Shalendra Sharma SINCE the coup that toppled the civilian government of Timoci Bavadra on May 14, 1987, the small island nation of Fiji has been struggling to extricate itself from profound political and economic crises that have dramatically shaken the confidence and threatens the future of this once "paradise of the South Pacific''. For a nation, whose official slogan just months ago used to be "Fiji, the way the world should be", the failure at democratic government just 17 years after independence has been a rude awakening to the realpolitik of the modern world. The military interregnum has been a time of searching self-examination and agonising adjustment. Perhaps, for the first time in her history the country is coming to terms with the "politics of race" that has for long defined her polity and today has left her peoples deeply divided.
