Not content with lying his way into power, presiding over a chaotic and dysfunctional government that is chronically unable to provide basic services and is mounting a full-blown assault on the integrity of the nation’s institutions of state, Sitiveni Rabuka adds insult to injury by saying that he is personally “suffering” because of the 1987 coups he led and without which he would be just another face in the crowd.
So the Prime Minister is finally going to tell us who was really behind the 1987 coups. And as the centrepiece of his government’s latest attempt to create a diversion from its appalling record of ineptitude and self-enrichment – the so-called Truth and Reconciliation Commission that is to be headed by an Austrian (yes, Austrian) international civil servant.
I say so-called because truth nowadays is in shamefully short order in national life, especially in the ranks of a government that has made an art form of mendacity and manipulation. And how can genuine reconciliation take place when the same suffering is still being inflicted by the perpetrators of injustice like Rabuka, who is making another attempt to marginalise Fiji’s minorities by completing the program of indigenous supremacy he began in 1987?
Only the most wide-eyed and gormless like the “thanks for having me” Happy Vulagi, Sashi Kiran – the Minister presiding over the so-called TRC process – believe that the instigators of four decades of national misery are going to finally come clean about what they did. That we will all exchange hugs, cry a little and henceforth be “reconciled” as a nation. It is window-dressing and absolute tosh.
Sitiveni Rabuka has had 37 years to tell us who was “behind” his armed takeovers that started the “coup-coup” culture in Fiji. At various times he has blamed Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, whose defeat in the 1987 election triggered the preposterous notion that his successor, Timoci Bavadra, was leading an “Indian dominated government” and would destroy the iTaukei. “Rambo” was the hero who would save them all but, of course, he was only the instrument of the establishment.
At other times, Rabuka has said that he took it upon himself to kill democracy or that “God” told him to carry out the coups, not Ratu Mara. Though maybe given Mara’s godlike status in national life at the time, they are one and the same. Now he tells us that whoever he has blamed over the past four decades for seizing power at gunpoint and trashing our emerging nation, he is finally going to tell us the “truth”. Or his version of the truth. So why are we so underwhelmed? Because his record tells us that the man cannot lie straight in bed at night.
Rabuka is drowning in an ocean of lies – whether it is to his wife about half a century of philandering or the biggest lie of all (so far) – the promise he made to the nation before the last election that he had “changed” and now recognised that Fiji could only prosper with genuine equality for all.
That lie just got him across the line at the December 2022 election by a single vote on the floor of the parliament. But ever since then, the truth has been revealed in Rabuka’s actions – a program of shameless workplace ethnic cleansing in the civil service and offices of state in favour of the iTaukei and a government that isn’t for everyone at all.
It isn’t even for the iTaukei, more than 50 per cent of whom continue to wallow in poverty. No. It is for the iTaukei elite around Rabuka and their acolytes like Biman Prasad and Sashi Kiran. That elite has cynically manipulated iTaukei opinion into believing that they stand for iTaukei rights while they enrich themselves with the biggest pay rises in Fijian parliamentary history and dispense taxpayer-funded jobs to their kai vata who are fortunate enough to be able to join the pigs at the trough.
This orgy of self-enrichment on the public teat has been accompanied by a level of personal misconduct and hypocrisy unsurpassed in Fijian political history. And increasingly a great deal of corruption, if not personal enrichment then corrupting the nation’s institutions of state by placing their own people in supposedly independent offices to manipulate those offices to their advantage. It is corruption all the same and this form of state capture is fast propelling Fiji down the road to being a genuine banana republic and failed state.
Sitiveni Rabuka started this cycle of degradation 37 years ago. It doesn’t matter who he names as having encouraged him. It was he who stormed the parliament at 10.00am on May 14 1987, fired a shot into the ceiling and rounded up the country’s elected representatives. He was, and still is, the rapist of democracy. Now he has the gall to try to share the blame in the knowledge that the immunity provisions in successive constitutions protect him from ever being brought to account.
The Prime Minister has the temerity to talk about him “suffering”. How has he suffered? By being a pariah in polite society or what still exists of it in Fiji? Diddums. At every other level, Rabuka has benefitted from his coups. Power as a dictator then power as an elected prime minister off the back of his fame (or notoriety). Then a period in the wilderness as Frank Bainimarama tried to assert a common and equal citizenry, and now back in power to complete the agenda of indigenous supremacy he began in 1987. And he calls that suffering?
