The Fiji Times is a miserable rag of a newspaper at the best of times. But it totally crosses the line today by using a convicted felon who took part in the 2000 coup to call for the release of the coup frontman, George Speight.
Journalist Joe Nata spent 23 years in prison for his part in the rebellion. He has served his time and deserves his freedom. But he does not deserve to have the front page of Fiji’s traditional newspaper of record for any reason at all short of naming the shadowy figures behind the rebellion or throwing new light on our understanding of what took place. Does he do so? Not a chance. The headline says: “Nata on Coup”. Yet nowhere is there any detail of what occurred 24 years ago.
So why would the Fiji Times give him the front page for his pedestrian musings on how his “time in jail has helped him to realise his wrongdoings”? The answer is revealed on page 2 – Joe Nata’s call for his fellow conspirator, George Speight, to be released from prison.
He reveals that he has already had discussions with the ousted attorney general, Siromi Turaga, and the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, to press Speight’s case. And now he wants to meet the Commander of the RFMF, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, to try to persuade him that the 2000 coup leader has done his time.
Until now, General Kalouniwai has insisted that Speight cannot be released without it being a threat to national security. The RFMF Commander has given undertakings to his fellow officers that he will not countenance Speight being set free. And Grubsheet understands that he has conveyed that position to the government through the Home Affairs Minister, Pio Tikoduadua.
The legal position is clear. George Speight was the last person to be sentenced to death in Fiji. In 2002, he wept as High Court judge Justice Michael Scott donned a black cap over his horse-hair wig to protect him from the eyes of God and pronounced that for his treason against the state, Speight should “hang from the neck until dead”. He then used the famous accompanying words: “And may God have mercy on your soul”.
Soon afterwards, Speight’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. That was a pardon in itself. So axiomatically George Speight cannot be pardoned again by being released with the other 2000 conspirators who were sentenced to long terms in jail. The Mercy Commission instigated by Siromi Turaga at the urging of the nationalist hardliners in the Coalition may have released Joe Nata and most notably so far, the Qaranivalu, Ratu Inoke Takiveikata, who instigated the mutiny in the RFMF in November 2000. But it cannot release George Speight.
Having been sentenced to death and having had that sentence commuted to life imprisonment, life means life for George. It is the law and for the Coalition to make an exception for the man who brought Fiji to its knees in 2000 would open a pandora’s box filled to the brim with a great many imponderables. Foremost of these would be the potential threat to national security.
George Speight isn’t some doddering and harmless old man but a super-fit and charismatic figure who is said to still command a great deal of authority in Naboro Prison. Those who have met him in recent years say he retains the strut and cockiness of the man who shot to global infamy by removing the former prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, at gunpoint and holding the nation’s MPs hostage in the parliamentary complex for 56 days.
He is also said to be unrepentant about what he did and remains a hard-line indigenous supremacist. And there is clear evidence that he doesn’t regard himself as being bound by the normal strictures of what constitutes appropriate behaviour for most people.
A well-meaning New Zealand couple I know who shall remain nameless went to visit George Speight in Naboro a few years ago thinking they could help him. But George’s idea of help was to ask whether he could have sex with the woman with her husband’s consent. So his virility isn’t in question. Neither is his potential to cause a great deal of upheaval in Fiji.
So why is the Fiji Times actively, albeit indirectly, advocating for his release? Because it is evidently a mouthpiece for those elements in the Coalition who want to complete the agenda Sitiveni Rabuka and George Speight shared of entrenching iTaukei supremacy by any means, including their coups of 1987 and 2000. Now that Sitiveni Rabuka has been restored to power, these elements now want George Speight freed. The difference is that Rabuka wasn’t sentenced to death for his treason. George Speight was.
It is the height of journalistic irresponsibility for the Fiji Times to provide a public soapbox for a criminal like Joe Nata to agitate for a course of action that is not only contrary to the law but has the potential to trigger all sorts of consequences that are contrary to the national interest. There is already enough instability in Fiji right now without throwing fuel on the fire. And the Commander of the RFMF must be persuaded to hold the line against any attempt to free George Speight.
This is not ancient history. Indeed the man Speight removed at gunpoint, Mahendra Chaudhry, is still with us, still leads the Fiji Labour Party and still intends to contest the next election. He should be able to do so without the malignant presence of his tormentor. Because far from intending to disappear quietly into the shadows in the event of his release, George Speight is evidently intent on a political comeback. And that must not be allowed to happen.
A nation brought to its knees.
