Three events have dominated the political discourse this week and have social media abuzz with discussion and debate – the gathering of the Bose Levu Vakaturaga (Great Council of Chiefs), the RFMF matanigasau (traditional apology) to the GCC and Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Their importance given their relation to present and past political events and the short time frame in which these three events have evolved is giving some of us a form of sensory overload. And we are still trying to thoroughly process and understand the implications and meaning of each, in terms of how they intersect, overlap and affect current and future politics.
To make sense of it all and try to form a coherent and informed opinion about their importance, I personally think it is prudent to step back and scrutinise things from back to front.
Our history as a nation since 1987 can be summed up in two words: state capture. The Oxford Dictionary defines state capture as the “systemic form of grand corruption where private actors and interest groups infiltrate government to shape state policies, laws and regulations to their advantage.”
The first form of state capture has been of democracy via the military. It is Fiji’s version of the military-industrial complex of the developed world. But while the developed world’s version is merely a ‘relationship’ where the defence industry has the power to exert influence in shaping government policy and spending, ours is one where the defence establishment has actively removed democratically elected governments and seized control of the purse strings. This has happened four times – twice in 1987, then again in 2000 and 2006.
The second is the state capture of the rule of law. Not only has the military removed and imposed constitutions at will, it has also enshrined immunity in the supreme law, which means Fiji is the only country in the world whose Constitution, the bedrock of the rule of law itself, is imposed by and protects the very criminals who repeal it.
For more than a decade, only a few of us have touted the line that the Immunity Clause is an abomination of the rule of law yet I have been quite surprised at the volume of voices raised against it online this week.
The third is state capture of tradition. The politicisation of the words kai-Viti and vulagi is the continuation of another trend begun by Sitiveni Rabuka – the politicisation and misuse of one of the noblest of iTaukei customs, the ‘matanigasau” – the custom of seeking forgiveness by the perpetrators of a wrongful act from the aggrieved.
In communal societies, it is meant to minimise disruption to the social order, but it was traditionally done in a spirit of contrite humility and discretion. And it is not done for serious crimes like trying to remove one’s chief. The price for trying to usurp legal authority in the olden days was normally death.
Which brings me to the matanigasau performed by the RFMF to the GCC. This once noble gesture has now been turned on its head and become a national theatrical production to gain political mileage, complete with TV crews, producers and a live audience. As such, it is nothing but political grandstanding, just like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
But more importantly, as with Rabuka’s matanigasau to the Queen after his treason of 1987, it is now a means of subverting and nullifying the rule of law. The matanigasau is now the primary instrument of restitution and not justice.
My reply to those who advocate the use of matanigasau in national reconciliation has always been: Why don’t we remove the rule of law altogether. Remove the Police, remove the prisons, remove the judiciary and free every murderer, rapist, pedophile, thief. Let everyone perform the matanigasau, and let’s see where that gets us. Usually that shuts them up.
True matanigasau is done the way the Tui Nayau, Ratu Tevita Mara, and his fellow former military officer, Pita Driti, did theirs to those they abused in 2006. In a private setting away from prying eyes. No media, no publicity, just with those they had wronged. The only way the mainstream media got wind of this matanigasau was via social media posts by the aggrieved. They are the final adjudicators of whether the public should know that it even happened. They have the right to also say no and to refuse the matanigasau. Doing it publicly passively forces the aggrieved to accept the apology or lose face in the public eye.
Usually, after the matanigasau is done, elders and the family then formally let the larger community know via a specially presented bowl of yaqona. The community at large is not usually privy to it, just those closely associated with the victim, usually the family and community elders and the chief.
I have heard of matanigasau ceremonies where the victims physically beat the perpetrator. By custom, the perpetrator is not allowed to defend himself much less retaliate but the relatives (elders and maybe the chief) of the victim are always on hand to regulate it, before the tabua is then accepted. It is why they are done in secret to prevent the public humiliation of the “criminal” (as he comes in a spirit of humility) and prevent it from spilling out into a further cycle of tit for tat.
And then there is state capture of the GCC. With the GCC’s participation in the matanigasau, it has also fallen into state capture largely because it has been ensnared in a program concocted by the Prime Minister.
