Trevor Loudon's New Zeal blog has moved to

TrevorLoudon.com

redirecting you there now

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Mahendra Chaudhry-Communism, Chaos, China, Coups and Comebacks

Mahendra Chaudhry, despite repeatedly claiming he would accept no post, has been sworn in as Minister of Finance, Sugar Reform and National Planning in the newly appointed Fijian government.


He has also been tipped to become deputy Prime Minister.

Effectively he will be the most powerful man, in Fiji. This is an ironic comeback for a former Prime Minister, twice serving in governments ousted by coups.

There is evidence that the coup that has restored Chaudhry to power was orchestrated by the Fijian far left and possibly even by China.

If true, why would the left want Mahendra Chaudhry in power?

Fiji was targeted by the Soviets and their allies for decades. This accelerated after Fiji became independent in 1970. Although Fiji has never had a formal communist party, Marxist influence was (and is) very strong at the Suva based, University of the South Pacific.

From there it spread to the trade union movement, many of whose activists became involved in Soviet front activities.

These people were supported by Australian and NZ leftists such as John Halfpenny (Communist Party of Australia/Australian Labor Party) and Ken Douglas (NZ Socialist Unity Party)

In 1980 Halfpenny, Douglas and Jim Knox, President of the New Zealand Federation of Labor, formed the Pacific Trade Union Community. The PTUC was more active in promoting anti-nuclear policies than in promoting trade unionism. At its May 1986 conference in NZ, the PTUC declared it would coordinate union activities to promote a "nuclear free Pacific" and "national liberation and 22 independence" movements.

Halfpenny and Knox were also closely affiliated with the Fiji Labour Party, which was founded and led by medical doctor and unionist, Timoci Bavadra, in June 1985.

Mahendra Chaudhry was key founder of the Labour Party, with Bavadra, while serving as general secretary of the National Farmers Union.

Chaudhry had been a unionist since the early '60s, and had a reputation as a militant. In 1963, he became Secretary General of the Fiji Public Service Association, and led Fiji's first-ever civil service strike the same year.

Later he headed the Fiji Trade Union Congress.

The FLP worked to end Fiji's pro-Western foreign policy, moving to nonalignment, anti-nuclearism and closer ties with Moscow.

FLP leaders Chaudhry and Krishna Datt attended the October 1986 World Federation of Trade Unions Congress in East Berlin.

WFTU was the Soviet Union's key Labour front. Allegedly, Datt and some other FLP members also travelled to Moscow around that time, possibly in conjunction with the East Berlin trip.

Bavadra and Chaudhry talked openly of allowing the Soviets to open an embassy in Suva, but shelved the idea before the 1987 election.

Chaudhry was elected to Parliament in April 1987 and was appointed Minister for Finance in the coalition government of FLP leader, Timoci Bavadra. His term lasted barely a month. On the 14th May, Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka deposed the government in the first of two military coups.

Chaudhry remained active in the Labour Party and in 1991 succeeded as leader, Adi Kuini Bavadra, widow of Dr Bavadra.

In May 1999, Chaudhry defeated Sitiveni Rabuka at the polls and became Fiji's first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister.

In February 1998 the Chinese Minister of Defence had led a 13-member delegation on a two-day visit to Fiji. The talks concluded with professed agreement on "common interests in regional and international affairs"

In December 1999, Prime Minister Chaudhry, visited Beijing where China/Fiji relations, including military cooperation was discussed.

According to the Peoples Daily Online

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji said December 14 that the Chinese Government is ready to make concerted efforts with the Fijian Government to usher in stable Sino-Fijian relations of all-round cooperation in the next century on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence.

Zhu made the remark during talks with visiting Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry at the Great Hall of the People.

Chaudhry said that Fiji-China relations have witnessed significant developments since the two countries established diplomatic ties. He emphasized that Fiji recognizes the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China as outlined in the Fiji-China joint communique in establishing diplomatic ties. Chaudhry said that this position will not change.