George Speight tearful after his death sentence…
Commuted to life imprisonment but still said to be unrepentant. A more recent photo of the 2000 coup frontman at Naboro.
Can Commander Kalouniwai be relied on to hold the line? There are worrying signs in his own obsession with reconciliation. But some things cannot be forgiven and he needs to put the national interest first.
There is never ending drama in this beautiful country. Why is the FT giving prominence to this criminal? We have gone past those dark and evil days and we just want to move on with our lives in peace and harmony. Sa rauta mada!
To the powers that be in Fiji -please stop this crazy Rollercoaster. We all want to get off.
Anish Chand is a joke and Coalition Government propagandist who has been using his position at The Fiji Times to try and get a public relations job in one of the ministries. He has long surrendered the right to be called a journalist.
The Fiji Times is playing with fire again. Thakur Ranjit Singh has detailed in his Masters thesis how the paper was culpable for fanning the fires of ethnic division that eventually led to the 2000 coup. Singh has provided evidence that Anish’s former colleagues Samisoni Pareti (now news director at Minfo) and Netani Rika oversaw blatantly partisan and racist news coverage of the Chaudhry Government: https://core.ac.uk/reader/56362690. Looks like them and their Gujrati owners Motibhai are once again want to create division and instability in the country. What is their agenda?
Shame on Fiji Times and the Motibhais! You are a sheer disgrace to the community!
Did you forget the pain and suffering including rape of innocent indo-Fijian women and children instigated by the coups caused by these culprits?
People should boycott the Motibhais.
Self-serving rascals! You’re a mouthpiece of these racist bigots.
Fiji times is about to be sold. End of story. Vinaka
More information please!
I think the idea is that to complete the iTaukei supremacy thing, GS should be made the leader of the nation after his release. That can happen and he will be allowed to stand in an election and I am sure the vast majoirty of Fijians will vote for him. He is the Nelson Mandela of Fiji, a freedom fighter. What happened in the past will be forgiven, because this is Fiji, God’s country.
Why do do think a crackpot is PM, 37 years after he brought the country to its knees and has been suffering ever since? The people of Fiji are not only stupid, which is their God-given right and there is nothing wrong with that. What becomes a big problem is that they are proud to be stupid. And they all have no idea that they are proudly stupid.
I like your comment, they are proud to be stupid, that summarises Fijian ethonationalist.
I agree with you
Was Motibhai one of those behind the 2000 coup? We already know that Punjas was since George named it amongst others.
Scapegoats
These people took all the blame where different groups had committed treason
From 87 to 2000 till 2006
Coup coup land and who knows more are being planned
Others are free riding and are still in public life,from Rabuka, Bainimarama Nailatikau,Kumubola and heaps to name here
Those that financed as well as to villages who provided human sheild, food and kava
That so called Methodist church hero, Manasa Lasaro to his cult group
Young and old
Even those that carried bags of chicken from RB Patel during the riot
A friend told me after cooking the chicken they prayed and had lunch
These bastards are all guilty
They don’t have any shame
One is trying to go to Singapore for kidney treatment
My dad was punched at the back of his head while running to catch a moving bus as Indians were ducking for cover or run as fast they could
His headaches was consistent until his death a few years later
When I watch sevens team player run with the ball,I figure out how fast they can run with a old ladies handbag grabbed at Suva market
Naturally gifted
So coup may be natural
More may come sooner or later
Who knows
wow…sad but true
The Rs …rape, rugby and robbery. I mean should a minority race so much as mention anything against them its racism, blasphemy, off with their heads, send them back etc. But if they say it it’s a blessing, gods given rights. Remember that rugby incident in Australia. The Fiji supporters were telling the goras off teaching them about racism. That hurt didn’t it. And then we have people like Bib, bub. At least ASK stood up.for the minority. He definitely had faults but has anyone seen what the current PM is all about. 37 years of misery. ASK 16 years if people still want to blame him.
Amen.
The straw which could break the camels back – this may be the tipping point for someone in the military to take some action before all hell breaks loose.
The FT conveniently forgets Speight and his mob not only brought the country to its knees but the fact that the 2000 coup saw people die; the mutiny also being a flow on of the aftermath of the coup.
A police officer lost his life in the process as well and Nata wants Speight to be released along with him? Why? Why not release all the prisoners as well in the process?
Surely, they have all “learned the error of their ways” and should be allowed back in society? Lets release all the child rapists and murderers as well as they will no doubt never reoffend.
