My Govt Wasn’t Dysfunctional

My government was not dysfunctional and everything was running smoothly leading up to the events of December 5th, 2006.

Those were the words of Ousted Laisenia Qarase while being cross examined by the lawyer for Commodore Frank Bainimarama and others, Queens Counsel Gerard McCoy.

McCoy asked Qarase whether he had seen a document prepared by the Home Affairs Ministry officials on November 28th, 2006 for the Pacific Forum Foreign Ministers meeting in Sydney on December 1st.

Qarase's reply was and I quote "I should have seen the documents. But things were very fluid at the time and everything was moving very quickly. It is possible I may have not seen all the documents. I was also moving around" end of quote.

McCoy then questioned Qarase what could have been more important to a Prime Minister of a country than the security of the nation.

He then presented the document to Qarase and the Ousted Prime Minister said that he had seen the Home Affairs Ministry paper. However Qarase said he cannot remember when he saw the document. He then said he may have seen the document on December 1st or a day after. McCoy then told Qarase that if the evidence is true, this means that his government was dysfunctional as Qarase did not know from the start what was prepared by the Home Affairs Ministry document for the meeting in Sydney. The document was titled Security Situation in Fiji and McCoy highlighted from the paper a section which said "Fiji is now in a position that it needs to consider foreign intervention".

McCoy then said to Qarase that his government was actively inviting military intervention into Fiji by foreign powers based on the paper prepared for the Foreign Ministers meeting in Sydney just days before the events of December 5th.

Qarase maintained that there was never an invitation of foreign intervention by his government.

He repeatedly stated that he only enquired about military assistance from Australia and NZ, not military intervention.