A Polemic Rant about Coup-Coup-Coup Land

What is it about this coup that just tears at the heart of the people of Fiji?

Is it really that we are pissed off about the illegal overthrow of a democratically elected government? Is it because the new political players did not make it at the polls and are now throwing their weight around like they did? Is it the definite deterioration of the state of our economy and its impact on our ability to put food on the table? Is it because it is now "3rd time unlucky"? Or is it just because it is the change of power that has rocked our world?

I would submit that it is all of the above. Not withstanding the legal considerations—and jeengers that’s another heck of another long rant which I will leave to the courts to unravel—to a simple citizen like myself, this is simply about what is right and wrong.

Of course I’m upset about the SDL Government falling asleep on their watch. But it does not justify an illegal take-over no matter how thick they sugar-coat it.

But what really gets me is that at a time when you expect certain independent institutions in our country to remain steadfastly focused on their legal obligations to our society, they have disappointedly remained “polemic”. And I suspect these institutions will remain that way until a totally new government is put in place.

I suppose this whole façade is just something we just have to ride out. But the up’s and down’s with each passing week cannot even begin to compare with the worst of roller-coaster rides.

And now we have another round of new evidence about vote-rigging from investigations into the Elections Office, which was directed by the Military Council of all things (did the President decree them with any special powers?)!!! I wait the findings with bated breath and can hear Donna Summer singing “this time I know it’s for real” in my head. I know in my heart that I will be yet again disappointed.

Just as a coup is a coup is a coup. The cloud of illegality that hangs over this administration seeps into every single attempt they make to move Fiji forward—from policy, legislative to the investigative.

And the only polemic rant I would have about that is the pilfering away of more taxpaying dollars while the bread and butter issues remain unresolved.