You can change a persons character. You can’t change their nature…
For the sake of ‘reconciliation’ the govt must empty the place out (all prisons/inmates). Just do it. THEN hold big carnivals in every town to celebrate.
Present each other mataganisau tabua and all-puaka, bulumakau, vaka dua ni kakana dina ni viti. Meke ,sere, danisi va kece ni marama, turaga kei na Ratu.
Nata must be appointed chairman’s of the organizing committee with $220,000 salary, car, driver- the whole shebang. This appointment will purely be based on merit for the his expert insight and qualifications, and public relations skills gained from 56 days orchestrating events flawlessly in Veiuto in 2000 — Nata knows how to organize a carnival.
If anyone should think this idea is absurd, you do not know it is as real as Nata’s and his ilk’s BS claiming to have “realised wrongdoing.”
Fiji has been a racist country…native want migrant to work for them on “their land” and develop everything then leave
they love their land too much to not even work on it themselves
they would rather leave it as jungle then develop
If this was America, death penalty would have settled these crooks for good. End the debate and put this bastards into a never read history book.
The problem in Fiji is, we keep recycling idiots into politics. Most are illiterate people who have been brainwashed by their church and chief’s.
Fiji will never reach any heights as a developing country. As long as these idiots take the limelight in media.
Oh, and don’t forget. The ship is sinking for Fiji just like the RFNS Puamau.
Nata may have lost more than his dignity while in prison. I would not be believing anything he says.
Beats me why the FT wants to give him cult hero status?
It’s perhaps linked to an in-depth interview published earlier by Island Busuness.
And we know for whom IB’s former editor now works.
I will be honest. I don’t have any respect for native Fijians. I just don’t like them. And I never will. And now I don’t want some smarty pants enlightening me that I’m a racist.
Slacker,
Why don’t you go and say that to a native Fijan face to face instead being a keyboard warrior.
Take some toilet paper with you you gonna need it.
Slacker don’t need to, homie.
The whole world knows that.
ITaukei are the world’s biggest losers. Can’t succeed in education, governance or the modern world, it’s the Indians’ fault.
Can’t win a game of rugby, it’s the palangi officials’ fault.
Can’t even steer a modern ship, it’s the Aussies’ fault for giving them a vessel that apparently not up to iTaukei standards.
Losers!
I’ve already said it to native Fijians back in 2011. They were accusing me of trying to replace Fijian culture with American culture.
It’s sad and also difficult to see such sentiment. I’m not itaukei. But this is not warranted and not the way forward. Don’t let the very rotten apples spoil the whole bag..and yes there are some extremely bad apples who would appear to hold the same reciprocal views towards you Skacker. Sad.
Speight and those who are contained outside of society in prison should not be let to spread their poison again. And for those like minded who are in free society, for the sake of humanity and progress of Fijian civil society, we all need to restrain the nationalistic ideology that is cancerous. It could also be just a way to money grab under the guise of bring a freedom fighter for ones race!
The Fiji Times once again couldn’t rise past its fallen journalism ethos.
This is corruption at another level. Siding with a coup maker.
Rabuka should be in that prison serving a f#cken life sentence with George Speight. They are both guilty of the crime. Why is one man serving his time while Rabuka walks around free. So much for the i-taukei looking after each other.
Shame on Fiji Times for publishing this.
They all should have faced the firing squad
Full stop
Khalas
Saoti na coup
Forever
A BIG SHAME on YOU Fiji Times and Motibhais… you’re treacherous lot who have no ounce of regard for suffering and misery of those who inflicted pain upon the innocent. You’re putting criminals on the pedestal by giving their shitty views air.
You’re a bunch of rats and deserve to rot in hell
I heard the Guji’s are finally saying they have had enough of Rabuka and his clowns. They will no longer vote for PAP.
Rabuka has always benefited from these Guji’s. 1987 coup he had the Gulabdas family in Savusavu feeding his CRW soldiers. When all the shops closed down the Gulabdas family shop stayed open.
Satish Gulabdas was the Mayor of the town. He was later an MP and then blacklisted. Rabuka recently had a village hall building donated by the Gulabdas family at his village in Drekeniwai.
Same corrupt lot. Just keep recycling themselves or their children and families.
So my dad had worked a hard 40 hour week at a timber yard and caught a bus home. As he got off the bus in Toorak – an iTaukei man waiting at the bus stop punched my dad and stole the $50 from his wallet.
The coup perpetuates hate crimes. The coups by defecto legimises the racism in the minds of some ordinary people.
The mishief makers and coup leaders need to talk about peaceful co-existence of all ethnic people in Fiji.