Q1. What factors led to Fiji's 2000 Coup. Identify the role played by George Speight during the Coup? [Discussion Forum Question]
Q2. What do you understand of the hostage crisis and how it was resolved? [Tutorial Questions]
The Fiji coup of 2000 was a complicated affair involving a civilian coup d'état by hardline i-Taukei nationalists against the elected government of a Fijian of Indian Descent Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry on 19 May 2000, the attempt by President Sir Mara to assert executive authority on 27 May, and his own resignation, possibly forced, on 29 May. An interim government headed by Commodore Frank Bainimarama was set up, and handed power over to an interim administration headed by Ratu Josefa Iloilo, as President, on 13 July. In 1997, following the Reeves Commission Report, Fiji promulgated a new constitution. It was easily the most democratic in the country's history. As an attempt to accommodate a divided society, it provided electoral and power-sharing mechanisms designed to encourage the majority to offer fair representation to all communities, through partnership opportunities within coalition government. This constitution proclaimed Fiji a multiracial society seeking to promote social justice, the economic and social advancement of all. Fijian businessman who was convicted of treason and sentenced to life in prison for leading a coup against the government in 2000 known as George Speight. Speight’s mother was an ethnic Fijian, and his father was a well-to-do farmer of Fijian-European descent who later became a member of Parliament. 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., having been blamed for financial irregularities at the company. Declaring that he was defending the rights of ethnic Fijians against the increasing power of the country’s ethnic Indian minority, George Speight led a small group of armed men to the Parliament complex in Suva, the capital, on May 19, 2000, and took Prime Minister Chaudhry and about 40 other legislators hostage. Speight and his followers then demanded that Fiji’s constitution be replaced so that ethnic Indians would be excluded from government, amnesty would be granted to those who had participated in the coup, and he and his supporters would have a voice in choosing the new government. 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. The amnesty agreement was later declared invalid because the military commander had signed “under duress.” Soon after Speight was arrested, his supporters created incidents of civil disorder in many parts of Fiji and clashed with the army. After complaining that he and others had been assaulted by soldiers while in custody, Speight pleaded not guilty to charges of unlawful assembly and failing to disarm. In August Speight and 16 of his followers were also charged with treason. While he was being held in prison, Speight was elected to Parliament in September 2001 but was dismissed that December because of his inability to attend in person. In February 2002 Speight was convicted of treason and sentenced to death; the sentence was later commuted to life in prison.