pn618a. I take My Hat Off to Ro Teimumu: Duavata for all Fiji's People

It takes courage to go against the common tide, even when you are a chief and a paramount one at that. I take my hat off to you, Ro Teimumu.

Ro Teimumu is the only SODELPA MP to accept "Fijian" as a common name for all Fijians but says more work needs to be done for the name to be generally accepted by iTaukei, especially because it was a forced decision by Government.

Speaking at the Forced Labour and Migration conference at the University of Fiji campus in Saweni, Lautoka, some time ago she spoke of her personal reasons for making this decision.

I did not know that Ratu Mara also wanted Fijian as a common name or that the Indian indentured labourers who survived the shipwreck of the "Syria" were adopted as clan members by the Tui Noco of Rewa.

"From it (the adoption in 2017) I derive hope for the future", she said.  "It opens the door to a new form of togetherness, duavata for Fiji's people."

Read also Syria shipwreck rescue efforts of 1884 leads to communal reconciliation in Fiji

--  ACW

Racial and Other Discrimination in NZ - perceptions by recipients

pn429

UPDATE. Horrifying story of treatment of Korean family in Auckland. June 2109
Click here 

Five years old but little is likely to have significantly changed. -- ACW

Working together: Racial discrimination in New Zealand


This short report uses data from the New Zealand General Social Survey (NZGSS) to look at whether New Zealanders feel racially discriminated against. It also provides background data on overall levels of perceived discrimination and where this takes place.

Read the report on line, or below.

Why Do So Few Aussies Speak an Australian Language?

Click for other census statistics pn 239

Linguistically speaking, Australia is special. With around 250 languages spoken when Australia was first colonised, Australia was one of the most Reqaaaalinguistically diverse places in the READ MORE ...world.

But few people speak its Indigenous languages. As of 2016, only 10% of Australia’s Indigenous population spoke an Indigenous language at home. (This link shows census info on the aboriginal population.) 

Most Indigenous languages are now “asleep”, waiting to be woken up by language revivalists.

Australian languages did not simply fade away; they were actively silenced by governments, schools and missions.   READ MORE ....

Lottery Scandal, No One Indian People, Schools Name Change, Mai TV, Land Bank & Mining, Scholarships & Manpower Training, Roads, Apostolic Whoops!

N0010. LOTTERY FUNDS MISUSED. Several serious allegations have surfaced in the Commerce Commission Report in relation to the Fiji Rugby Union lottery case. The Commission says the FRU lottery bank account showed it had $104,000 The Commission findings, however, showed that as at 30th December the  balance in the FRU lottery bank account totalled only $104,000. With lottery sales  the  balance should have been  $350,000.

Some money could still be coming in from vendors but it appears that only half the tickets were sold. It also appears ticket money has been used for  airfares, accommodation, visa application and game tickets for the 2010 Hong Kong 7s for a senior FRU Lottery Director. Government  has asked the FRU Board and Executive to resign.

STOP PRESS. Bill Gavoka  has resigned as FRU chairman but remains on the Board. Rafaele Kasibulu, who will lead talks with Government to discuss its demands, is effectively the interim Chairman.

N0011.WHEN IS AN INDIAN NOT AN INDIAN.  My  article on this topic published on Saturday in Weekend Reading was republished by AUT's Pacific Media Centre.The photo, courtesy of PMC, is Indo-Fijian girls performing a Pacific dance item.  The article drew this (slightly edited) comment from a reader:

"This is interesting and a helpful discussion on a subject which has been fraught with far too much emotion in the past.

My advice has always been: strive for cultural understanding, but guard against cultural stereotyping. I believe the word "Indian" describes only one's nationality. In the Fiji context it has overtones which lead directly to ethnic stereotyping and profiling. Otherwise educated analysts tell us that the "Indians" want one or other political solution, or that they want to preserve their cultural identity. Who are these "Indians" who think in such a homogeneous way? The same mistake has been made about the  i'taukei. That they should be united and think as one.

"Really? The best situation for Fiji is that we accept that all individuals regardless of culture and ethnicity should be able to pursue their individual dreams. Not to be driven by the narrow walls of what they ought to believe. In fact in the current political situation in Fiji, there are persons of all ethnicities which oppose the government just as there are persons of all ethnicities which support it.

"There is no Indo-Fijian way of thinking,  just as there is no "European-Fijian" way of thinking. When the British tried to codify custom in the Fijian Administration, the most significant mistake they made (apart from creating new "customary" institutions such as the Fijian courts) was to assume that there was one homogeneous Fijian way of life. Nayacakalau wrote of this in the most gentle  way. There is no one Fijian people, just a number of individuals who share some cultural characteristics. And they all think differently from each other.There is no one Indian people in Fiji or elsewhere.

