Author: Mahendra Ved
Publication: The Times
of India
Date: August 22, 2000.
Deposed Fijian Prime
Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has charged that his predecessor Sitiveni Rabuka
had planned the May coup against his government, to become the country's
president, but George Speight, who was party to the conspiracy, upstaged
the plotters by acting three days too soon.
Far from being the result
of an ethnic divide, the coup was triggered by his government's decision
to award contracts for harvesting forests and processing of timber.
The US embassy in Suva, he alleged, was "pushy" about an American firm
getting the timber contract. "I think big bucks were involved," he
told The Times of India.
As for the May 19 coup
when he and his cabinet minister were captured in the parliamentary complex,
Chaudhry said: "The action was planned for May 22. But Speight beat
them to it by three days. And having scented power, Speight wanted
to remain in the driving seat, to become the prime minister himself or
nominate one of his men."
"Speight is a fall guy,
used by those defeated in last year's election. Rabuka very much
played a behind-the- scene role, Speight and his accomplices told me while
I was their hostage. I had heard Speight asking on the telephone
about Rabuka. Lingeri, Speight's principal aide, told me the plan
was that Rabuka would take over in the name of the Great Council of Chiefs,"
he said.
"Rabuka had met me a
little before Speight acted. His plans failed because of Speight.
Speight himself could not take matters to their logical conclusion.
So the crisis lingered on," Chaudhry said.
He added that his government
had favoured Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), a British government-owned
firm with a good track record in Africa. But Speight, during the
Rabuka Government, had favoured Timber Resource Management (TRM), a US
firm put together to bid for the right to exploit Fiji's forest wealth.
"There is speculation
that the US embassy put indirect pressures on my government through the
attorney-general and prominent coalition members. There was big money
and power involvement. So we want an inquiry to find the real players
behind the scene. I think the game-plan was to remove us because
we couldn't be bullied."
Chaudhry further alleged
that, "Speight was their proxy. He received money from the TRM."
AFP reports from Suva:
Poseci Bune, minister for agriculture in the deposed government, revealed
that Speight, minutes after taking the government hostage, said he was
not the real leader of the coup.
Rabuka, a former prime
minister who had plotted two coups, is not above suspicion, though he has
denied any involvement in Speight's coup.
The army intends to hold
a court martial to deal with the conspirators and interim president Iloilo
has promised the appointment of a commission of inquiry into the coup.
But whether these inquiries will reveal the real face of the man behind
the May 19 coup is a moot point.
Nevertheless, some are
wondering whether Speight, facing trial for treason, might reveal in court
the identity of the man who failed to turn up at one of the defining moments
in Fiji's history.
