The 4 coups in Fiji
WHILE the whole world is focused on the infectious deadly disease of COVID-19, we take a look back into the history of Fiji and the coups that divested our nation. May 14, 2020, will mark 33 years of Fiji’s first coup and post-coups. Events that have stained the records of Fiji’s history so rigidly and have been captured in writing — that will be read repeatedly, rewritten and never forgotten. This article succinctly examines some literatures by prolific writers recorded through their own experience, research, observation and imperative studies.
Academic, writer and now Emeritus Professor, Dr Satendra Nandan in his book 1987 Six Nights in May (USP Press, 2018), very carefully, without pulling punches at anybody testifies and captures the essence of the tragedy that befell our nation. The military coup of May 14, 1987 by Lt. Col. Sitiveni Rabuka, third ranking colonel along with soldiers from the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in gas masks hijacked and incarcerated the then elected Fiji Government of Timoci Bavadra — the Fiji Labour Party and the National Federation Party coalition government.
Professor Nandan was the Minister for Health, Social Welfare & Women’s Affairs in Bavadra Coalition Cabinet. Prof Nandan accounts every single piece of the moment from the formation of the alliance between the two parties NFP and FLP to campaign, polls and up to the win by coalition. As an insider and a hostage, he narrates the story of how defenceless people were, subjected to brutality, torture and torment, losing their innocence and trust during the coup days of 1987.
Prof Nandan finishes the book on a high note speaking about his meeting with Rabuka twenty years later.
Their conversation is recorded in the book and very slickly reveals the people, who were behind and the agendas of the coup. The second coup was again led by Lt. Col. Sitiveni Rabuka later in 1987 to establish a military council that could commission a Constitution Review Committee to review the 1970 constitution published in another book No Other Way.
May 19, 2000, a group of armed civilians led by a Suva Business man George Speight, stormed the Fiji Parliament and overthrew the Fiji Labour Party Government led by Mahendra Pal Chaudhary, who was the Prime Minster. For 56 days, Mr Chaudhary and most of his cabinet, along with many parliamentarians and their staff, were held as hostages while Speight attempted to negotiate with the President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Auckland, Dr Susanna Trnka in her book State of Suffering describes the myriad processes of how ordinary Fijians responded when their lives are irrevocably altered by terror and violence. Dr Trnka narrates very swiftly of how Fijians of Indian descent’ lives were overturned as waves of turmoil and destruction swept across Fiji at the height of these civilian coup. The Capital City (Suva) was burnt down and looted. The remote Indian community in other parts of the island targeted and subjected to other forms of physical and mental torture, robbery, rape and the distress precipitated by economic crisis and social dislocation. Her literature very valuably adds to the body of knowledge about the impact of political violence on community life and individuals.
Dr Tupeni Baba, who was the deputy Prime Minister in the Chaudhary led FLP government, with Unaisi Bobo Baba and veteran Pacific reporter Michael Field, captures the story of his 56 days of captivity. Speight of Violence offers an insiders’ view of what exactly happened inside the parliament. From the extracts of his secret dairy, he speaks of Speight’s behaviour, the conditions inside Parliament, and the beating of Mr Chaudhary, and Red Cross letters between Dr Tupeni and his partner Unaisi Nabobo-Baba reveal the distress and deprivations suffered by the hostages’ families.
The guru of Pacific and Pacific people’s researcher, historian, academic, scholar and a political observer & commentator, Emeritus Professor Brij. V. Lal has published a number of books on the pacific politicians and politics, Indian diaspora, Girmit and history.
Edited together with Professor Jon Fraenkal and Stewart Firth with other contributors captures the 2006 Bainimarama Coup. Their book The 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji – A coup to end all coups explores the factors behind and the implications of –the 2006 coup. It brings together contributions from leading scholars, local personalities, civil society activists, union leaders, journalists, lawyers, soldiers and politicians, including late prime ministers the late Laisenia Qarase and Mahendra Chaudhary. The book The 2006 Military Takeover in Fiji – A coup to end all coups is essential reading for those with an interest in the contemporary history of Fiji, politics in deeply divided societies, or in military intervention in civilian politics. This coup was totally different from the 1987 and 2000 coups — the platform of this military takeover was in the name of good governance, anti-corruption and multi-racialism.
Prequel to the 2006 coup writings, Prof Lal records the tragedies of the 2000 Speight coup. Written while the guns were still on the roads, fear among the civil public and suppressed communities, the ruins of the burnt Suva smelling from distances far beyond imagination, his book Coup – Reflections on the Political Crises in Fiji gathers together the tragic events of the 2000 coup where Fiji fell victim again.