Military strongman Frank Baini-marama was widely regarded as a national hero when he brokered a peaceful resolution to Fiji's last coup in 2000.
Six years later, that reputation is in tatters after the former peacemaker said yesterday that he had taken control of the country from the elected government and dismissed the prime minister of this picturesque South Pacific island nation.
Bainimarama's finest hour came when he ended the nationalist coup of 2000 without bloodshed and restored democratic rule. The indigenous Fijian of low tribal status became a hero of the ethnic-Indian minority while his role split the ethnic Fijian majority.
Fijian nationalists led by failed businessman George Speight had stormed the Parliament and took prisoner for 56 days the country's first Indo-Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry, plus more than 50 government ministers and lawmakers.
Bainimarama forced the then-president, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, to resign and declared martial law before the nationalists, jealous of Indo-Fijian political power, surrendered.
Bainimarama promised amnesty to coup participants, but later reneged and the ringleaders were arrested.
He also set up an interim government and hand-picked former banker Laisenia Qarase to head it.
Qarase's leadership has gained the legitimacy of two general elections since then. Yet Bainimarama now demands that he and his multiracial government resign.
"It is hard to believe that man who stood up for the rule of law in 2000 is today its main threat," the Fiji Times newspaper noted on Monday.
The bitterness in the divide among indigenous Fijians over Bainimarama spilled over late in 2000 when rebel soldiers attempted to assassinate him while he was at lunch to the officers' mess at the main barracks in Suva.
Bainimarama survived by jumping from a window and running for his life. Three loyalist and five rebel troops died in the mutiny.
Fiji media owner and national William Parkinson said Bainimarama's brush with death left the 52-year-old psychologically "scarred" and "extremely paranoid when it comes to any politics relating to the nationalist cause."
"He is really concerned that the 2000 events could happen again," said Parkinson, who described Bainimarama as a patriot.
Ever since, Bainimarama has not wavered in his demand that all participants in the 2000 coup be brought to justice.
But the Qarase government has dragged its feet, with two current Cabinet ministers convicted coup participants.
They each served only two months of their two-year sentences. Bainimarama wants them sacked.
Qarase formed a government after the 2001 election in coalition with a minority nationalist party that included a lawmaker who was Speight's brother.
A rift opened between Qarase and Bainimarama, chief of the overwhelming indigenous Fijian military since 1999, and has steadily worsened.
RSS