Thousands of Fijians reading Major General Boo-Hoo’s lament today will be genuinely sickened. Because they and their families genuinely suffered. Those who were beaten. Those who were raped. Those who had their homes invaded. Those who lost their dignity, livelihoods and all hope. Tens of thousands of people – many of them the country’s best and brightest – who simply gave up on Fiji and left. Just as they are now doing again in the dystopia that passes for Rabuka’s Fiji Mark 2.
So spare us the pathetic bleat, Prime Minister. No-one has been a more poisonous and divisive influence in national life than you in the entire sweep of Fijian history. You don’t know the meaning of suffering. You are its inflictor. You made thousands of people suffer in 1987 and you are making thousands of people suffer now.
We are not interested in your “truth”. Reconciliation cannot be built on more lies and yet another attempt by you and those around you to share the blame. To absolve yourselves of personal responsibility by sheltering under the umbrella of collective responsibility beyond your individual control. “Woe are we”, goes this narrative. “You have to understand that we were merely cogs in the wheel and the levers were being pulled by others”. Yeah, sure.
Sitiveni Rabuka is still hiding behind this grotesque concoction as he routinely pleads ignorance about his government’s excesses or washes his hands of them when in reality, his fingers are covered in dirt. He is “suffering”? Seriously? Pass the sick bag, Siti. Look at you. You have no idea what suffering means.
POSTSCRIPT:
For all the “sorries” up at the Camp, the tears and hugs, nothing, it seems, has been able to quell increasing dismay in the ranks of the RFMF about the silence of the Commander, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, in the face of the mayhem at FICAC and the ODPP.
You can take it or leave it. But there are reported to be rumblings of dissent with the Commander’s leadership. These range from “disappointment” to “he must go”.
So much for “truth and reconciliation” – the centrepiece of the Commander’s own agenda. Where there is wrongdoing and injustice, mere words cannot paper over the cracks.
Ohh we are saddened…will he get a national send-off when he dies.??? Pathetic Rambo needs sympathy ….Baimaan and Crying Kiran will be there on our behalf.
Welcome to 2025.
The year of the snake.
No Native Fijian suffered from the 1987 coup. Instead they only gained from it.
Native Fijians suffered. Radicalisation of 700 soldiers training in Namosi was one example of harm.
There are many others.
No, Native Fijians have not suffered from the 1987 coup at all. They only like to pretend that they suffered so that others feel sorry for them and that Native Fijians continue to act as victims of the coups – eventhough they have benefited from them.
That’s a slack and lazy comment, Slacker and you know it. Pls work on your most bitterest bitterness, that you might find that elusive peace before your time on earth is up.
Of course, itaukei AND Fijians in general suffered the effects of 1987 and subsequent coups – their lives, families, relationships, employment, career pathways, etc., were directly or indirectly affected at many levels.
That said, Rabuka’s red herring and self-serving TRC is the JOKE of the year! He needs to be in prison for starters and the immunity clause chucked out of the Constitution in order to allow the country a fresh start.
Native Fijians have not suffered. Instead they are happy with what Sitiveni did in 1987. The coups of Sitiveni made the Native Fijians gain in every way. Every loss that Indians suffered, was a gain for Native Fijians. Why do you like to pretend that Native Fijians had somehow been the victims of the 1987 coups? How can Native Fijians suffer when the coups were for their benefit? This is exactly like how Sitiveni acts by claiming to be suffering from the 1987 coups. And that’s what Native Fijians are doing by claiming to be the victims of the 1987 coups when instead each and every one of them benefited from it.
Wow! @ Slacker’s one-brush-fits-‘em-all statements which are unworthy of my time dissecting them to pieces this lovely, cool Friday evening.
Whatever makes you heal Slacker. Peace out.😌
@ Striving On
Pull your head out of your arse bro and come smell the roses.
It was Rambo who, after having his coup endorsed by the Great Council of Thieves (ooops…sorry..Chiefs) ..proclaimed from the balcony of the Suva Civic Centre…. to an i’taukei throng below him ….”SA NODA NA QAQA”.
And they all greeted that proclammation by Rambo with thunderous applause tl
I was there on that day filming the proceedings for the Nine Network Australia. Unforgettable and deeply disturbing through my eyes as a kai Viti. The triumphalism of Rambo and the boos for Ratu Penaia Ganilau, the president. All sense of respect for authority out the window. iTaukei extremism unleashed.
@ Slacker. Clamp up and cease the blabbering. Clearly you choose not to know the Itaukei thus your outlandish slander. As pointed out by others here, many, many Itaukei have suffered since ’87.
