Sakeasi Butadroka

Who was Sakeasi Butadroka?

Sakeasi Butadroka was a Fijian politician noted for his strident ethnic nationalism. Originally elected to the House of Representatives as a member of the ruling Fijian Alliance in the parliamentary election of 1972, he was expelled from the Alliance for his public attacks against the presence of Persons of Indian origin in Fiji. He had introduced a parliamentary motion calling for a resolution stating: "That this House agrees that the time has arrived when Indians or people of Indian origin in this country be repatriated back to India and that their travelling expenses back home and compensation for their properties in this country be met by the British Government."

Butadroka founded the Fijian Nationalist Party, which took 24.4 percent of the vote in the general election held in March 1977. Although the party won only one parliamentary seat, its votes were mostly at the expense of the Alliance. This allowed the opposition National Federation Party to win a plurality, precipitating a constitutional crisis.

Butadroka became one of the leaders of the Taukei Movement in 1987, whose agitation formed the backdrop to the two military coups that deposed the elected government and severed Fiji's ties to the British Monarchy that year. Otherwise, however, he operated largely on the political fringes for many years. He strongly opposed the adoption of the present constitution, which reversed most of the provisions institutionalizing ethnic Fijian supremacy in the earlier 1990 constitution. When Parliament passed the new constitution, Butadroka publicly burnt it.