The Methodists owed $202,016.00 to the collapsed NBF

Part Six of a Special Report by VICTOR LAL

Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, the godfather of the coup culture in Fiji, was a chosen one, so claimed a certain section of the influential Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma. And on 14 May 1987 God was smiling on them, for Rabuka, a Methodist lay preacher had been successful in executing the first of two coups, deposing Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra and his FLP/NFP coalition government.

The coup, as I pointed out previously, was planned in Reverend Tomasi Raikivi’s house in Suva, and those present in the treasonous planning included chiefs, thieves, and others, some now prominently ensconced in positions of power in the current dictator Frank Bainimarama’s illegal regime, supporting Talibanistic village bye-laws and other illegal decrees.

History is repeating itself. In 1987, the Rabuka coup had thrown up opportunists of the highest nauseating colour and a section of the Methodist leadership were in the forefront, abusing every line in the Holy Bible. They delighted in portraying themselves as ‘unjust, uncaring racists and fascists’. The choir leader was Reverend Manasa Lasaro, who with a hardcore of other Methodists, favoured a total ban on Sunday trading and sports.

Although the coup had been portrayed as ‘an indigenous rights’ issue, the right of the i-taukei to be masters in their own land, Rabuka’s coup had other opportunities staring in the nationalists faces – one was the economic kingdom that had been opened up to them – in the form of the National Bank of Fiji which had been decreed to provide soft loans to ‘downtrodden i-taukeis’.

In 1996 when the NBF Debtors List was publicly revealed, the Methodists were up there with other 1987 coupists, owing a staggering $202,000.

Like those exposed previously, have the Methodists paid back the loan, and if so, when, and how; for Psalms 37: 21states: ‘The wicked borroweth and payeth not’.

Editor’s Note: We will continue to reveal debtors names, which includes those of high chiefs, politicians, Indo-Fijians, business houses, including individual supporters of the present illegal junta in Fiji. If you or your family have paid back the NBF loans, please provide Victor Lal with evidence. He can be reached at vloxford@gmail.com