Ratu Tevita plans 'pro-democracy' diplomatic tours in US, Pacific

Former Fijian lieutenant-colonel and now political fugitive Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara is departing New Zealand for Tonga today, and plans to make a whirlwind tour to the US and around the Pacific over the next month to promote "democracy".

He is planning to visit Samoa, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, before returning to Auckland for the Pacific Islands Forum in early September.

Speaking at the Papatoetoe Town Hall at a meeting organised by the Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement New Zealand on Saturday night, Ratu Mara said he was still garnering support from other Pacific nations for his cause of bringing democracy back to Fiji.

'Unelected, illegal and corrupt'
He had particularly harsh words for the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, Danny Philip, who has supported Bainimarama resuming chairmanship of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

“The Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands conveniently forgets that many Fijian soldiers gave their lives for that country during World War Two and now is he siding with an unelected illegal and corrupt regime,” he said.

“With the support of the Solomon Islands, [the regime] has resumed chairmanship of the MSG and its plan is to use it as a front against Australia and New Zealand.”

Ratu Mara plans on visiting Samoa first, after being invited by Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi when they met in Australia last month.

The former military officer, who fled Fiji in May after being charged with sedition, called on the 400-strong audience and all people to unite against what he repeatedly referred to as the “illegal regime”.

Paraphrasing the American Declaration of Independence, he said: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive it is the right of the people to abolish it.”

He criticised the scaling back of freedom of movement, freedom of association and of the press, and said Fiji had deteriorated considerably since Bainimarama took power in 2006.

“It was not too long ago that the official tourist slogan for Fiji was ‘Fiji: the way the world should be’,” he said.

“I feel so sad and disillusioned to tell you that Fiji is now the way the world should not be.

“A fundamental right of every citizen is the right to free speech, the right to dissent. That right no longer exists. Citizens who speak out against the ruling regime’s excesses and abuse of office are arrested by the military, not the police and are taken to military headquarters, where they are beaten, kicked, and even tortured.

“And not only men, but women as well. And not only Fijians, but Indians and general voters as well.”

More 'tyranny' to come
Ratu Mara lamented the dissolution of the Great Council of Chiefs, the militarisation of the public service, as well as the Methodist Church and the new ‘Land Use Bank’, which is being developed in the wake of last year’s Land Use Decree.

“The Fijians are worried they will lose what they inherited from their forefathers,” he said.

He spoke of “heinous and tyrannical acts” on the horizon such as the establishment of a munitions factory in Fiji, which he said would have serious consequences.

He then accused the Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, of planning to rig the 2014 elections, with the use of voting machines.

“This is another sinister plan,” he said.

“I doubt elections will be held in 2014, but in case they are held, you can imagine what the illegal regime has in store with rigged voting machines.”

Ratu Mara said it was unrealistic that Bainimarama was attempting to change attitudes in Fiji with regard to voting and racial issues.

“That changes with time, and will only happen under a democratic system,” he said.

He supported the “Transitional Plan for Democracy in Fiji” explained by former Land Forces Commander Jone Baledrokadroka, who is a visiting research fellow at Canberra’s Australian National University, and was present at the meeting.

Baledrokadroka said the two most important points were to pressure the regime to drop the Public Emergency Regulations and to withdraw the military from the public sphere.

Mara preaches to the 'old guard'