Yes, a lot more Indians suffered in all the coups compared to the Itaukei. It is tragic and inhumane. But data confirms that the Itaukei register the highest numbers in the poverty stats of this country. The owners of this land continue to lag behind and this is for Rabuka and his ilk to ponder on, the suffering of the iTaukei in their own land.
May the Almighty pass fair judgement on all the instigators of this injustice.
….The owners of this land continue to lag behind…..
Those who can, do. Those who can’t do, blame those who can.
–Barry Goldwater
Native Fijians have not suffered from the 1987 coups. What you call suffering of Native Fijians is something they faced even before the 1987 coups. The 1987 coups did not make Native Fijians live in poverty. The fact is, Native Fijians were already living in poverty even before the 1987 coups. The Indians in Fiji also lived in poverty. But most of them got out of it by their honest efforts. While even after Sitiveni’s coups and becoming the supreme race in Fiji, Native Fijians continued to live in poverty. The 1987 coups did not make Native Fijians poor. Instead, the failures of the Native Fijians kept them poor. They’re given everything, yet still they’re poor and ‘suffer’.
Ireen, with respect–its hard to believe 700 soldiers ‘suffered.’
If anything the same 700 later terrorized the populace targeting one ethnicity.
The memories of living through the ensuing violence and abuse remains still fresh to this day.
Its possible some natives and other communities were negatively impacted. Very few natives suffered any real grief, loss of life, loss of livelihoods, loss of property, loss of businesses, loss of dignity, nor were they robbed, beaten, raped, demeaned or disadvantaged as the indo fijians were.
None of the natives suffered emotional loss of dignity or disadvantaged in any way, none were thrown out of generational homes nor suffered brutal physical harm.
These remarks are not meant to in any way lessen or down play others bad experiences. Therw is no intention either to fault your remarks.
However, there is a distinct difference between getting caught in the moment and generational suffering.
The fact that Indo-Fijians remain peaceful shouldn’t be mistaken for meekness alone. They do not complain too loudly out of shame and anguish to this day. More importantly, the indo Fijian community moves on, tries to be better, educate children, work to succeed with emigration the only real key.
Indos were betrayed in 1987, in 2000, and betrayed now by biman, sashi, agni, charan. Betrayed again by the the same rabuka and his brainless sycophants.
The indo remains alienated, marginalized, vilified in the land of their birth. Daily bullied, victims of violent crimes and abused to this day. That is the lot of the indo-fijians in their own country.
Still silently suffering with zero police support, no protection, no government concern. Institutionalized racism coupled with just more abuse.
And rabuka the dog has the audacity to say he is suffering.
Have you ever seen the photos of those 700 men? They were mostly young men. Radicalised for extremist behavior.
They did suffer. They were groomed. Their families suffered.
I have more pity for some of those young men than Rabuka. Because those in power create oppression and keep people under their control. That is what Rabuka did.
Many iTaukei women suffered. I know because we housed them in our home.
@unsilent majority: Exactly.
Itaukei don’t like to hear the truth about coups, robbing, raping, mayhem and mistreatment of fellow countrymen/women based purely on ethnicity.
Truth and Reconciliation my aching A.
What’s the point of the TRC if we do not want to hear the truth and learn from our past to move forward together as one people.
You see, while the words may have a nice ring to them, we are too far from the truth. The current supremacists are doing exactly as the entire itaukei community wants -supremacy for self, and repression of other’s rights.
Truth be told, whenever natives Fijian say forgive and forget they mean don’t talk about it. It’s in the past.
And then wipe away false tears pretending sorrow, then rinse and repeat the same cruel behaviour against the very same people.
In their convoluted thinking, iTaukei believe the ‘vulagi’ must ask for forgiveness from the itaukei.
No one is able to explain, apologize for why and for what. Just for being here?
FO!
When they speak of “liberation,” it means ethno nationalism. Indigenous supremacy will “liberate” the itaukei.
So no, the itaukei do not want hear the thruth nor are they capable of speaking the truth.
The traits of lying, evasiveness, speaking half truths, avoiding truths, blaming others, all can be traced back to the times when if an itaukei person ever felt brave (and stupid) enough to speak the truth, they’d end up as a lovo meal.
The Snake is fooling no-one but himself with his TRC bullshit.
To put this politely, Rabuka can go play with himself.
Fijians of all races suffered in 1987. Our once bright future back then was taken away from us by someone who claims to have direct contact with God. (the vulagi God mind you).
