ALL Fiji’s coup perpetrators must go to jail, says a former nationalist parliamentarian.
Peceli Rinakama called for all perpetrators of Fiji’s coups to face prison, saying the culture of granting immunity to coup instigators is undermining justice and the rule of law.
During a public lecture by Professor Steven Ratuva, Rinakama reflected on how the 2000 coup had derailed his own political ambitions.
“There’s only one solution. Everyone who did it – send them to prison,” he said.
Rinakama was jailed in 2004 for taking an illegal oath to commit a capital offence after being sworn in as a minister in George Speight’s failed administration in 2000.
He said aspiring to become a parliamentarian was a promise he had made to his father, but this dream was shattered in the coup of 2000. “I was also one of the victims of the 20.
He criticised Fiji’s history of constitutional immunity provisions for coup-makers.
Fiji’s constitutions since 1987 have made immunity provisions for the participants of coups led by current Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka in 1987 and Frank Bainimarama in 2006.
The participants in Speight’s 2000 coup did not receive immunity.
“I have done my part and served time. I was behind bars for two years, not as a coup instigator but as someone who assisted the coup,’’ Rinakama said.
“If Nelson Mandela was jailed for his country for more than 20 years, I cannot see a reason why people that instigated the coup are free.”
Rinakama contested the 2022 General Elections under banner of Rabuka’s People’s Alliance.