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SYDNEY - Fiji has grown so accustomed to coups it now advertises them.
Military boss Frank Bainimarama gave plenty of notice that the fourth coup in 19 years was set down for noon today.
When that deadline came and went without any action, he extended it to midday on Monday.
Whether Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's prayers for "divine intervention" have been answered remains to be seen.
But Fiji's latest crisis will do little to bolster the nation's flagging international standing or its key tourism industry.
"The Bali Tourist Board will be celebrating," said one old Fiji hand, referring to the country's biggest regional competitor for lucrative tourist dollars.
There was little panic this time.
Suva residents took the precaution today of stockpiling food and cash, but tourists were still lazing on the island nation's beaches.
And when the midday deadline passed, Qarase was away in the west of Fiji's main island while Bainimarama was in casual dress watching a soccer match.
Fiji's struggle to accept the realities of democracy, however, leaves even its supporters puzzled.
Bainimarama's demands include dropping legislation that could forgive those involved in staging Fiji's third coup six years ago.
He also wants the sacking of Australian Andrew Hughes as police commissioner, and a guarantee he won't be charged with sedition for his threats.
"It's very simple," he says.
"He (Qarase) comes with a yes or a no to our demands, full stop."
The one strand linking all of Fiji's coups has been racial tension between indigenous Fijians and the Indo-Fijian majority.
But methods have changed remarkably since the morning of May 14, 1987, when 10 masked, armed soldiers entered the House of Representatives.
Sitiveni Rabuka, dressed in civilian clothes and motivated by claims of racial discrimination against ethnic Fijians, approached Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra from the public gallery and ordered MPs to leave.
The bloodless coup was a success but subsequent talks proposed a government of national unity under the leadership of the governor-general, involving both the deposed government and the indigenous-supported Alliance Party.
Fearing the gains of the first coup would be lost, Rabuka staged a second coup on September 25 that year.
This time he severed ties with the British monarchy and proclaimed a republic.
A new constitution ratified in 1990 guaranteed indigenous Fijians the offices of President and Prime Minister, along with two-thirds of the Senate and a substantial majority of the House of Representatives.
But these provisions were overturned by a constitutional review in 1997.
Hardline Fijian nationalists led by bankrupt businessman George Speight led a further coup in May, 2000, when they overthrew the nation's first Indo-Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudry, holding him hostage inside parliament for eight weeks along with most of his cabinet and many MPs and their staff.
The President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, tried to assert executive authority but eventually resigned.
Enter Frank Bainimarama, who declared martial law, abrogated the constitution and set up an interim government.
He appointed none other than Laisenia Qarase as prime minister before handing power to an interim administration headed by Ratu Josefa Iloilo as President.
Speight was arrested on July 27 along with 369 supporters.
The government reneged on an agreement granting Speight immunity from prosecution, Bainimarama saying the military had signed it "under duress".
Speight remains in prison on an island off Suva.
- AAP
