Fiji is now paying the terrible price for abandoning the principles of democracy and the rule of law after the coup by George Speight in May. When Speight took the Prime Minister and other parliamentarians hostage in May, the military failed to do its job. That job was to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law. If at the time it felt it could not have arrested Speight and his gang and restored the elected Government without undue bloodshed then in the short term it could have negotiated to put an end to the immediate crisis. But after that, the army should have insisted on a return to democratic government. Instead, it conspired with the Council of Chiefs to fulfill one of Speight’s key aims: the overthrow of the elected Government purely on the grounds that it was led by an ethnic Indian. Speight himself was taken into custody, but the upshot of the military’s failure after the May has been that Speight was made into a hero and martyr. It gave succour to his followers which in turn led to this week’s bloody attempt to replace the commander of the Fijian military, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, with Colonel Filipo Tarakinikini, the man who took the soft approach on Speight after the coup attempt. The rebels attempted to seize control of the army at Queen Elizabeth Barracks in Suva. Three loyal soldiers are dead and 14 in hospital. Five rebels are dead and four were in hospital. Twelve rebels have been captured and about 16 remained on the run. The toll goes beyond the injuries and deaths. Inevitably, the incident will be a major setback to economic recovery and the restoration of democracy. That in turn will result in greater suffering, particularly among the poor in Fiji.
The lesson after the coup should have been that violence is not rewarded. The military should have restored the government of Mahendra Chaudhry when it gained control on July 13. It has Speight in custody, where he fortunately remains after the failure of this week’s attack. Alas, the lesson after the coup was that violence is rewarded. So Speight’s supporters thought they could have another crack at it.
Surely, the lesson now must be for the military Government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is to ensure the rebels of this week’s attack are brought to justice and that the treason trial of Speight and his 13 followers who have been held in custody since July goes ahead. And they should move quickly to restore full democracy, not some apartheid system that relates the franchise to ethnicity. If Speight can be charged with treason, how can this Government, which he in effect brought to power through his coup, be legitimate? If Mr Qarase cannot see it, the military must. Last week’s Kiribati declaration on dealing with errant should help as is showed the extent to which Fiji was isolated among Pacific nations.
Those forces in Fiji which colluded with Speight’s aims and seized the opportunity of the coup to rid themselves of an Indian-led Government should now see the error of their ways. They have created such turmoil that they could not have been any worse off under the Chaudhry Government. They would have been far better off working to defeat Mr Chaudhry at the ballot box if they thought his government so bad for Fiji, rather than opportunistically seizing upon Speight’s actions. The likelihood was that they would have succeeded, given Mr Chaudhry’s electoral success at the previous election was achieved through a confluence of electoral circumstances unlikely to be repeated.
The only way now for Fiji is to ensure punishment of rebels and a restoration of the rule of law and democracy.