IDENTIFY THE REASONS FOR THE 2006 COUP? WHICH WERE THE CONTROVERSIAL BILLS THAT LED TO THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN THE MILITARY AND GOVERNMENT DURING THE PHASE BETWEEN 2000 – 2006? (500 – 800 WORDS)
• The existence of the Fiji’s coup in 2006 contribute to the outbreak of many disputes and challenges where the Great Council Of Chiefs , Military and the government continue to separated and join the two whether to join the opposition or the supporters , so the occurrence of this 2006 coup has been rooted for so many reasons where on May 200 when Commodore Bainimarama, the Commander of the RFMF, was heavily involved in resolving the 2000 coup and he removed the President Ratu Mara Kamisese and assumed this role under the Doctrine of Necessity. After several months of negotiations, he was then able to bring an end to the crisis through an agreement that gave many concessions to the coup perpetrators and set up Qarase as the new interim Prime Minister. Soon after, the agreement broke down and Bainimarama had many of those who were involved arrested. This resulted in a mutiny by those within the RFMF with connections to the coup perpetrators, during which Bainimarama’s life was directly threatened. In relation to this there are sorts of the controversial bills that led to the confrontation between the Military and the government during the phase of (2000 to 2006) which shows that Bainimarama wanted proper prosecution of the perpetrators of the 2000 coup whereas SDL/CAMV Government (formed after 2001 election) often did not follow through on this and at times ensured the early release of the most high profile convicts. There were prominent four instances of high tension between the Government and the military: Bainimarama’s reappointment in 2004, the Unity Bill dispute in 2005, the January 2006 coup threat, and the 2006 election. The conflict started in early October 2006, when the RFMF issued a three-week ultimatum to the Government to dispose of the Promotion of Reconciliation Tolerance and Unity Bill [2005] (grant amnesty to the 2000 coup plotters and perpetrators), the Qoliqoli Bill (which concerned indigenous rights over reefs) and the Indigenous Claims Tribunal Bill [2006], or to resign. Later new demands added to this was made that Andrew Hughes be removed from the post of Police Commissioner, and for the Police to drop the investigations that they were conducting into Bainimarama’s comments and actions against the Government.
• The controversial bills which led to this confrontation between the government and the military was the Unity Bill, the Qoliqoli Bill and the Indigenous Claims Tribunal Bill, upon the sending of the ultimatums towards the government in terms of disposing of the bills since it was considered as biased towards the people, since the constitution is being based upon unity and integration these bills would paint a bad image towards the international forums and towards the indo- Fijian community. Therefore this bills were mainly concern on the full qoliqoli which were the fishing grounds of the indigenous people, reconciliation of the coup perpetrators , for example Bainimarama has tried his best to give the full punishment of the coup makers in the 2000 coup whereas the government are easily releasing the highest convicts , and lastly the indigenous tribunal bill. There bills were mainly divided and more corrupted. Hence the military wanted to intervene and put an end towards these form of segregation. Therefore upon the leadership and taking over of the interim government there has been a new reforms and a form of clean up for the government of the Fiji despite the disputes from the past and misleading. These controversial bills obviously created a tension where the military and the government begin to pressurize each other and later affect the governing system an all the aspects of the democracy in Fiji with a goal where race shouldn’t be separated from one another .To sum up with this events the incident that happened during the year of 2006 it was also known as the era where coup to end all coup for the purpose in regarding to the Fiji political conflict needed to be solved.