Government Members of Parliament Recall 1987 Coup Experience
Government Members of Parliament yesterday recalled their personal experiences of the 1987 coup.
Education Minister Premila Kumar said the 1987 Coup destroyed and separated her family when her siblings migrated overseas because of instability and insecurity in Fiji.
She said the trauma of the 1987 Coup and the establishment of a regime that brutally oppressed Girmit descendants created generational trauma.
“Their wounded psyche and the tears shed, the families broken, the individuals brutalised in the name of race and religion or both, they will never get back the lives they built in the land that they loved and still love,” Ms Kumar said.
No amount of apologetic tokenism and self-proclamations of change by the perpetrators, she said would restore justice for the Girmitiya legacy and the lives of their descendants in Fiji.
Ms Kumar said Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama ensured the protection of all Fijians with fair and equal treatment and the only reason people had returned to Fiji is because of the stability and security provided by the FijiFirst Government.
In an emotional revelation, MP Sachida Nand said his father suffered at the hands of the 1987 Coup perpetrators five minutes away from his home.
“He was forced to do press ups on the road just because he was five minutes away from home and he had to go to the hospital because of that,” Mr Nand said.
“And in the second coup in 2000 he passed away. I have personally suffered because of the culture that this person has started.”
He said he knew of numerous other accounts of people being thrashed by the 1987 Coup perpetrators and likened it to the suffering that Girmitiyas faced.
Government Whip Alvick Maharaj said the recognition that the FijiFirst Government gave to Girmityas should have been done 50 years ago, adding that FijiFirst is a movement.
“The foundation was laid in 2006, the FijiFirst movement is here to stay and will continue to recognise the Girmityas and their contribution.”