Fiji's interim prime minister has accused the country's Methodist Church of sowing the seeds of racial hatred since it backed the Rabuka coups in 1987.
Commodore Frank Bainimarama has told the Sydney Morning Herald that the leadership of the Methodist Church is part of a traditional conspiracy of power against ordinary indigenous Fijians.
He claims church ministers, chiefs and politicians keep ordinary Fijians suppressed so they can take advantage of them.
He says church preachers, chiefs and provincial councils decide who rural Fijians should vote for and they go along with that.
Commodore Bainimarama says Fijians should come out of their shell, think for themselves and do the things that are right.
But a spokesman for one of Fiji's chiefly households, Ratu Jekesoni Yavalanavanu, has told the Fiji Times that God put chiefs in place to rule the people and Commodore Bainimarama does not know or understand Fijian protocol.
