Speight and Fiji’s lucrative mahogany plantations

Speight of Violence 10

A fierce press war against the government broke out, not helped by Chaudhry's arrogant behaviour. One headlined incident was the way Chaudhry went around standard public service procedures and hired his son Rajendra as personal secretary.

It looked like nepotism. Renovations to his somewhat modest house caused a flurry in the media which, as the year went on, grew quite hysterically hostile against Chaudhry. The Rupert Murdoch-owned Fiji Times decided, almost by default and as a result of one particular reporter, that they were going to get rid of Chaudhry. Reporter Margaret Wise tore into Chaudhry with many an unsourced story which the paper had no qualms about publishing.

What was known to the newspaper, but not shared with readers and now a matter of court record, was that she was also Rabuka's lover and had a child by him. In a bigger place none of this might matter, but in December 1999 Wise and the Fiji Times gleefully made an issue over Chaudhry transferring his tea lady, Torika Uluiviti, out of his office after she was said to have seen something that she was not meant to see. The incident involved Chaudhry and freelance journalist Asha Lakhan. The two had a longstanding close relationship. In small-town Suva this incident created a high moral tone. The whole thing stank of a set-up job. Where else in the world could a tea lady afford to take out a full page advertisement in the major daily newspaper to recount her version of what she thought she saw?

On becoming prime minister, Chaudhry speaks at a press conference. Watching on was broadcaster Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. Six years later he and his brother Aiyaz were players in Voreqe Bainimarama’s coup. Photo Michael Field