 |   |
WESTERN VOICE IN FIJI POLITICS:
* We had been hoping that a political party from the Western Division of Fiji will be formed in the memory of the late Dr Timoci Bavadra who was deposed by a group of Northern, Eastern and Central i-Taukei Fijians, led by Sitiveni Rabuka and his military men from his Drekeniwai village in
the Cakaudrove Province.
* Now, he is touting a coalition government with the NFP, to be led by two Northern born political leaders, hoodwinking i-taukei Fijian voters in the western division to VOTE for HIM.
* Which self-respecting i-Taukei Fijian from the West will sink so low and dishonour the memory of their kai vata who was deposed in 1987?
* The concerted effort to remove VILIAME GAVOKA as SODELPA leader has nothing to do with the fact that he is Aiyaz Khaiyum's Father-in-Law.
It had, and has, to do with the fact that he is from Sigatoka.
* We are contantly told NOT to endorse SAVENACA NARUBE, the leader of the UNITY Fiji Party because he doesn't have support outside the western division.
* In 1963, the firebrand late APISAI TORA (Western Democratic Party), who then unsuccessfully contested the western Fijian seat in the Legislative Council against his opponent and paramount chief RATU SIR PENAIA GANILAU, had charged that the easterners ignored the western people, telling his political followers in the western township of Ba:
'You have been ruled by leaders from other areas who treated you with calculated contempt. Your division is the most important because from it comes the economic lifeblood of the colony. You deserve to be treated as first-class citizens. You must confess that deep inside you there was a longing to see the day when your kinsman in western Fiji, would rise to become leaders in their own domain and perhaps the whole [of Fiji].'
* In 1987, when that hoped for leader in DR TIMOCI BAVADRA arose to become Prime Minister, an obscure third-ranking colonel and lawaki da, by the name of SITIVENI RABUKA, executed his Operation Kidacala, and ended Dr Bavadra's 33 days in political office. We never again saw an i-Taukei, Other (another definition we need to get rid off) or an
Indo-Fijian from the western division govern Fiji.
Worst, Rabuka even rejoiced in the death of Dr Bavadra who died of cancer, telling his official biographer:
 |  |
 1987: "The security adviser, coup leader Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, accused Mr [Richard] Naidu, who had stopped his car to watch the lovo, of provoking the attack on him as he knew he was unpopular with the i-Taukei." |   |
JONE DAKUVULA'S PREDICTION AND RATU MELI VESIKULA'S DEFECTION TO DR TIMOCI BAVADRA
After Sitiveni Rabuka's two coups, Dakuvula wrote: 'Fijian political unity is an illusion, a chimera that can never be achieved, let alone forced upon the people. What the Taukei Movement and the Great Council of Chiefs proposal will achieve is the exact opposite of what they desire: it will result in provincialism, parochialism, unhealthy rivalries, patronage, corruption and the discrediting of the chiefly system.'
One of the most dramatic developments had been
* RATU MELI VESIKULA's defection into the Bavadra camp. Vesikula, who, through long hours of prayer, came to realize the un-Christian nature inherent in the two coups and the 1990 Draft Constitution, now agreed that its proposals would sow the seeds of violence, and was convinced there can be no racial peace except under a genuine non-racial meritocracy.
* Perhaps more important and surprising was Vesikula's belated admission of Ratu Mara's alleged role in the first coup; in a signed affidavit to the Queen he alleged that Ratu Mara was involved in the planning and execution of Rabuka's first coup in May 1987.
* Vesikula's departure had also split the Taukei Movement, whose president, Adi Litia Cakobau, daughter of the paramount Chief of Fiji, Ratu George Cakobau, formally denounced Vesikula for attempting to subvert the chiefs' wishes.
* In January 1988, however, three members of the splinter movement unsuccessfully attempted to kidnap Ganilau and replace him as President with Adi Litia's father, Ratu George Cakobau. The potential tribal and clan power struggle came to a head when the ageing Cakobau declared that he, and NOT the Queen, as claimed by Ratu Mara (sent by Rabuka to London), held the title
'Tui Viti', and that he had no plans to abdicate.
* In retaliation, and amid charges of corruption and tribalism, Cakobau's son was unceremoniously suspended as Assistant Roko Tui by the Taukei-infiltrated Fijian Affairs Board: the Fijian tribe had finally split, brawling publicly.
* These sad intra-tribal rivalries had also opened a fundamental debate among the Fijians: who is a Fijian? All Fijians know, from their primary school history books, that the first Fijians to arrive in the country were led by the Chief Lutunasobasoba, who landed with his people from Tanganyika (modern day Tanzania) on the west coast of Viti Levu, at Vuda, the home village of Bavadra. * Chillingly, when Rabuka handed power back to Ratu Penaia as President, and Ratu Mara as Prime Minister respectively, Vesikula, himself an ex-British Army major and a chief, remarked the possibility of another military coup:
"Now that power has been given to the Tovata group, what is there to stop chiefs from other areas to go to the military camp and order their people to lay down their arms and join them?"
Source: Victor Lal, Fiji: Coups in Paradise - Race, Politics and Military Intervention, 1990.
Fijileaks: Ratu Meli Vesikula bravely provided written evidence on behalf of our Founding Editor-in-Chief accused of conspiracy to export arms and planning an armed invasion of treasonist coupist Rabuka's Fiji. Although Vesikula had warned of another military coup, he was NEVER part of any plot in the shipment of several tons of weapons via air, cargo ships, and tourist yachts, to protect Fijians of all races, against Rabuka and even to wage a counter-coup to overthrow Rabuka. For over 80 per cent of i-taukei Fijians from the western division in the Fiji military, and those serving in the Middle East, had voted for the Bavadra government. In any case, the British courts had ruled that the arms shipment was of a political nature and if any person who should be charged with
TREASON was the COUPIST SITIVENI RABUKA. It was like a FOX asking that
a HEN be brought into its den for feasting. Moreover, Indo-Fijian politicians
didn't want i-Taukei Fijian colleagues, including Dr Baba, to know. Sadly, the betrayal was perpetrated by HINDU Indo-Fijians for a feastful of dollars.