It is time to grow up and to stop defining people's thoughts, politics and aspirations in terms of their ethnic origin.I liked your article very much. Thanks, Nitesh."

N0012. SCHOOLS CHANGING RACE-BASED NAMES. All schools with race-based names are now being changed.

N0013. MAI TV has launched a free 24 hours web channel aimed primarily at overseas Fijians. Besides the news broadcast at 7pm you will be able to watch a range of popular programmes and more will be launched over the coming weeks. All you have to do is register with an email address and password on the Mai TV’s home page www.maitv.com.fj  Note, however, that the company reserves the right to charge for services sometime in the future.

N0014. LAND BANK & BAUXITE MINING at Nawailevu in Bua is expected to start by March according to the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources on an area of Native land previously leased to Fiji Pine. Aurum Exploration Fiji paid Fiji Pine $1m so that the land could revert to landowners from the Mataqali Nalutu, Mataqali Noro and Mataqali Naicobo.

In turn, the mataqali offered the land to the Government Land Bank, and last week the PM designated the first parcel of  land for bauxite mining.  Aurum will have a 99-year lease on the land and a surface mining licence is expected to be issued in March. The Land Bank is a government initiative aimed at giving leasees more secure tenure, landowners an assured income, and bringing more land into productive use.-- Based on 2011, No:0025 /MOI.

The PM said “The significance of the activation of the Land Bank is that many of our idle lands could now be leased through the Land Use Decree 2010 and be made productive for the betterment of landowners, investors and the country as a whole. Landowners who willingly choose to have their lands leased through the Land Use Decree will now be in a position to reap fair and just returns. They will also receive the full quantum of the premium and land rent. I know that this is one of the key issues that landowners have been calling for in the past decades." Government will also ensure the investors security of tenure. -- Based on 2011, No:0023 /MOI.

N0015. MINING PREDICTED AS TOP EXPORTER EARNER. In an ABC broadcast chairman of Fiji's Mining and Quarrying Council, Harvey Probert,  predicts mining will be Fiji's main export earner within five years.

N0016. SCHOLARSHIPS & MANPOWER TRAINING. Some $14million has been allocated for Government Scholarships and Training, under the Public Service Commission and Multi-Ethnic Affairs Scholarship Programme for 2011.  The money will assist about one thousand continuing students in Fiji and overseas, and about the same number of new students.  The fund will be administered by the PSC which also coordinates training programmes funded by bilateral partners.

PSC PermSec Parmesh Chand said there will be a completely new set of criteria in place next year as required by virtue of principles enshrined in the People’s Charter for Change, Peace & Progress and the Roadmap for Sustainable Economic Development & Democracy. Government's focus is on capacity building, and the PSC will ensure a prudent use of resources to enhance the knowledge, skills and expertise of the civil service, as well as the private sector.  -- Based on 2011, No:0010 /PSC.

Mr Chand emphasised that a professional, committed and ethical workforce can only be achieved through on-going capacity building, and for this reason, a supportive training culture is encouraged, so that the training needs of the nation can be effectively addressed.

N0017. ROAD WORKS. Potholes may be a thing of the past on major roads if government manages to complete current and intended road works by 2014. The Ministry of Works  is concentrating on tourist areas, along with the main roads and farm roads. The Nadi Back Road is half complete and work will soon commence in Ba, Sigatoka and Rakiraki.

N0018. WOOPS! FIJI SUN IN ORBIT. The heading read "Apostolic congress hailed by Catholics." But  it wasn't.  The article was about the Catholic Apostolic Church that originated in England in the 1830s.  The (Roman) Catholic Church is just a little older. You can't always believe what you read in the press.

Race, Racism and the 2014 Election

By Crosbie Walsh

In the relatively moderate anti-government blog FijiToday a Pita Massam writes to publisher Peter Firkin  raising interesting questions on race, racism, legislation and the 2014 elections.

Pita writes about an IndoFijjian business friend who says he can think of no one who would be acceptable to both i'taukei and IndoFijians as prime minister. "Both Qarase and Chaudry are way too polarised to be allowed to stand and the PM has promised to exclude them anyway."

Further, his friend doubts any "village Fijian would vote for a “Mongoose” and that is 30% of the total vote. No Settlement Indian would vote for a “Tu” and that is 18% of the population."

"He proposes a question to ask to gauge the level of racism bred into the current population. Would you be happy if your daughter married a Fijian or Indian? He believes that an almost 100% of parents would say “no way.” This will not change in the six years as proposed by the current Government. So if we do get to have an election in 2014 it is impossible that it will be non racial and even the most non political Indians see themselves worse off than before 2006."

