George Speight
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George Speight, occasionally known as Ilikimi Naitini (born 1957), was the principal instigator of the Fiji coup of 2000, in which he kidnapped thirty-six government officials and held them from May 19, 2000 to July 13, 2000. He is currently serving a term of life imprisonment for his role in the overthrow of the constitutional government.
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Fiji coup of 2000
On May 19, 2000, a disparate gang led by Speight stormed the parliamentary complex and kidnapped Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and 35 other parliamentarians, including Cabinet ministers. One of the ministers taken hostage was Adi Koila Nailatikau, the daughter of Fiji's 80-year old President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Announcing that he had deposed both the government and the President, Speight had himself sworn in as Prime Minister by co-conspirator Ratu Jope Seniloli, whom he proclaimed President in place of Mara. (Seniloli has since been convicted of treason for aiding and abetting the coup). President Mara tried to resist Speight's takeover, but abruptly resigned on 29 May and handed power over to Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the Commander of the Military. (Whether or not Mara's resignation was forced is now (2005) the subject of a police investigation).
Despite the overthrow of the government, Speight's control never extended beyond the parliamentary complex where he was holed up with his captives. There were, however, outbreaks of violence in Suva and Levuka, and on July 7 an army base on Vanua Levu Island was overrun by Speight's supporters.
Fifteen soldiers and two of their officers defected to the rebels and George Speight built up a strong private army. On June 9, Speight announced that he had abolished Fiji's multi-racial Constitution. Three days later, Speight's car was sprayed with gunfire, but the army denied that soldiers were involved in an operation to kill him. On June 25, four female hostages were released. On July 13, Chaudhry was released following an agreement between the rebels and the military administration of Commodore Bainimarama. Claiming that he had signed the agreement "under duress," Bainimarama promptly rescinded it. On 27 July, Speight was arrested with 369 of his followers and charged with treason.
Motives for the coup
Speight's claims to be a Fijian nationalist and a champion of indigenous rights attracted support from certain elements of the Fijian population who were angered by the results of the 1999 election, which had swept away a government dominated by ethnic Fijians and brought to power a multiracial government led by Mahendra Chaudhry, who became Fiji's first-ever Indo-Fijian Prime Minister. Hints that the Chaudhry government might institute some form of land reform also generated considerable resentment among sections of the indigenous population, despite Constitutional guarantees that ethnic Fijian ownership of 83 percent of the land could not be changed without the support of 9 of the 14 Senators appointed by the Great Council of Chiefs, a wholly indigenous body. The leadup to the coup had seen certain politicians and other public figures play upon this resentment and foster public fear that native land might be alienated. Speight thus found sizeable number of sympathizers when he launched his putsch on 19 May.
Claims have been made that Fijian nationalism may have been nothing more than a political ploy to attract supporters to what was, in reality, a personal grab for money and power on the part of Speight and his co-conspirators. During the 1990s, Speight had built up a modestly successful marketing business, but many contracts were lost after the Chaudhry government came to power in 1999. Charging corruption, Chaudhry revoked the contracts of two marketing firms, both chaired by Speight, that were involved in the country's lucrative timber trade, and by the time of the coup he was allegedly bankrupt. Several of his accomplices were undischarged bankrupts also. Some have conspiracy theories claim that the real motive for the coup was to loot the treasury.
Ratu Isireli Vuibau, the deposed Assistant Minister for Fijian Affairs, declared on 31 August 2000 that many involved with Speight had links to the Timber Resource Group, comprising Fijian politicians who were investors in Speight's Timber Resource Management Limited company, which had interests in pine, mahogany, and hardwood. He said these politicians had joined Speight against the government when their proposals were rejected. "Indigenous Fijians were used but little did they know that the coup was for a little group here and abroad," Ratu Vuibau said.
Elected to, and expelled from, Parliament
In August 2001, democracy was restored and in the subsequent election, Speight, now using the name of Ilikimi Naitini, was elected to the House of Representatives for the Tailevu North Fijian Communal constituency as a candidate of the Conservative Alliance Matanitu Vanua Party. He was unable to take up his seat in Parliament, however, as he remained in jail, and in December, he was expelled from parliament for nonattendance. On 18 February 2002, Speight, who had pleaded guilty to a charge of treason, was sentenced to death, but President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, who had replaced Mara following the coup, intervened the next day and commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Speight is currently serving the sentence on Nukulau Island.
Purported change of heart
On 15 September 2004, a source close to the Fijian government revealed that Speight had converted to Christianity during his imprisonment. According to the source, Speight's conversion had led to a change of heart towards the Indo-Fijian community, and that he wished to participate in the upcoming Fiji Week, a series of prayer meetings and multicultural programmes aimed at reconciling Fiji's ethnic communities, planned for the week of 4 October through 11 October. "He now feels inspired by the word of God and would like to take part in the week of reconciliation," the source told the Australian Associated Press. This request for permission to leave his island prison to take part in the observances was refused, however. At a more personal level, a spokesman for deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that on principle, Chaudhry would consider meeting Speight and forgiving him (http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2004/October/10-12-06.htm) - provided that he reveal the identities of the persons who had planned and financed the coup. So far, Speight has not done so.
Personal life
George Speight is the son of Sam Speight, a prosperous farmer of ethnic Fijian and European descent. The elder Speight participated in the 1987 coup instigated by Sitiveni Rabuka, which was ostensibly about protecting the interests of ethnic Fijians from Indo-Fijians, who had won a significant degree of power for the first time in the recent elections. He subsequently served as a Cabinet Minister in a variety of portfolios in Rabuka's governments throughout the 1990s. By the time his son attempted his putsch in 2000, however, Sam Speight was an opposition member of Parliament, his Fijian Political Party having lost power to the Indo-Fijian-led Labour Party of Mahendra Chaudhry in the elections of 1999.
At the time of his trial, some of Speight's acquaintances recalled that he had long emphasized the non-Fijian side of his mixed ancestry, until his sudden and spectacular transformation as a Fijian nationalist at the time of the 2000 coup.