Former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry says no one should suffer at the hands of a few that benefitted greatly, when there is an upheaval.
Speaking at the National Thanksgiving and Reconciliation Church Service and accepting the public apology from the Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and the Methodist Church of Fiji President on behalf of the Church Rev Dr Ili Vunisuwai, Chaudhry said the 1987 and the 2000 takeover of an elected Government were traumatic times that resulted in why thousands of people were forced to leave to seek safer and more secure futures elsewhere.
The Fiji Labour Party Leader called for national unity and tolerance – praising yesterday’s Thanksgiving and Reconciliation Church Service and said it marked a historic and momentous moment for Fiji, symbolising how the Church and the Prime Minister sought the forgiveness of Girmitiyas.
The former Prime Minister accepted the apology of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and the President of Methodist Church of Fiji for their individual role in the 1987 and 2000 coup.
He said the Fiji Labour Party was a victim of these coups and its leaders, supporters and their families were subjected to violence on three different occasions.
“The people of Indian origin were targeted, innocent people persecuted for their ethnicity and deprived of their rights and status as citizens of the very nation they had readily accepted and worked hard to build.”
FLP Leader also indicated that an apology is not only owed to the Girmitiyas community but to the entire nation – everyone suffered.
Chaudhry said everyone suffered from this misguided and unlawful, treasonous actions of the extremists who chose to take the law into their own hands.
“Be they members of the elected government, the business community, the workers, the farmers or the poor. No matter what race or creed, they all suffered. The entire nation suffered.”
“Now the country must take concrete steps to prevent such acts from wrecking our nation and destroying our national harmony.”
“We are a multiracial country. There will always be elements that will seek to upset the equilibrium in the pursuit of their own vested interests by playing on the fears and emotions of the vulnerable in society.”
Yesterday the traditional herald of the Turaga Bale Na Vunivalu, na Tui Kaba Ratu Epenisa Cakobau or the Tuinitoga Ratu Aisea Komaitai sought the forgiveness of Girmitiyas, for the role that the vanua of Kubuna played in the 1987 and 2000 coups.
According to the Tuinitoga, Ratu Epenisa was sick and was not able to make the Service.
He said that the Turaga Bale Na Vunivalu na Tui Kaba was present spiritually.
Chaudhry said Fiji must now look to the future and take concrete measures to prevent coups and other forms of political upheaval from ever again destroying the core of Fiji’s society.
He said this was the beginning of a healing process for the country that must not end here.
“Today, (Sunday) is a great day for the nation and will go down in the annals of our history, and we must build on it.