Yes, the Indo Fijians suffered more in terms of physical, mental, sexual abuse, loss of assets and loss of security in their own country, but everyone suffered in the loss of their future.
A handful of native Fijians gained financially, most of these gains were short term. There are non-Fijian businesspeople including Indo Fijians that gained as well.
Sorry but the Itaukei seemed to have suffered more when Frank imposed measures for free school fees, free bus fares, greater land security and a fair distribution lease royalties.
BRING BACK FRANK !
The TRC should be called the SSRA Commission.
Scapegoat and Save Rabuka’s Ass Commission.
Majority of indigenous Fijians who are hard working ; multiracial in behavior and thought process and embrace a Fiji for all races; well qualified and experienced ; have no choices in Fiji at present but to work for private institutions or companies.
Rabuka mostly hires his PAP people or those from Vanua Levu. Nothing much for the rest of us ! Those of us who applied to various executive positions in government and other relevant institutions don’t get a chance at all!
So we are telling our kids to leave fiji and look for other options abroad ! Rabuka has killed Fiji!
The guy that started race based divisions in our paradise and set in motion years of racial division should feel guilty. But we know that is all bullshit. What he is his nationalist mob are doing now is gutting the multicultural fabric of Fiji. He deserves nothing but scorn for what he has done and what he continues to do. History will remember him as it should…a racist soldier that used his gun to topple a democratic government and started the Fijian coup culture.
It will be a watershed moment for Fiji if Rabuka actually tells the truth. There were a lot of people behind the scenes, wealthy and powerful people at the time. Some of them are still around today and will they let him squeal? The man cannot be trusted, period!
Yes…among Rabuka’s financiers of the 1987 coup was that low down sweet and sour cassava specimen from Kadavu !
Guess who?
If the twice coup leader wanted a clear conscience, politics was never going to be the vehicle to a clear conscience .
One can rationalize getting elected legitimately as clearing one’s conscience but that doesn’t necessarily balance up in the part of our mind that deals with how one manages a guilty conscience.
A person who has committed a crime goes to gaol and that can help a person feel they have made some sort of amends.
Perhaps because the PM never served time in prison , a clear conscience is not attainable so he must live with the consequences of his actions everyday and that’s a different sort of sentence .
Yes, indeed. I love your use of the word gaol instead of jail. It’s one from Viti Makawa that lingers. Like the old “they must be taken to task”. Vinaka.
One too many misleading information here by Rabuka and no surprises there. I have a copy of his biography so making some direct references to his book and what he has said to the media yesterday.
1. Rabuka states that people can be summoned. No one can be summoned for a Truth and Reconciliation session. It is voluntary.
2. Rabuka states that those who want to press with justice can do that. How and at whose expense? Doesn’t Rabuka hide under an immunity shield and cannot be charged in Fiji. Why does he continue to fool the masses? Fijians have lost trust in the DPPs office right now. Law and order is questionable. So where does one go with a concern? Nowhere.
It states clearly in his biography that military records related to coup planning were destroyed. Are we now talking international court of justice with next to no evidence, except his own biography that will come to haunt him? Who pays for this? European Union too?
3. He states that his family is hurting. His village is hurting. Well, he can take another apology to them. Do the same in his house. A 38 year old man consciously carrying out a treason is a crime. Doesn’t matter who was behind the coups it was his decision to execute the two coups. He boasts about this openly in his biography.
4. He refers to his biography like some God given gift that we have. In it the authors mention Rabuka as soldier, philosopher, political analyst, and determined defender of the indigenous Fijian people. 38 years on, Fijians can judge for themselves. Rabuka wrote his biography within a year after the two coups of 1987. His biography was released in 1988. This is when women were raped, children were left without schools, many were displaced, homes were destroyed, and two acts of treason was committed. The country was on its knees. But our philosopher was busy playing golf at 6am, charming women tourists, claiming to be a handsome man, and preparing for a further tell it all fame by revealing that there was no other way and God had instructed him to do so.
He states in his biography that the coup planning was extremely thorough and took into account all eventualities, because he didn’t want anyone to get hurt. He cites with satisfaction, according to the authors, that there was only one robbery that took place.
It is sad that when the book was released in 1988 he did not fully accept the harm that was widespread. By virtue of his actions, he still doesn’t til today.
There is truth and then there is reconciliation. Truth can only be nurtured with trust and faith in humans. Reconciliation is a process. Under Rabuka, both is impossible. Because here sits a man who is still feeling entitled and who is miserable. Miserable because no one is listening anymore. So the power play haunts him.
