Fiji is now witnessing another coup the fourth in 19 years.
When military commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama announced last week that he had taken over executive authority of the country, there were a lot of feelings and a lot of them mixed.
Someone muttered out aloud "oh no, not again" but yes, here we are once again, smack bang in the middle of another takeover.
But while, the other three coups were carried out in the name of the indigenous Fijian cause, the current one is anything but that.
And while the other coups were executed with an element of surprise, this one had everyone prepared after the commander warned the nation well in advance of a "clean-up campaign".
One too many
So how and why is it that we are once again caught up in another coup.
One of the architects of the 1997 Constitution, Professor Brij Lal, says that one of the reasons we can't seem to get rid of the coup culture in Fiji is because people who were involved in other coups were allowed to get away.
"That we've had coups in the past where people have been able to get away through Compulsory Supervision Orders, justice has not been allowed to take its full course," he said.
"We are still affected by the legacy of 1987 and unless we get our act together where people realise the tragedy of having coups, we will have a repeat cycle."
Professor Lal said there was a need for people to take stock of what has happened and put a cost to it.
He said the real masterminds of the two coups of 1987 and one in 2000 were still out there but added that the military was not legally or morally justified in this takeover because it trampled on the fundamental principle that people's will should be respected.
He said all evidence of people who had a hand in the other coups should be given to the Director of Public Prosecutions as this was the proper constitutional channel.
As such, he said there was no need for a coup to catch the culprits of the other coups.
Fiji Women's Crisis Centre co-ordinator Shamima Ali said there were many reasons for the repeat occurrences of coups but the main one was that leaders haven't been able to unite the people without being corruptible.
"Our leaders have carried on the British legacy of divide and rule and continue to play racial politics. No political leader has ever stood up for truth and justice unless it suited them," she said.
She said former prime minister and executor of two coups in 1987 Sitiveni Rabuka took the country down the path of coups and because some leaders backed it and people condoned it, not many looked at it as an illegal act.
Ms Ali said Mr Rabuka got immunity for his actions and there were many attempts to give May 2000 coup frontman George Speight the same.
Military's role
Deposed Opposition Leader Mick Beddoes says the only people who could answer the questions of why there seemed to be a repeat cycle of coups would be those who carried out the coups.
He said while the 1987 coup was about the iTaukei, the 2000 coup was said to be about indigenous rights and a rejection of Mahendra Chaudhry's leadership style and was basically anti Indian.
"So we should not be surprised that Indians are sympathetic to the military in the 2006 coup because it's seen as a rejection of Mr Qarase's style of leadership and payback' for removing their leader.
"But for the first time we have a predominantly Fijian military, tossing out a predominantly Fijian political party and its predominantly (reluctant) Indian FLP partner."
Therefore, he said, all of the theories about the military always being on the side of Fijian governments were now well and truly out the window.
"And for the 2000 coup, no one seems to really know the cause and George (Speight) isn't talking," he said.
Mr Beddoes said there would be more coups in the future if we are unable to deal with and resolve this matter fully.
But he said out of the four coups, 1987 and 2006 were full military coups while 2000 was semi military and the bottom line was that no coup would be successful without the backing of the military.
Compounding complex issues
University of the South Pacific academic and political scientist Dr Steven Ratuva says Fiji's democracy was still very fragile because the country's politics was a mixture of political, ethnic, economic and social forces competing against each other.
"Inter and intra-ethnic politics keep shaking the very fabric of our political system. There are political elitesand parties on both sides of the ethnic divide making use of ethnicity as a means of attaining power," he said.
"When democracy fails to satisfy their political ambitions, extra legal means such as coups are seen as viable options.
"At the same time themilitary as an institution hasbeen playing a very direct role in political life thus becoming a direct competitor inthe control of State power."
And Dr Ratuva said this made things even more complex.
However, Professor Lal says while Mr Rabuka and Speight stated that their coups were for Fijians, this coup seemed to be for justice and was between Fijians.
"It's more dramatic this time fight of Fijians against Fijians. For me it's not about ethnicity because the principle is at stake here," he said.
He said in the first three coups, the Great Council of Chiefs and the Methodist Church in their own way supported it because of the race card.
But for this one, he said, Indians were on the outside and it was between Fijians.
And while there may be murmurs of dissent over what has happened, Professor Lal says political leaders and opportunists should stand together for the rule of law and democracy.
"Instead we have an indulgent game, where leaders are myopic, self centred and seeking power. There is a sense of empathy and despondence where people think, what's the point in fighting?
"But this coup is different from the 1987 and 2000 coup which was racial even though race was not an issue. There may be demarcation, I think that people are confused but who wouldn't say no to injustice."
Professor Lal said while Commodore Bainimarama may be genuine in what he proposed to do, having another coup would not solve the problem but would compound it.
Father of all coups
Dr Ratuva said while the reasons to justify coups given by previous coup leaders were different, there was no doubt that Mr Rabuka was the father of coups in Fiji.
He said Mr Rabuka staged the 1987 coups on behalf of ethno-nationalism while Speight's coup was more civilian in nature but with a similar political justification.
"The 2006 coup is different in the sense that it is justified by the military as an attempt to reduce ethno-nationalism and corruption in State politics," he said.
"In all cases the consequences were similar economic demise and political uncertainty. In 1987 and2000 we bounced back very well and I hope this is also the case with this one."
Dr Ratuva says the "we support the cause but not the method" statement has now become an interesting part of coup discussions.
