Bainimarama appeals to Fiji soldiers

Trying 2006 all over again - hoping no one remembers

Those with a memory going back 17 years might have been struck by a photo this week showing a man sitting in the visitor’s gallery at the Fiji Parliament. Bearded and looking intense, he’s wearing a powdered blue collared shirt listening to opposition leader Voreqe Bainimarama make an outlandish, potentially treasonous speech. Those who heard it will hear echoes of Bainimarama’s equally seditious rants he made in 2005 and 2006, ahead of launching Fiji’s fourth coup.

In the same parliamentary session, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka meandered back into an ethnic past too, one which suggests its time Fiji moved on from the rule of old men. More on that in a moment.

The intriguing thing about Bainimarama’s speeches, then and now, is that they are so obviously not written by him. His dreary presentation suggests that when he gives it, that is the first time he has seen the speech. Coup speeches are the product of the Sayed-Khaiyum clan (for ease of use, we call them SK Clan here on), notably older brother Aiyaz and his younger brother and devotee, Riyaz. Another generation is included, Riyaz son Aiman Sayed-Khaiyum, who was employed by Bainimarama’s government in the form of Vatis Communications as their public relations consultants. All three are spending unexpected time with their families, due to unemployment. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop (Proverbs 16:27, but you knew that).

When, in December 2006, Bainimarama was ready to assault Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, the SK Clan moved behind the scenes, conspiring to stage a coup Bainimarama was barely capable of. By chance, at a couple of key moments, up behind Government House, I was there with Riyaz. In short, he was using a vague journalistic cover (because he had become unemployable by 2006) to act for big brother as some kind of gopher on the scene. A message boy.  

All this came back to me in a single photo on Parliament of the Republic of Fiji’s Facebook page. There, on the far right at the back, was Riyaz; again unemployed and unemployable, doing his brother’s work while the SK Clan gets ready for its next move. For certain there will be something now; not least because Rabuka’s coalition government looks frail at best.

SK Clan’s Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum sneaking in the back row (far right) at Parliament. Photo Parliament of the Republic of Fiji