Trouble in Paradise-Fiji Needs an "Alliance of Democratic Nations" as a Counter Weight to the United Nations
Maybe some of you have been one of the 500,000 tourists who have visited Fiji, which is generally regarded as the ultimate paradise in the South Pacific. But things are not looking so good if you are citizen of Fiji.
The British granted Fiji independence in 1970. Democratic rule was interrupted by two military coups in 1987. . . .
The new millennium brought along another coup, instigated by George Speight, that effectively toppled the government of Mahendra Chaudhry, who became Prime Minister following the 1997 constitution. Commodore Frank Bainimarama assumed executive power after the resignation, possibly forced, of President Mara. . . .
. . .In late November 2006 and early December 2006, Bainimarama was instrumental in the 2006 Fijian coup d’état.[i]
This word coup d’état, being of French origins, sounds like something that has status or legitimacy. But in reality, the best translation would be the establishment of a tyranny that destroys representative government. Along with this destruction comes the complete package of the loss of human rights and a deteriorating economy.
Last year, Mr. Bainimarama scrapped a pledge to hold elections by 2009 and suspended the constitution, invoking emergency powers that allow him to rule by decree until 2014.[ii]
Invoke means “to appeal or cite as authority.”[iii] Having just suspended the constitution, whose authority is he invoking? If Bainimarama was trying to seize a city in Fiji, perhaps the United Nations might send some Blue Helmets to protect its citizens from the Fijian military. But since he is seizing an entire county, the U.N. invites Bainimarama to speak at a U.N. Summit in Rome, and “talks on an IMF-led bailout (are) set to resume in September (2010).”[iv]
It would be nice if the disenfranchised people of Fiji could call on an Alliance of Democratic Nations and invite them to send a contingent, which might include a company of Marines to come to Fiji, and help them discover from whom Mr. Bainimarama was invoking his authority to renounce constitutional government and substitute a military dictatorship for it. If Mr. Bainimarama’s invocation is flawed, maybe an Alliance of Democratic Nations could find him a new job!
An Alliance of Democratic Nations is a concept that has been floating around for many years.
Efforts to improve the United Nations’ capacity to respond to global security threats . . . will only marginally improve the United Nations’ ability to act.
The deeper problem is that these reform proposals do not go to the heart of what ails the organization: It treats its members as sovereign equals regardless of the character of their governments. . . . A Sudan that wages a genocidal civil war can be voted onto the U.N. Human Rights Commission. . . .
Today respect for state sovereignty should be conditional on how states behave at home, not just abroad. Sovereignty carries with it a responsibility to protect citizens against mass violence and a duty to protect citizens against mass violence and a duty to prevent internal developments that threaten others. We need to build an international order that reflects how states organize themselves internally. The great dividing line is democracy. . . .
We need an Alliance of Democratic States. This organization would unite nations with entrenched democratic traditions such as the United States and Canada; the European Union countries; Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia; India and Israel; Botswana and Costa Rica. Membership would be open to countries where democracy is so rooted that reversion to autocratic rule is unthinkable. . . .
The alliance would be a powerful instrument for promoting democracy. Just as the prospect of joining NATO and the European Union remade the face of Europe, so too could the prospect of joining the Alliance of Democratic States help remake the world.[v]
Senator and former Presidential candidate John McCain also promoted the concept during his 2008 campaign.
We need to renew and revitalize our democratic solidarity. We need to strengthen our transatlantic alliance as the core of a new global compact - a League of Democracies - that can harness the great power of more than 100 democratic nations around the world to advance our values and defend our shared interests.[vi]
And so another 800,000 or so people slip into the embrace of a single party tyrant and start down the long road of oppression and economic collapse . . . and nobody does anything.
For a much more thorough investigation of how military thugs destroy constitutional government using Venezuela as a concise case study, please see Chapter 2 (We Search The Globe For the Green Paradises of Liberalism) of my book “A Simple Guide: How Liberalism, a Euphemism for Socialism Destroys Peoples and Nations.”
[i] “Fiji.” Wikipedia. 24 August 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 24 August 2010.
[ii] Sands, Neil. “As Economy Falters, Fiji Becomes a Volatile Paradise.” The Wall Street Journal. 13 August 2010. Web. 26 August 2010. .
[iii] “Invoke.” Def. 1a. Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Web. 26 August 2010. .
[iv] Sands, Neil. “As Economy Falters, Fiji Becomes a Volatile Paradise.” The Wall Street Journal. 13 August 2010. Web. 26 August 2010. .
[v] Daalder, Ivo H. and James Lindsay. “An Alliance of Democracies.” The Washington Post. 23 May 2004. Web. 26 August 2010. .
[vi] Zwagerman, Nanne. “John McCain’s League of Democracies.” Atlantic Review. 23 March 2008. Web. 26 August 2010. .
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