Rabuka happy again government pension restored but says he'll criticise if he has to

Sitiveni Rabuka has told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat that the past few months without his government pension have been tough and he has only survived with the help of family and friends.
 
He says the news the decree has been dropped and his pension will be paid again is welcome news.

Bainimarama announced at the weekend the Regulation of Pensions and Retirement Allowances Decree 2009 was being revoked. The decree had allowed the government to strip its critics of the pension.

"I was not going to ask for it because I felt it was their right to take it away," says Rabuka. "I felt that they had that right, because they might have been thinking the way I was thinking, regarding to that popularity wagon through the coup in 1987 and held the ground for our support until the elections in 1992.

"In a way, I got that support in an unfair way or illegal, if you want, yeah, well it was an illegal coup, it was illegal. When they decided to take it away I accepted it. I told them that what they thought I was guilty of, I wasn't because I had not been working against the government unless they saw some of my writings in the Sunday paper as being anti-government, but at that time we had the Constitution operating where we enjoyed the rights, the freedom of expression etc."
 
Rabuka says while he would like to work with Fiji's current leaders, he'll speak out again if he has to.
 
"I would still, I would still, at the moment I would rather work with them and with anybody else and get us out of the situation we're in, get our credibility back again and get Fiji back on track. I don't know what they have in mind."-Radio Australia.