As today marks the 25th year since the May 19th coup led by George Speight, the Prime Minister at the time, Mahendra Chaudhry says Speight’s motive had less to do with indigenous rights and a lot more to do with power, greed, and access to the millions likely to accrue from Fiji’s mahogany plantation.
On this day 25 years ago, the elected government was held hostage at the barrel of the gun, the parliament complex started filling up with rebels supporting the takeover, Suva City and other areas in Fiji were looted and burnt, and innocent people were attacked just because of their race.
Chaudhry says indigenous emotions were deliberately ignited to beat up support for the treasonous actions of the terrorists.
He says the coup threw the nation into a chaos from which it has not fully recovered even to this day.
Chaudhry says using George Speight as a front-man, the real perpetrators of the coup, assisted by a group of armed rebels from the RFMF, held Chaudhry and members of his government hostage for 56 days as they plundered, looted and terrorized the Indo Fijian community in various parts of the country.
The Fiji Labour Party Leader says as with Rabuka in 1987, so with Speight in May 2000, the given reason for the treason and the mayhem that followed was to protect the rights and interests of the indigenous community.
Chaudhry says today, it is widely acknowledged that the rights of the indigenous community was not endangered in anyway either in 1987 or in 2000.
Image: Getty
He adds they were simply used to pursue certain personal and political agendas.
The FLP Leader says those who benefitted were the elite in Fijian society, not the ordinary folks.
Chaudhry says this is obvious from current statistics which show that currently the iTaukei surveyed make up 75 percent of all those living in poverty.
Image: Getty
He says poverty reports in the early 1990s showed practically a balance in the number of Fijians and Indo Fijians living in poverty.
The former Prime Minister says it is obvious that the coups have done nothing to improve the quality of life of the ordinary i-Taukei.
Instead, he says the coups have had a devastating impact on the entire socio-economic fabric of our society, putting the nation decades behind in terms of development.
Image: Getty
Chaudhry says the sorry state of our nation today – the suffering of our people and continued high rate of poverty, deteriorating health and education services, the failing infrastructure and weakened state of our economy are all indicators of how post-coup governments failed to deliver on the expectations of the people.
He says it is time for us to rise above discredited notions of racism and fundamentalism and embrace progressive, liberal thinking.
Chaudhry adds that leaders need to be judged on their vision and performance and not on their colour and creed.
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