Subject: Coup
Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 12:53:05 +1200
2733 POLITICS: The coup leader with a 'fanatical streak'
Date:Mon, 22 May 2000 12:36:54 +1300
Organization: Journalism, University of the South Pacific
Title -- 2733 POLITICS: The coup leader with a 'fanatical streak'
Date -- 21 May 2000
Byline -- David Robie
Origin -- Pasifik Nius
Source -- USP Journalism Programme, 21/5/00
Copyright -- USP Journalism Programme
Status -- Unabridged
-------------------
by David Robie
USP journalism programme
SUVA: The leader of the kidnappers holding the Fiji Islands government
captive in Parliament has been branded as a terrorist by both the
Pacific country's president and the leading daily newspaper Fiji
Times.
But just four days ago he was a local timber industry businessman with
a
modest profile and reputedly an undischarged bankrupt.
Although rumours of an impending coup attempt had been rife in Fiji
for
weeks, few people took them seriously. And self-proclaimed rebel prime
minister George Speight, shaved-head with a measured voice, was not on
the list of aspiring coup-makers.
Even though he regularly played golf with Major-General Sitiveni
Rabuka,
the man who staged Fiji's first two coups in 1987 which ended with the
country becoming a republic and ostracised by the Commonwealth,
Speight's armed takeover of Parliament was a surprise to the former
military commander.
At first, Rabuka seemed an ideal mediator. He had been something of a
cult figure among young indigenous Fijians after his early exploits
and
his first biography "Rabuka: No Other Way" and he was again a
celebrity
earlier this year with the publication of his life story in the book
"Rabuka of Fiji".
He had been the dominant political figure in Fiji for more than a
decade. Ironically, he was also a key architect of the 1997
multiracial
constitution which led to his crushing defeat by Prime Minister
Mahendra
Chaudhry's Fiji Labour Party-led coalition a year ago this month.
However, after early "shuttle diplomacy" between the President, Sir
Kamisese Mara, and Speight in several attempts to resolve the hostage
crisis, Rabuka finally ran foul of the kidnappers.
Speight said he no longer trusted Rabuka.
The former coup leader was rather scathing about Speight and his
fellow
kidnappers in an exclusive interview with Fiji Television.
Rabuka scoffed at Speight's claims to have seized Parliament on behalf
of indigenous Fijians.
"I don't know why he is claiming to be acting on behalf of indigenous
rights like I did in 1987. I'm still waiting for him to say this in
Fijian," Rabuka said.
Speight, a mixed-race fourth-generation descendant of a white settler
in
Fiji, is the son of Opposition parliamentarian Savenaca Tokainavo, who
is among the hostages.
Tokainavo, a dairy farm farmer also known as Sam Speight, is
reportedly
depressed about his son's actions in seizing Parliament.
George Speight's paternal grandmother is from Naivicula village in
Wainibuka, about 10km from Korovou in Tailevu, near Suva. His mother
is
from Ra in the western sugar cane belt of the main island of Viti
Levu.
The family is popular over its local community development activities.
During last year's election, Speight stood as a proxy candidate for
his
father on a ticket for Rabuka's SVT party. Savenaca Tokainavo defeated
nationalist Iliesa Duvuloco - now the "lands minister" in Speight's
rebel government - at the polls.
"Nobody thought Speight had this sort of fanatical streak," said a
colleague who declined to be named.
Last Monday, he pleaded not guilty on exchange rate and extortion
charges in the High Court in Suva.
Rabuka said he was surprised by Speight's earlier brush with the law.
According to the Fiji Times, Speight is also an undischarged bankrupt.
"He was director George Speight of the Wattle Group, an Australian
investment company which siphoned millions of dollars from the
Australian police, Fiji citizens and life savings," alleged the
newspaper.
Speight is seen by some associates as bearing a grudge against the
Labour Party-led coalition and Prime Minister Chaudhry because he was
dumped as chief executive from the Fiji Hardwood Corporation and also
from the board of Fiji Pine Ltd. The coalition's Forests Minister,
Poseci Bune, an indigenous Fijian, sacked him when the cabinet moved
to
halt privatisation policies of the Rabuka government..
Speight is understood to have earlier basked in the patronage of
former
Finance Minister Jim Ah Koy in Rabuka's government.
He has no apologies for what is seen as an unashamedly racist and
pro-Fijian stance.
"We are not going to apologise to anybody and we are not going to step
back, and we are not going to be daunted by accusations of racism, or
one-sidedness," Speight said early in the crisis.
"At the end of the day, it is [about] the supreme rights of our
indigenous people in Fiji, the desire is that it be returned -
wholesome
and preserved for the future."
Speight says people don't need to have the "mind of an Albert
Einstein"
to understand the plight of indigenous Fijians. He believes expressed
grievances had fallen on deaf ears.
The irony is that while many indigenous Fijians distrust the
Labour-led
government's policies on land tenure for landless Indo-Fijian cane
farmers, Chaudhry has initiated many far-reaching reforms for the
benefit of all rural and urban poor Fiji Islanders and boosted
education, health and welfare.
Asked whose coup was better planned and executed, Rabuka would not be
drawn into comparisons with Speight, saying such judgements were best
left to observers.
But he adds: "We went down a similar road in 1987. It led us nowhere.
Speight should pull out of this treasonable act while there is still
time."
+++niuswire
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