Rabuka’s cause for a divided Fiji continues. We saw that recently with the term vulagi and Tabuya beating the tables in the parliament demanding for facts from victim survivors of the coups. Gaslighting victims for self promotion continues. The Truth and Reconciliation is just another avenue to continue the fame and racist divide.
The victory today sits in the souls and hands of the victim survivors of the coup. The truth sits with us. One that is not worthy of any further political mileage for any coup culprit. As a Fiji Indian, I will never take part or encourage any Fiji Indian to be part of the Truth and Reconciliation under Rabuka or any coup leader’s watch. I have no trust in this process and another political campaign for him.
No one in their right mind should be supporting the TRC.
It’s an exercise in futility. It will not achieve anything. Just a total waste of public funds.
No truth will be revealed. The only thing it will achieve is opening old wounds and causing further racial division.
And right now it is distracting the public from seeing the reality of the Coalition government’s performance.
Similar to calls to review the Constitution, they are a totally useless exercise when people are suffering on a daily basis.
Instead, government should be looking at creating more economic activity to increase employment, productivity and reducing poverty, improving health services, fixing infrastructure, combating crime and the ever-increasing drug use and HIV epidemic.
Given that immunity has been saving Rabuka’s arse in Fiji, the EU, instead of funding this TRC, ought to charge him for usurping a democratically elected government …. and for him to appear before the European Commission for Human Rights to face justice.
Military coupists from some nations in Africa have appeared before the ECHR for human rights abuses, so why can’t this coupist treasonist twit from Fiji?
Rabuka is inviting a blood bath between the indigenous peoples now and within the tribes. Good luck with that Fiji.
For obvious reasons, each name that he will blame will be preceded by “The Late”. The late Ratu Mara, the late Rev Raikivi, the late Veisamasama, the late Rev Lasaro, the late Qarikau, the late Ratu Ovini, the late Savua, the late Veitata, and the list goes on.
All those still alive will unsurprisingly be excluded, including the Rolex watch donor.
Incidentally, the Honourable Austrian Chair and his team will do well to also read GS as a source to help them with their work.
He is clever for going first, so he can define the paarameters for those not in “the late” category to follow and also allow for adjustments in those that will follow for one neat narrative. Here we go again Fiji. Damned if we do, damned if we dont towards a self serving means to an end.
As the list continues….got to mention the late Mohammed Apisai Tora.
Was Tora the recipient of thousands of dollars from an as yet unknown actor, to organise the Taukei Movement?
And Taniela Veitata.
Veisamsama, the guy who blew his balls off with a pen pistol stored strategically hidden –drum roll…in his sulu vakaturaga coin pocket. Ha ha ha!
(What a way to go!)
The Methodist Church leaders mounting road blocks, Sunday bans and persecuting one ethnicity. Nice christians they were too.
Who organized and paid for their special services?
We hope the prune dick head will tell the whole truth.
The (unfortunately) still alive emeritus Rolex watch donor should be forced to front up to the TRC.
Another one should front up to the TRC is Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, presently Fiji’s High Commissioner to New Zealand.
Suffering? What a tone deaf despicable, disappointing and shameful man— not surprising. Not an ounce of class in him. False humilty to disguise his arrogance. Scum of the earth.
The idiot must be mentally sick to say he is suffering while earning $400,000+ per year, luxury housing, luxury vehicle, all the perks of a privileged life — all off the backs of the poorest in Fiji-the low income voters who live in poverty.
Are you suffering enough? This sock cocker wouldn’t have a clue what real suffering is while the bastard enjoys the luxuries and perks of power. He has lived his entire life at public expense. Now he has the added luxury- the temerity! — to insult the electorate intelligence every day.
However, the same low income voters must now seriously ask themselves what is wrong with them as thousands upon thousands of people would vote for a such a pathetic excuse for a man. It is time for the electorate to take a long hard look in the mirror.
Think why you would vote again for this runt who had zero sympathy, empathy or meaningful words to express real contrition. His sycophants are no different than their master they worship -baimaan, crying sashi, drunk Charan, shameless Agni. Shame on you all for supporting this lying, philandering remorseless thug.
When will the people of Fiji begin to understand that this slimy, slithering snake – scum of scum, is incapable of telling you the truth.
Only thing this slimly snake excels at is to periodically rub salt to the many still suffering victims of his coups and the subsequent violence -both in 1987 x2 and 2000 plus the mutiny. Turd.
The five commissioners are looking very happy with the chief perpetrator of the “Events of 1987”. They are already a big fail as far as I am concerned.
