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THE 2006 MILITARY TAKEOVER IN FIJI: A Coup to End All Coups? Studies in State and Society in the Pacific, No. 4. Edited by Jon Fraenkel, Stewart Firth and Brij V. Lal. Canberra, ACT: ANU E Press, 2009. 1 electronic document (xiv, 472 pp.) Free, e-Book (http://epress.anu.edu.au/coup_coup_ citation.html). ISBN 978-1-921536-5-19.
On December 5, 2006 Fiji witnessed its fourth coup d'état in less than two decades. Unlike the previous two coups of 1987 and the putsch of 2000, whose justificatory grounds were Fijian ethno-nationalism, intra-ethnic Fijian rivalries and class tensions, the military takeover of 2006 was staged in the name of good governance and envisaged as a clean-up campaign against racism, nepotism and corruption. However, the de facto politics of the Bainimarama regime which has been in power ever since challenges its earlier proclamations. The 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji brings together a number of scholars, local civil society activists, union leaders, journalists, lawyers, as well as politicians who address the multi-faceted political, social and economic developments in pre- and post-coup Fiji.
The 31 chapters of the book are organized into 9 sections. Section 1 (introduction) comprises Fraenkel and Firth's critical overview of the paradoxes and contradictions of Fiji's "good governance" coup. In the following section (the Coup), Lal maps Fiji's road to...