Coup leader Speight 'got in first'

By GEOFF CUMMING and NAOMI LARKIN

Early Friday morning on May 19 and troubled Suva businessman George Speight, aged 45, phones home.

He exchanges pleasantries with his father, Sam Speight, an Opposition MP.

Then he says: "Dad, I'm going to overthrow the Government today."

A few hours later - and despite his father's efforts to dissuade him - he does.

At 10 am, an anti-Government march downtown has attracted a few thousand nationalists as Parliament gets down to business. It is a year to the day since Mahendra Chaudhry took office as Fiji's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister.

His deputy, Dr Tupeni Baba, is three sentences into a report on a social justice bill when Speight and nine masked gunmen burst in, brandishing weapons.

One of three reporters in the press gallery is Matelita Ragogo of the Fiji Times. Other observers are a group of Fiji Institute of Technology graphic arts students.

"There was yelling and nine armed men ran into the chamber," says Ragogo. "Two were flanking George Speight, who was unarmed, and the three walked up to the Speaker's chair."

Wearing a sulu, blue shirt and baseball cap, Speight is in control from the outset, she recalls.

His henchmen quickly secure the room. The students are told to leave but the gunmen have forgotten about the three journalists in the press gallery. They are later ordered out.

"The Speaker stood up and said, 'What's this?'" says Ragogo.

Speight orders the Opposition members to leave the chamber. Three members, including his father, remain seated.

"George kept telling them they must go outside but the Speaker, Dr Atenisa Kuruisagila, said, 'No, this is an illegal takeover.'

"A gun went off - one shot - there was a verbal exchange and a second shot was fired. That's when the rest of the Opposition decided to go."

Prime Minister Chaudhry is handcuffed, dragged across the floor and forced to kneel beside the secretary's table. Deputy Prime Minister Baba is made to kneel alongside.

Downtown, the protest march descends into chaos as news of the takeover breaks. Phone lines are cut, shops are looted and buildings torched.

That a small band of disgruntled nationalists could so easily bring down Chaudhry's democratically elected regime seems inconceivable outside Fiji.

Conjecture is rife that powerful factions assisted Speight, ranging from disaffected businesspeople to 1987 coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka. But the ease with which Speight's band gained control suggests they needed little help - they simply jumped the queue.

"Dissatisfaction with the Government was such that anyone could have done what George Speight did," said one Suva-based analyst.

Extreme nationalists have plotted Chaudhry's overthrow since he took office. Despite setting out to improve the lot of ordinary Fijians and Indians alike, former unionist Chaudhry played into his opponents' hands. His crackdown on corruption, including the cancellation of contracts let by the previous Administration, angered Opposition MPs adjusting to backbencher salaries.

His confrontational approach to land issues alienated Fijians while his efforts to change the constitution, to allow the cabinet to advise him directly, were seen as undermining the roles of the President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, and the Great Council of Chiefs.

His efforts to redistribute wealth eroded support among wealthy Indian and Fijian businesspeople.

The revival of the Taukei nationalist movement and the protest marches that began in April were clear signs that his Government was living on borrowed time.

Helping the Taukei movement to foment protest was the Opposition SVT party, led until the last election by ousted Prime Minister Rabuka.

Traditionally the main party of indigenous Fijians, it was decimated in the election after forging an alliance (since dissolved) with the Fiji-Indian National Federation Party.

Last month, Agriculture Minister and Chaudhry loyalist Poseci Bune accused the SVT of planning "seditious activities" against the Government. It admitted only to organising marches and collecting signatures.

Speight is part of the Taukei movement and has named his administration the Taukei civilian government. His links to SVT politicians include his father, his mentor Jim Ah Koy and others from the fiercely nationalist Tailevu province.

He claims to represent the interests of indigenous Fijians. Explaining his actions to the Great Council of Chiefs this week, he said the events of May 19 were the culmination of 12 months of frustration, anger, disappointment and outrage over Chaudhry's dealings with indigenous Fijians.

But he had personal reasons to oppose the Chaudhry Administration - it had made his life a misery since taking office.

In June, Poseci Bune, now a hostage, sacked Speight as chairman of Fiji Pine. Shortly after, the Fiji Hardwood Corporation, which he chaired, lost a lucrative Government harvesting contract.

Speight was under investigation for alleged misappropriation of $US25,000 belonging to the logging company to a personal account in Australia.

A business graduate with degrees in marketing, management and finance from Andrews University in Michigan, he is linked to an emerging elite of brash, Western-educated businesspeople who are challenging the Fijian political Establishment.

Whether SVT figures plotted with Speight in advance of the coup remains unclear but they are now well placed to benefit from his actions. Observers believe the likes of Opposition leader Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, veteran politician Berenado Vunibobo and Jim Ah Koy could emerge as powerful players in the coup aftermath.

The only MP who has admitted to advance knowledge of the coup is Speight's father, who took that early morning phone call.

What is known is that when Speight stormed into Parliament, just behind him was a crack soldier, Colonel Ilisoni Ligairi, who once trained members of the British SAS.

The 60-year-old in charge of the logistics was appointed by Rabuka to head an elite Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit (CRWU) of the Fijian Army after the 1987 coups.

Second in the military chain of command, until Wednesday, was Vilimoni Tikotani, known as Commander Bill. A sergeant in the CRWU, he was sent from the parliamentary compound after claiming he executed the coup, although he was back on duty yesterday.

Shailendra Singh, editor of the business monthly the Review, says the only ones not expecting the coup were Chaudhry and his immediate advisers.

Despite the open participation of backbench MPs in Taukei meetings discussing strategies to remove his Government, he pushed on with controversial land tenure and constitutional changes. Even his supporters thought he was moving too fast, says Singh.

Tighter security at Parliament House may have saved his Administration. The lack of it reflected how out of touch his Government was.

More Fiji coup coverage

Main players in the Fiji coup

Under seige: map of the Parliament complex