In July 1986, The Sunday Times ran a story, based, it claimed, on a briefing from a Palace official, which alleged that the Queen was privately unhappy with the United Kingdom Government’s hostility to further economic sanctions against the apartheid regime. The story was denied but was widely perceived to be an accurate representation of the Queen’s concern for the cohesion of the Commonwealth, a perception which in itself served to strengthen the association at a time of considerable strain.
Resolute
In 1991, on the threshold of developments within South Africa which were to lead to far-reaching change (and, in a few short years, the end of apartheid), an unexplained bomb blast at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Centre in Harare, only a few weeks before Zimbabwe was to host the Commonwealth Summit, once more led to calls for the Queen to stay away from the meeting. Once again, the advice of the Commonwealth Secretary-General (this time, Chief Emeka Anyaoku) was resolute and unchanging.
As well as marking the beginning of the end of apartheid, the Harare summit had a special significance for the Commonwealth, as it strove to define its new mission once the great issue of racial justice had been satisfactorily resolved. Apart from an understandable concern for the sustainable development of its members (including tackling poverty and debt and providing education and health for its peoples), member countries launched a drive to improve the Commonwealth’s record on democracy and human rights, within a decade making one-party or military rule, and unconstitutional take-over, unacceptable in Commonwealth circles.
One such area where the Queen had become particularly involved was in 1987 in Fiji, when Lt.Col. Sitiveni Rabuka had led a coup of indigenous Fijians against the newly-elected Fijian government with a greater ethnic mix. In a personal statement, the Queen warned the Fijian people against the unconstitutionality of the declaration of a Republic and, once this had happened, kept open lines of communication with the ousted Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, after Fiji had been effectively expelled from the Commonwealth. She deplored the fact that ‘the ending of Fijian allegiance to the Crown should have been brought about without the people of Fiji being given an opportunity to express their opinion on the proposal’.
It was no surprise that when Fiji returned to constitutional rule – and to Commonwealth membership – the now President Rabuka came to Windsor before the Edinburgh CHOGM of 1997 to present privately to the Queen, the Tabua, or whale’s tooth, being the traditional atonement for the disobedience rendered to their Paramount Chief.