But he said while there was a perception that the two major races were on opposing sides in the military takeover and while it might be unfortunate, it could spiral into ethnic tension which was what no one wanted to happen.
However, Mr Beddoes said one thing about people in Fiji was that they had an enormous level of tolerance and many had a huge sense of respect for authority, which was not deserved.
"But it is because of this huge reservoir of goodness' that our people possess, that all of the coups have been carried out with relatively minimum bloodshed and loss of life and in the coups where we have had gunfire and rioting, it was staged' not spontaneous'.
"So having a passive population' is not all bad, especially given our population mix, as angry reactions' can trigger riots and rampaging, and it only needs one bad egg in the group to switch the emphasis to a racial' reaction and it's all over.
"So the passive nature of our people is in the end a strength of character' that manifests itself in the resilience of our people as we recover from the adversity that befalls us from time to time by way of coups," Mr Beddoes said.
To protest or not to protest
Ms Ali said while there may not be protest marches and the like, protests have started nonetheless.
"All the media releases; the formation of the Coalition for Peace and Democracy that is calling for a Truth and Justice Commission and is organising other peaceful, non-violent actions; the Law Society and individual NGOs are taking various actions.
"People are not accepting whatever has happened. People are basically sick and tired of these disruptions to their lives and for many, survival in bread, water and shelter terms at the moment is far more important and essential," she said.
Dr Ratuva said when people are confronted with guns, a sense of powerlessness pervades.
This, he says, could be one reason for there being no protests but the other reason could be that people just want to get on with their lives. "Nevertheless people often look for creative ways to protest peacefully without invoking thewrath of the military. Some protests are symbolic in nature meant to express people's sentiments, while some are more proactive in terms of strong media statements.
"Perhaps the most extreme form is when some people may try to confront the military directly using physical means," he said.
Dr Ratuva said the military had warned against this form of protest and he hoped that no one would get hurt if that did happen.
Ending the cycle
So if people are sick and tired of coups, how then should we address it so that it doesn't reoccur? Dr Lal believes the best bet is through education, through teaching the young about respecting and abiding by the law and the Constitution.
If that isn't done, he said there would be no end of justifications on the coups but more importantly, people should think about the social and economic costs.
"Education is the only way stop coups but no constitution in the world can stop a coup from happening," he said.
"We should mount a concerted campaign on what the Constitution is, why it's important and why coups are bad."
Mr Beddoes says a comprehensive solution involving the military must be sought if we are to put an end to the cycle of coups in Fiji. "Because after every coup, ways and means of finding amnesty for the perpetrators always emerge so we must develop a system that negates' the need for a military solution' to our problems in the first place because the huge financial cost to the country and its people can never be fully measured or appreciated by those who engage in this style of problem solving'.
"Now I am not sure what form this mechanism should take but we need it so that anyone' who has a gripe about anything, has a very easy and direct way in which their concerns can be effectively dealt with," he said.
Mr Beddoes says ridding ourselves of a coup culture would be the challenge to the future leaders of the country.
But he says if we continued to promote and support leadership styles which emphasised one community over others or champions causes that are racial in nature, there would always be opportunities for coups in the future. Dr Ratuva says the coup culture has deeply embedded itself in our political psyche and the extra legal' overthrow of the ruling government becomes an option for a regime change.
As such he said the challenge was ensuring coups were not repeated in the future plus there were questions that we need to ask ourselves. He said some questions were if we needed to reconfigure our entire state system to ensure that it's secure or if we need to change our political culture to make sure that we are not too coup minded.
Then he said there was the question of how do you go about doing that
"Do we make sure that our institutions maintain integrity and good governance to minimise opposition?
"These are some big picture questions which we must start thinking about for the future. Perhaps we should put together a road map, a master plan of sorts, representing all interests,to guide us." Ms Ali said young people would now view coups as a form of getting what they want through the use of force.
"We are teaching them a violent culture when we should be teaching them values that would make them good and decent human beings with integrity, compassion, non-violence," she said.
Laying our ghosts to rest
However, Ms Ali says the truth about the 1987 and 2000 coups should be revealed to find out who instigated it and who funded it.
"The truths about the various scandals and scams that have haunted us since 1987 and only then can the people of Fiji have justice and only then we can lay our ghosts to rest," she said.
"The politicians and other leaders should stop playing racial politics. Fiji is for everyone who is a citizen here and its riches are for everyone." Ms Ali says a truth commission like the Coalition for Democracy and Peace of which the FWCC is a member would work for Fiji, providing it is allowed to function independently. "The rich and the powerful must stop exploiting Fiji and its people and corrupting its leaders," said Ms Ali.
But while the death penalty will not be accepted as a possible deterrent to coups, Ms Ali feels that if every citizen learned more about the 1997 Constitution, many of our political problems could be solved.
She says many people don't value the Constitution because they don't know about it and that has worked to many politicians' benefit. Mr Beddoes believes that ridding the country of the coup culture would depend on the country's leadership style.
"For a population that is multi-racial like ours, the leadership style that will take us forward, and rid us of the coup culture, is someone who is inclusive'.
"Not just in words, but in deeds and action, a good communicator, operates in an accessible and co-operative way, and is able to respond to the needs and aspirations of businesses to help improve economic growth, without compromising the social responsibility' of the state to its people."
And with the country mixing tradition and the western culture, Professor Lal believes the Great Council of Chiefs should have an independent commission.
He said the more the GCC became embroiled in issues, the more damage it did to its reputation so instead the council should remain neutral.
