'The Cause'; Fiji's third coup
Speight of Violence 2
Foreword
There are certain events in our lives that are etched in our consciousness. They affect forever how we think, how we feel and how we see the world. Until these events leave our memory, they continue to grate and fester and, like a young life in an embryo, they seek full expression through their own existence in the world. But like all births, these events or stories have their own timing and also require an appropriate environment for their full appreciation.
The three authors have had their lives affected by Fiji's 2000 coup. They have carried that experience in their consciousness while longing and waiting for an opportunity to share it with others. This book provides that opportunity and it is by coincidence that we were able to come together through a meeting with a Reed Publishing representative.
This book will be launched on the fifth anniversary of the Fiji 2000 coup, by which time many of the characters indicted will have been charged and convicted and many others will have been clearly identified and awaiting trial. But the 2000 coup is not only about these people who planned and carried it out; it is also about all those who were unfortunately the victims, like the parliamentarians and their immediate families, those who lost their work and businesses, not to mention the ordinary people whose dreams and faith in Fiji have been shaken and in many cases shattered. Many of these people have since left the country, along with thousands who have migrated abroad since the first coup of 1987.
The book also shows that a story of such an important event in a small country like Fiji inevitably features all the important institutions and offices of the land: the office of the president, the judiciary, the Parliament, the police, the military, the Great Council of Chiefs, the churches and other civil society organisations.
Perceptions of groups, communities and individuals inevitably shape how they relate to other groups in a plural society. Fijian perceptions of their interests were drawn upon to galvanise indigenous Fijians and institutions like the Great Council of Chiefs to support 'The Cause'. All three coups in Fiji have been justified on the basis of 'Fijian interest'.
The 2000 coup has also shown that beneath the guise of pushing for Fijian interest is the real interest of those who stand to lose thousands of dollars, and in some cases millions, in unpaid tax and bad debts owed to the former National Bank of Fiji and the Fiji Development Bank. There are also those who lost power and positions through the defeat of the Sitiveni Rabuka's government in the 1999 elections. Many of those who would lose their privileges in the change of government combined and formed formidable opposition to the new government.
It is to be noted that the wheels of justice turn very slowly in Fiji, that many of those who were involved in the 2000 coup have only just been charged and convicted and many more are still awaiting trial even as we prepare to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the coup. This reflects, on one hand, the tardiness of institutions concerned with law and order and justice, and on the other, the inability of the Government by virtue of its coalition with the party of George Speight, the Conservative Alliance/Matanitu Vanua, to push for the speedy resolution of such cases. This suggests that institutions of democracy do not operate in a vacuum; in a small, ethnically and culturally diverse country like Fiji, they are not immune from pressure from the Government, even when they assert their independence from it openly and publicly.
No coup, whether in Fiji or elsewhere, can avoid the involvement of the media, especially the international media. The media, both local and international, plays a major role not only in our understanding ofwhat goes on but also, increasingly, in the nature and direction of the coup itself. In this respect, the book benefits from the perspective of Michael Field, an experienced journalist and writer who has lived and worked in the Pacific for more than 30 years, and has strong family connections there. He provides the book's background narrative.
Unaisi Nabobo-Baba, a Fijian academic at the University of the South Pacific (USP), brings another perspective to the book with her keen interest in aspects of Fijian nationalism, Fijian culture and development, knowledge and tradition. Unaisi is my wife, and during the 2000 ordeal she was heavily pregnant with our youngest, our son Tupeni Junior. She was involved, with other spouses and partners, with organisations like the Red Cross and the military in supporting their spouses and partners in Parliament.
The third voice is mine. I have the unfortunate opportunity of having been involved in all the coups. I was in Parliament in 1 987 and was taken prisoner for seven days, and again in 2000 when we were incarcerated for 56 days. In the latter I was deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs and external trade and, worse, I was on my feet addressing the House of Representatives when George Speight and his armed thugs took over Parliament.
This book is a vehicle for the expression of the three perspectives in the belief that a complex event like a coup in a small but ethnically and culturally diverse country cannot be fully understood from only one or two perspectives, even if they are from the inside. We have tried therefore to provide various inside perspectives in the hope of creating greater under-standing for all our readers. If we succeed, even in part, our hopes of sharing our experiences, which have been etched in our consciousness for some five years now, will have been fulfilled.
We feel there is also the need for other insiders, especially those who live in Fiji, to tell their own stories on the coups and other aspects of life in Fiji. These perspectives must be heard if genuine reconciliation is to begin. Here the words of Maxine Greene come to mind: 'It may be that education can only take place when we can be friends of one another's minds. Surely, there will be much to discover if we put our stories next to the stories in this book . . . ' (Stories Lives Tell).
Dr Tupeni Baba
Auckland 2005