The new government was handed power by the military on July 28, two days after the army cracked down on the rightist forces led by businessman George Speight, arresting Speight and hundreds of his supporters.

Speight led a coup attempt May 19 in the midst of an antigovernment protest campaign orchestrated by opposition parties linked to Fiji's ruling high chiefs and local capitalists. Rightist gunmen, many of them army officers and soldiers, seized control of the parliament, taking hostage 34 members of the Labour Party-led government. Ten days later the military high command declared martial law, revoked the constitution, and dismissed the Chaudhry government, which had won a landslide election victory the previous year.

The rightist forces led by Speight assert that Indo-Fijians hold power and privilege in Fiji. They call for the supremacy of indigenous Fijians to be guaranteed and for Indo-Fijians to be excluded from holding positions of high office. The demand for "indigenous" supremacy is raised by Fiji's chiefly aristocracy as they seek to assert their traditional authority and prevent their power from being undermined. Spokespeople for the Great Council of Chiefs and the military, while expressing opposition to Speight's "methods" in carrying out the coup, declared their support for his aims. The council, which is an assembly of Fiji's high chiefs, considers itself the highest authority in Fiji.

Fijians of Indian descent, the big majority of whom are workers and farmers, make up around 43 percent of Fiji's population.

The rightists occupied the parliamentary compound in the capital Suva for two months, leaving and returning with relative freedom, while the coup leaders negotiated with the military. Gangs of Speight supporters carried out a campaign of violence, targeting Indo-Fijians and opponents of the coup.

Following an agreement signed July 9 by Speight and military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the hostages being held at parliament were released. In exchange, Speight and his supporters were granted amnesty. They agreed to hand over their weapons and leave the parliamentary compound. Soldiers who took part in the coup were to be reinstated at their posts. The agreement gave the Great Council of Chiefs authority to appoint a new president and government. Following their departure from the parliamentary compound, the coup leaders and supporters set up a new base at a school in Kalabu on the outskirts of Suva. The inauguration of the new government was postponed as Speight threatened to foment new unrest unless more of his supporters were included in central government posts. Rightist gangs stepped up their arson, looting, rape, and violence along the Suva-Nausori corridor where they were encamped and around Labasa, the main town on Fiji's second largest island of Vanua Levu. Both regions were centers of support for Speight's coup.  
 
Arrest of rightists
The standoff was resolved when the military launched their crackdown on the rightists. Speight and several supporters were arrested following a shoot-out at a military checkpoint July 26. The next morning military forces stormed the rightist encampment at Kalabu arresting around 400 rightist supporters, including central leaders of the coup. One was killed and 32 were wounded.

The following week troops moved against the rightist gangs around Labasa, arresting around 150. One of the rightists was killed in a shoot-out.

While most of those arrested are being released on bail as they come before the courts, Speight and 12 other central coup leaders are being detained by the military on an island off Suva. Originally charged with unlawful assembly and firearms charges, most now face charges of treason or conspiring to commit treason. Speight has been charged on both counts.

The military says that the amnesty granted Speight and his supporters is void as they failed to return all the weapons taken from military armories that were used in the coup, as specified in the July 9 agreement.

Military boards are also investigating around 50 military personnel for offenses connected to the coup.

Successive constitutions since independence from the United Kingdom in 1970 have sought to enshrine the ultimate authority of the high chiefs to varying degrees, and to ensure their political control through an electoral system that divides the population by racial category for the purpose of voting. The development of a working class, however, has begun to cut through this racial set up, with the formation of trade unions organized on nonracial lines, and the formation by the unions of the Labour Party in 1985.

The new "interim" government appointed by the Great Council of Chiefs consists almost exclusively of indigenous Fijian chiefs, businessmen, and civil servants. The prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, a banker, has expressed chauvinist views against Indo-Fijians similar to those advocated by Speight, while blaming reforms being implemented by the Chaudhry government as the cause of the coup.

The government will draft a new constitution that will secure chiefly supremacy. Final decision on the provisions of the constitution will rest with the Great Council of Chiefs. Qarase projects the constitution will be promulgated by the end of 2001, with elections under the terms of the constitution to be held a year later.  
 
Moves to reverse Labour measures
Meanwhile, the military-backed government has moved rapidly to begin reversing measures benefiting working people that had been enacted or planned by the Labour Party-led government.

Labour had abolished sales taxes and introduced price controls and subsidies for basic foodstuffs, electricity, health care, housing, and education. For the first time, social welfare benefits were being introduced, and a new minimum wage was to be enacted. Grants were provided to resettle tenant sugarcane farmers whose farms were being reclaimed by landowners as leases expired.

Now, the price of electricity, fuel, and foodstuffs is rising. The government has announced a 12.5 percent pay cut for government sector workers, and compensation for evicted cane farmers has been withdrawn. Meanwhile, a new package of tax and other concessions has been announced for business investors.

According to official figures, 7,000 workers have lost their jobs since the coup, with the number expected to continue to rise, especially in the garment industry, which before May 19 employed 22,000 workers. The economy, which had a growth rate of around 7 percent in 1999, is expected to plunge into a long and deep recession.

"This new administration is furthering what George Speight started," declared Felix Anthony, general-secretary of the Fiji Trades Union Congress, speaking in Auckland August 5. The FTUC called a national day of action August 2 to protest the overthrow of the elected government and constitution and the appointment of the military-backed administration. Most schools, farms, and factories shut down for the day in support of the protest, said Anthony. Meetings, rallies, and marches remain illegal under the martial law decrees issued by the military.

Fiji Labour Party leader and former prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry toured Australia and New Zealand early August to meet with government leaders, before traveling to India and the United Kingdom. He spoke to large meetings of mainly Indo-Fijians. The Labour Party and the FTUC are calling for the previous constitution to be restored and for the military-backed administration to be replaced by a broad "government of national unity." They are also calling on Canberra and Wellington to impose trade sanctions against Fiji.

The main imperialist powers with interests in Fiji--Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States--have welcomed the moves by the military against Speight and his supporters, while continuing calls for the restoration of "constitutional" government.

Despite the military crackdown on Speight's supporters, rightist attacks continue in Fiji. A soldier and a police officer were killed in an ambush August 8, and an Indo-Fijian woman was killed in an arson attack on her home August 16.