he's frank (slight return)

its been really interesting watching a genuine military dicatorship right on our doorstep.

in december 2006, commodore frank bainiarama staged a military coup in fiji, ostensibly to root out corruption in the government and to improve racial equality between the indigenous fijians and the indian population.

nz and australian kicked up a fuss and starting pressing him to restore democracy, but frank was steadfast that he would not.

the former prime minister took frank to court and last saturday, the court found that frank's government was illegal

frank stepped down, but the president of the company sacked the judges, suspended the country's constitution and appointed an interim prime minister. go on, guuess who it was. yep, thats right, frank was out of office for less than 24 hours.

there has been a media crackdown, all foreign media have been expelled, all local media have been told that they are only to write positive stories (do journalists know how to do this?). the fijian media are used to this-after the initial coup, any journalists who wrote things that displeased frank were arrested, taken to an army camp and forced to exercise.

frank has also been quoted this week as saying that free speech is not condusive to getting a new constituion in place. on being asked whether he thought that a free press was crucial to civilised society, he responded "no, just ask me the questions and i will answer them"

on the other hand, he has also devalued the fijian dollar, so that holidays there are now cheaper