The concept of racial supremacy for ethnic Hawaiians in an independent Hawaii closely resembles the reality of racial supremacy for ethnic Fijians written into the laws of Fiji. The Fijian racial supremacy laws were defended by several military coups during the past 20 years. These were violent overthrows of democratically elected governments where Asians had acquired powerful leadership positions and were threatening to change the laws to provide greater equality. For example, the new constitution imposed in 1990 following the racial supremacy military coup of 1887 specified that Asian Indians could have only 27 seats in the 71 member parliament (substantially less than their 45% of the population would warrant), and that Asians could vote only for candidates for the Asian seats but not for candidates for the Native Fijian seats. (A similar racial restriction existed in Hawaii until the Rice v. Cayetano decision of 2000 -- voters were asked to identify their race when getting their ballots on election day, and people with no native ancestry were refused the right to vote for candidates in the general elections for seats on a state government agency that controls a portion of state government revenues and expenditures and has special power over some government lands).