Pacific Studies Journal
Abstract
This essay describes the rationale behind local leaders' scramble to respond to unfolding reactions to the coup in Fiji. Once word spread across the countryside that there had been a takeover of Parliament, people felt an immediate sense that the country was undergoing "another coup." This perception created a need to assimilate the events in terms of prevailing political orientations. In Rakiraki, the Tui Navitilevu made a widely publicized pronouncement of support that provoked a hurried attempt to contain reactions from other high-status figures in the area. The incident brought out into the open the usually submerged conflicts over legitimate chiefly status in the Rakiraki area.
Recommended Citation
Leavitt, Stephen C.
(2002)
"CHIEFLY POLITICS IN THE FIRST REACTIONS IN RAKIRAKI TO THE MAY 2000 COUP IN FIJI,"
Pacific Studies Journal: Vol. 25:
No.
3, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcollections.byuh.edu/pacific-studies-journal/vol25/iss3/3
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