4. Military takeover: Thursday 14 May 1987

Speight of Violence 6

The Fiji Labour Party (FLP) was formed in 1985 with retired community health specialist Dr Timoci Bavadra as its head and hard-negotiating trade unionist Mahendra Chaudhry among its officials. He was general secretary of the Fiji Public Service Association (FPSA) and the National Farmers Union, made up of the sun-blackened canegrowers. FLP joined with the NFP in a coalition on the understanding that, given the country was not ready for an Indian leader, should they win, the premiership would go to Bavadra, who was critical of Mara. Bavadra asked, in what looked like a commoner attacking a chief some Fijians regarded as nearly a walking god, how Mara, on a prime minister's salary and the legitimate perks of a high chief, had managed to amass a personal fortune estimated at between $4 and $6 million, and how he and his wife had acquired so many business interests.

On 12 April 1987 FLP won the general elections and Bavadra became prime minister, with lands minister named as Mosese Volavola, labour to Joeli Kalou and education, youth and sports to Tupeni Baba. The Coalition won 28 seats to Mara's Alliance of 26. Of 14 cabinet positions, seven went to Fijians, including the key posts of prime minister, home affairs and Fijian affairs. An associate of Mara, Militoni Leweniqila, agreed to be speaker. Angry Alliance supporters claimed the new government was Indian-run with the Fijians as puppets.

By 1987 the Indian population made up 48.2 percent of Fiji's total number, with Fijians making up 46.4 percent. Indians dominated commercial and professional life. Fijians looked to New Zealand Maori, who had lost their lands to whites, and feared that was their fate too. With the slogan 'Fiji for the Fijians' an indigenous or Taukei movement was formed and engaged in a campaign of protest. On 24 April 1987 they held a march through Suva attracting 6000 people. There was another agenda behind a particular kind of Fiji discontent with Bavadra - the fact that he came from western Fiji and the powerful eastern Fijians were not ready for a western leader.

At the same time the Royal Fiji Military Forces’ third in command, Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, was discontented with his career and seeking out a new job. Around the grog or kava bowl with friends and allies Rabuka had shown a political interest, already hinting at the intra-Fijian power struggle to come. It was time, he claimed, for a new generation of Fijians to assume leadership in the community. Rabuka had a number of connections, including the Methodist Church, and it was in their Epworth House offices that the 1987 coup had its beginnings. The plotters involved openly admit what happened, although the love of conspiracy and rumour in Fiji always ensures that a new, previously undisclosed version still pops up - some of them from Rabuka himself, who has yet to settle on a consistent story. No one is worried about self-incrimination as Rabuka skilfully had an immunity-from-prosecution clause inserted in the constitution. Participants included Alliance secretary-general Viliame Gonelevu and Alliance candidate Jone Veisamasama. Alliance campaign manager Inoke Kubuabola, who claimed to have conceived the name of the Taukei movement, said the decision on launching a coup was taken in his office and was made before Rabuka came on the scene. He told Island Business magazine in 1998 that the key moment was on 19 April 1987.

Rabuka. Photo Michael Field