The Lagilagi Controversy: Government and the People's Community Network, Part I

Lagilagi housing. pn409

Lagilagi housing in Suva has been very much in the news lately. Government has referred its management to the police and the Fiji Competition and Consumer Commission (FCCC) , and the estate,  managed by the NGO People's Community Network (PCN), has been taken over by government after alleged abuse of funds.  These actions have been reported by the media but I know of no published response by  the PCN.

Knowing most of the main actors involve, I am puzzled  by these events,
which come at the same time as PM Bainimarama tells world leaders of the good work done by government on informal settlements. And it has.  I cannot believe the PM initiated this move.  With the exception of when he is personally provoked, his style is more often to talanoa. If there were problems, he'd talk about them.

Nor can I believe that that the PCN is guilty of the charges brought against it, although it's quite possible (and even likely) that isolated breaches occurred.  Its  Board Members include Fr. Kevin J. Barr, who has worked to help Fiji's poor for nearly three decades, Professor Vijay Naidu, head of  Development Studies at USP, and prominent member of other NGOs, Suliana Siwatibau and Aisake Casimira. I do not know the other Board members, Semiti Qalowasa  and Mesake Tamani, or managers  Mesake Dakai, Savu Tawake, Mesake Tamani and Nasir Khan but I doubt they would have been appointed without the support of Fr Barr.To damn an NGO and its Board for the misdemeanor of one employee is an over-reaction.

Lagilagi (meaning "Glorious") is an area I know well. It was once part of  the Jittu Estate, the site of Suva's largest squatter settlement which I researched in the 1970s. My thesis* noted "it is estimated that nearly one-fifth of the population of the Suva Urban Area were squatters in 1976,and that squatter numbers, in recent years, have increased by over ten percent annually." 

The PCN desciption is of an area "with no roads, electricity or piped water, the community of wood and tin shacks became a hive of criminal activity and home to the more notorious criminal elements. In the 1990s a road was built through the estate, electricity and piped water was provided criminal activity dwindled.

"On a section of land at Jittu Estate, the Peoples Community Network has obtained a 99-year lease to build 152 housing units, a community hall, kindergarten and playing field. The project started with funding from the German Catholic agency Misereor which later pulled out and the Ministry for Housing. It is estimated that the project will cost $FJD8.7m."

The apparent cross-purposes between Government and a people-orientated NGO is undesirable and can be of no possible benefit to the people living at Lagilagi, or other people living in informal settlements in Fiji.  Over the years, it has been NGOs that have helped them; far more than most previous governments.   

Government and NGOs relations have not always been good, especially in the early days following the 2006 Coup, but Government and  PCN co-operation led to the building of Lagilagi.

A friend, somewhat cynically, wrote  the PCN is  being "accused of deceptively taking people's money with no intention of providing them with accommodation. The ...  issue could have been resolved by a round table meeting between government and PCN, and government could have said that it'll take over the project. Instead the FCCC litigious approach has been taken for political reasons and to bring (the PCN into) disrepute." 

 I know where my friend was pointing the finger, but identifying him would serve no good purpose.  

The task now is to heal the breach, withdraw the charges, and allow the PCN and government to continue with their good work for those living in Fiji's  informal settlements. 

PCN current projects include providing running workshops to Squatter/Informal Settlements, collecting socio-economic data on all squatter settlements in Fiji, the Lomaivuna Farming Project, farming Projects in the West (Nadi/Lautoka), and community meetings.

 

Tomorrow I'll publish what Fr Barr has to say.

* A C Walsh 1978:  "The Urban Squatter Question: Squatters, Housing and Urbanization in Suva, Fiji." Unpublished. Copies in USP and Massey University, Palmerston North, libraries.