Bainimarama reinventing Fiji’s coup history
Claims to reveal name of 2000 coup instigator
Fiji has a strong custom of forgiveness - and forgetting. It is this tradition that Voreqe Bainimarama is exploiting in his latest campaign utterances ahead of December 14’s general election. Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, directed by one of the minor 2006 coup underlings, Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, reports FijiFirst leader reveals name of 2000 coup instigator.
It quotes Bainimarama as saying the former leader of the nationalist Vanua Tako Lavo Party, Iliesa Duvuloco, was the instigator of the George Speight coup in 2000 which overthrew the Fiji Labour Party Government of Mahendra Chaudhry. As well as being wrong, Bainaimarama takes an easy shot: Duvuloco died in 2017.
It's worth a quick aside; in reality Chaudhry was overthrown by Bainimarama on May 29, 2000. And Duvuloco was not a leader; just an exploited follower. Of who he was following, now there is a question. This underlines the problem with Fiji’s forgiving custom - the country is condemned to repeat its disasters because they have forgotten them.
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