Heads Of State

"Let's do right in the eyes of God!"

"When we wrong God, he does not let us go, he makes us pay for our wrongs but through the death of his own son Jesus Christ. When God's people (Jews) wronged him, he weakened them in battle and caused them to be captives in Babylon for 70 years."

"I don't have to be nice to people who are causing great damage to the nation … I refuse to be nice to people who want to overthrow what the military and the security forces have been doing to maintain law and order in this country in the past five years since the illegal overthrow of the Labour Government … I refuse to be nice to people like Jioji Kotobalavu and Qoriniasi Bale. I don't have to be nice to anyone trying to destabilise what the army has built."

"You have to give it (the tiger) room. If you don't give it room, it will bite you."

"If we don't act, this country is going to go to the dogs and no investor will want to come here."

"All the nation has been saddened by the extent to which the country has fallen during the last week. I have therefore, with much reluctance, assumed executive authority."

"If we don't put our foot down, they will release every man and his dog."

"Saula Telawa, President of the New Nationalist Party: "He (Bainimarama) needs to place more faith in God, only God has the answer, we cannot keep bringing up the past. In making decisions about the people, we need to have faith. What has been done should be forgotten as always dwelling on it will not bring about anything good. He is only making things and the future difficult." (Quoted in the Fiji Sun, 9 March 2006.)."

"Ropate Sivo, General Secretary of the Conservative Alliance: "I ask Frank to remain where he is and not to interfere in politics. He should not think that he will always be commander because there are other capable people that can do the job. He is only hungry for power and just because he helped bring the present people into power as an interim government, that does not give him the right to threaten the present government." (Quoted in the Fiji Sun, 9 March 2006.)."

"Maciu Navakasuasua: "Commander Bainimarama holds the key in putting this country on the rightful path." (11 January 2006; quoted in Fiji Sun)."

"Josaia Waqabaca: "Commander Bainimarama is clean and fighting for the truth. The stand he is taking is going to save the Fijian race. Today, in the streets ordinary Fijians are talking about the truth and cleanliness, which is hard to find in this government." (11 January 2006; quoted in Fiji Sun)."

"Senator James Ah Koy: "I think he is doing a good job and I really support him for his strong words against Mr Downer." (1 October 2005)"

"Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer: "I do not see the Military Commander of Fiji as a political player in all this. Let me make this very clear: it is not the job of a military commander to play politics; it is the job of the military commander to command troops and the Government is to decide where those troops get deployed, whether to Iraq or RAMSI. It is not the role of the commander to play domestic politics." (29 September 2005, on Bainimarama's opposition to the Reconciliation and Unity Bill (q.v)."

"Senator Adi Koila Nailatikau and now interim military government minister: "The commander is doing a wonderful job because he is not only speaking in his personal capacity as Commander. He is speaking as the Commander of the Fiji battalion in Fiji and those serving overseas, and he has the support of the silent majority." (24 July 2005, referring to Bainimarama's opposition to the Reconciliation and Unity Bill (q.v)."

"Colonel Ioane Naivalurua, Land Force Commander but now illegal Commissioner of Prison: "Courageous, strong and … a saviour of Fiji in this time of need". (23 June 2005)."

"There are two things that need to be taken away. First the lies and this government which needs to follow the law and imprison those implicated in the coup. The chiefs are being used just like those that have been made to believe that there is $6million in the bank for them. This Bill was pushed by the SDL party, the very same people that supported what happened in 2000 and there are opportunists seating in the council looking to mislead the council."

"I don’t think they should be discussing the Bill. It represents the lies of those that took the people into Parliament. The same opportunists are using the GCC to push the Bill through."

""We will maintain our stand despite criticisms." (on being told by Downer that the international community would not be happy about the Military's intervention in the political arena)."

"We are not going to take this Bill for granted. We asked them (the Daily Post reporters) to leave the room because they are for the Bill. And if they are for the Bill, this means they are anti-RFMF."

"This is where we are coming from. The Bill is a continuation of the 2000 coup and it is the consequences of the Bill that we are looking at."

"We are not interfering with any political agenda or plan. We are only doing our job and that is on the grounds of security."

"We were never involved in politics. It was the political party that pushed their agenda, the Bill, forward and we only reacted to the consequences the Bill would bring."

