INTERIM Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama said that for about four years he tried to get the Laisenia Qarase-led government to reverse the course of action that was taking the country to a path of destruction.
"The protracted efforts I made to constructively engage with the previous government came to no avail," he told the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Commodore Bainimarama was invited to the UN General Assembly for the first time where he addressed the world leaders in his capacity as leader of the Fiji Government.
"To the contrary, a prominent chief connected to the ruling SDL Party incited a mutiny within the military and attempts were made not only to remove me but also to eliminate me," he said.
Commodore Bainimarama said it was with great reluctance that the Fiji military, "under my leadership", removed the Qarase-led government from power in December 2006. "There have been critics of this decision. In response to the criticism I say this, Fiji has a coup culture a history of civilian or military coups executed in the interests of a few and based on nationalism, racism and greed."
He said as military commander he played a key role in the handing over of executive authority back to civilian hands after the 2000 coup.
Commodore Bainimarama said this rested on a number of critical pre-conditions being met to take Fiji forward. "An interim government was appointed by the President of Fiji, with Laisenia Qarase as caretaker prime minister.
"The interim Government was tasked to pave the way for a fresh general election in September, 2001. The other conditions were that all perpetrators of the May 2000 coup including military rebels would be prosecuted, and the 2000 coup would be publicly renounced as racially motivated," he said.
"It is tragic that Fiji's recovery from the brink of chaos in May 2000 did not endure. There were a series of legislations that were deeply divisive and overtly racist. The 2001/2006 General Elections were not credible," he said.
"They were characterised by massive rigging of votes with the incumbent government using the State's resources to buy support. Fiji's overall situation by late 2006 had deteriorated sharply."