Winston Halapua

The Role of Militarism in the Politics of Fiji Winston Halapua

The author of this book analyses the complexity of militarism in Fiji with special focus on the manifestation of militarism in the coups of 1987. Militarism, the major defining concept of this thesis, is closely identified in Fiji with a fraction of the ethnic Fijian (used interchangeably in this book with Fijian or indigenous Fijian) middle class and their alliances within the Fijian chiefly aristocracy and elements of the capitalist class. Militarism is multidimensional, presenting different manifestations in various circumstances depending on national traditions, religious beliefs, class structures, social conditions and economic strength. Militarism, in this book, embraces in its meaning the intervention of the army through a coup or a plot between the ruling class and its alliances in the army to overthrow a civilian government in order to control directly or indirectly the decision-making process of the governing of a nation. The author argues that it is the contention of this book that in Fiji the complexity of militarism has been compounded by the manipulation of the Fijian culture by the instigators of the military coups and the supporters of the coups.