Transcript
ANNA POWLES: The timing is interesting with the upcoming election, however this is not necessarily new, there has been a long pattern of military involvement in policing in Fiji and this is arguably probably a continuation of existing civil-military relations within the country.
JAMIE TAHANA: That said though, there is this long history, but it is quite a chequered past isn't it?
AP: Absolutely, absolutely, and we only have to look back to the role of the military from 1987 onwards with the first coup led by Sitiveni Rabuka and then subsequent coups led by the current prime minister Bainimarama. If you look at comments made by the then land force commander Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga, in 2006, the statement that he made then was that the military take-over in 2006 was specifically a clean up campaign and that very much positioned the military in this privileged role within Fijian politics and society. We have seen this as a key pillar very much, even though it has shifted at times, but certainly from the 2012 Public Order Amendment Decree in Fiji which confers upon the military the power to perform policing functions and then in 2013 the Constitution which the military was intimately involved in, it also inscribed the military with a role to ensure the security, defence and well-being of Fiji and all Fijians and how that will play out has always been fairly ambiguous and concerning. So there has long been this relationship of Fijian military involvement in policing and certainly even the former police commissioner when he left Fiji in 2015, he complained about military interference in peace time operations and the role of the military interfering in policing. So this is something we have a, there is a history of and it certainly has raised concerns. This blurring of lines does raise significant concerns about accountability, about transparency.
JT: Specifically about those concerns, with the blurring of a military-police distinction which in many countries is a distinction that is quite strictly enforced, what are the concerns that are raised from this?
AP: Well the concerns are very much, the tension there is that the increasing involvement of the military within policing activities does nothing to actually development the capacity and professionalism of the police force itself. And it disempowers the police force so from a security sector, governance perspective, it actually weakens the police force which should have primacy domestically and as the key security actor and agency responsible. Then of course we have concerns around professionalism and issues. We have concerns around the role of the military having too strong an influence in domestic issues and certainly when we think about the health of civil-military relations within a country, we need to ask the question about what is the relationship between the military and society and the degree to which the military or civilian leaders or policing leaders are more influential in shaping policy, particularly around questions of use of force and so on. It is concerning because Fiji has a history where the military has played a less than positive role and it is concerning because there needs to be a focus on strengthening the police as the primary public domestic security actor.