The chief perpetrator says he was very glad to meet the commissioner.
Who gives a rats arse!
It is all about him.
Hang on…didn’t this racist fu#kwit say that God spoke to him and told him to carry out the coup and get rid of Indians??!!! That same God told him to rob, loot, rape, and torture fellow human beings because of how they look and their religion.
And it’s common knowledge that these Bible bashing scums seem to have a direct contact with God who apparently only speaks to them.
I’m sure I’m not alone in saying this, I hope and pray this @$$hole of an evil human being dies after a prolonged life of sickness confined to the bed with excruciating pain for several years before meeting Satan, along with the others who carried out atrocities on Indian Fijians.
This lying snake cannot ever be trusted.
Bainimarama was spot on!
Rumblings in the military ranks? Nonsense.
They are all behind Kalouniwai. Go bet your house on it.
The military is giving Rabuka enough rope to hang himself. They have no interest in intervention.
It’s time civil society stood up for themselves. And don’t try throwing that 131 (2) nonsense.
What about the mutiny and his special appearance with his uniform on that infamously gruesome day.
Can he come clean about that as well or did that hug and sob fest at the RFMF reconciliation render his involvement in the mutiny a moot point?
To preserve integrity, other jurisdictions will terminate, imprison or execute the crimes Rabuka perpetrated.
I weep for Fiji and the cesspit it has become under Rabuka and his village idiots.
It really is the year of the snake. You want a clear conscience? Fix the bloody hospital!
The Commander must go
NGOs and NSOs have lost all creditability in their deafening silence in the last two and half years.
Either his promised revelation is meant to scare the businessmen who financed his coup into financing his retirement, or, at 76 years old, he is facing his own mortality and is afraid to meet his maker with the weight of his multitude of sins. Either way, and based on the article, purely selfish motivation for another huge waste of tax payer funds.
In the words of the late Royal Majesty HRH Queen Elizabeth“ recollections may vary”.
Dangerous grounds we are moving to here … hopefully Rabuka has seen a professional and competent therapist or shrink before he starts muttering out silliness on public record .
I fear this whole process is going to look like an individual(s) therapy session broadcasted to the nation … very very very dangerous .
Every last one of us has different recollections of all the coups … to get Rabuka to finally spill the beans – may be better that it’s aired when his 6ft underground and I say that respectfully. To avoid further embarrassment, prejudice, memory failure and negativity to the Fijian people.
The timing of this .. given the already charged environment of suspicion and distrust towards the government is not wise at all .
I would caution Government about this initiative and its timing .. is this another ploy to distract us from one drama to the next ?
Taking into account the the reported amount of people using IV drugs and sniffing hard drugs, could such public dialogue and processes to very very sensitive matters , be the needle that breaks the camels back and explode violent crime and behaviors in the country ?
The risks are way too high to push through a political agenda .. as noble as the intentions may be. Timing is everything.
Has there been a readiness study done on the public appetite towards this ?
Have the risks been identified and mitigation plans in place if this whole TRC creates havoc in an already fragile environment economically , socially and culturally?
I am deeply concerned
Whose truth will Rabuka tell ?
His personal truth ?
The RFMF truth ?
The political candidate eyeing next general elections truth ?
Context is everything and I just don’t trust the man enough to believe his word or his memory, when his flustered enough on any day with matters which are current and pressing.
Respectfully PM
Consider doing a biography to be released as your truth when you have moved on from earth please , I think you have done enough damage to us all in the past and currently and we just all kerekere need a break .
There is only so much silliness and lies we can take before we all need professional help to survive under this coalition Government and its endless drama that costs us the taxpayers financially, emotionally and mentally everyday.
Sa rauta mada .. enough is enough
What about the Indian women who were raped and the Indian men who were assaulted? iTaukei people stood around and watched, doing nothing and to a degree, encouraging it.
Why? Because they were Indians, and according to Rabuka, they have no future in Fiji’s politics, government or input into Fiji’s future. They are kai-India and need to go back to India.
I find this latest act by Rabuka to be a disgusting one. He has never sought forgiveness for the horrors his military goons and other iTaukeis inflicted on the Indians. It is his usual way of grandstanding and seeking attention, while he continues to implement his iTaukei blueprint quietly in the background.
Why is Rabuka not holding those who committed the atrocities in 87 to account? Why isn’t he seeking forgiveness from the Indian women and men whose lives were destroyed then?
