A former military officer and private secretary to the late prime minister Laisenia Qarase claims that there had been “no such thing as a clean up campaign” as claimed by FijiFirst leader Voreqe Bainimarama when justifying the military coup in 2006 and removing democratically elected PM Laisenia Qarase.
Sakiasi Ditoka is a former military officer who attained the rank of major before leaving the Republic of Fiji Military Forces in 2002. He worked at the Public Service Commission and was later appointed private secretary to Mr Qarase.
Today he is The People’s Alliance general secretary and a candidate for the 2022 General Election.
He said it was quite hard to forget that Mr Bainimarama removed somebody who was democratically elected by the people “for reasons that are known only to him”.
“And not only that, the fact that he was jailed a few years after that,” he said.
“It’s pretty hard to forgive, but I’m still duty-bound as a Christian to forgive what this regime has done to the legacy of someone who I consider a great man and a great leader for Fiji.”
When asked about Mr Bainimarama’s “clean up campaign” justification for the 2006 military coup, Mr Ditoka claimed “the whole of Fiji has realised by now that there is no such thing as a cleanup campaign”.
“In fact, there’s more dirt than cleanup that they’ve done.
“By looking at everything that’s happening around us – $33 million digger saga, the Lautoka swimming pool saga and many other things that are happening.
“These are just the tip of the iceberg as far as most of us are concerned.
“We will look at the failing medical services around us.
“There’s no such thing as a cleanup campaign if we look at what they said they would clean up.
“And I suppose many, many people will probably agree with me when I say that.”
