Sitiveni Rabuka

Sitiveni Rabuka
image:rabuka.jpg
Term of Office:
*Prime Minister:
*Chairman, Great Council of Chiefs:

2 June 1992 - 19 May 1999
1999 - 3 May 2001
Order:
*Prime Minister:
*Chairman, Great Council of Chiefs:

3rd Prime Minister
1st Chairman
Followed:
*Prime Minister:
*Chairman, Great Council of Chiefs:

Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara
none (new office)
Succeeded by:
*Prime Minister:
*Chairman, Great Council of Chiefs

Mahendra Chaudhry
Ratu Epeli Ganilau
Date of Birth13 September, 1948
Place of Birth:Nakobo, on Vanua Levu Island
Wife:Suluweti Camaivuna Tuiloma (1975)
Occupation:soldier and farmer
Political Party:Fijian Political Party
(Soqosoqo Vakavulewa ni Taukei)

Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, OBE, (born September 13, 1948) is best known as the instigator of two military coups that shook Fiji in 1987. He was later democratically elected Prime Minister, serving from 1992 to 1999. He later served as Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs, and is currently Chairman of the Cakaudrove Provincial Council, a position he has held since 2002. He was reelected to this position for another three-year term on 13 April 2005.

Contents

Early life and military career

The son of Kolonio E.V. Rabuka and Salote Lomaloma Rabuka, he comes from the village of Nakobo on Vanua Levu, one of Fiji's two major islands. Rabuka was trained initially in New Zealand army schools, from which he graduated in 1973, and later did postgraduate work at the Indian Defence Services Staff College in 1979, and at the Australian Joint Services Staff College in 1982. He was a senior operation plans manager for UNIFIL peacekeeping troops in Lebanon in 1980 and 1981. On his return home, he was appointed Army Chief of Staff. From 1982 to 1987, he was an operations and training officer for the Fijian army, except for a two-year absence (1983-1985) when he commanded the Fiji Battalion as part of a peacekeeping force in the Sinai.

The 1987 coups

Rabuka, by now a colonel, emerged suddenly from obscurity on 13 May 1987 when he staged the first of two military coups to reassert ethnic Fijian supremacy, following the 1987 election, which had brought an Indo-Fijian (ethnic Indian)-dominated government to power. Deposing the elected government, he handed power over to the Governor-General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, a high chief whom he expected to implement ethnic Fijian interests. When, however, Ganilau attempted to reinstate the abrogated constitution, Rabuka carried out a second coup on 28 September that year. He proclaimed a republic, abolishing the 113-year link to the British Monarchy. He handed over power on December 5 to an interim administration, headed by Ganilau as President and Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara as Prime Minister, but remained Commander of the Army and Minister of Home Affairs, the National Youth Service, and the Auxiliary Army Service. Ganilau and Mara did not feel strong enough to dismiss Rabuka, but the public support they enjoyed as high chiefs was such that he did not feel strong enough to depose them. An uneasy truce existed between Ganilau and Mara on the one hand and Rabuka on the other.

Prime Minister of Fiji

Following the adoption in 1990 of a new Constitution that guaranteed ethnic Fijian domination of the political system, Rabuka was chosen to lead the newly-formed Fijian Political Party in 1991. This party won the parliamentary election of 1992 and Rabuka became Prime Minister. His government was weakened from the outset, however, by a leadership challenge by former Finance Minister Josefata Kamikamica. In 1994, Kamikamica left the party with five of his supporters, depriving Rabuka of a parliamentary majority. A parliamentary election to resolve the impasse was held three years early; the Fijian Political Party won a plurality but fell two seats short of an absolute majority in the 70-member House of Representatives. Rabuka formed a coalition with the small General Voters Party, a small party supported almost entirely by General Electors, who comprised Europeans, Chinese, and other minorities. He also agreed to negotiate with moderate leaders of the Indo-Fijian community to draft a controversial new Constitution, which removed most of the provisions that had biased the political system in favour of indigenous Fijians.

The elections of 1999 were the first in many years to see real competition between ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians for power. Rabuka lost these elections, and was replaced by Mahendra Chaudhry, the first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister.

The 2000 coup and Queen Elizabeth Barracks mutiny

Following his electoral defeat, Rabuka was elected Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs. He was forced to relinquish this post in 2001, however, in the wake of allegations made against him by former President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara of complicity in the Fiji coup of 2000, which deposed both Mara and the Indo-Fijian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, on May 19, 2000. Claiming that the coup leader George Speight - who was then in custody and has since been convicted of treason - was only a front, Mara appeared on Close-Up on Fiji Television on April 30, 2001, and revealed that on May 21, 2000, two days after the coup, he had confronted Rabuka and Isikia Savua, the police chief, about their possible involvement in it. "I could see it in their faces," Mara declared. Ratu Mara told the programme that within half an hour of Speight's forcible occupation of the Parliament, Rabuka had telephoned Government House (the official residence of the President) to offer to form a government. He further alleged that the Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit of the Army had been involved in the coup after receiving training on a farm owned by Rabuka. These charges were repeated on the floor of the Senate on 23 October 2004 by Adi Koila Nailatikau, Mara's daughter.