He is an opportunistic and corrupt individual who uses religion, fake humility to get around issues and continue his ethnic cleansing.
Biman the Betrayer and Sashi Kiran the Tamarind Chutney face have no empathy for IndoFijian males in particular who endured beatings, arbitrary arrests and other acts of violence perpetrated on them by Rabuka’s thugs and the military.
Just can’t forget the vision of elderly IndoFijians downtown in Suva and at the vicinity of the then Travelodge hotel being punched and beaten by those Taukei Movement sons of bitches.
Biman and Sashi, whom GD describes also as the marama woman, are a disgrace to their community as a whole.
Can someone please make a statue of Rabuka somewhere so that I can pee on it.
In fact there may be many thousands who would want to shit on it as well.
Fijians both natives and those with immigrant background are hard working people.
Unfortunately, the domino effects set off in 1987 have pushed the itaukei into poverty and the Fijians of other origin towards prosperity. Others realized that the only escape was education while itaukei put their faith in cheifs and crook politicians who only filled their pockets.
It’s sad to see that 4 decades down, majority itaukei still have the very same mindset. Rabuka or any other chief isnt getting you guys out of poverty. Only you can. Go and work your land and educate your children…or in another 40 years the situation will still be the same.
Those itaukei cheering Biman on, remember he is an economics professor, he’s far wealthier that you will be in 7 generations. He will look after his interests, you come last. You will always be last in Fiji….especially with the coalition.
Correct Kava Farmer
The 1987 coup brought about the sense of self entitlement of the indigenous Fijian people.
We think we are superior than everyone else and because we own the “god given” resources and we should be prosperous.
This together with politicians using scare tactics that our land will be taken away by foreigners to ensure they remain in power is the major cause of our decline. Current poverty figures don’t lie.
The sooner we learn to work hard to achieve what we want and the quicker we learn to stop voting along racial lines and instead on party philosophies and policies, the quicker we will get out of this decline.
Rabuka’s claim that he is still suffering because of the 1987 coups is not only hypocritical but an insult to those who were the real victims of his actions.
Thousands of Indo-Fijians who endured violence, displacement, and the destruction of their dreams because of his coups are the ones who truly suffered. Rabuka’s latest attempt to paint himself as a victim is nothing more than a ploy to absolve himself of the consequences of his own actions.
If Rabuka truly wanted to disclose who was behind the 1987 coup, why does he have to wait for so long and wait for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)? He had multiple opportunities – when he was first elected Prime Minister, when he contested the last election, and even when he offered his so-called apology to Indo-Fijians after forming his government.
Yet, he has chosen to withhold this crucial information until now and will only tell when he appears before the TRC. This raises serious questions. What is he hiding? Who is he protecting and why? And why should the people of Fiji believe anything he says now when he has spent decades dodging the truth?
The role that was played by Sashi Kiran in the TRC until now is another clear attempt at political theatrics. By using Indo-Fijian to spearhead the process, Rabuka gave an impression of inclusivity and legitimacy.
However, Sashi doesn’t have the mandate of the Indo-Fijian community. In fact, her action to apologize to the chiefs, a move that was not endorsed by the wider Indo-Fijian community, raises serious concerns about her intention. What exactly does the Indo-Fijian community do to deserve an apology to the iTaukei chiefs? If anything, Indo-Fijians suffered immensely to build Fiji into a livable country. Sashi’s participation in this charade is a disgrace and betrayal of those who endured the horrors of Rabuka’s coups. Rabuka continues to look down upon the Indo-Fijians and treat them as vulagis, and people like Biman, Shashi and Agni have ignored this disgraceful behaviour of their leader.
Rabuka’s narrative has always shifted to suit his political ambitions. At one point, he justified his coup by claiming that he “helped” Indo-Fijians migrate to better lives abroad. This is the same man who led a coup that forced thousands to flee their homeland, stripping them of their rights and opportunities. Now he expects sympathy by claiming that he, too, has suffered? The audacity is staggering.
The reality is that Rabuka orchestrated the coup because he was driven by jealousy and a thirst for power. He could not stand seeing Indo-Fijians excel and dominate key sectors of the economy and government. His actions were never about national unity or progress-they were and still is about Itaukei dominance. He is a person who doesn’t like equal citizenry and common name Fijian for all citizens. He wants Fiji as a Christian state and Itaukei dominance at the expense of Indo-Fijians. Look at what he has done to the judiciary, ODPP, FICAC and other appointments.
If Rabuka is serious about reconciliation, he must come forward with the full truth – names, motives and all. A selective and politically convenient disclosure to TRC is not enough.
