Rabuka’s Way

On his early army days: “I was a little wild and had to be reprimanded several times. I had two daughters before I got married. I was a bad boy.”

On Indians: “They speak to me and say they agree. But you can’t tell with Indians. They may be saying one thing, but feeling something else. With Fijians, you can tell if they’re lying. With the Indians, I can’t tell if they are lying or not.”

Again on Indians: “I want them to stay here. It will be a big challenge for us to convert them to Christianity ... we either go that way, or they convert us and we all become heathens.”

“What I did in May and September [1987\, I did for Fiji. I did not do it to achieve political power for any person or group of people. My officers and men who supported me shared with me the desire to prevent what we have seen over the past few years as the gradual erosion of the Fijian way of life, with threats to the customs and traditions of the Fijian people, our social principles and values, threats to the identity of the Fijian people, and threats to their economic wellbeing ... The result of the April 1987 election was not the beginning. It was the moment when the threats became intolerable.”

“So far, I don’t think I’ve become a very great man. I don’t think I’ve become very wise. But I believe I have done something great for the Fijian people.”