"I told Mr Downer that I was disappointed with his comments and said that we should stay out of politics. I told him his country has not experienced a coup to feel what the military went through here. He can't compare the situation there to this side."

"The passing of the bill will be a continuation of all the events of 2000."

"As long as this bill hangs over our heads there is no credibility in what people in leadership do."

"This confirms the RFMF view that the Bill has nothing to do with Reconciliation and everything to do with the selfish agenda that George Speight brought into Parliament in 2000 to gather support and ensure his leadership. We better stop lying to ourselves, we better stop these people lying to us."

"Those threats they (Apisai Tora and Tomasi Vakatora) came up with should be condemned. He (Tora) has come up with the same threats that politicians like him throw up before elections. That if any other party especially Labour wins, there will be instability … These people are forcing the population to vote out of fear. These types of talks have to be condemned now."

"Remember the words of the Bible in Amos 5:24, 'Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-falling stream'."

"The white man is not indigenous to Africa. Africa is for Africans. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans."

"After leading a successful anticolonial war of liberation, Robert Mugabe was elected the first president of independent Zimbabwe. It was hoped that, like Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Mugabe would guide Africa to a new era of democracy. But with each year that has passed, he has turned increasingly dictatorial, and he has run his country into the ground. Since 1988, life expectancy in Zimbabwe has plunged from sixty-two years to thirty-eight. The destruction of the health of his people is as much as an abuse of human rights as arbitrary arrest and torture."

"He was a very clever bloke and he worked with me for as long as he thought it was going to help him. Once again, it was just to keep himself in power. I give that answer to all questions about Mugabe because that is all there is to it. Everything he has ever done is about keeping himself in power: Dictators and fascists all over the world think like that."

"Do you know what Mugabe has done? He's taken people's identity and literally if you don't mind, cut it to pieces. This is what he's actually done, to a lot of – and in the end there's nothing. So as far as I'm concerned from now on I'm not going to wear a dog collar until Mugabe's gone."

"It's been a great pleasure to have had the opportunity today to meet with Prime Minister Robert Mugabe of the Republic of Zimbabwe. As the first Prime Minister of Africa's newest independent state, his wise leadership has been a crucial factor in healing the wounds of civil war and developing a new nation with new opportunities."

"I'll be honest with you, I'm heartbroken when I see what's happened in Zimbabwe. I think Mugabe is an example of a leader who came in as a liberation fighter and—I'm just going to be very blunt—I do not see him serving his people well. And the abuses, the human rights abuses, the violence that's been perpetrated against opposition leaders, I think, is terrible."

"He is a very disciplined man. He treated people with respect. He wasn't lavish in his lifestyle but he did have clear standards. He dressed well, invariably in a dark suit with a silk tie and matching handkerchief, but without ostentation. He wore a good watch but nothing flashy. You could tell that money and acquisitiveness were not part of his motivation. There was another motive that drove him."

"Mugabe has presided over the destruction of a nation. The country boasts great natural resources and rich farming land that once made it one of the most prosperous countries in Africa — but now there are frequent food shortages, and raging inflation. In 2008, Mugabe lost an election but he consolidated his tyranny and defied the world, using widespread murder, torture, arrests, violence and election fraud."

"In 1984 Mugabe effectively established a one-party tyranny. He became the country’s first executive president in 1987, and subsequent elections have been characterized by widespread intimidation and violence. Mugabe has also encouraged his paramilitaries and thuggish war veterans to seize the remaining land still held by whites, and the resulting chaos has led to a catastrophic decline in agricultural output. In recent years, the black community has also suffered displacement following large-scale schemes to destroy shanty towns in areas where the opposition is strongest. Despite the opposition of the Movement for Democratic Change, corruption and intimidation ensured that Mugabe’s party managed to hold onto to its grip on power in the elections of 2000 and 2002. Meanwhile, any sign of dissent was mercilessly suppressed by his secret police, the Central Intelligence Organization."

