Months of tension between the government and the Republic of Fiji Military Forces culminated in a military coup on 5 December 2006. Citing alleged governmental corruption, Ganilau told Fiji Television that he supported the "cause" of the military, but not its method, and denied public rumours that he had been a party to the planning of the coup. He called on his fellow-chiefs, however, to accept the "reality" of the Military takeover and work to move the country forward. He also claimed that he had been asked to mediate between the Great Council of Chiefs and the Military, as a former head of both bodies, but the council chairman, Ratu Ovini Bokini, angrily denied making any such request. ""I never made a request to meet the commander. Whoever said that is lying. I don't intend to see the commander. He has to make a request to me if he wants to meet me,"" Bokini declared. In making that statement Bokini regarded the Great Council of Chiefs as remaining above secular politics as well as the various institutions of government, including the Army. It was an unrealistic and erroneous notion given the history of chiefly support for the ethno-nationalist coups of 1987 and 2000.