A weekly current affairs programme presented by Ross Stevens. “On June the 27th at three in the morning in Suva, Fiji, five balaclava-clad men broke into the home of a Union leader, and wrecked it. Hello, and welcome to Frontline. And in a moment we’ll be talking to Mahendra Chaudhry whose house it was, about the Rabuka regime three years on. We also go to Australia.”
“On Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke outstripped Malcolm Fraser’s record as Australia’s second longest serving Prime Minister. And Fiji. How do you stop the Rabuka regime becoming respectable? And on the West Coast of the USA, the redwoods last stand, and the fight to save them.”
“Well, it’s public. The coup leader who always said he’d go back to the barracks once the job was done, has changed his mind. Major General Sitiveni Rabuka confirmed his aim now is to be Prime Minister of Fiji. Tonight we’re going to talk with one of the critics of the Rabuka regime, Mahendra Chaudhry of the Fiji Trade Union Congress, who was Finance Minister in the short-lived but democratically elected government of Prime Minister Bavadra. Mr Chuadhry leads the cane farmers union that has threatened to bring the economically viable sugar cane harvest to a halt in protest at a new award. Rabuka warned he would move if they did. And Mr Chaudhry’s house was wrecked just three weeks ago by well armed balaclava-clad men. The symbols of the new regime in Fiji. More of that later. But first this background report from Terence Taylor.”
Interviewees: Timoci Bavadra; Sitiveni Rabuka, coup leader; Dia Uluiviti, Coalition for Democracy; Prof. Whatarangi Winiata, Ngati Raukawa; Dick Smith, hotelier.
In the studio, Ross Stevens interviews Mahendra Chaudhry, General Secretary, Fiji Trades Union Congress by remote.