Fiji Coup 036

Fiji Coup Supplement

22 June 2000

This letter to a Fijian newspaper, published 52 days before the coup, was recently sent to Te Karere Ipurangi by a Fijian correspondent. It shows that the possibility of a coup was being publicly talked about, and that the indicators were present.

Ross Nepia Himona
Editor
Te Karere Ipurangi

Letter to the Editor
The Fiji Sun p6
March 28th 2000

By Samisoni Raicakacaka of Kinoya.

Sir,

Please forgive me for speaking forbidden thoughts aloud. The recent coup in Pakistan was labelled a popular coup. We as a nation are still grappling with the fallout of Rabuka's coup. The debate goes on to who were involved in this and who had knowledge of the coup. I somehow tend to believe Rabuka.

In the meantime our motor mouth, Assistant Minister of Information Minister Vayeshnoi seems particularly incensed by the Authur McCuthan of the Fiji Times taking a lighter look at the coup in his weekly column "On the other hand."

I do not understand why Mr Vayeshnoi feels so aggrieved. After all the thought of another coup is going around in the minds of all thinking people.

Mr Vayeshnoi, one of the many FLP minnows that keeps reminding the people that they have "no mandate to speak."

To my way of thinking, every citizen of a democracy has a mandate to speak and criticise, particularly a Government that is bent not only on committing Hari Kari but also taking all the people down with it. All this talk of mandate has gotten me thinking. What mandate does this Labour government have? As far as I know only two percent of the Taukei's voted for the FLP. (Fiji Labour Party)Which means that over 50% of the population voted against them. Of the 42% Indo- Fijians, only 29% voted for Labour. 13% voted against the FLP.

This means that over 60% voted against the FLP. So what mandate does the FLP really have.

My question is that if tomorrow a coup happened and God forbid that it should, would it be called a popular coup?

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