The friend thinks "that the current administration has the right policies about non-racial schooling and the next generation is the first opportunity for advances towards a non-racial society [but] irrespective of what dreams the current administration has, racism is way too alive and well in Fiji and the majority Fijian vote will own the next parliament."

Many people probably share these views. At first glance, they seem so obvious but a closer examination is needed. First, it is important not to confuse race with racism. There's no way any legislation anywhere will be able to change people's race, so to this extent the 2014 elections will not be non-racial. But society can put structures in place to reduce hostility and suspicion between races and take actions against institutional racism.  Individuals and groups, of course, may still be racist but the opportunities to treat other races unfairly or unjustly will be very limited by removing institutional racist structures. It is important not to confuse individual or group racism with institutional racism.

Of course, parents may still prefer their children to marry within their own race, or religion or social class. This is entirely natural, but it is only racism when the parents seek to prevent marriage to an otherwise suitable son- or daughter-in-law because of their hatred towards or unreasonable suspicion of the "other" race. And voting for an MP is nowhere near as intimate or permanent as choosing a marriage partner!

Pita's friend correctly says racism is alive and well in Fiji and cannot be "killed by legislation." But institutional racism can be killed and race relations improved.

The next four years, with ongoing institutional and infrastructural reforms, the new Constitution and Electoral reforms, should see Fiji go a long way to ensuring that race is pushed to the sidelines of  politics, and that when the election is held parties will be formed around policies and issues, not race.

Most MPs, the PM and the President after 2014  will probably be i'taukei simple because most people in Fiji are i'taukei. This should not be an issue, but if it is, the Deputy PM and Vice-President could represent other races. The bigger parties at least will be multi-ethnic, and structures will be in place to prevent a return to the race-based and often racist politics and legislation of Fiji before the 2006 Coup. Among most educated people, the race of the country's leaders will be far less important than the quality of their leadership. And given more time, most people will think the same. "By their deeds [and not their faces] ye shall know them."

There is, of course, always some doubt about future outcomes. None of us can predict the future. But if Peter, Pita and his IndoFijian friend want the kind of Fiji I think they want, I'm sure their best option is to keep the Bainimarama regime — for all its many warts and imperfections —  honest to the principles of the People's Charter and on track to elections in 2014. The alternative, the so-called "return to democracy,"  proclaimed by the racists in the extreme anti-government blogs is too frightening to think about.

Money Laundering, Teachers to Need Fijian and Hindi, Police Name Tags, PM Back This Week, Maritime and Land Registry

APOLOGIES FOR LATE POSTINGS.  I usually manage to publish the daily postings before 4:30 in the afternoon but this week domestic chores have taken precedence. My apologies for any inconvenience caused by the later publication.

CENTRE FOR FIJI FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE UNIT. The Unit yesterday opened a National Anti-Money Laundering Learning Center which will provide electronic computer based training (CBT) to financial institutions and stakeholders.FIU director Razim Buksh says the AML Learning Center and the CBT courses will be of tremendous value to Fiji’s law enforcement agencies as their officials will be trained without any cost. CBT courses will cover topics such as money laundering, human trafficking, precursor chemicals, search techniques, control deliveries and basic intelligence analysis.

“The main reason for providing such a training forum to law enforcement agencies is basically the nature of crime is quite complex, this is a new era, and we have seen emergence of complex crime in Fiji. Therefore we need to equip our law enforcement agents – so that they are at par with the new methods and techniques. These include coming up with a matrix, linking information through flow charts and link charts and undertaking better management of information if this relates to financial record.”

The Learning Center has been established through a partnership between the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, the British High Commission in Suva, Reserve Bank of Fiji and the Fiji Intelligence Unit.

TEACHERS WILL NEED FIJIAN AND HINDI. Trainee teachers enrolling at the Fiji National University next year will have to learn Hindi and Fijian to be able to teach the language in schools to be awarded their graduation certificate. FNU Vice-Chancellor Dr Ganesh Chand said the level of competency in both languages would need to be at Fijian and Hindi Newspapers "Nai Lalakai and Shanti Dut" level.

He said the move is a response to the number of challenges before Fiji, and in particular one that emerged for teachers in regard to the Peoples' Charter for Change and Development.  He said without language understanding there is not much of a chance for the society to be united. He hoped the FNU initiative will motivate other sectors of society to play their part in ensuring a diverse society that also encourages unity.

POLICE TO WEAR NAME TAGS. The new Commissioner of Police Brigadier Iowane Naivalurua  has announced that all  uniformed police officers will now be required to wear tags, with their name, rank and number.The directive was issued so people can easily identify officers if they have complaints or if they witness their involvement in corruption. It can also be used to commend officers. The directive comes into effect in seven days.

