Editorial: Are the 'gremlins' of the 2000 political crisis back to haunt our nation again?

Today, we commemorate the lives of our loyal soldiers who were killed during the attempted mutiny by the disbanded Counter Revolution­ary Warfare Unit (CRW) at the Queen Elizabeth Bar­racks (QEB) in Nabua on November 2, 2000.

The spraying of bullets by the CRW soldiers on un­armed Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) office staff and soldiers left many injured and resulted in the death of three soldiers. They were killed in cold blood.

The soldiers were;

• 23905 Lance Corporal Simione Rawaileba of Tai­levu: Unarmed and was on guard. He took a rest in his quarters and was shot dead while sleeping;
• 25717 Private Osea Rokosirinavosa of Kadavu: Un­armed and killed while trying to take cover from the CRW soldiers; and
• 27247 Private Terna Veilewai of Lau: Unarmed and was shot dead while working on his computer.

This horrific act was the darkest day for the RFMF. Our proud military institution, was declared a war zone for a couple of hours as loyal soldiers fought back to regain control.

In the process, there were CRW soldiers killed and 15 were convicted of attempting to overthrow the then RFMF commander, Commodore Voreqe Baini­marama. This was six months after the May 19, 2000 civilian coup.

The attempted mutiny was the aftermath of the ci­vilian coup, which plunged the country into a state of anarchy. This was the alleged work of certain corrupted chiefs, failed politicians and business people along with the elite Fijians.

They used racial ideologies to gain support from the iTaukei people and used them to overthrow Mahendra Chaudhry 's democratically elected government, where they held them hostage for 56 days.

Now 26 years later, we must not forget this horrific day where we commemorate those that had lost their lives when they stood for the restoration of law and order during the 2000 po­litical crisis.

We must also relate to our children of such evil acts, how innocent lives were lost and how people suffered as the nation was held to ransom through the greed of certain individuals.

This must not be forgotten and we must ensure that it does not happen again.

As of now, our nation is almost engulfed into a con­stitutional crisis. The very individuals and institu­tions, who were part and parcel of the 2000 political crisis have somewhat reared their ugly heads.

This spells danger for our beloved nation and the only way out is for us to exercise our rights by having a say through our vote in the upcoming General Elections. There's no other way, since the pen is mightier than the sword.