The former two-time coup leader hoping to return as Fiji’s prime minister has ruled out a security pact with China if he wins government next year, saying it is time his country returned to its 'comfortable niche' with Australia.
Former Fiji prime minister and two-time coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka is allowed to contest Wednesday's election.The former two-time coup leader hoping to return as Fiji’s prime minister has ruled out a security pact with China if he wins government next year, saying it was time his country returned to its "comfortable niche" with Australia.
He said he had “moulded better” than Mr Bainimarama, who was democratically elected in 2014 after staging a military coup in 2006."So he's not seeing the need for restitution … or reparation on his side, whereas I have gone through that, and I know the benefits - you get rid of the burden of blame. Romitesh Kant, a PHD candidate at the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University, says Fiji's history of electing coup leaders is a huge dilemma.
"The whiplash reaction that we have now had from Australia and New Zealand and further abroad further afield in America and the US policies in the region are now changing because of that," he said. "We appreciate what China has done in the past. And that’s it," Mr Rabuka said, saying China had filled a void left by Australia following the 1987 coups.
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