Zhu expressed appreciation for the Fijian government's adherence to the "one China" stand.

Following the talks, the two leaders attended a ceremony for the signing of an agreement on economic and technological cooperation between the two countries and a memorandum of understanding on setting up a consultation system between the Chinese and Fijian foreign ministries.


In May 2000, Chaudhry and most of his Cabinet were taken hostage in a coup by the Fijian "nationalist" and businessman, George Speight.

Chaudhry's government was then sacked by President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara on May 27. Mara's intention was to assume emergency powers himself but was instead deposed by military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarama. After 56 days in captivity, Chaudhry was released and subsequently toured the world attempting to rally support for his deposed government.

Most countries didn't want to know, but Chaudhry did get some sympathy from the Socialist international.

The protection of democratic institutions was also high on the agenda when the SI Asia-Pacific Committee met in Wellington, New Zealand, on 7-8 August 2000, hosted by the New Zealand Labour Party, NZLP, and its leader Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Delegates from throughout this vast region denounced the violent overthrow of the democratically elected, multi-ethnic government of Fiji headed by Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, leader of the SI member Fiji Labour Party. This followed on the statement by our International issued after the coup on 19 May, which condemned the assault on the lawful government of the country and called for the release of all hostages.

Thankfully, Prime Minister Chaudhry survived a prolonged and strenuous ordeal and was able to participate in the meeting in Wellington, where he joined the Committee in calling for international action to restore democracy in Fiji.


It is worth noting that the Socialist International has changed considerably in the last 20 years. Once staunchly anti-communist, the SI, since the "fall of communism" now works closely with many "former" and current communist parties.

The SI, particularly in Latin America and the third world, is now effectively an ally of the communist movement.

Participants at the Wellington SI meeting chaired by Helen Clark, included the;

Mongolian People's Party ("former" communist)
The Cambodian People's Party (communist)
NZ trade unionist, Ken Douglas ("former" communist)
Several members of the Fiji Labour Party (crypto-communist), including Krishna Datt Two leftist leaders of the Fiji Trades Congress.

In October 2004, Chaudhry represented the FLP at a meeting of the Socialist International's Asia-Pacific Committee in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Participants included;

The Cambodian People's Party
Italian Democrats of the Left ("former" communist)
Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party
East Timor's Fretilin ("Former" communist)
Communist Party of China.

When when fresh elections were held in 2001, Chaudhry's FLP was defeated by Laisenia Qarase's Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua.

In the 2006 general election, Chaudhry's FLP formed an electoral alliance with the Party of National Unity and the United Peoples Party but was still unable to unseat the Qarase Government.

However, after some legal maneuvering, Qarase was forced to form a coalition government, which Chaudhry and the FLP were invited to join. Chaudhry's decision to join the multi-party cabinet (although Chaudhry himself did not take a post), caused considerable friction in the FLP.

In October 2006, Chaudhry, at the invitation of the Communist Party of China, led a delegation of senior FLP members to Beijing.

Liu Qi, secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China ,met with Mahendra Pal Chaudhry, leader of the opposition party and former prime minister of Fiji, and his Labor Party delegation here Tuesday.

Liu, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, expressed his appreciation for Fiji's adherence to one-China policy.

The CPC attaches close importance to the relations with the Fijian Labour Party and hopes to strengthen dialogues and exchanges between the two parties, he said.

Chaudhry said the Fijian Labour Party will continue to adhere to one-China policy.


Interestingly, the Qarase government had got offside with Beijing in 2005;

According to blog China Matters

However, China had its problems with the Qarase government, which afforded Taiwan's Chen Shuibian the opportunity to pay an unofficial visit spring 2005 that included a friendly greeting at the airport, meetings with the Fijian Vice President and other bigwigs, and apparently, an unannounced meeting with Qarase.

Although Bainimarama visited China at the PLA's invitation, and there is no love lost between Beijing and Qarase after the Chen Shui-bian stunt, ...


Within three months, the Qarase government had been ousted by the pro-Chaudhry, commodore Bainimarama.

