Pesi Fonua
NUKU'ALOFA (Matangi Tonga/Pacific Media Watch): Lieutenant-Colonel Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara, one of four Fijian senior military officers who with Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the democratically elected government of Fiji on 5 December 2006, has confessed that what they did was illegal.
"I want a democratic government back in Fiji. I know it is strange coming from me, since I was part of the military that overthrew the democratically elected government in 2006, but that is what I would like to see happen in Fiji. It has also been finally realised that what we did was illegal. We have to go back to democratic rule there is no two ways about it," he said in Nuku'alofa this week.
He is talking about uniting the groups that are opposing the military regime of Voreqe Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and "in the coming weeks we will take a more pro-action stance".
Lt Col Mara said that today only one of the military officers remained beside Bainimarama who "no longer listens to the Military Council".
Suva court
Ratu Tevita, now on the run from the Fiji military regime, was "rescued at sea" and brought to Nuku'alofa by the Tongan Navy on May 13.
Commodore Bainimarama says Ratu Tevita remains a fugitive who jumped bail and is scheduled to appear in court in Suva on Monday, May 30 charged with sedition.
But in an interview with Matangi Tonga on May 23, Ratu Tevita told me that he decided to leave Fiji because he believed that the judicial system in Fiji was corrupted and he would not get a fair hearing.
"Myself and Pita Driti are both senior military officers, and our case should be heard in a Military Tribunal, but of course Cmdr Bainimarama doesn't want that to happen, and the Attorney-General Sayed-Khaiyum advised that we should be tried in a civilian court.
"In fact, both Bainimarama and Khaiyum should be charged with sedition, for they are the ones who are going around making seditious remarks, saying that the President should step down," alleged Ratu Tevita.
Broken promises
He said that the Military Council, made up of the officers who staged the coup in 2006, had begun to question some of the decisions that were implemented by the regime toward the end of 2007 and early 2008.
"Most of us in the council realised that we were no longer working toward achieving the objective of the 2006 coup, which was to return Fiji to democratic rule.
"On February 2008, Bainimarama announced the roadmap back to democracy for Fiji, with an election to take place in 2010. But that was his first broken promise when he deferred the election to 2014.
"The roadmap was put together by the Military Council. It was a clearly defined path that we were supposed to follow, and it included all the changes that we wanted to make to the system to restore democratic rule in Fiji.
"But when Bainimarama abrogated the Constitution in 2009, he clearly shifted away from that roadmap; he was no longer discussing anything with the Military Council; he was no longer listening to the Military Council; it was just all between him and his AG, [Aiyaz] Sayed-Khaiyum.
"We by then knew that something went terribly wrong. If you look at people around him who were with him in 2006, [of the] senior military officers, there is only one left Brigadier [Mohammed] Aziz. Commodore [Esala] Teleni has gone to China, while myself and Driti [former land forces commander] have been put aside, and we have been charged, so there is hardly anyone left from the original group."
Removal of special rights
Ratu Tevita said it was clear that the regime was working toward implementing the ideas in a Sayed-Khaiyum's master's thesis, "Cultural Autonomy, its implication for the nation-state, the Fijian Experience", where he said that Khaiyum advocated the elimination of special rights for indigenous people and the removal of the right of indigenous Fijians to own land exclusively.
"Khaiyum had written the thesis and Bainimarama is using the Fiji military to turn this thesis into a reality," alleged Ratu Tevita. "He has [already] nullified the two paramount institutions for Fijians, the Great Council of Chiefs and the Methodist Church."
Bainimarama sacked the GCC in 2007 and declared that the annual conference of the Methodist Church, the biggest church in Fiji which usually runs for two weeks, has been reduced to only a day.
While the Methodist Church has been calling for a return to democratic rule since 2006. They have been the most vocal, but Bainimarama and Khaiyum further strengthened their influence in the community by removing Fijian chiefs from being head of provincial councils and replacing them with military people.
At Consular House in Nuku'alofa, Ratu Mara is a guest of Tonga's King George Tupou V
Ratu Tevita said that the dismantling of the Great Council of Chiefs GCC in 2007 was "the biggest insult" that had been done to the Fijian race.
"He has been boasting that he had successfully put aside the GCC, and he changed the Land and the Fishing Right Acts for the betterment of the Fijian people, but it is not happening. The economic disparity between the other races and the Fijians is still widening. As I said, he is the only one that is talking about his success. People are just getting fed-up that all that they are hearing in the media is the government's success, because of the censorship, but on the ground it is a different story."
2014 elections
The regime has declared that there will be elections in 2014.
But Ratu Tevita said that Bainimarama had mentioned within the Military Council circle that he was not interested in running for election in 2014, but was talking about implementing a Presidential System like that of Indonesia and had alluded that he was interested in taking over the presidency.
"There is nothing in place. There are no concrete steps that have been set down in Fiji toward having an election in 2014, and now he is talking about introducing the presidential system of Indonesia to Fiji.
"The fear in Fiji is about democracy, of letting people have democratic rights. That is why the oppression measures are in place to scare people from speaking out against the regime.
"The best solution for us is to go back to the 1997 constitution, and with the constitution we can have a system in place that can help us solve all these problems," said Ratu Tevita.
Opposition groups
Ratu Tevita is talking to opposition groups in Fiji.
"People back home are slowly realising that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is someone who is talking about returning to democratic rule. There are various groups who are opposing the military regime of Bainimarama and Khaiyum, when we will be united we will be stronger and our voice can be heard. In the coming weeks we will take a more pro-action stance," he said.
Ratu Tevita said he would also be making contact with overseas countries, such as Australia and New Zealand.
"I am moving in that direction and I know that the New Zealand prime minister is in favour of the course that I am fighting for and I am taking it up with them."
Pesi Fonua is publisher and editor of Matangi Tonga.
Pacific Media Watch