If the GCC is to be credible, it needs to shed itself from being publicly perceived as a political tool, and that includes completely removing it from government influence. Given the PM’s history, there will always be the perception that it has political leanings.
In my opinion, Sitiveni Rabuka’s opening of the Bose Levu Vakaturaga was the first step in a deliberate strategy; to convey the message that he personally raised this institution from the ashes to which it had been relegated. From his politicisation of the GCC in 1987, culminating in its removal in 2009, to his role as “saviour” at its resurrection in 2023. It gives the impression that the GCC feels it owes a debt of gratitude to Rabuka that it must pay.
The matanigasau by the RFMF was supposed to continue the build-up culminating in Rabuka’s submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in the series of events planned for this week that would set him free from the moniker, “father of coups.” From his politicisation of both the RFMF and GCC to a reconciliation enabled by him.
Rabuka’s submission to the T & RC was to be the crowning event of the last few days. His submission was supposed to cleanse his plate and free his name from blame.
Everyone waited with bated breath, hoping that Rabuka would name names and bring some sort of closure to the 38-year guessing game. From blaming Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara to a divine commission (“it was God’s plan”), to being forced to do it by ethno-nationalists, in the end, he made it all about himself and how he and his family had suffered.
Frank Bainimarama’s state capture was via the 2013 Constitution itself, which elevates the RFMF to a standalone institution that can make and remove governments, but constitutionally this time.
In retrospect, if the political strategist who planned this sequence of events thought that the ensuing impact would be positive for the government, the reverse seems to have occurred. There now seems to have been a perceptible shift in perception that is anti-coup and anti-immunity clause. And that those covered by the Clause ought not to stand for political office.
So perhaps Fiji is finally ready to draw a line under the state capture by Sitiveni Rabuka and Voreqe Bainimarama – the two actors who have held the nation to ransom for about three quarters of the last 40 years.
Meanwhile, in the cacophony of discussion and debate that raged around this week’s events, the government discreetly borrowed another $136-million from the OPEC Fund for International Development.
Which means that all three events also served as a distraction while the government again increased our national debt.
God help us.
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NOTE TO READERS:
As one of our responders to CommonMan’s article suggests, it is well worth reading Victor Lal‘s excoriating article on Sitiveni Rabuka’s appearance at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Fijileaks. Just click the link below.
Vinaka vakalevu, CommonMan.
Brilliant article, telling it exactly like it is!
Fiji is a severely corrupt society, and no doubt at its worst during this Rabuka period, all by a single vote!
The businessmen pulling the strings, and more of them these days than ever before, live the high life overseas, and at home, if they can call it home, or is it just the ‘place’ of business, PNG included, because they can’t get away with it in NZ and Australia!!
No wonder the remittances are as high as they are, keeping the wheels turning of the industrial machine.
The blind remain poor and the rich get richer.
Vinaka Rabuka !
After all is said and done, what remains is that the vulagi will never understand Fijian customs and traditions. Ask the RFMF, ask the racists in the GCC, ask the pm and ask the racist iTaukei.
Thank you CommonMan for your insights. It is sad indeed that such an old tradition is just being manipulated to maintain power at all costs and avoid true accountability.
It’s beyond sad that this Government is all about manipulation, grandstanding and self-interest. The money that has been spent on all of this while most live in poverty is astounding.
Speaking of manipulation, grandstanding and self-interest, CommonMan might’ve added that the biggest, most disgusting and disgraceful mataganisau play acting ever organised happened at Albert Park in 2000 led by the pedo president as a diversionaey tactic for the November 2000 mutiny at Delainabua.
The November 2000 mutiny was prior to another pedo-led mutiny disaster in July 2000 at Vaturekuka, Labasa barracks. Then, the pedo had organized to bus-in hundreds of Indo-Fijians to the barracks “for their (the Indo-Fijians) own safety”
The core aim of the November 2000 pedo-led circus along with a prominent (now deceased) vitilevu big chief at Albert Park was to lure JVB to the grounds to ‘get rid’ of him, if you get the drift.
