Devendra Narayan
SUVA (Fiji Broadcasting Corporation / Pacific Media Watch): Fiji must find a way to keep the military out of politics if it wants its economy to thrive to its full potential, says the University of the South Pacific's economics professor Dr Biman Prasad.
Prasad said the involvement of the military had seen Fiji fall victim to four coups and the abrogation of two constitutions.
This he said had severely affected the growth of Fiji’s economy. Had it not been for the coups, Fiji would have been well off economically.
Professor Prasad said it was now up to political leaders to create a social cohesion that would allow for an atmosphere that is out of reach of the military.
“You cannot have a democracy where military intervenes in the process. We will have to work out how to get military out of politics because that is not the role of the military. I think the problem in this country has been that and for the last 25 years we have suffered," he said.
Prasad added this should be a lesson for the military and political leaders who needed to be inclusive, have non discriminatory policies and have room to negotiate differences.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