It will be interesting to see where Mahendra Chaudhry and Bainimarama next lead Fiji.

26 Comments:

Blogger mah29001 said...

Hmm, I wonder where are all the protests against this coup in Fiji? The far left and Communist movements always protest the coup committed by the late Augusto Pinochet in Chile? Where are they now?

2:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ken Douglas fomenting revolution in Fiji?

When he consistently opposed anything remotely like that here, and was duely rewarded with the highest honour the establishment had in their trinket box??

HA HA HA

2:53 PM  
Blogger Trevor Loudon said...

Good question MAH.

3:14 PM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

I personally think the strategy right here if China is certainly indeed quite involved is to setup a Pacific "Grenada" so that it would enable China's forces and other Communist forces to attack Western nations like New Zealand and Australia along to provide logistic support for radical and subversive forces living in New Zealand, Australia and other allied nations in the region.

3:26 PM  
Blogger Trevor Loudon said...

MAH and laminar. War in this region is not our immediate worry. It is long term subversion.

We need to stop that, so we never have to fight.

5:15 PM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

Well, to me in my personal view, there's where Fiji's future could likely be like how Grenada was in the Carribbean before Reagan intervned.

7:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Trev, mate, have you read Whittaker Chambers' "Witness"?

12:01 PM  
Blogger laminar_flow said...

Like the subversion against WMD hunters in Iraq?
George W gave another swing at threat in Iraq-to shore up support for the 'surge of troops'.

Stop them there, so we don't fight in the US heartland.
Trevor, you're begining to sound like Bush.
The only thing Trevor wants to stop is, democratic consent in creating a country's foreign policy and the barriers to the military industrial complex.

1:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What is the 'military industrial complex' laminar (beyond a left wing buzz-word)?

EXOCET

3:09 PM  
Blogger laminar_flow said...

A delight in war.

7:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is "evidence" that China is "possibly" involved in the Fiji coup - Trev ! Evidence of a possibility ? You really do take liberties my man.

The sort of liberty-taking the medical profession calls "delusional", a manifestation of your compulsive-obssessive stuff about anything left of far right.

7:08 AM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

So let me take another punch at "steve the nice guy", how about China backing Robert Mugabe to power in Zimbabwe? You know that brutal dictator who kills not just only white farmers, but also is now killing more black farmers than the old white Rhodesian government ever did?

How about Mugabe telling his own people to learn Chinese and look east along with accepting weapons and other sort of logistics from China and even Russia?

Yea, China has nothing to gain in that as it has nothing to gain in Fiji. Not!

8:46 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Mah,

Well, for what it's worth, yes, I have been to China. For 3 weeks, 30 years ago.

Now I know that in your idiotic, facile way you're probably going to say "Well, see, he's a commie !" but please Poor Old Mahjong, pause.

I say "for what it's worth..." because it was a highly controlled exercise where we saw and heard only what the authorities wanted us to see and hear. We fully expected that. In fact the frequently absurd responses to questions put to our hosts and in other cases the flat refusal to reply were very telling.

Subsequently, particularly on reading "Three Swans...", my immediate sense of the manipulation to which we were subject was strongly reinforced.

Smoke and mirrors and propaganda aren't confined to the commies alone however and forgive me, that seems to be your precept. Stark choices - Good or Evil - a la the lunatic from Crawford, Texas. The man who in classic Vietnam style seeks to destroy Iraq to save it.

If you're prepared to accept what I say about my reaction to visiting China and not knee jerk yourself into "Commie, Commie, Commie !" then I'll see you as other than a childish little fellow who reflects the school playground. It would also be helpful if you could demonstrate some humanitarian concern about the IDF's policy of ten lives for one, or are you truly a Holocaust Nazi ?

I'm not hopeful I have to say. God, someone only has to go a dinner someone else is at or attend an international conference and it's all over for you. At best it's "very suspicious...." at worst "The Evil Hordes are under our bed !" The only one nuttier is Trev with his "evidence" of the "possibility" of something or other.

