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The solution to Fiji's coup of the month club
Another day, another Fiji coup. Our own Government has taken the right decision not to use military forces to defeat the coup - this is an internal matter for Fiji. Yet there is one glaring question that must be asked about the coup - why does Fiji have military forces at all?
With four coups in just under 20 years, the greatest military threat to Fijian democracy seems to be its own forces. Indeed the Fijian military seems to be the only threat to Fijian democracy. Fiji has no strategic military value to anybody else, and no crucial natural resources - there is no reason whatsoever that an external aggressor would take an interest in Fiji. Its location means it is not even a viable launching point for an attack on something else that might be a target of a military aggressor.
Given its location and lack of important natural resources there is no reason at all that Fiji should be maintaining military forces (leaving aside the dormant UN obligation to maintain an air force). Its maintenance of a military force merely imposes a revenue burden on Fijian government and an obvious and chronic risk of the overthrow of any constitutional system that is established.
Fiji would not be alone - 19 (or 25, depending on how you count them) other nations have no military forces at all.