"Seeking refuge in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, Mengistu Haile Mariam found a man after his own heart. For Mugabe is responsible for the murder. of thousands in the Matabeleland massacres, and for plunging his country into a state of economic and political despair. Mugabe had all the credentials to be a hero for Zimbabwe’s black majority. From the 1960s he became a key figure in the opposition to the minority white rulers of the country, then known as Rhodesia, and was imprisoned for ten years for subversion. In 1975 he emerged as the leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), which launched a guerrilla war against the white regime. When in 1980 peace was restored and black-majority rule instituted, Mugabe was elected prime minister, Initially he proceeded cautiously, seeking a broad base of support among both whites and blacks, but before long he moved against his black rival, Joshua Nkomo, who spoke for the Ndebele people, while Mugabe derived his support from the majority Shona tribe. As tribal tensions increased, clashes in Ndebele areas such as Matabeleland were dealt with bloodily by Mugabe’s troops."

"Why have the leaders of the most powerful country on the African continent (Mandela, Mbeki and Zuma) succored the leader of the most corrupt (Mugabe)? These South African strongmen were, in a manner, saluting the Alpha Male Mugabe by implementing a slow-motion version of his program. When he socked it to the whites, Mugabe cemented his status as hero to black activists and their sycophants across South Africa."

"Well, I mean, one difference is, is you see the end of the constitution of Venezuela. And this is happening obviously at an accelerated pace in recent months, in the Maduro regime. But this is a process that has taken, really, two regimes to really restrict Venezuelan democracy. And by designating Maduro himself, he joins a very exclusive club -- including Mr. Mugabe, Bashar al-Assad, and Kim Jong-un in terms of the brutal repression of his people and, in this case, the abrogation of the constitution with the constitution -- with the constituent assembly"

"He believed profoundly in his people, the living as well as the dead. You can say of some Africans that there is a thin veneer of civilisation as we know it in the West. But Mugabe, who was undoubtedly civilised and much better educated than most of us, still held African beliefs very dearly in his heart. I think this is one of the reasons he pushed the white farmers off the land. He was always acutely aware that African beliefs reside in the soil. He always believed very, very strongly that nobody had the right to give or take away the land of the people because that meant giving away the ancestors who held the whole nation together."

"The situation in Zimbabwe has reached a decisive moment. After the years in which the repressive regime of President Robert Mugabe has made a mockery of law while turning what was once southern Africa's breadbasket into a literal economic basket case, the people of Zimbabwe nonetheless bravely went to the polls. The delay in publishing the results of the election raise serious doubts about what is happening. It is now time for the international community, especially Zimbabwe's immediate neighbors, to stand up and be heard in support of Zimbabwe's people, demanding that their votes be respected."

"Mugabe fought and liberated his country from colonists. But I am here as a guest of the Zimbabwe people. I am not a personal guest of Mugabe. And veterans of the liberation struggle are well aware of this fact."

"My delegation also wish to place on record our deep appreciation to His Excellency Mr Robert Mugabe for his guidance of the affairs of the Movement (Non-Aligned Movement) during his Chairmanship. The Movement`s current high standing in international affairs is a tribute to the dedication and statesmanship of Mr Mugabe."

"Tanzania is standing by the people of Zimbabwe including President Mugabe... Mugabe is there, he is president, he has been elected. If Tanzania had simply said, stupid, you’re hopeless, a murderer, a violator of basic human rights; does that remove Mugabe from office? It doesn’t."

"People see him as a hero. Not just in Zimbabwe or here in Zambia but across the whole of southern Africa. It's no good demonising Robert Mugabe."

"With his poor childhood development record, even minor criticism would be experienced as a wound by Mugabe. He is a person who cannot tolerate difference. Being profoundly doubtful about himself, he is oversensitive to the idea that he is not as good as everyone else. People are either with him or against him. Differences of opinion are provocative and hurtful to Mugabe, who may think that compromise reduces him. The closer a compromise comes to his emotional self, the more he resists it."

"I believe that Mugabe was … driven into a permanent rage by the adulation heaped internationally on Nelson Mandela, an accolade of praise and recognition that he felt was more properly due to himself. And, harboring this grievance, he decided to denude his own unhappy country of anything that might remind anybody of Mandela's legacy."

"He’s one of the worst human beings I’ve ever met. He treated black and white with equal contempt. He was a horrible human being."

"Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe is a wonderful country - I've been there umpteen times and it is being brought to extinction by Mugabe. The average life expectancy is 33, so if you are not dying from Aids, malnutrition, starvation, deprivation or stagnation, don your flannels, black up, play leather on willow. Mugabe as captain and witch doctor, imagine him out at Lord's casting a tincture of bats' tongues and gorillas' gonads."