George Speight has now been turned into a modern-day Fijian folk hero. Buoyed by signs of growing support, Speight on Friday had swaggered down to the army blockades outside the besieged complex and demanded their removal. That was when the shooting first started. Gunshots proved the turning point in the crisis. Everyone knows everyone.
Close links make violent conflict less acceptable.
So an armed assault on parliament had never been a realistic option for President Mara. The day after the first shooting, Mara backed off, ordering that the blockades around parliament be removed. The president at first tried to steer a constitutional path through the crisis. Backed by Fiji's venerable great council of chiefs, he made compromises with Speight's group while trying to avoid abrogating the 1997 constitution. The president also backed off from sending in the army to crush Speight's uprising.