Fiji military rejects study calling for smaller non-political army

Updated 19 March 2013, 18:01 AEST

A senior officer in Fiji’s military disputes the results of a recent study showing many Fijians want a smaller army with no political role.

Fiji military rejects study calling for smaller non-political army (Credit:  ABC)

Lieutenant Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga, Land Forces commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, was responding to research by the Pacific Theological College’s Institute of Research and Social Analysis.

It showed that many people want a military which is reduced in size and subservient to the elected civilian government.

The study says Fijians want the military to continue playing a part in international peacekeeping operations, and maintain its role in national development through disaster relief and building infrastructure.

Lieutenant Colonel Tikoitoga tells Bruce Hill that the RFMF does not want the be involved in politics, and is actually smaller than people think.

Presenter: Bruce Hill

Speaker: Republic of Fiji Military Forces Land Forces commander, Lt Col Mosese Tikoitoga

Keywords:Lieutenant Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga, Land Forces commander, Fiji Military Forces

TIKOITOGA: Well Bruce, look at the moment the military is running the country or is seen to be running the government but there is a civilian cabinet in place the entrenched government of the country. Apart from the fact that the Prime Minister is the Commander of RFMF, the Fijian military forces, does not as an institution is involved with the daily running of the government of Fiji, that has to be made very clear. The RFMF has gone back to the barracks.

HILL: Well this study seems to indicate that people are concerned about the army having a political role and they seem to say that in future they want the RFMF to very much promise not to get involved in politics and to be subservient to the elected government. Is that the way the army sees it in the future?

TIKOITOGA: The army in the past has always been subservient to civilian government and any democratic government in the future, the army will become subservient to the government.

HILL: But there was the takeover in 2006 and a lot of senior military officers have taken very senior roles in the civil servants since that coup?

TIKOITOGA: Yes we have. The only reason we have done so is to improve the civil service and then the civil servants of Fiji need to wake up and move away from politics and for the mere reason they were involved in politics, or the lack of their involvement the proper government of the country react to the military powers taking their post. But let me remind you that those who took up civilian posts have retired from the Fiji military forces.

HILL: One of the other key results of this study seem to indicate that people were concerned at the size of the army. I think you’ve got three battalions at the moment, six battalions on paper if all the reserves are called up. That’s quite a large army for the size of Fiji’s population. Do you think that it should remain at that size or be progressively reduced as this study seems to be suggesting people want?

TIKOITOGA: We are only three-thousand-500. People talk about our size and say that we are a large army. The perception is wrong because you can’t compare us with your battalion, because the battalion is the first infantry regiment or the first infantry battalion is deployed to Iraq, that does not constitute a full battalion. It means only there is 248 or 278 people in Iraq, that’s a whole battalion, in comparison to an Australian battalion which is over 700 people. It’s not even considered as such but because it’s deployed as such it doesn’t mean that there are a lot of people in it.

HILL: Do you think that the army and the people have mutual trust in each other or is there a certain amount of distance between them? This study seems to indicate that some people aren’t entirely sure about the role of the army?

TIKOITOGA: Look Bruce I will tell you now all the studies can be made to serve anyone’s agenda. If you want to serve the agenda of a current government in Fiji you will interview people that are pro-government. You want a study to reflect otherwise then you will go to people that you will give you those same views, or the anti-government views. If you go to the internet and read the Fiji Sun in the last couple of days of which the Prime Minister was touring the second biggest island in Fiji, which is Vanua Levu, for the six villages he went to in two different provinces, they all support the government and they all want the government to stay. They even say why should we have an election if we can have a government that looks after its people like this. But the people that are making these studies don’t go to those people and ask the questions. So they remain focussed on the people that they think can give them the answers to feed their own agendas, that’s the sad bit about these kind of interviews.

HILL: From your perspective though, what do you think the relationship between the people and the military is like at the moment?

TIKOITOGA: Bruce the Fiji military forces is the biggest project institution for all the development of Fiji. They are all over the country doing work in hospitals, we are all over the country building schools, we are all over the country rehabilitating people on the last two cyclones that we had. And everywhere we go we are treated very well, people feed us, people look after us when we are out there in the field. At no stage of our deployment has there been any disagreement with anybody that we work with, whether they be Indo-Fijians or they are the indigenous Fijians, they know where the military forces went. That is being protected by the people and we’ve had no arguments with anybody. If anything we’ve been greeted with open arms. The people of Fiji has never been served so well by any government in the past. And they’ve educated a lot of people, a lot of politicians and a lot of people. The local newspapers continue to reflect what the people want. There’s a good quotation in the Fiji Sun in the last couple of weeks that continues to say that a good newspaper is a paper talking to its own people. But that’s exactly what they’re saying. If the media are printing the people saying why should we have an election because they’re already being served by a government like we’re being served by the current government. As quickly as the government sticks, and when the government goes out and says we’ll build a road next week or we’ll build a hospital next week, they go ahead and do it. Where are all these studies coming from, it is becoming harder to think and there are these kind of studies circulating and providing a very different picture of what’s happening in Fiji. I just hope that more media people can come to Fiji and see the things for themselves before they actually make reports about Fiji.