Postscript : Trouble in Paradise: Behind Fiji’s Facade, Turmoil Brews : It’s been four years since two coups shook the Pacific nation, but tensions persist and could grow as spring elections near. The problem revolves around race.

If you missed the first military coup that rocked this South Pacific nation back in May, 1987, don’t worry. It’s out on videotape.

In it, the mercurial army chief Sitiveni Rabuka, playing himself, tells his wife and son over breakfast that he’s on a mission from God to overthrow the newly elected government. Unhappy with the results, he launched a second bloodless coup four months later.

No videotape was made of Rabuka’s latest intrigue, however. Last June, a week after branding the civilian government ultimately installed in 1987 incompetent and demanding that it resign , the charismatic army commander demanded a meeting with President Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau.

“He was going to take over, that was the plan,” said a Western diplomat. “He had a Cabinet list, contingency plans, the works. He was all ready to go.”

But Ganilau, who is Rabuka’s traditional chief, refused to meet the army chief and issued an angry letter denouncing him. Chastened, Rabuka--a commoner--publicly apologized several days later for insulting the president, and presented him with a ceremonial sperm whale’s tooth.

Having lost face with his officers, Rabuka then quit the army and joined the Cabinet he had just tried to depose. The president’s son and prime minister’s son-in-law took over the military. An expected national sugar workers strike was suddenly canceled. The crisis, it seemed, had passed.

“It was real 11th-hour stuff,” said the diplomat. “Very exciting for us.”

So goes life in the languid lane.

Four years after Fiji’s two coups, political turmoil and ethnic tension still plague this otherwise idyllic archipelago of 322 islands and 740,000 people. Although Fiji is the cultural and commercial hub of the South Pacific, its once-vibrant economy has barely recovered to pre-coup levels.

“Fiji is very unstable, very divided,” said Tupeni Baba, an opposition leader and Cabinet minister in the deposed government who now teaches at the University of the South Pacific. “The government is very authoritarian. We’re not really talking about a free country at all.”

That’s a harsh view. Fiji is no police state. There are no political prisoners, no torture cells, no systematic assault on civil liberties. Mostly there are gentle breezes and waving palms, turquoise waters under lush mountains, and remarkably friendly people. Tourists, charmed by the natural wonders, rarely see any rancor.

But the tensions are real. And they may get worse as Fiji prepares for the first post-coup elections, tentatively scheduled for next May.

Ironically, in a country once hailed as an example of ethnic harmony, the problem revolves around race.

Nearly half of Fiji’s population are ethnic Indians, mostly descendants of sugar cane workers imported as indentured laborers from India by the British colonial government a century ago.

Over the years, hard-working Indians began to dominate commerce, finance, the public service and the professions. Predominantly Methodist native Fijians, many descended from cannibals (a missionary was killed and eaten as late as 1867), controlled the land by law and the military. There was little intermarriage, or even social interaction, between the two groups.

But there was also little friction. After it gained independence from Britain in 1970, Fiji was hailed as a model of parliamentary democracy and racial harmony in the Third World. It was, said Pope John Paul II, “a symbol of hope in the world.”

All that collapsed in May, 1987. At the time, ethnic Indians still were a majority of Fiji’s population--a situation that had prevailed for years. But it wasn’t until that spring four years ago that a leftist coalition government dominated by ethnic Indians won power for the first time in free elections. The defeat was the final straw for Rabuka and his anti-Indian, nationalist followers.

Indians were “an immigrant race” that wanted “complete control of Fiji,” he explained later in his biography, “No Other Way.” A coup was essential “for the survival of the Fijian race. As simple as that.”

So Rabuka led masked commandos into Parliament and marched the new prime minister and most of his government off at gunpoint. It was the first modern military coup in the South Pacific and Rabuka, now 42, made no apologies about its inspiration.

“It is racist in the sense that it was in favor of one race,” he told Television New Zealand in June. “ . . . It was in favor of one race and it destroyed the very essence of democracy.”