The pedo president and Sona Rolex rabid dog rambaku’s fingerprints are all over Fiji’s racist coups, mutinies, upheavals, in their lust for the usurping of power at their whim and self-interest.
And yet not only are both these disgusting human beings walking free to this day, they are hero-worshiped by the majority of Fijians in Fiji and the large diaspora.
Both these vile, evil excuses for human beings are responsible for so much mayhem – rapes, beatings, violent robberies, arson, all directed at one ethnic group purely based on hate.
Yet the bastard Snake has the gall and temerity to suggest his own family suffered ‘losing friends.’ Go vaark yourself, you old bastard.
Several people lost their lives because of your actions. Both of you have blood-soaked hands. No matter how many and how often these mataganisau charades are put on, the country is worse off for the evil twin’s combined lust for power and money.
Vinaka CommonMan,
We know the main boy actor who started it all in 1987, the original grandfather of the coups in Fiji.
This main boy has not yet divulged and/or mentioned, those international actor’s if any, who may have been involved, financially or by other means, for removing a Social Democratic government.
It has been a failure of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner’s to have not questioned Rabuka about this aspect.
CommonMan should name himself RareMan
His views, although entirely correct, are not shared by the majority of indigenous Fijian people.
It is a shame that we still have a herd mentality, and we totally lose our sense of logic and common sense when it comes to such topics discussed by him today.
Sadly, we are doomed because of the path we have taken now. The sea and land grab that has already commenced will not benefit us all. It will benefit a select few, cause infighting and more land and qoliqoli ownership disputes. Not to mention the huge detrimental effect to the national economy.
We only need to look at what has happened in Zimbabwe and South Africa to see what the final outcome will be.
We now find out some 39 years later that it was Rabuka and his family who were really the victims of the coup. Isa. The family must have suffered a lot for the sacrifices this imbecile in their family made for the country.
A racist prick, full of hatred and fueled by imagination of faith in a vulagi God.
This twisted motherf**ker is exactly what the racist Fijians want to “lead” them even after almost 40 years. Tells you a lot about the people of Fiji than it does about this shithead.
He is still the centre of attention and he is loving it. And the people of Fiji continue to be dickheads and proudly so.
Brilliantly put. I have learnt so much about iTaukei customs and protocols from your articles.
Once again, Sitiveni Rabuka casts himself as the victim—speaking endlessly about the “suffering” he and his family endured—while refusing to answer the question Fiji has been asking for 37 years: Why did he carry out the 1987 coup? Who planned it with him? And who benefited from it?
To this day, Rabuka cannot explain what supposed “threat” Indo-Fijians posed to the iTaukei that justified overthrowing a democratically elected government.
He even claims it was a “calling from God.” But would God command anyone to commit such a heinous act against their own people?
What Fiji hears now is not the truth—it is a carefully polished narrative meant to sanitise his actions, deflect blame, and rewrite history.
What Rabuka refuses to speak about is the fear, violence, and trauma his coup unleashed—particularly on Indo-Fijian families who were targeted, intimidated, beaten, and brutalised.
He avoids acknowledging the atrocities committed under his watch, including the sexual abuse and rape of Indo-Fijian women by elements of the military.
These are not rumours. These are lived realities—stories of those whose lives were shattered by the violence he engineered.
Rabuka created a climate of terror. Yet today, he seeks sympathy, forgiveness, and political absolution without ever offering accountability.
He must come clean about what truly motivated the 1987 coup.
Was it a naked grab for power?
Was it fuelled by deep-seated anti-Indian sentiment?
Was it resentment toward a hardworking Indo-Fijian community whose economic strength continues to support this nation?
Until Rabuka answers these questions honestly, there can be no reconciliation—only revisionism.
This is why the so-called Truth and Reconciliation Commission he promotes is nothing more than political window dressing.
It is a shield, not a sincere effort to confront the past. There is no humility, no remorse, and no willingness to address the injustices he inflicted—many of which still affect Indo-Fijians today.
If Rabuka wants forgiveness, he must first give Fiji the one thing he has avoided for decades: the truth.
Until that day comes, Rabuka remains not the victim—but the perpetrator who has never been held to account, protected by immunity clauses embedded in successive constitutions after his coups.