I thought it amusing that Fiji’s military chief, Frank Bainimarama, gave the prime minister a deadline to conform to the military’s demands before he would set a coup in motion. “I think I’ll schedule the coup for Friday…mmm…sometime after lunch.”
The demands include the nixing of new laws, one of which would forgive participants in the last coup. Bainimarama has even produced a new demand: that Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase sack his entire government. It seems the PM has agreed to all the military’s demands, in order to stave off a coup. But isn’t giving in to all demands a de facto coup, whether or not the leader changes?