Rabuka has spent decades manipulating public sentiment, but his actions cannot be erased. The Indo-Fijian community and all Fijians who value democracy and justice should not fall for his latest attempt to rewrite history. The real suffering was endured by the victims of the coup, not by the man who orchestrated it.
Thirty seven years later he, as head of government that came in on a pack of lies has put the country in all sorts of crises and moral decay.
I have only 1 line for the snake.
Hell awaits you.
Rabuka’s friend Ratu Inoke was part of the 1987 Coup. He has benefited from most coups in Fiji. He is now Fijian High Commissioner to New Zealand. Why cant he be dismissed from this post?
We already know who was behind it. It was God apparently
Poor Sashi Kiran, she is a first rate donkey brain. What does she expect will be achieved by the Commission of Bullshit. It will most likely go the way the COI is going. Maybe even worse. This will be an opportunity for the Snake to seek even more glory.
There are no words to describe this vile, evil man. The blood and tears of the indo fijian community from 1987 will never make this country whole again. He has made sure of that. I hope he suffers and rots.
I would not believe a word Rabuka says! The ‘Snake’ is an apt name for him!
As for the much vaulted TRC, it is in my view a means to whitewash and that is all it will do!
A quick review of the many TRCs from many countries around the world such as South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Rwanda, Canada and our neighbour Solomon Islands, pointed to few things in common: limited mandate, lack of follow through, perpetrators not held accountable, lack of enforcement power and recommendations not implemented.
So Fiji – this is a waste of our time and our resources. Period!
Another Gold Rolex please, make it 2 this time. Or I will reveal the real names. The extra one for members of the family who are still suffering from the trauma of the coups.
The rolex donor and his community will install air-conditioning for rabaku in hell.
The satan will crank up the heat some more, and satan and judas will laugh their asses off.
Manipulate, scapegoat, play the victim, repeat.
He wrote 12 chapters in his biography.
The Indian women of Fiji will write the 13th chapter for him.
Rest in hell.
Rabuka: people will be summoned to attend. Only I am going voluntarily.
Journalist: so what happens if people don’t attend when they are summoned?
Rabuka: I don’t know. I think nothing happens.
Olei tutu. Go to bed and don’t wake up please. You are the national shame of Fiji.
Can’t help but think Idi Amin will form part of Rambo’s truth telling statement
All the Hot Air from expensive conferences, symposiums, workshops, tribunals, Commissions of Inquiry and Truth and Reconciliation commissions which lead to nothing, could be free fuel for a multitude of Hot Air Balloons to take tourists on an aerial view of the prevailing political landscape in Fiji!
Rambo is a serial liar. Crocodile tears at best.
He and his army cohorts and coup supporters like Naiqama and Kubuabola have continued to benefit financially from the 1987 coup.
The TRC is a waste of taxpayer’s funds. The money is better utilised to feed and house the beggars on Suva streets. Twenty years ago,there were no beggars on our streets.
Rambo and the army clowns have destroyed Fiji. Close it down!
A day late but thought I’d pen this anyway…
There is an adage which says..”The one who gets entangled in the pleasures of power never reaches THE TRUTH”
Coupist treasonous Rabuka has a guilty conscious and is trying to clear his name with the TRC.
Further to a GS reader referring to Rabuka’s Sunday ban.
The Sunday ban was lifted largely after the unprecedented happened. A then Fijian (now iTaukei) mother delivered her baby on Waimanu Rd when walking to CWM while the chauffeured Rabuka was in church praying like what he will be doing this weekend in Washington. Millennials, there were no bus, no taxi or public transport on Sundays in Fiji over 1987-1988. The closely-knit Indian community had cars and would help one another during such emergencies. But the poor (then and still now) Fijian, now iTaukeis, hardly had cars. Thanks to the faith, vision and brilliance of Rabuka, Lasaro, Raikivi and their elite stooges who all had cars. Wonder what was entered into the Place of Birth section in that citizen’s birth certificate. Certainly not Morrison Maternity as Graham’s would read.
I fully agree with what you have said, as a taukei myself. SLR appoints his own kaivata, or ex military people, some of whom are in their 60s and 70s to positions. Sad really as it is those of us better educated taukei who cannot contribute to development of this country and have to work for the private sector or out in other countries.
Like Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) said to Scarlet O”Hara (Vivien Leigh) in Gone With The WInd,
“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
But, I would like to change that to our modern day lingo, and that is:
“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a FCUK.”