(You can watch the video if you missed it, or read the full transcript. Spoiler: If you are expecting some good old ranting and raving, you will be disappointed.)
Now i've seen other such programmes where Frank has come across as arrogant, forceful and defiant which in turn has led to foreign media branding him a dictator, a firebrand and a delusional madman (don't quote me on that last one... i just like the ring of it). But this was different. He was calm, almost charming. Great work Phillipa Macdonald on fostering that mood.
The situation in Fiji is a complicated one and Frank is trying to change attitudes or in his own words:
"Well the reforms are in the way we think. We’ve been led down one particular path in the last 40, 50 years. We need to come away from that. Our constitution has not been good, has not been kind to us. Our constitution... and on that note our electoral reform, our electoral system, has not been kind to us, has been very racist."Ok so he wants to eradicate racism. Not just politics but from people's minds. Wow, just WOW! If he pulls this off, he will get the Nobel Peace Prize every year for the next 25 years.
Reality check. While Frank chases a utopian future, the country is falling apart. By his own admission, these "racist" attitudes have been around for 40-50 years. To change that in eight years by using the military as a blunt instrument is not idealistic. It. is. insane.
Frank Bainimarama may have a plan, but his execution is flawed. Censoring the media, telling people how to think and controlling information about the regime may help him silence those who he percieves as working against the betterment of Fiji, but it also sends a message to the world. The message is that Frank doesn't want a conversation. A conversation requires more than one voice. More than one side of the story. If the people don't speak, how can they express their needs?
- The Psynic
