Both Ganilau and Army Commander, Frank Bainimarama, viewed Qarase's appeals to the primordial instincts of indigenous Fijians with deep suspicion. They saw Qarase's affirmative action policies and his subtle use of imagined threats to indigenous Fijian interests as polarizing society along ethnic lines. They resented Qarase' use of ethnicity as a device to mobilise indigenous Fijian support. As far as Ganilau and Bainimarama were concerned, Fiji under Qarase was sliding headlong down a slippery slope towards a divided society with the spectre of a failed state looming large on the horizon. More importantly, it was a view shared by the Army.