17 Jun 2003

Former Fiji PM Rabuka calls for inclusive government

6:27 am on 17 June 2003

The former Fiji prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, says all the country's political parties and leaders want to take the country forward and this should be harnessed to make a common road map for Fiji.

He was speaking in Fiji TV's Close-Up programme just ahead of tomorrow's Supreme Court case in which the Qarase government is appealing against the Labour Party's inclusion in a multi-party government.

Mr Rabuka, who carried out two military coups in 1987, says he has made mistakes but his type of nationalism never left out other races.

He says it would be great if Laisenia Qarase invited the Labour Party to form a multi-party and multi-racial government for the remaining three years of this parliament.

Mr Rabuka says any snap election now can only open up old wounds and take the country back to its racially polarised camps.

Mr Rabuka says if a multi-party government can be seen to work, his SVT party would not be able to offer any better alternative.

While his interview was on the air, over 11-hundred viewers called to say Mr Rabuka would make a good alternative prime minister while 800 rejected the idea.