PM BACK LATER THIS WEEK. The PM returns from China later this week after a series of successful meetings with Chinese officials and business leaders. He is expected to announce the 2011 Budget on Friday. Key topics discussed at the meetings included streamlining of Government processes, the need to be pro-active when evaluating investment proposals and ensuring that investment provides employment and training opportunities for Fijians.

The PM  said “These meetings have been important in assuring investors that the Fiji Government is committed to providing an environment where business can prosper, It is important that Fiji has the right platform, infrastructure and a program for fast-tracking quality business investment into the country

MARITIME ZONE AND LAND INITIATIVES. Two current initiatives by the Ministry of Land and Mineral Resources are the proper demarcation and mapping of Fiji’s Maritime Zone and work on a National Land Register, a high priority for Government. The State Land register will be completed in December and it is hoped the whole National Register will be complete by December 2011. The Register will compile information on all land issues,  for instance land tenure, boundaries, ownership, value, land use infrastructure and biophysical features. The data will be stored on GIS (Geographic Information System) which links data to maps which will enable the Department and relevant others to keep track of all land transactions in Fiji.

The information is also needed for Government's proposed Land Reforms and the the identification of land designated into the Land Bank for the issuing of 99 year leases. The reforms are intended to promote good husbandry practices with rewarding returns for both tenants and the landowners. -- Based on 2010, No:1971/MOI.

White Media, Brown Aotearoa

Lack of Diversity in NZ Media a Curse on Fiji

By Thakur Ranjit Singh

An analysis of the NZ Herald editorials over the last two years will show that the stance of the paper on Fiji and the Pacific is the same as that shared by the NZ government. I am not too sure who sings from whose song sheet, but the fact remains that there is only one song sheet from which the mainstream media and the NZ Foreign policy on Fiji are decided. To a great extent, this is because of lack of diversity ,not only in the NZ Mainstream newsrooms, but also in policy-making government departments in an increasing cosmopolitan Aotearoa. Consequently, we end up with a blinkered vision of Fiji and the Pacific.

Missing Dollars, Corporate Governance, Suspicious Transactions, Solomon Logic, Squatters, MicroFinance

THE HALF-MILLION DOLLARS. Predictably, the anti-bloggers saw the Police statements that the $½ million were stolen overseas and some notes were circulating in Fiji as a police -- and therefore a Government -- cover-up. So,  if you believe this, there's not much point reading on.  The latest from the Police is that they now know where the theft occurred and now some notes entered the country and is being distributed. No further information is being revealed at this stage because it could compromise investigations.

POOR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE = LITANY OF ABUSES. Former Fiji High Court judge Nazhat Shameem (photo), now an independent consultant, has again drawn attention to corporate governance issues. Speaking at the Pacific Countries Ports Association Conference in Suva on Monday, Shameem said many corporate bodies do not adhere to their own procedures and rules, scoffing at them as red-tape. Corporate governance, she said, is about trust and honesty and treating other people’s assets with responsibility and care, adding that “greater observance of corporate governance principles and values in Fiji might have spared us the National Bank crisis, the Agricultural scam and the Housing Authority fraud.”


SUSPICIOUS TRANSACTIONS. The Fiji Financial Intelligence Unit reports  that suspicious transactions increased to $26 million last year, up from $10m in 2008. A suspicious transaction is a transaction or attempted transaction which a financial institution has reasonable grounds to suspect may be related money-laundering or other serious offence.

THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON.  following a logic remarkably similar to the Bainimarama government that sees infrastructural reforms as necessary for nation-building and national unity, Solomon Island PM Danny Philip, says that without considering traditional landownership issues, large-scale developments in the Solomons will not be sustainable.  This is because land reforms are needed to give resource owners an incentive to support state institutions.

“We were under the impression and assumption," he said,  that economic development will unite Solomon Islands society and give national cohesion. It didn’t work that way. So [we] have to go back and rediscover ourselves.”

In Fiji, the "engineered" misperception of vast inequalities of wealth along ethnic lines (viewed by Fijians as: Rich Indians, poor Fijians, and by Indo-Fijians as:  Hard-working Indians, lazy Fijians) was what helped to produce the divisive politics of ethnic-based parties, mistrust, misunderstanding and the 1987 and 2000 coups. In fact, it was only the averages that were different.  There were  -- and are -- very poor people of all races.

This is why the first phase of Government's Roadmap is focusing on material improvements, most especially in remote rural areas.  Improved race relations is the only bedrock on which genuine democracy can flourish in Fiji.

