Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has told the New York Times that his only mistake regarding the December 2006 takeover was that he should have done it earlier.
According to the New York Times report, Commodore Bainimarama said and I quote “I wish I had done this in 2001”, end quote.
Commodore Bainimarama insists that military rule was the only way to ensure an end to the political and ethnic violence that have so often destabilized the country. The report said Commodore Bainimarama describes his tenure as Prime Minister as a cooling-off period before an eventual return to democracy.
The report goes on to quote unnamed journalists and a diplomat speaking on the Public Order Amendment Decree.
Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum insists that any criticism of the new regulations that took effect earlier this year is based on either a misunderstanding or the entrenched biases of neo-colonialists.
Eventually, he said, people will see that while the new regulations contain strong law and order provisions, the government has no intention of using them unless absolutely necessary.
Sayed-Khaiyum said the proof is in the eating of the pudding.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
