Fiji Will Remain Unstable While Indigenous People Are Economically Sidelined, Ex-Coup Convict Says

Margot
Staunton RNZ Pacific senior journalist

A former
coup convict in Fiji claims the country will remain unstable
while the iTaukei (indigenous people) are economically
marginalised.

Josefa ‘Jo’ Nata, who spent 24 years in
jail for treason, told the Fijian government’s Truth and
Reconciliation Commission that “the lot of [the] iTaukei has
not improved a single bit [as a result of the coups], if
anything their situation has regressed”.

“Indigenous
[iTaukei] should never again be hoodwinked into supporting
any coup supposedly carried out in their name, to raise
their standard of living or correct supposed past
injustices,” the 68-year-old said.

Fiji has been
rocked by four coups since gaining independence in 1970. The
first two, in May and September 1987, were led by
then-military lieutenant Sitiveni Rabuka, who is the current
prime minister.

In 1999, Mahendra Chaudhry was sworn
in as the country’s first Indo-Fijian prime minister. Nata
was a political advisor in the Fijian Association Party, a
coalition partner in the Labour-led
government.

Chaudhry’s election stoked racial tension
in Fiji and a year later, the Republic of Fiji Military
Forces (RFMF) rebel, Counter-Revolutionary Warfare (CRW)
unit soldiers, led by businessman George Speight, staged an
armed takeover. Chaudhry and his government were held
hostage for 56 days.

Nata became the public face of
the coup on 14 May 2000, and although he told the Truth and
Reconciliation Commissionin May that he was not involved in
planning it, he admits he played a key role as a
negotiator.

“Without realising it, I was getting
myself involved. So much so that I was the one administering
the oath of office at [swearing-in] before usurper-nominated
President Ratu Jope Seniloli,” he told the
Commission.

“My face was plastered on TV on every home
around Fiji and around the world. The overseas parachute
press had started to drop in. If I think back now, the whole
charade was a burlesque of Pygmalion proportion.”

Nata
told the Commission that despite the negative press over the
role of the CRW unit in the coup, its soldiers prevented
even worse atrocities from occurring to the hostages,
including the “last cannibal feast” and “planned
assassinations of key people”.

He also claimed that
the unit prevented Parliament House in the capital, Suva,
from being torched to the ground once it was
empty.

According to Nata, the CRW unit was abandoned
by those who had allegedly orchestrated events from behind
the scenes.

“The unit was left in the lurch carrying
the baby. The masters did not show up,” he said.

Nata
said that while the court later branded him as one of the
masterminds of the coup, that honour belonged
elsewhere.

Since his release from jail on 20 December
2023, he has campaigned against coups.

“No coup, in my
view, can ever be justified … for those misadventures we
know as coups were based on lies, visions of grandeur and
opportunism,” Nata told the Commission.

“I have been
labelled an opportunist. I do not push back. I accept,
worse, I was a hypocrite.”

“I was a traitor, as the
court rightly described me. I betrayed my chief, the late
Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, the government, the people I worked
with and the profession that gave me wings,” he
said.

“The reality of unlawful takeovers is that one
group of people will suffer more than others. In 1987 and
2000, it was the Indians that suffered. 2006 gave Fijians
our fair dessert,” he said.

Despite living together
for over 150 years, indigenous Fijians and Fijians of Indian
heritage continued to live largely separate lives, Nata
claimed.

Although he admitted that there were examples
of strong inter-ethnic relations in certain towns and
districts, such as the old capital Levuka, Savusavu, Labasa
and Ba, he said these were exceptional
situations.

Nata told the Commission that politics was
not the answer, and that Fiji needed intentional and
deliberate collaboration at the community level to bridge
the divide.

“There should be a willingness to come
together. Our ethnic and collective identity and openness
are not necessarily opposing poles. It could be the vehicle
to bring us together,” he said.

Nata also warned
against becoming trapped in the past, saying ignoring
difficult truths would not pave the way for true
reconciliation.

He urged all Fijians to confront
unresolved issues together to build a brighter
future.

“We should revisit, untangle, rebuild and move
forward together,” he told the Commission.

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