The American Spectator

home
ADVERTISEMENT
Print Email
Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

Chutzpah, Fiji-Style

You're a military commander who ousts the democratic government and establishes yourself as military dictator.   Then you get upset when other members of the military attempt to oust you!  Off to jail they go.

Reports the International News:

A Fijian high chief and seven others were jailed on Friday after being convicted of plotting to kill military dictator Voreqe Bainimarama.

High chief Ratu Inoke Takiveikata was jailed for seven years for his part in the alleged plot in late 2007, a year after Bainimarama ousted the elected government in a coup.

The other seven, who included five former members of a military unit who mutinied against military commander Bainimarama in 2000, were sentenced to terms of between seven and three years.

Fiji High Court judge Paul Madigan said the eight men had plotted the assassination with New Zealand-based businessman Ballu Khan, who won a permanent stay of proceedings on charges against him in 2008 and returned to Auckland.

Takiveikata was a business partner of Khan. The other accused worked for the controversial businessman.

The court had been told the plotters, who were infiltrated by military intelligence, planned to declare a police state and request Australia and New Zealand for assistance.

Fiji is supposed to be one of those South Pacific paradises about which we all dream. Unfortunately, Voreqe Bainimarama has turned his island into yet another tin-pot dictatorship of the sort that once littered Africa and Latin America.

So much for paradise!

View all comments (1) | Leave a comment

akd| 3.8.10 @ 5:35PM

I searched n searched for your comments on the last administration..or the other coups. zip. Whilst I dont agree with coups..Fiji never really had a democracy..there was voting..oh yes..but only allowable along racia lines and each race was allowed certain # of seats. This guy actually gave a deadline before the coup...ever heard of that..oh..and NO bloodshed..till these goons from Naitasiri wanted to assasinate him...bottom line..get ur facts right

Leave a Comment

N.B. We encourage readers to share and discuss their thoughtful and relevant comments about this Spectator article. Comments are routinely monitored and will be deleted if profane, bigoted, or grossly impolite. Please be respectful. (And don't feed the trolls!) Thank you.

More Blog Posts by Doug Bandow

http://spectator.org/blog/2010/03/08/chutzpah-fiji-style

ADVERTISEMENT

SPONSORED LINKS

Special Feature

Better that we become a nation of choosers rather than beggars. Our symposium on choice from the May, 2012 issue:

A Time for Choosing

James Piereson

The Road from Serfdom

Stephen Moore and Peter Ferrara

FLASHBACK TO: 1984

Clip of the Day

Most Popular Articles

Meet the Flukes!

F. H. Buckley | 5.25.12

The Wisconsin Turning Point

Peter Ferrara | 5.23.12

In Search of Muhammad

Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi | 5.25.12

Age and Kyl

Quin Hillyer | 5.25.12

Follow Me

Jay D. Homnick | 5.25.12

A Test of National Honor

Hal G.P. Colebatch | 5.25.12

How About the Record of DOE Capital?

William Tucker | 5.25.12

The Great Debate

R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. | 5.24.12

ADVERTISEMENT