Again, grow up. Your sophistry (and I'm rather too kind there, it's more a case of a poor appreciation of human nature and history and a massive self centredness) is really not clever.

10:30 AM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

"Now I know that in your idiotic, facile way you're probably going to say "Well, see, he's a commie !" but please Poor Old Mahjong, pause."

More dishonsety from "steve the not-so-nice-guy". You call me a "child", you call me "idiotic", but I guess you equalling Israelis to the Nazis while ignoring the brutality of Palestinian terrorism or how the Arab regimes that suggest they "care" about the Palestinians when they don't are not being attacked by folks like you.

You're kind are very dishonest. You say one thing doesn't exist, then go on saying that is the "greater" threat. Isn't what people like you suggested how McCarther did? This is your kinds typical "logic". Attack someone like me for believing there is a threat of a totalitarian movement out there to destroy America and the rest of Western civilization, but then go off and suggest that Israel is the "greater threat". Just typical, typical, typical.

Isn't this what people like you accuse folks like me along with people like McCarther of doing? Tell me, do you believe that Israel "controls" the United States and its foreign policy? You know that Israeli Lobby "theory"? If that's the case with someone like you with the Israelis being "linked" to the Nazis, it's just typical. Hey, guess what, the Iranian leadership stated that Hitler and his family "founded" Israel at the same time, he invited folks like David Duke who was a protege of George Lincoln Rockwell, the late neo-Nazi leader of the American Nazi Party.

This is why also people like me refer you, "steve the not-so-nice guy" as an anti-Semite or someone promoting anti-Jewish leanings.

12:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry. Really....

Now there IS the "evidence of a possibility........"

CHILL OUT MAN !

Just ponder on how lucky you are - all those free, loaded Starfighters, the nuke.......

Oh, one final thing. Well Done That Man with the spelling in your last post. Vast improvement !

8:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Mah,

You obviously missed it in your thumpimg Zionizt fervour, but the Ten to One I refer to accommodates, acknowledges, Palestinian terrorism.

It is One Palestinian Terrorist Number to Ten Zionist Terrorist Numbers. Simple fact ! So stop being "Mr Whatabout...." You're already done, definitionally.

Are you not bright ?

9:38 PM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

"steve the not-so-nice guy"

You really don't seem like the fellow who should lecture me on whether I am bright or not. From the way you "debate", you are not a very bright fellow and lack intellectual honesty during debates.

So please save yourself from further embarasment and shut the hell up with your trollish uneducated rants.

4:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That the Zionists who control the IDF are terrorists is not a disputed matter. Check history and their ongoing "Ten To One" course of conduct.

And tell me please who was into post-war terrorism of the late 40s. The Zionists of course. Quite simply, they set the standard.

The King David Hotel ? The village of Deir Yassin and numerous others ?

Stupid, self-centred hypocrite you are Mah.

7:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I do no such thing you fool. I speak about the Zionists who control the IDF in a relative sense of course, which you seem to have missed. And whichever way it's looked at we still end up with Ten To One.

Not good enough in your violent fervour, your Holocaust Nazi way, to rave about propaganda while completely ignoring simple Ten To One fact.

Even poodle Blair has been moved to remark on the "disproportionate" responses of the IDF.

7:58 AM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

"I do no such thing you fool. I speak about the Zionists who control the IDF in a relative sense of course, which you seem to have missed. And whichever way it's looked at we still end up with Ten To One."

ONce again you are an apologist to Palestinian terrorists. Thanks for proving that you promote anti-Jewish/anti-Israel/anti-Semitic propaganda. Hey, how about those terrorist insurgents in Iraq murdering innocent Iraqi students at a Baghdad university? They're "outnumbered from 10 to 1" too. Oh wait, you don't give a damn do you?

"Even poodle Blair has been moved to remark on the "disproportionate" responses of the IDF."

