimes.com\/fijians-desire-peace-no-more-coups-tikoduadua\/\">statement shared by Minister for Home Affairs Pio Tikoduadua<\/a> earlier this week.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Ratuva, director of Canterbury University&#8217;s Centre for Pacific Studies in New Zealand, said coups had no place in modern politics and Fiji was no exception.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt corrupts and destroys the very principles on which constitutional democracy is built, it is destructive to the economy, disrupts social relationships and wellbeing and creates a cycle of instability in the long run,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fijitimes.com\/get-used-to-the-political-culture-of-coalition-says-ratuva\/\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> \u2018Get used to the political culture of coalition\u2019, says Ratuva<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fijitimes.com\/fijians-desire-peace-no-more-coups-tikoduadua\/\">Fijians desire peace; no more coups \u2013 Tikoduadua<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=Steven+Ratuva\">Other Steven Ratuva reports<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cA coup is like the covid epidemic with a long tail and unfortunately, we are still in the shadows of the long tails of the previous coups because the impacts are still with us, even as years pass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUp to a point, people will reach the coup-fatigue threshold and Fiji would have reached it long ago, as people are just fed up [with] coups and simply hearing rumours associated with coups, it is psychologically traumatising to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Professor Ratuva said the whole nation had collectively been traumatised by the series of coups in the past since 1987 and it was time to \u201cput a stop to this scourge\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He added that the military, as a professional security institution, was often subjected to external political interests and pressures to serve narrow political and personal ends.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Military for &#8216;nation-building&#8217;<\/strong><br \/>\nHe also commended the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) Commander Ro Jone Kalouniwai for his conduct during this time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe military must be an independent institution for national security and nation-building, not a tool for illegal state capture by some,&#8221; Professor Ratuva said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFiji\u2019s military commander is a highly educated officer with an internationally reputable status and his calm and intelligent response to destabilising rumours, gives the nation a sense of assurance and comfort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe and the military will need support by all political parties and citizens generally to maintain stability in these challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Shayal Devi<\/em> <em>is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2023\/07\/16\/fijians-are-fed-up-no-more-coups-in-modern-politics-says-ratuva\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Shayal Devi in Suva \u201cOur people are fed up with coups\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 this is the message from renowned Fijian academic Professor Steven Ratuva as he reiterated the statement shared by Minister for Home Affairs Pio Tikoduadua earlier this week. Professor Ratuva, director of Canterbury University\u2019s Centre for Pacific Studies in New Zealand, said coups<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7908,65498,65499,432,363,433,5,495,496,365,442,6,7,35020,383,12,55666,14,56325,38112,417,34574,1743],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1136266,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136196\/revisions\/1136266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}