 HELP FOR SQUATTERS ON STATE LAND. The anti-government blogs made good mileage out of Land Minister Neumi Leweni's statement that squatters on state land would be evicted, and I also had problems reconciling the statement with governments anti-poverty measures. No previous government has ever evicted large numbers of squatters without making some provision for alternative locations. It was reassuring, therefore, to read yesterday's announcement by Lands Minister Netani Sukanaivalu that squatters living on state land at Vatuwaqa, where there two large squatter settlements, will be relocated with government assistance.

He said a big development project will be carried out soon from Laucala Bay to Wailea in Vatuwaqa where many squatters are residing and this is why they need to relocate those living on government land. Sukanaivalu says they have started development work at Jittu Estate and will be working soon on land occupied by squatters in Wailea and Muanivatu.

What is not clear from the announcement is whether the development work at Wailea and Muanivatu makes any provision for low-cost or self-help housing. Does anyone know what the "big development project" entails?

NEW MICROFINANCE ORGANIZATION.The South Pacific Business Development Foundation that began in Samoa ten years ago will open its doors in Fiji next week. The SPBDF is perhaps the region's most successful microfinance organization having already lent almost $US13 million to 12,000 families in Samoa and Tonga where it started operations last year. Founder Greg Casagrande said the organisation is expanding rapidly.“We will get to six or seven thousand clients in Tonga in short order, whereas Fiji we could easily reach 20,000 clients in the next few years.” The organization aims to "make a significant difference to the lives of poor Pacific Islanders.

For more detailed information click here. For elaboration on the terms microfinance and microcapital, follow the link at the foot of this article or go direct to http://www.microcapital.org  Thanks, R-d.

Aussie Modesty, Pacific Understanding, Ethnic Fijian Generosity, Public Service Outreach

PACIFIC AN AUSTRALIAN LAKE?  At the height of the Cold War some American referred to the Pacific as an American lake.  Now Australians seem to be doing the same.

In an otherwise informative background article on the Forum meeting to be held in Vila this week, a meeting at which both the Australian PM and Foreign Minister will be absent due to the forthcoming election, The Australian reveals as much or more about how Australia sees itself as it does about how Australia sees the Pacific. The image is certainly not suggestive of an equal relationship. Here are some examples:

Australia's bigger friends and allies, especially the US, take Canberra's lead to manage troublesome issues in the islands and to help guide them to prosperity. [Carving up the world may make for good geopolitics, but "management" and "guidance" is what parents provide to children.  Powerful as Australia may be, they are dealing with sovereign nations, not children.]

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer stressed last week that it is our natural sphere of influence. Or it could be, if we paid it more attention. [The article urged greater involvement, and knowledge of the Pacific.]

...no other industrialised country has the Third World on its doorstep in the way the Pacific is on ours. Europe's former colonies are remote by comparison. [Actually, Paris to Algeria is only a little further than Darwin to Port Moresby and London to Lagos not much further than Sydney to Apia. And that's not to mention US proximity to Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America.]

For Australia's policy aims to prevail, it will now need to rely on leadership at the forum summit to come from leaders broadly aligned with Canberra's regional perspective, chiefly New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key and Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who is angling for forum institutions to be shifted to Samoa from suspended Fiji. [It is hoped they do not let big brother down.]

NATADOLA AGAIN. Fiji Live reports nothing new on what Pacific Island Leaders thought and said at last week's Natadola meeting but it provided a useful summary.  They supported the Strategic Framework for Change and Roadmap to Democracy and elections in 2014. They were apparently impressed with progress on reforms and initiatives, especially on corruption, rural development, poverty alleviation, education and governance) and noted that nation-building is not a simple process but one that requires a concerted amount of commitment and will to obtain the desired changes that will benefit all communities. They also expressed support for continued engagement, noting that they share similar problems.

INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE. Adi Elisapeci Samununu Waqanivalu of the Wellington Council of Fiji Communities  says Fiji's ethnic policy is robbing its indigenous people of their rights. She was not referring to being dispossessed of land, language, beliefs or cultural heritage but to having to share the name 'Fijian' with other citizens from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.  The one-name-for-all is an attempt by Government to give all citizens a sense of belonging and equality before the law. Indigenous Fijians, usually, but not in this case, well known for their generosity of spirit, will henceforth be officially known as i-taukei, an indigenous name (which Fijian is not)  they have often used for themselves.

The Council intends to canvas the views on ethnic identity of all Fiji people living in New Zealand before it takes a human rights action over the issue. “It’s almost like, I now live in New Zealand, can I call myself a Maori?" said Adi Elisapeci,  "And see how much I can insult a Maori by doing that? You know all of a sudden we’ve been sort of shafted and say ’Move over, I’m also called this’, without consultation.”

The Council, formed in April this year, comprises ethnic Fijians, and  is closely linked to two Wellington-based anti-government blogsites.

