Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama said Opposition Leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa owes everyone an explanation as to why she is so concerned about 2000 coup leader, George Speight.
While speaking at the opening of the refurbished Legal Aid Commission Office in Lautoka, Bainimarama raised the question on whether Ro Teimumu is so concerned because she sympathised or supported Speight’s treasonous actions.
The Prime Minister said people are yet to get a satisfactory explanation from Ro Teimumu as to why she visited George Speight at the Parliamentary complex during this most traumatic event.
He said people have seen the pictures where Ro Teimumu was with the treasonous thug, George Speight.
Bainimarama said in the building behind her, the democratically‑elected Government was being held hostage.
The Prime Minister said many people share his dismay at the Opposition’s attempt in Parliament last week to draw attention to the sentences that have already been imposed on Speight and others.
Bainimarama said many people are wondering why Ro Teimumu Kepa used the new Parliament, the cornerstone of our new democracy, to resurrect some of the skeletons of our past.
The Prime Minister also raises the question on why Speight’s fate is being questioned as he is someone who grievously damaged our nation and economy and ruined the lives of thousands of Fijians.
Bainimarama says Ro Teimumu has said that it was in the national interest for her to do so.
But he questions whose interests do Ro Teimumu’s questions really serve as it is not the nation’s.
The Prime Minister further said that it is to serve Ro Teimumu’s own interests and the interests of those around her – the people on the side of George Speight.
Bainimarama said Speight was sentenced to death but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. That life sentence means life.
He said George Speight is to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The Head of Government said the Opposition still can’t seem to believe that the Fijian people decisively rejected their message of division and hatred at the election last September.
Bainimarama also said that if the Opposition had any self‑awareness at all, they would know that the Fijian people do not want any more hatred and division.
The Prime Minister further said that George Speight has had his justice and he is not interested in him as he is interested in ordinary Fijians on low incomes getting justice when they get their day in court or have some other legal problem.
