"The coup surprised everyone and brought to the surface years of underlying racial divisions in this country. It announced in no uncertain terms to the world that behind the mask of smiling faces, there was racism."
Many victims of the coups insist that Rabuka cannot leave his apology at that - they are demanding that he reveal who "used" him to overthrow a popularly elected government at gunpoint.
They say the Prime Minister must be blamed for arresting and detaining the month-old racially balanced cabinet led by the late Dr Timoci Bavadra, an indigenous Fijian and a commoner who pledged major economic and social reforms.
Among those who have demanded that Rabuka reveal all are a Suva lawyer, Miles Johnson, who was president of the Fiji Law Society in 1987 when he was arrested, abused and jailed.
He says Rabuka should "come clean and start naming names".
Another is the widow of Dr Bavadra, Adi Kuini Speed, who initially took over the leadership of the Fiji Labour Party after her husband's death, but is now leader of the Fijian Association Party, a coalition partner of Labour.
Independent columnist Sir Vijay Singh argues that Rabuka is in a double bind because of his book Rabuka: No Other Way in which he had "uninhibitedly" taken credit for the coups: "And therein lies Mr Rabuka's dilemma. He cannot explain all aspects of the coup without implicating others. And if he were to do that, his book will be thrown at him and process servers with libel writs will not be far behind."
Fiji has a complex racial and religious mix in its population of almost 780,000 with mainly Christian indigenous Fijians (48 per cent) slightly outnumbering Indo-Fijians (46 per cent), both Hindu and Muslim, with the rest being mainly European and of mixed-race descent.
Before the coups, there were more Indo-Fijians than indigenous Fijians. An estimated 100,000 left the country after the coups.
Sixteen out of 21 registered political parties are contesting this week-long election, the first under the 1997 constitution drafted by a former New Zealand Governor-General, Sir Paul Reeves, and two commissioners from Fiji.
The multiracial constitution with a preferential voting system similar to Australia and a mix of communal and all-race national seats paved the way for the return of the Fiji Islands to the Commonwealth last year.
Rabuka has been trying to build a consensus in preparation for power-sharing with Indo-Fijians in the May 8-15 election, but he faces critical problems.
As Colonel Rabuka, he staged the coups in 1987 in the name of "indigenous sovereignty". Now he has forged a coalition with one of the Indo-Fijian partners in the overthrown Labour-led government, the National Federation Party headed by lawyer Jai Ram Reddy, and the small United General Party, representing mixed-race and other voters.
Reddy says that he is prepared to take the deputy prime minister's post under Rabuka in the 71-seat Parliament to "allow a smooth transition of leadership".
Political observers believe Rabuka, who has led Fiji as coup leader then as elected prime minister since the military takeover, has lost some of his charisma and his political edge.
During the campaign, he has been embarrassed in this deeply religious country by so-called "Kama Sutra" allegations about illicit sex at the Fiji Golf Club at Vatuwaqa which he denied in a sellout edition of the Daily Post - and reported on a website. But he admitted to being a "carnal man".
Rabuka is also troubled by controversy over land lease reforms, allegations of corruption against his government, spiralling unemployment (about 25 per cent) and crime, and protests over the country's privatisation policies.
Some of his coup supporters have defected from the ruling Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (Fijian Political Party) and now support a conservative new Christian Democratic Alliance. This party has attracted the recently resigned military commander Brigadier Ratu Epeli Ganilau, a high chief, and former leading diplomat Poseci Bune.
The Alliance (Veitokani ni Lewenivanua Vakarisito) has called for a return of the unpopular Sunday ban on all non-Christian religious activity, even though almost half the population of Fiji are Hindu or Muslim.
It also wants changes to the new constitution to restore indigenous privileges. Many see the Alliance as wanting to bring back harsh post-coup values and repression.
But the real challenge to Rabuka's government is the so-called "people's coalition" between the Fiji Labour Party, led by feisty trade unionist Mahendra Chaudhry; the Fijian Association Party, headed by Adi Kuini Speed; and Apisai Tora's Party of National Unity.
However, this alliance appears fragile. No alternative prime minister has yet been agreed on, although Labour's Professor Tupeni Baba, an indigenous education academic, has been suggested as a compromise choice.
In recent newspaper polls, Rabuka was still the strongest favourite for prime minister (24 per cent), followed by Chaudhry (13 per cent), Adi Kuini (12 per cent) and finally Reddy (11 per cent).
The Fiji Government's rush to restructure public enterprises has raised public questions on both the logic and the motivation for this.
Successive governments since 1989 have repeatedly claimed that they would continue to first corporatise and then sell the government enterprises.
Finance Minister Jim Ah Koy, seen by some observers as Fiji's real "prime minister", has been bolder and says the business of government is not to run businesses.
But the recent sale of Telecom Fiji and the National Bank, and the earlier sale of the national shipyard and Air Pacific have raised serious concerns with taxpayers, consumers and the public.
Privatisation of part of the Civil Aviation Authority and the retrenching of 500 workers at Nadi and Nausori international airports to set up Airports Fiji Ltd barely a month before the election damaged the government.
The mass redundancies, confusion over employment contracts for a group of New Zealanders accused of taking Fiji jobs, and concerns about fire service and airport security hit the country's tourist industry.
"The problem is that numerous government ventures corporatised and/or privatised have remained monopolies or oligopolies. With corporatisation and privatisation, these ventures have begun extracting massive rents from consumers," says economist Dr Ganesh Chand, of the University of the South Pacific.
"The phone, postage, and electricity companies are examples. The water supply and health departments are also embarking on this path."
A strong critic of the user-pays system, Dr Chand is contesting the elections for Labour in an attempt to reverse the policies. He claims that Fiji Islanders who cannot afford to pay will be forced to either go without services, or find other - even "extra-legal" - means.
"Since the military coups, the appointments to the boards and to management positions have been so politicised that these positions are now seen as rewards for loyalty to the establishment," he says.
"Ethnic discrimination, provincial biases, and political patronage have taken root strongly."
David Robie is a New Zealand journalist and educator living in Fiji. He is the author of a 1989 book about the coups, Blood on their Banner: Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific.