My guess is that Maori would be quite happy to give up or share their name for the bounties that ethnic Fijians in Fiji still possess. In fact, like Fijians, Maori had no common name before the advent of Europeans. The story goes that when asked who they were, they answered, "Maori,"  ordinary people, implying that it was the strangers who were not ordinary. Sharing a name is surely not too high a price to pay for removing the alienation felt by many Fiji citizens who are not ethnic Fijians. 

MINISTRY OF ITAUKEI. The Ministry of Fijian Affairs is now officially known as the Ministry of Itaukei.The Ministry of Itaukei will continue to ensure that the Government will develop, maintain and promote policies that will provide for the continued good governance and welfare of the iTaukei now and into the future.

The legal framework within which the Ministry operates remains the same in terms of covering the Itaukei Affairs Act and Regulations, the Native Lands & Fisheries Commission Act, and the Native Lands Act. -- based on 2010 No:1137/MOI.

DOING THE ROUNDS.The routine monthly meetings of permanent secretaries are now being held at different "front line" venues to assist the public service "reach out and learn about work activities and issues of important State Institutions." PS of the PSA Parmesh Chand said “It helps us to understand individually and collectively what the issues are and how best we can work together to effectively address them as a Team.” The PS's heard presentations on Fiji’s Productivity Report and the Impact of the 2010 Revised Budget on operating expenditure of Government.  The July meeting was held at St. Giles Mental Health Hospital and previous ones at the Prison and Correctional Facilities at Naboro and at a Ministry of Fisheries and Forests Tree Planting exercise. -- based on 2010 No:1139/PSC.

NZ Trade Com, Kadavu Fiasco, PM's Advice to i-Taukei, China Reaffirms Support,, Exports Fall

NEW ZEALAND Trade Commissioner. As talks on restoring full diplomatic relations continue behind the scenes, a new Trade Commissioner will take up office in Suva by next month. This can only be good news.

GROSS INCOMPETENCY and SDL Abuse of Power. Kadavu House in Suva is owned by the Kadavu Development Company of which the Kadavu Provincial Council (and hence the people of Kadavu) are substantial owners. The multi-storeyed buildng was financed by provincial fundraising and a $14 million "affirmative action" loan from the Fiji National Provident Fund. The loan was supported by the former Qarase SDL-led Government which also guaranteed it would tenant the building, and Government paid $880,000 in advanced rents for a building they would never tenant. Photo: vitia.com

In 2007 the Bainimarama government said the rent was too high; it found the company was not registered; had not held an AGM for 20 years, and that several SDL parliamentarians were Board directors.  Government asked who was benefitting from building ownership, and whether the ordinary people of Kadavu would ever benefit. It is likely these questions will be raised again when the PM opens the Kadavu Provincial Council meeting today.
Note: Kadavu, 88km S. Suva, pop. 10,000, 411km2, volcanic archipelago, Fiji's 4th largest island. Administrative centre Vunisea, airport, high school, hospital, govt.station. Part of "outer islands" Eastern Division. 

Lockington's Everyday Fiji ... Life Goes On

Allen Lockington is a self-employed customs agent and business consultant who has regular articles published in www.connectme.com.fj/news/opinion. I thank Allen and Connect for permission to reprint some of them in this political blog. They remind us that life goes on, whatever the political situation. And it's good to know that.

 "Sugar is Sweet and So are You*"

Where do we expect to see sugar production in twenty years time? The use of sugar will never cease. It is used in every walk of life. Many people have asked why the sugar industry is dying. There is a simple answer – sugarcane farmers no longer have land to plant on. It’s all gone back to the landowner. They have their reasons for leaving it idle, it’s up to them.

One sugarcane farmer and his family now have jobs in various companies around Lautoka. They often go back to visit the landowners and have a basin of yaqona with them. They are still friends. They have a meal together then they organize another “sitting”, sometimes it’s at the former cane farmer’s home. Oh, they get on like a house on fire.

When I meet the former cane farmers they usually say, “We miss the farm. We miss the hard work.” They planted sugarcane and alongside that they had their vegetable farm, which the landowner also ate from. Today they  plant their vegetable in their town backyard and sell the surplus on the road. It's grog money, they tell me. And the landowner? He works  in a supermarket packing potatoes and sweeping floors and now buys vegetables from the roadside.  Oh, they still help each other out.

Sad situation,  if you tell me.  Why not get the landowner to lease the land to the real farmer. He will earn lease money and get free vegetables from his friend. Every so often when the cane farmer catches crabs the landowner will be invited to have a basin of grog, a cartoon of beer and surua crab curry.

What a waste. I wonder who is advising the landowners not to lease their land.  But I know what can be done. Rain trees make good large ornamental vases. Or maybe we can export paragrass.




