Koila Nailatikau

On 25 September 2004, Adi Koila rejected the efforts of Speight and his accomplices Ratu Timoci Silatolu and Josefa Nata to offer an apology to the parliamentarians they had held hostage in the 2000 coup. Following a supposed "religious conversion" experience, Speight announced in mid-2004 that he had had a change of heart about the coup and the reasons for it. Saying that she was still grieving for her parents, who died within three months of each other in 2004, Adi Koila said it was too soon for her to consider any apology from the perpetrators of the coup which deposed her father. "I feel that the rule of law must be upheld," she said. "I simply will not accept any apology until justice is done." Adi Koila added that her refusal to accept any political attempts at reconciliation was motivated by her belief that the "culture of coups" must be discouraged.

In a speech from the floor of the Senate on 22 October 2004, Adi Koila explained refusal to participate in the Fiji Week reconciliation ceremonies, also known as Reconciliation Week, by quoting her late father's words spoken at the Lau Provincial Council in October 2000: "The reconciliation that has been undertaken today will be worthless if investigations into the coup do not reveal the truth behind the staging."

Adi Koila expressed anger that Simione Kaitani (whom she accused of making speeches against her father inside the parliamentary complex during the coup) and Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu (whom she accused of having ordered the burning of a property owned by her father, the Matailakeba Cane Farm in Seaqaqa, on 29 July 2000) both now held Cabinet positions, and that former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and former Police Commissioner Isikia Savua, both of whom her late father had accused of involvement in the coup, now either occupied or had been nominated for senior diplomatic posts.

Adi Koila wondered aloud why the government had decided to organise the reconciliation ceremonies only after both of her parents had died. "Why was the concept of reconciliation never done for the late Turaga Bale the Tui Nayau (Ratu Mara) or for that matter the late Marama Bale the Roko Tui Dreketi (Ro Adi Lala Mara)?" she demanded. "Was all this conjured overnight immediately after their demise?" she questioned.

Adi Koila said she was baffled that in the reconciliation ceremonies, the apology was offered, not to the victims of the 2000 coup, but to President Iloilo and Prime Minister Qarase, who she said were the principal beneficiaries of the coup. "Because if it were not for the coup they would not be in those positions as the Turaga Bale the Tui Nayau would still be the President and Mr Chaudhry Prime Minister. "More so, if it were not for the coup my parents would still be alive today," she said. Ratu Mara's health had deteriorated following his overthrow, leading to his death in May 2004; Adi Lala had died three months later.

Clarifying her remarks of a further Senate speech on 29 October, Adi Koila reiterated that the reconciliation ceremony was inappropriate because the person who received the whale's tooth and forgave the people in the ceremony at Albert Park had not been a victim of the May 2000 coup.

Adi Koila repeated that there could be no genuine forgiveness until questions were answered about who was involved in organising and funding the 2000 coup. "An individual will forgive when he or she is ready. There must be truth telling, as to why they participated and who gave the orders," Adi Koila said. "Reconciliation cannot eventuate or materialise until the proper legal procedures have been followed, that is without interference from external forces."

Rejecting the criticism, the Prime Minister's spokesman Joji Kotobalavu retaliated by accusing Adi Koila's father, Ratu Mara, of having benefited from the 1987 coups. He went on to say that the Prime Minister had not benefited from the coup because he had quit a lucrative career in the private sector to "rescue a Fiji in turmoil." He did not address Adi Koila's charge that the present government is full of individuals who were involved in the 2000 coup. Simione Kaitani, one of those implicated, accused Adi Koila of "crying over spilt milk," and insisted that there was "no truth at all" in her accusations against him. He added only God knew why her parents died.

Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase announced on 4 May 2005 that a Reconciliation and Unity Commission would be set up, empowered to recommend amnesty to persons convicted of coup-related offence, provided that their motive had been "political" rather than "criminal," and to recommend compensation for "deserving" victims. On 7 May, Adi Koila joined Opposition Leader and former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, United Peoples Party leader Mick Beddoes, and National Alliance Party president Ratu Epeli Ganilau in opposing the Commission and its purpose. She asserted that if her father were alive, he would have insisted on the rule of law, adding that there could be no reconciliation outside of the courts. Unless all of the perpetrators were put on trial, she said, "Fiji cannot put to rest the ghosts of the coup."

She renewed her attack on both the legislation and the government promoting it on 20 July, saying it appeared that the government was incapable of functioning without the perpetrators of the coup, and that the legislation was biased in favour of coup perpetrators rather than victims. "The Bill is slanted towards the perpetrators of the coup and not the victims ... This Bill is lenient towards the perpetrators while the victims get nothing," she said. She accused the government of neglecting what she saw as far more important issues, like squatters, unemployment, poverty, and road conditions, in favour of the Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill.

In a further statement on behalf of the family on 24 July, she again condemned the bill, saying that it amounted to supporting the overthrow of her father. She said that her father had championed unity, tolerance, peaceful coexistence, and the rule of law, which this legislation undermined, going against everything he had believed in. "I recall what the late Tui Nayau said at his last Lau Provincial Council meeting on Ono, Lau, in October 2000: 'There can be no reconciliation or peace until the coup investigations are completed and the rule of law is upheld'," she said.

Nailatikau said that some government authorities, who she said were "hell-bent" on promoting the amnesty clauses of the legislation, were creating the impression that there was some connection between the coup perpetrators and themselves. She demanded to know what the connection was.

In the same statement, Nailatikau spoke highly of Military commander Frank Bainimarama (q.v.), a strident opponent of the legislation who threatened to depose the present government if the bill were to be passed. "The commander is doing a wonderful job because he is not only speaking in his personal capacity as Commander. He is speaking as the Commander of the Fiji battalion in Fiji and those serving overseas, and he has the support of the silent majority," she said.

Following the decision of the Lau Provincial Council on 25 July to endorse the bill, Nailatikau was too disappointed to speak the media.