KEY POINTS:
I hate this job," says Fiji's interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama when asked why he won't consider handing over the nation's top job to a civilian. "I firmly believe that countries should be run by elected governments, but not when they become corrupt and promote racist, discriminatory policies."
He says his military council believes that handing over the reins to a civilian government at this stage would delay the "clean up" process his interim regime has embarked on since ousting the Laisenia Qarase Government on December 5 last year.
He claims he is committed to returning the country to democratic rule by 2010. But there are questions over this date after he revealed last week that the redrawing of electoral boundaries would take longer than estimated and may delay the election schedule by several months.
But Bainimarama insists he is a reluctant coup leader. "We'd been warning the Qarase Government for years about the corruption it was condoning," he says. "What we were asking for was absolutely democratic. Exactly what we are doing now: get rid of corrupt politicians who'd been in jail, get rid of corrupt officials - one man would be on eight, 10 boards - these were just a group of people skimming a lot of money out of the system; get rid of policies and controversial legislations.
"If they'd done that, they would still be here. There were three bills that were going to be passed. We think if they were passed, that would have been the end of Fiji - especially the Qoliqoli and Reconciliation bills."
But what ultimately led to his action, after years of brinkmanship that pushed Fiji to near-coup situations several times in the past four years?
"My hand was forced," says Bainimarama. "In November, when I was in New Zealand, three high commissioners and ambassadors went up to the [army] camp to convince my troops and senior officers to stop following my orders - they were inciting mutiny. If they were successful, we would be fighting one another in the camp. But my troops knew what action they must take. They warned me immediately."
He declined to reveal who those diplomats were.
Was a coup necessary? If he is a firm believer in democracy, there surely must have been other ways of dealing with the situation? "The only way you can change things is through elections, that is the democratic way," Bainimarama says. "But in Fiji, all you have to do is, like they did last year, rig the elections - and they won."
There is no conclusive proof the elections were rigged. Though there have been questions raised by independent observers of the electoral process, such as the European Union, on the procedures, only two petitions have been filed in the courts so far. One was thrown out on a technicality and the other withdrawn.
But Bainimarama says there have been enough examples to make a case for cancelling the polls: "The report of the audit of elections has not been completed but I have seen part of it. I think we should go to the judiciary with an intent to declare the elections of last year null and void."
In the first few weeks after the takeover, dozens of civil servants were sacked and new ones appointed; but three months later, his interim government has little to show by way of the "clean up operation".
Bainimarama says a huge body of evidence has been accumulated but his administration is waiting for the Anti-corruption Commission legislation to be introduced in parliament in the next two weeks. "Once they have this legislation, they will start but in the meantime, the anti-corruption team has put allegations of corrupt practices and bribery in their respective investigations and are ready to go," he says.
The team comprises police officers and the military police assisted by military personnel. The cases will proceed in regular courts and the administration has appointed its own team of prosecutors. Bainimarama acknowledges there could be delays in the natural process of justice and says his administration will not interfere in any way.
"Just four, five months after December 5, we will have plenty to show the international community why we did what we did," he says. He hopes this will "clean up" the government and statutory bodies and bring in a work culture.
"By 2010 when the next elections come, their mindset will have changed and they will not need us any more - that's what we hope will happen," he adds.
He also hopes this will help to justify his action to Australia and New Zealand. "To them this is just another coup. It's not. They can't see the reality. Most people here didn't see December 5 as a coup. In any state with a military coup, you'd have people shooting each other down - nothing of the sort happened here," he says.
He claims the support of 95 per cent of the people. "Only the corrupt who are afraid of their wrongdoing being exposed are opposing [us]. We were also threatened by the NGOs, but later we discovered that they were funded by Australia and New Zealand."
There's nothing his administration can - or will - do about the sanctions imposed by Australia and New Zealand, he says. "It's unbelievable what Helen Clark is doing - stopping us from taking part in UN forces. She is on a personal vendetta against me so I need to do the same. I pleaded to the Fijian Indian community in Auckland last week to vote her out because it is really harming Fiji - sending all these pleas to the international community when it's got nothing to do with NZ."
Since the coup, there have been numerous allegations - especially from legal circles, journalists and pro-democracy activists - of people being rounded up, questioned, humiliated and even beaten by soldiers. Bainimarama acknowledges that there have been cases of human rights abuse and says it is one of his major concerns.
"We need to get rid of the human rights abuse by telling soldiers to follow human rights processes correctly. Our troops don't go out to do that intentionally. It's just that some of them think that's the way"
He dismisses suggestion he lacks control over his men and says he spends a lot of time with his troops explaining, "Don't abuse power, that is my lesson to troops since last year - and the other one is that it's a higher calling. We must not abuse that and stay on the right side."
Fiji's Media Council has expressed concerns about media freedom and said last week it welcomed the Prime Minister's statement that he condemned violence and force, and his commitment to the Bill of Rights. "Of course there is media freedom," assures Bainimarama. "What we are objecting to is false stories."
In the past two weeks , two journalists were picked up for questioning. Their media outlets have since apologised saying the alleged instances of human rights abuse by troops were falsely reported.
Bainimarama's pronouncements since December 5 have reinforced the view that this coup is pro-Indian. "The Indians support the Army because they know that if something goes wrong we'll be there, just as we'll be there for Fijians, Chinese, everyone else."
He is unconcerned by a possible indigenous backlash, though it is reported that he has a few top indigenous leaders under surveillance. He relates the case of a soldier who was asked to desert the Army by his chief, which he refused. "People have seen through their leaders, especially the crooked ones."
Bainimarama believes last week's budget, authored by Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, will put the economy back on the rails. In the wake of sanctions by Australia, New Zealand, Britain and the United States, he has sent delegations to China, India and Southeast Asia to bring in investment, tourists - and military co-operation.
Dealing with the findings of the Anti-Corruption Commission, legislative, structural and fiscal reform, rationalisation of the electoral system, addressing human rights violations, elections and transfer of power to a democratically elected government by 2010 - Bainimarama and his interim administration certainly have a lot on their plates.
* Dev Nadkarni is editor of news website islandsbusiness.com and is based in Auckland.
'They think I'm some sort of Idi Amin'
Bainimarama on the Eminent Persons' Group:
Australia and New Zealand took advantage of the draft by bashing Fiji again. There was no need because it was still a draft report. I can tell you what I thought - the make-up of the EPG was very much against Fiji.
In the first couple of minutes in my talks with the EPG, they likened Fiji to Zimbabwe and it came from none other than the former chief of the Australian Defence Force, a man supposedly learned and who should know better. He should be well-versed on international affairs and he likens Fiji to Zimbabwe. I objected and throughout the meeting he was trying to apologise for having made the comment. But it was too late, the comment had come out of him. Unbelievable. So they'd made up their minds before they came here.
Last week one of my soldiers' wife wanted to go to New Zealand for medical treatment and she had to answer six questions about me - if she was related to Bainimarama, whether her husband socialised with me, whether he drank grog with me - all these questions for a visa. Unbelievable. Maybe that kind of thing led to the Australian Defence Force chief's comment. They think I'm some sort of Idi Amin.
