Fiji Coup Supplement   2 August 2000  Strategic Marriages by
Ross Nepia Himona   Media comment on events in Fiji over the
last three months, or 13 years, have shown a distinct lack of
understanding about the structure of indigenous Fijian society.
Much comment has also tended to deride and trivialise the tribal
and chiefly system.  New Zealand's political and foreign affairs
establishment obviously grossly underestimated this structure as
the unifying force that holds Fiji together, for both Fijians
and Indians. Calls for "pure" democracy, on the Westminster
understanding of democracy, ignore the reality that systems of
governance cannot successfully be imposed from without, but must
be built upon those elements which will unite the peoples under
a central government.  Before we pass judgement about the need
for "democracy" in Fiji, we should study Fiji's traditional
society in a little detail.   In recording the Maori history of
Aotearoa New Zealand, early ethnographers tended to focus on the
history of inte