Rabuka and Bainimarama, in January 2018 Photo: Fijian Government/Facebook
Former Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama says Sitiveni Rabuka's plans to come clean about past coups are a "waste of time".
Rabuka has announced he will reveal the names of those behind the two racist coups he orchestrated almost four decades ago to the new Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Bainimarama told RNZ Pacific he thought the idea was pointless, however, he declined to comment further.
"I can tell you it's a complete waste of time, thank you," he said before hanging up.
In 2006, Bainimarama was head of Fiji's military and seized power in Fiji's fourth coup in 20 years.
He deposed the late Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and took the top job in 2007.
Bainimarama promised the return of elections and democracy in 2014 and formed the FijiFirst party, which won a majority in the general election that year.
Bainimarama was jailed in May last year, alongside the former police chief Sitiveni Qiliho, for perverting the course of justice.
He was released from prison just six months into his one-year sentence.
The Fijian government has appointed five commissioners to begin work on the truth and reconciliation process, a bid to promote closure and healing for the survivors of the upheavals.
In an interview with fijivillage.com, Rabuka said he would likely be the first to appear voluntarily before the commission.
When pressed on why he needed a commission to reveal the truth about the coups he initiated, Rabuka said Fijians would have to wait.
"I will not give it to you....I want the commission to get that as an example of what people are prepared to come to them and talk about," he told fijivillage.com.
Asked abut critics, who feel the process is unnecessary, given other pressing issues in Fiji, Rabuka said: "All those can be completed."
