I heard one
smart alec radio reporter use this phrase to describe the political instability that was afflicting
Fiji in
2000.
In
slightly more detail; there are a significant number of ethnic
Indians living in Fiji, mostly tracing their heritage back to "
coolie" labourers brought in by the
English. For an
ethnic minority, the
Fijian Indians have quite a bit of political and financial influence (not unlike the ethnic
Chinese in
Indonesia) and they are well represented in government. However, the military almost entirely consists of ethnic Fijians; which is what lead to
George Speight's coup in 2000.
The intention of the reporter was to suggest that if the
ethnic Indians weren't a minority, and the Fijian
Chieftains were a little more
tolerant, the coup might have been avoided.