It also initially devastated Fiji’s economy. Tourism remains in a slump today and there is little construction, but other sectors have mostly recovered. The economy is growing this year at a rate of about 3%.

The real damage comes from the departure of an estimated 30,000 Indians who fled the country. Many were highly educated--the kind of people Fiji could least afford to lose.

“The brain drain’s been very severe,” said Robert Keith-Reid, publisher of Suva-based Islands Business Pacific magazine. “We lost every computer programmer in the country. More than half the lawyers. More than half the doctors and dentists. More than half the accountants. Technicians, electricians, pilots, you name it.”

Anti-Indian violence, including the firebombing of five Indian temples in 1989, and the sudden expulsion of the Indian Embassy staff last year, exacerbated the exodus. The result: Before the coup, about 49% of the population was Indian, and 46% Fijian. Now that has been reversed and the gap is growing.

“In Fiji I am an Indian; anywhere else I am a Fijian,” said Ashwin Singh, a 28-year-old businessman whose Indian family has been in Fiji for five generations. His parents emigrated to Australia, and he hopes to follow. “What is our future here?”

It’s probably not in politics. A constitution imposed by decree in July, 1990, gives a majority of seats in Parliament to ethnic Fijians, and restricts voting along communal lines. It has been criticized in the United Nations, Washington and other capitals as inherently discriminatory.

“The people responsible for the coup have set in place a discriminatory and unfair constitution that guarantees they stay in power a long, long time,” said Baba, the former minister.

Organized opposition was muted, however, after seven demonstrators and three journalists were arrested. In the worst case, an ethnic Indian professor who organized a protest last October was abducted and beaten. Five soldiers later pleaded guilty; they were given suspended jail sentences and fined a total of $1,000.

The government also created an intelligence service “with wide-ranging powers to search people and property, tap telephones, and open mail,” according to the annual human rights report by the U.S. Embassy. It’s unclear how often such powers are used, the report said.

For now, the political opposition is split and largely ineffective. Thirteen parties have been formed--some to contest, others to boycott, next year’s election. Some are even attacking the feudal role of traditional chiefs.

“It would now appear Fijiian society is becoming very, very fragmented,” said Keith-Reid.

Kamisese Mara, a regional statesman who has served as Fiji’s prime minister since independence, has said he will step down before the election. And Rabuka, who started it all, says he may run for prime minister.

“Anything can happen,” said the diplomat with a laugh. “This is the land of the surprise anti-climax.”

The Republic of Fiji

Population: 772,000 (1990 est. World Almanac)

Capital city: Suva

Geography: Fiji is 1,200 miles south of the Equator between New Caledonia and Western Samoa in the Pacific Ocean. The country is made up of 322 islands of which 106 are inhabited. The largest island, Viti Levu, makes up more than half of the 7,056-square-mile land area, roughly the size of New Jersey, and is home to more than 70% of the country’s population.

Ethnic makeup: Fijian (Melanesian-Polynesian) 48.4%, Indian 46.4%, European 2% (1989).Languages spoken: English (the official language), Fijian, Hindustani.

Religions: Christian 52%, Hindu 38%, Muslim 8%.

Major Industries: Sugar refining, light industry and tourism.

Main Resources: Sugar, bananas, ginger, gold, timber, fish.

Life Expectancy: 68 male, 72.4 female (1987).

History: A British colony since 1874, Fiji became an independent parliamentary democracy on Oct. 10, 1970.

Tensions between the majority Indian community, descendants of laborers brought to the islands in the 19th Century, and the native Fijians, who by law own 83% of the land in communal villages, have led to political polarization.

In 1987, a military coup ousted the elected government which for the first time contained a majority of ministers of Indian descent. Order was restored quickly but a second coup was launched Sept. 25 of that year and in October, Fiji was declared an independent republic. A civilian government was restored to power and a new constitution, guaranteeing native Fijians majority representation in the legislative bodies and the selection of the president by the native council of chiefs, was enacted.

SOURCES: The 1991 World Almanac; The Europa Year Book, 1991; Political Handbook of the World, 1990.