Fiji -a Republic?
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Mon 1 Oct 2012 22:12
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Fiji was a British Colony from 1874 to 1970 when it
became independent. As a result of the repeated coups and institutionalised
racist behaviour by the ethnic Fijians the country was expelled from
the Commonwealth (an almost unheard-of step); it remains on the outside. So why
does the Queen (our Queen) appear on all the banknotes (a dreadful likeness, but
recognisably her - perhaps an illicit copy)? And the national flag remains as
below:
 It's actually very smart, and looks really good on
a rugby shirt (Fiji is rugby mad - the climate suits it better than football;
rain rain and yet more rain). The flag, I'm pleased to see, is in use everywhere
as a matter of national pride, a concept we seem to have lost in the UK.
And there are "Buy Fijian" & proud "Made in Fiji" (they actually do
make rather a lot here) signs everywhere. But the flag is an interesting relic -
you'd think of almost no relevance to modern Fiji, and replete with symbols of a
now obsolete European heraldry - but popular, perhaps because it is an entirely
non-contentious bridge of the racial divide here. But surprising.
And the Queen's head. Well I've asked everywhere.
Everyone knows who she is, and lots of people didn't realize that Fiji had been
thrown out of the Commonwealth (the same degree of close adherence to current
affairs seen in the UK population). The reason turns out to be that she
(QE2) remains the Paramount High Chief of Fiji. The native Fijian
traditional stone-age culture is still going strong. Each village has a chief;
each village belongs to a clan with a chief; each clan belongs to a tribe with a
paramount chief; each tribal chief belongs to the national council of high
chiefs, and the Queen remains 'chair' of it, as ultimate supremo. As
Paramount High Chief I suspect that she could wield enormous influence here in
favour of democracy if she chose to do so. Given the feebleness of the British
Diplomatic Service it's entirely possible that the UK & Commonwealth haven't
noticed.
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