Discussion Question
In May, 1999 the government was defeated in the election that brought ethnic Indian Mahendra Chaudhry and his Fiji Labour Party to power. With his father out of office, Speight lost much of his political clout and, partly as a result, was fired as chairman of the two timber companies in 1999. He also lost his job as a local managing director of the insurance brokering firm Heath Fiji, Ltd. All these conditions were met on July 9 under the terms of an amnesty accord reached between Fiji’s military and the rebels, who carried through on their promise to release the hostages. On July 26, however, Speight was arrested and taken into custody.
Tutorial Question
The rebels are indigenous Fijians who said the nation’s large ethnic Indian minority had too much power. They demanded that the country’s multiracial constitution be scrapped and that Chaudhry, Fiji’s first ethnic Indian prime minister, be deposed. In the days after the seizure, Speight supporters looted and burned ethnic Indian homes and businesses, and many Indians made plans to flee the country. The violence led Fiji’s military to declare martial law. Later in the day the Great Council of Chiefs, Fiji’s traditional power, elected Ratu Josefa Iloilo, as the country’s new president.