I bet you could care less if Israel is destroyed tomorrow by a horde of Palestinian terrorists along with being backed by that Communist movement you keep on saying doesn't exist. When they really do along with neo-Nazis who are also rooting for Israel's destruction. Your kind are quite typical.

Admit that you are anti-Semitic because it sure sounds like you are.

8:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

To your ears no doubt I am. But we are not talking reality when it comes to your ears, eyes, and precepts.

Do you think I'm not sick to my guts when I see footage of a bus bombing in Tel Aviv ? That my mind's eye doesn't give me a horrible picture of a mother, father, son, daughter, sibling, gone mad with inconsolable,
life-shattering grief ?

All I can do is empathise, as inadequate as that can only be, with those poor, poor people. Acknowledge their humanity and wish it weren't so.

And if it's a heresy too bad, but I can't help but empathise equally with people in Gaza in like suffering.

Do you ?

About six months ago I gave a ride to a young Israeli getting some OE in New Zealand. He was an IDF reservist. One day he and a mate, a fellow reservist detailed on street patrol boarded a bus. His mate made it onto the bus. He didn't. A bomb. His mate died. He was miraculously unscathed.

You know, I listened to and as a human being. And I felt so close to him, paying him the respect of listening and gently asking only. Not for a moment did I contemplate engaging vulgar "But what about....." political dialogue.

That's why I simply can't understand what seems to me to be your precept of the world as comprising (good, human) people and (evil, not even human) people.

The leaders (so-called) at every point in the political spectrum are of course frequently another matter. Power corrupts. But even with all of that people like you and me don't need to be relieved of our humanity.

6:55 PM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

"All I can do is empathise, as inadequate as that can only be, with those poor, poor people. Acknowledge their humanity and wish it weren't so."

Somehow I doubt you are acknowledging their humanity at all. How about PLO propaganda supporting that Palestinian children should become future terrorists?

"About six months ago I gave a ride to a young Israeli getting some OE in New Zealand. He was an IDF reservist. One day he and a mate, a fellow reservist detailed on street patrol boarded a bus. His mate made it onto the bus. He didn't. A bomb. His mate died. He was miraculously unscathed."

So why are you so obsessed with calling them "terrorists" and referring them to be "Nazis"? You're simply a coward and simply pathetic "steve the not-so nice guy" and uneducated troll.

"That's why I simply can't understand what seems to me to be your precept of the world as comprising (good, human) people and (evil, not even human) people."

Is that why you called President Bush a "genocidal maniac" while ignoring the brutality of the terrorist insurgency? Or how you stated that Reagan "created" Saddam Hussein while you were defending that very monster by preventing his ouster from power? And don't give me this psychological warfare of "oh, I don't believe in good vs. evil" bullshit.

"The leaders (so-called) at every point in the political spectrum are of course frequently another matter. Power corrupts. But even with all of that people like you and me don't need to be relieved of our humanity."

And yet you continue to refer elected leaders like President Bush as being "dictators" but have folks like Nancy Pelosi elected to power. If you certainly believe that President Bush is a type of a tyrant like someone like Robert Mugabe or others, then you are certainly most insane.

2:53 AM  
Blogger Trevor Loudon said...

Sorry MAH, but i have to say that Steve's last post was a very good one.

3:19 AM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

trevor,

I still don't trust the logic behind someone like "steve the not-so nice guy". He has constantly come onto this blog to just do this sort of thing. It's very pathetic I might add and there are even other bloggers that are getting quite annoyed as well.

3:40 AM  
Blogger mah29001 said...

I also just can't seem to accept folks like "steve" after being referred to as a "child" at the same time, attacked me as a "Nazi" along with equaling the IDF to "Nazis". But I'm sorry, I just can't accept an apology or anything like that because that's just me.

4:15 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Don't mean to grind it in Mah but you're coming across very bitter and unforgiving.

I don't know what else to say really. All the best.

Hey, Americans elected Pelosi, not me. And how come being elected in the US equals democracy and being elected in Venezuela equals communist tyranny ?

4:54 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home