OPINION
EQUITABLE justice – justice that is fair, unbiased, impartial – was one of the reasons Voreqe Bainimarama used to justify his removal of Laisenia Qarase’s Government.
Those who had a hand in the 2000 coup and the subsequent mutinies at Queen Elizabeth and Sukanaivalu barracks had to face the full force of the law.
Instead he watched enraged as rebel soldiers were, in his view, given sentences that were too short, and convicted civilians were let out of prison under Compulsory Supervision Orders.
Others who were a visible part of the events in Parliament after May 19, were given a senatorial position here and a diplomatic posting there, rewarded, he thought, for their role in bringing down Mahendra Chaudhry’s Labour-led Government.
Failure to ensure that the sentence suited the crime would lead to a nation of criminals. That’s what Bainimarama said in interviews in 2003-04.
But here we are in 2009, two and a bit years after he decided that the only way to end the country’s coup culture was, paradoxically, to carry out another coup.
And here we are witnessing his regime hire criminals for the police force, re-hire murderers, and release convicted killers on, there’s that legal term again, Compulsory Supervision Orders.
There is just so much else that is wrong with everything that has happened since 2006.
Perhaps Fiji does need to move away from its race-based electoral system (another of Bainimarama’s pretexts), and perhaps as a country we should be mature enough not to let race be an issue when we pick our leaders.
And yes, people need to realise that to move forward we have to stop relying on government handouts and go out there and work as hard as everybody else.
But you need to give people the chance to discuss these issues and decide for themselves if that is where their future lies – change by the ballot, not the bullet.
If his cause is as righteous as he claims it is, Bainimarama can ill afford to continue on his unjust route.
You can’t take people into custody and return them home in body bags. Neither should such actions by any member of society be excusable because the “cause is greater”.
There is no justice in that.
But however beneficial you think your ideas will be, you cannot force these concepts down the throats of the people.
You’ll only end up with someone else’s breakfast, or worse – blood, all over your hands. – fiji uncensored
fiji UNCENSORED 