* Roses are red, voilets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you. Old English children's rhyme.

(+) Just Back from Fiji

Author of Tears in Paradise, the 125 year story of Indians in Fiji, Rajendra Prasad, has just returned to New Zealand from Fiji.  This is what he had to say of his trip in Indian NewsLink, NZ's highest circulation Indian newspaper.

 
During my recent visit to Fiji, I was amazed at the widespread normalcy powerfully evident, in most urban centers, depicting the social, political and economic pulse of the nation.

Fiji has not escaped the impact of the global recession, and is additionally suffering the sanctions imposed by Australia and New Zealand against the Interim Government led by Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama.

The Reserve Bank of Fiji devalued the Fijian Dollar to sustain liquidity.

Fiji is struggling but not panicking. As Australia and New Zealand ease their sanctions and as tourism picks up, the country’s economic performance may be better this year.

Further, the expected high price for sugar may assist in restoring stability, notwithstanding the decline in sugar output.

The promise of 99-year farm leases to farmers could reinvigorate the agricultural sector, which was savaged when Indo-Fijian farmers suffered massive eviction, leaving the rich and productive farmland fallow.

After a decade, most farmlands are now covered by bush. Many villages are silent and somnolent, as those who once gave it life were herded out because they were Indo-Fijians.

There is hope that the Interim Government may restore these farms to productive use, securing the interests of landowners and tenants for mutual benefit. 

Improved race relations

Race relations have improved remarkably. The previous governments used racism to retain their dominance. The Bainimarama Government has doused the flames and if it continues on its path, the small embers would extinguish by itself, as sanity, reason and understanding nourish the hearts and minds of the people.

I traveled to Suva from Ba twice and met many people and none of them spoke against Commodore Bainimarama or his government. The radio talkback shows praised him and talk around the proverbial kava bowel was appreciation. But this is not to claim that there are no critics. Clearly, they are a minority and comprise supporters of deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase or his SDL Party.

Few things were obvious, to which the public has responded positively. Civil service is being purged of corrupt officials. In the last two years, 50 officers from Works and Transport Ministry lost their jobs for abuse of authority, nepotism, fraud, corruption and bribery. Eleven other departments are under investigation. Those who indulged in corruption in the past have realigned with the dictates of the Interim Government, aware of the dire consequences.

The civil service has been reinvigorated and officials have awakened from their slumber, responding to the new era with pace and urgency.  

Mr Bainimarama visited Raki Raki and Ba rural areas to connect with the farming communities. Anyone can send him a text on 01 and raise their concerns. We complained about the bad condition of road that served our village and found roadwork undertaken in about two days.

The crime scene

Most people felt that crime was on the decline. For the first time in the history of our village, arsonists who habitually carried out the annual ritual of burning sugarcane plantations were restrained. Those village thugs, engaged in extortion, using strong-arm tactics or glib tongue, have largely been disabled.

The legal profession is being regulated by the Government, sending a strong message to practitioners that they cannot now dodge or evade, after dispensing their services recklessly.

However, organised crime including raiding service stations, business places and homes of business owners are of concern. The authorities continue to target the perpetrators of such crimes but with measured success.

Politicians are in forced hibernation. Many may never return to the pasture that they relished, as the El Nino effect on Fiji’s political landscape may continue until 2014. The Great Council of Chiefs was dissolved over three years ago and may never meet again.

The Methodist Church has been forced to retreat to the pulpit and its role restricted to the spiritual realm. It cannot hold its annual fête, collecting millions of dollars from its members and using the forum to indoctrinate them with the political ideology of the nationalists.

The Interim Government has taken some bold initiatives that no elected government would have had the courage to undertake. Hopefully, it would be able to restore the desires, dreams and aspirations of the people of Fiji – a country where all its peoples’ will look at each other as equal citizens, and not with the racial tag.
 raj.prasad@xtra.co.nz
Reprinted, with thanks, from Indian New Week.

(B) Fiji's Ethnically Unbalanced Public Sector Workforce

How to retain skilled Indo-Fijian public service officers was an issue  discussed at Tuesday's meeting of the National People's Charter Advisory Council. Chairperson Josefa Serulagilagi (Photo: FijiVillage) expressed concern at the  "low representation of Fiji Indians in senior civil service positions and heads of missions overseas ... Unfortunately, for some of our Indo-Fijian officers (working in the civil service)  is like a stepping stone into other areas such as the private sector, then they go overseas. That is the problem we are facing at the moment."  He was hopeful the People's Charter would help stop the drain brain.

