The Fiji Times website under its Your Say section asked: The commander's finally carried out his threats, and Fiji faces an uncertain future on many fronts. Do you believe his claim that things will soon return to normal?
Here's their response. (For more responses
Things will never return to normal...at least for a long time. Commodore Bainimarama needs a psychiatric examination, or better still, be delivered from the demons of 2000.
Fiji is praying for him, the PM and all leaders, and Fiji can rest in the knowledge that we are praying to a God who can hear and knows justice. Only time will tell what God has prepared for him and his men.
Vani
Suva
I admire The Fiji Times for not bowing to the outrageous demands of the military. The fact that they have reflexively reverted to this position and demanded propaganda says it all.
History will endorse the paper's stand. The situation is clear at one level: there was an election only five months ago and Qarase and his government were elected. Democracy means political means not military means are used to resolve tensions and problems.
It is a terrible reflection on the divided Fijian society to return to this way of doing things and with four coups in twenty years, the overthrow seems to have become ingrained as a viable alternative within the political fabric of the country. This is not the rule of law as we know it.
The military, under the democratic system, should always be subject to civilian governance ultimately. Bainimarama appears to us here as supremely arrogant and a man with something to hide and a personal threat to deflect. By any reasonable measure, he is certainly no statesman. The irony of his situation seems to elude him.
Fiji is about to suffer a terrible time economically and socially. I do hope the country can come through this latest crisis and once and for all put in place enduring mechanisms so this can never happen again. Otherwise Fiji is doomed to repeat this cycle of democracy and anti-democracy forever.
I am not blind to corruption within Fiji on all sides. It is a profoundly corrosive force within small and large societies alike but much more dangerous within a small society such as Fiji. We watch from afar waiting for a form of "people power" to force the military back and to re-establish democracy. It, with all its difficulties, is the only way. Good luck, Fiji!
Peter Clarke
Melbourne
The situation in Fiji is disappointing. It takes the country perhaps to potential a civil war footing in the instance of an uprising by the people the army is supposed to protect.
The next question is what happens if soldiers fire upon and kill citizens, and who shall be responsible for the soldiers' actions and what happens to the soldiers and those higher in the chain of command after the military dictatorship ends and is replaced by (again) a civilian government?
Additional questions need to be addressed, these include:
What happens in the instance where a new fresh election is called, and the same government is re-elected?
What happens to the role of the GCC given that their role to appoint a President has been stripped away by the Military Commander?
What happens to the now ex-PM and his government team? Will the military execute them for "treason" or will the military let them all run under the new fair elections that may be held in the years to come
Who will run State institutions such as radio and TV broadcasting services, postal and telecommunications services, news papers, taxation and collections of public monies, who will run the finances of the country? Certainly, people won't work effectively with guns to their heads, and
If just one citizen is shot dead by the military, the option is open for public backlash and non-co-operation and further RFMF clampdown.
The military cannot effectively run civil services, after all the Military is trained to be a military service (supposedly acting on behalf of the government who pays them their wages), not a civil administration office.
Perhaps the only solution is international intervention perhaps by properly trained military forces such as Australia and New Zealand.
If the people of Fiji were pleased with their independence from the UK in 1970, they should consider that their own people can make life a lot harder than any colonial administration ever could. Wake Up Fiji the one sure way to arc up the military is to not co-operate with them, and secondly to establish a resistance within the country.
The military can't have guns pointed to everyone everywhere, can they?
Tony
Melbourne
Yes, one has to admire the courage of Bainimarama's convictions. Qarase was trying to please the 2000 coup plotters and sneak in suspicious bills to the detriment of other communities and in the process lost his own seat !
Aman Samat
California
What is all this?
I am so surprised to hear what is happening in Fiji! It is shocking news that the Fijian economy is declining everyday and the future of the nation seems very bleak.
If everyone has forgotten, then let me remind all that Fiji was once known as a land of peace. That is surely "history" now!
Arti Vandhana Nair
Hawaii
Once again the world witnesses rule by force. We the people of the free world, a world Fiji was a part of but a day ago, utterly reject this lawless hijacking of a democracy. It's time the Fiji Army returned to it job: that of defending the government, not attacking it! The world is watching!
Peter Barker
New Zealand
In a serious family feud, emotions run high, there is a feeling of anger, betrayal and loss of respect and trust. For any family to reconcile its differences, will take time time to heal the wounds, to work through issues that brought about the fractures. The deep divisions that ensue after any altercation will, sometimes, have lasting consequences.
In this case, Fiji has experienced upheavals for nearly 20 years. For the many rifts to heal, will take a mammoth task on the part of all involved. I truly feel for the children of Fiji especially they have had so much upheaval in their lives, it's a wonder that they can still smile.
The confusion any crisis brings creates uncertainty and fear, loss of confidence in authority and the rule of law, and tremendous strain and suffering in ways I cannot even imagine for the poor especially.
No, things will not go back to normal, as Voreqe puts it. But one thing I do know that the people of Fiji have a resilience that is amazing. And even in the darkest moments of their lives, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it's called Hope. And if you will put your Hope in the Lord, He will renew your strength so that you can mount up with wings like eagles, so that you can run and not get tired and walk not become weary. More than ever, Trust in the Lord.
Colin Deoki
Melbourne