Ethnicity, religion, and the issue of aboriginality in a small Island State: Why does Fiji Flounder?

Abstract

This article analyses the complex interplay of 'traditional' native and 'modern' liberal secular politics in Fiji. It underscores the strong ideological rôle of the Methodist Church in shaping an ethnic Fijian national consciousness and in influencing the state's politics and governing institutions. It describes the religious underpinnings of the taukai movement, which espouses indigenous Fijian paramountcy and which played a significant rôle in the events culminating in the coup of 2000 and in the formation of a new political party, the Conservative Alliance, which fared relatively well in the 2001 general election. The article also examines the increasingly problematic position of the country's armed forces, almost entirely ethnic Fijian in composition, as Fiji continues to grapple with deep-seated ethnic divisions between its aboriginal and Indian-origin population, and it concludes by questioning whether, given its current political fragmentation and the politicization of its military, Fiji will remain a territorially unified state.

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