Rabuka was also accused of instigating or supporting the mutiny that took place at Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks on 2 November 2000. In an interview with the Fiji Times on 12 November 2000, the Military Commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama charged that while the revolt was in progress, Rabuka had visited the barracks with his army uniform in the car, ready to take over command of the army. He also allegedly started issuing orders to soldiers. "Rabuka's words to one of my colonels at the height of the shootings raised my suspicions," Bainimarama said. "He said the Colonel should listen to his instructions. He also criticised my leadership." Bainimarama accused Rabuka of leading soldiers astray by using "confusing" and "deceiving" words.

Bainimarama also accused Rabuka of having "politicized" the Counter Revolutionary Warfare (CRW) unit, which he had founded as a bodyguard in 1987, to favour both the mutiny and the earlier takeover of parliament in May. Members of the CRW were involved in both the May coup and the November mutiny.

Bainimarama's version was supported by Lieutenant Colonel Viliame Seruvakula, who led the counteroffensive to put down the mutiny. On 13 November 2000, he said that rebels interrogated by the military had implicated Rabuka. He accused Rabuka of trying to take civilians into the barracks to act as human shields for the mutineers, and stated that Rabuka's intention was to "claim military leadership and ultimately overthrow the Government of the day."

Rabuka, a retired officer, denied supporting the mutiny, but refused to comment on an accusation from Bainimarama that he had called a meeting of senior officers loyal to him to depose Bainimarama.

Rabuka denied these allegations, both then and since, but his denials have not ended the controversy. On 14 May 2005, the New Zealand Herald reported in its Weekend Herald edition that the Fiji police force was close to making a decision on whether to charge certain unnamed individuals, one of whom the Herald believed to be Rabuka. The report quoted Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes as saying that a major hindrance to their investigation was a cone of silence among the close associates of the suspects.

Present controversies

In 2004, the Fijian government announced that Rabuka would be Fiji's next Ambassador to Washington D.C. Continuing suspicions about his involvement in the 2000 coup, however, thwarted the appointment, with the American State Department reportedly rejecting him as unsuitable. On 27 May 2005, the Fijian government finally appointed Jesoni Vitusagavulu, a businessman and former banker, to the post instead.

Rabuka is noted for his propensity to walk both sides of the street politically. In 2004 he called for Chaudhry to be reinstated as Prime Minister, despite his having lost the 2001 election that was held to restore democracy. On March 17 2005, however, he declared that no Indo-Fijian should ever expect to lead Fiji, and called on Indo-Fijians to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi, who, despite her assimilation to Indian culture, declined to become Prime Minister of India.

Rabuka has taken a measured position in relation to the government's proposed Reconciliation and Unity Commission, which will be empowered to recommend amnesty for perpetrators of the 2000 coup and compensation for its victims. This is in contrast to the great majority of politicians, who have taken a hard stand either for it or against it. On 19 May 2005, Rabuka said that the objective of the commission should not merely be to grant amnesty and compensation, but to uncover the truth about who was involved in the coup, directly or indirectly. "It should be able to get to all those who were behind the coup and not only us who were widely accused of taking part. It should be able to reveal those who planned it, financed it and executed it," Rabuka said. The prospect of amnesty, he said, might encourage some individuals to come forward who might otherwise be unwilling to talk.

In early 2005, Rabuka ruled himself out of contesting the 2006 parliamentary election, but on May 7 said he was reconsidering, following appeals from Fijian businessmen and former politicians to be part of a move to unite all ethnically Fijian parties in a joint ticket to contest the next election. "I am genuinely interested because I have always been for Fijian unity," he said. He has stressed that he believes that political unity among indigenous Fijians is essential to prevent the election of an Indo-Fijian dominated government in 2006. He admitted, however, that he was seen as "a stumbling block" by many, but added, "I want to change all that." On 29 May, he said that political unity among the Fijian people should not be looked at half-heartedly as a possibility but wholeheartedly as a need. He accused Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, who has also called for unity among ethnic Fijians, of hypocrisy, saying that in the 1990s there was only one mainstream Fijian party, but that others had split from it and founded numerous competing groups. Qarase and his United Fiji Party were implied to be among those responsible for the disunity.


Preceded by:
Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara
Prime Minister of Fiji
1992 - 1999
Succeeded by:
Mahendra Chaudhry
Preceded by:
none
Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs
1999 - 2001
Succeeded by:
Ratu Epeli Ganilau

Template:End boxpl:Sitiveni Rabuka nl:Sitiveni Rabuka

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