Fiji’s ‘cause’ coup

Swimming with Sharks Chapter 10.1

Sitiveni Rabuka created myths about himself. He has authorised three books on his 1987 coups and each is different.

One night he went home and sat at the kitchen table, drawing up a plan to overthrow the newly elected, Indian dominated Labour Party Government.

Operation Kidacala, or sunrise, saw him send soldiers into the old Parliamentary debating chamber on 14 May 1987 and interrupted Education Minister Tupeni Baba. 

‘What kind of joke is this?’ Baba asked.

Rabuka, in some books, claims Kidacala was all his own work. Other times, he likes to hint at other, darker, bigger forces. The vagueness sums up Fiji; paradise for sharks.

Rabuka. Pix Michael Field