GEORGE Speight is not safe. In fact, his stony reluctance to
end the 14-day hostage siege, despite almost all his
extraordinary demands being met, could have more to do
with securing his future safety than his political destiny.
For the past two weeks, a stern, scruffy and heavily armed
commando group has shadowed Speight, the wanna- be
Fijian prime minister, even within his secure compound,
which apparently houses, at least voluntarily, only the
friendly.
Until yesterday, Speight had only briefly left the
parliamentary compound, in which he has become
entrenched, for the odd stroll ? guards and human shields
in tow ? down the road, or on secret night drives around
Suva.
Yesterday, he ventured deep into enemy territory at Fiji's
military headquarters. He probably felt reasonably safe
there too ? he said he did, although his statements have
never meant much, since they can change by the hour.
Speight, always wearing his meticulously pressed
polyester-blend business shirts, sulu skirt and clean
sandals, when not barefooted, has rarely looked flustered and certainly never
given the impression he
felt in danger during the siege.
But the coup leader may need to organise a permanent human shield once the
hostages are released,
as the forces opposed to his decision to hold the nation at gunpoint are building.
He may be paranoid,
but just because he's paranoid does not mean that someone's not out to get him.
In Speight's hastily planned raid on parliament, the former insurance salesman
forgot one important
plan ? the exit clause. Perhaps his self-confidence, or enormous ego, never
allowed him to think it
would end any way other than perfectly for him.
And perhaps being locked in among supporters has blinded him to the reality
that outside the
parliamentary complex he is not a popular man. He is despised in the western
provinces of Fiji's main
island and outside his own confederacy he is a marked man.
Speight may win amnesty for his crimes against democracy, but he will never
be free.
The death of a policeman from Ba, in the west, at the hands of Speight's henchmen,
and the
humiliation of the greatly respected Ratu Kamisese Mara at the hands of a commoner
do not augur well
for him.
Outside the safety walls he has built around him, sources told The Australian
yesterday that whatever
the outcome of the Fijian crisis, Speight will be targeted. The Chaudhry Government,
the constitution
and democracy have not survived the coup, but many believe Speight won't outlive
them by much
either.
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