Issue No: 1032; 23 August 2001

Simon Swanson, the outgoing Managing Director of Colonial Fiji made the comments to an audience at the University of the South Pacific. An article on the USP's Wansolwara Online http://www.usp.ac.fj/journ/docs/news/index.html reports that Swanson called for good governance in the country. The report states:

Comparing how business relationships in the developed nations were based on law and how those in developing nations were based on mutual friendship and benefits, Swanson said the latter in time became a breeding ground for corruption.

"When the legal and governance structures of a country are weak, the only way you can build a successfully binding relationship is through friendship - effectively, instead of a legal contract you have trust," said Swanson.

"This means, and this is the implication for any developing country, that clearly those people who actually have had successful business relationships become very powerful.

"This in turn leads to a vicious cycle of cronyism and corruption, for example, the Soeharto family in Indonesia and the Marcos family in Philippines.

"This is a club that Fiji does not want to join," Swanson said.

He said Fiji's governing structure had not changed ever since it was ceded to Britain in 1874 and that structure was not the best for a modern independent country like Fiji was now.

Fiji should be looking to get off the "slippery slope" that it was on right now and undertake change as outlined in its laws, Swanson said. "If we need to change laws, it needs to be done legally through a system that is as representative as possible."