1987 Coup ‘had to be done’, says Rabuka

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has defended his role in Fiji’s first military coup, declaring it “had to be done,” while acknowledging the personal transformation that followed.

Speaking to the Australian press in Canberra, Australia, the former coup leader-turned-head of government said the events of 1987—though painful—had shaped him into the leader he is today.

“The change from the coup leader to the leader I am now—I would not be the leader I am now if I hadn’t been the coup leader,” Mr Rabuka said.

“That repentant attitude and outlook on life and the hurts I caused in 1987 have made me the leader I am now.”

Mr Rabuka led two military coups in 1987, toppling Fiji’s first democratically elected multiracial government.

Decades later, he now champions democracy, reconciliation, and national unity.

“I crashed into leadership in 1987, realised how wrong it was, realised how many people we had hurt, realised who had turned away from us and who stayed with us,” he said. “And [I] conducted our subsequent relationship from 1987 according to what we saw.”

When asked directly if he regretted orchestrating the coup, Rabuka was firm in his reply: “No. It had to be done. It was a pre-emptive strike.

“Battling out for reconciliation and getting the nation together again,” he said, summing up the arc of his political and personal journey.

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