After the coups of 1987 and 2000, there was a mass exodus from Fiji of tens of thousands of our best and brightest people..This exodus was a national tragedy that robbed Fiji of the opportunity to develop itself years ago into the nation that it is only now starting to become – unified, proud, with a keen sense of purpose and punching above its weight in our region and the world. Frank Bainimarama to Tilak High School students Picture VICTOR LAL, the author of the above book, was among the thousands of Indo-Fijians who was driven out of Fiji after the 1987 coups by the racist and violent actions of Fijifirst party candidate and present Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola; ironically, the Bainimarama/Khaiyum regime also declared Lal persona non grata from the country of his birth after he exposed, in 2008, Bainimaramas then Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhrys secret $2million in Sydney bank account. 24 August 2000: Kubuabola attacks Victor Lal after joining post George Speight coup as Minister for Information in the interim Qarase led government: “Victor Lal’s articles [in Fijis Daily Post] all have a simple, indeed simplistic stance, restore Chaudhry and impose democracy as defined by Lal and his friends. What he is advocating is an Indian supremacist doctrine, a new version of Hitlerian herrenvolk for Fiji. The racism lies in his desires, not those of us Fijians. His obsession to control Fiji, blinds him to his own ambitions.” Kubuabola was responding to the London based Movement for Democracy in Fiji which had intensified its fight for deposed Chaudhry’s political rights. The then Commodore Frank Bainimarama had claimed in his February 2001 affidavit before the Fiji Court of Appeal that he had abrogated the 1997 Constitution because he was satisfied that people engaged in the events of May 19 [2000 Speight coup] were of the perception that the document had watered down the interests of indigenous Fijians: “Whether or not those perceptions accorded with reality was not my principal consideration. The perceptions were genuinely held by largely unsophisticated Fijians not equipped to adequately comprehend the niceties and technicalities of the Constitution.” Picture Picture Excerpt from Victor Lal: Fiji: Coups in Paradise - Race, Politics and Military Intervention: Ratu Inoke Kubuabola told Islands Business magazine of May 1988 that for more than six hours on April 19 he and Rabuka, later joined by Jone Veisamasama, talked about different options. It was on 19 April that the groundwork for the coup was laid and according to Kubuabola, 11 May was the day his co-conspirators decided to proceed with its execution. He also claims that when it was learnt that Parliament would not sit on Friday they had agreed to bring forward the coup to Thursday. Another crucial intermediary between the Taukei Movement and the military, the Rev Tomasi Raikivi, provided his house in Suva as a centre for overall planning. Thus it was there that Rabuka met the other conspirators on Easter Monday, nine days after the defeat of the Alliance Party. We will let Rabuka explain the rest, as he did to Eddie Dean and Stan Ritova in his infamous autobiography No Other Way. He went to Rev Raikivis for, … What he understood was an ordinary grog party. It was early evening, and he just walked in, as he normally would, throwing his sevusevu of yagona towards the bowl where the grog was being mixed. I saw all these people sitting down, and realised it was some kind of a meeting. Some of the people greeted me, although I could not see everyone clearly because it was fairly dark in the lounge-room. Nobody asked me to leave. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he discovered the gathering was quite a formidable group. He says it included Ratu Finau Mara, Ratu George Kadavulevu, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, Ratu Keni Viuyasawa, the brother of Brigadier Epeli Nailatikau, Filipe Bole, Ratu Jo Ritova of Labasa, Ratu Jale Ratum, Big Dan Veitata, and the host Raikivi. Another leading light at this meeting was Apisai Tora.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 15:06:47 +0000
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