Problem of ethnic balance not new
The problem of reasonably balanced ethnic represention is not new. It is a product of the plural society created by colonialism where residence-occupation-income-inclusiveness and ethnicity were absolutely linked. In a paper published in 1976*, based on the pre-Independence 1966 census, I wrote: "Thus, provinces, localities and even occupations can often be considered Indian or Fijian, and ethnically mixed settlements and occupations are the exception. The implications for a government concerned with achieving an ethnic balance must be obvious."

Suva's ethnic suburbs
These were the days when Europeans employed in government, and their Fijian servants, dominated the old affluent Suva suburb of the Domain; privately-employed Europeans, their Fijian servants and a smattering of successful Indian business people the new suburbs of Tamavua (beyond which, outside the city boundary was the Fijian "urban village" of the same name), while most Fijians lived in squatter settlements and urban villages, in Lami and Walu Bay or the "mixed" Housing  Authority suburbs of Raiwaqa and Raiwai, and most Indians lived close to the site of the old Indian "labour lines" (that used to be outside the city boundary) in Samabula and Nabua.  Children rarely went to the nearest school but commuted across the city to the school that best matched their ethnicity, religion and gender. A tangle of ethnic fault lines dissected the city. Independence gradually brought major changes to this distribution but the pattern is too indelibly sketched for total removal.

Polarised economy
So too with the economy about which I then wrote: "The polarisation of... residence was therefore also found, as expected, in the economy, and it seems likely that this general pattern will continue with Fijians being likely to fill more positions in government and Indians more positions in the private sector. Hence, the balance of political power seems likely to remain with Fijians while Indians will dominate the economy and hold economic power. It is important for Fiji that ethnic differences are not compounded by class and occupational differences but unless government intervenes a better balance seems unlikely either in job type or status level."

Recent calls for balance
The People's Charter is not the first to call for ethnic occupational balance.  The 1997 Constition (section 140 (c)) stated: "the composition of the state service at all levels should reflect as closely as possible the ethnic composition of the population." There was a long way to go to this goal. A year earlier, at the 1996 Census when the paid workforce was 46% Fijian and 49% Indian, 61% of government services was Fijian (Indian 32%), public order was 63% Fijian (33% Indian), and defence 91% Fijian (5% Indian). "Other" ethnic groups brought these totals to 100%.**

The Indo-Fijian contribution to the workforce will have declined since, due mainly to emigration, accelerated by the uncertainty of four coups, three of which were anti-Indian, but to the best of my knowledge no government until now has actively sought to redress the balance, and Fijian-only tertiary-level scholarships can only have increased the imbalance -- a point not overlooked by the NPCAC.

The Police and Military
I suspect far less than 33% of the Police Force (public order) is now Indo-Fijian. But the greatest ethnic disparity, of course, is in defence where, I understand, no extra steps have been taken to recruit Indo-Fijians. In several ways, defence can be argued as a "special case" (that I intend to discuss in a later posting) but the police force is not a special case, and  ultimately government's equality good intentions will need to be seen in a more ethnically-balanced military.

Is the ethnic imbalance increasing?
One reader asked "I wonder if you may care to ask readers for opinions on today's comment by Mr Serulagilagi on the racial imbalance in some sections of Government. I have visited the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs on several occasions over the past 2-3 months and the racial imbalance (all i-Taukei) hits me in the face every time I go there - from the security officer at the door, right through. Only Vosa Viti is spoken." I will add a further question: What's happened to last year's government announcement that school children and civil servants will attend classes to make them to some extent tri-lingual? Does anyone know the answer?

We know historical discrepancies take years to eradicate but is there sufficient    evidence  that Fiji, under the Bainimarama government, is heading in the right direction?

I would be interested in readers' opinions.  -- Crosbie Walsh.


References
* Walsh, A C 1976:"The Ethnic Variable in the Urbanization of Fiji," in Population at Microscale, ed. Kosinski L A and J Webb.
** Walsh, Crosbie 2006: "Employment in Government Services" p.323 in
Walsh,  Fiji: an Encylopaedic Atlas.

(o) Sulu More Than an Item of Clothing

Sulu or No Sulu

By Subhash Appana, whose "humourous" school memories tell us much of race relations in Fiji

 Sulu Uproar 

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=139250

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?ref=archive&id=139494
http://babasiga.blogspot.com/2010/02/labasa-college-and-short-pants.html
http://www.allvoices.com/news/5174495-sulu-uproar
STOP PRESS. Education Minister Filipe Bole says students can wear shorts or sulu Link.

The raging Sulu v. No-Sulu debate in Fiji makes one wonder whether the country really wants to move with the times. But hang on; this was a limited case of just two schools in the North wasn’t it? Two Principals had suddenly been found to have been left in an evolutionary time rut somewhere along the line.

That’s how the thinking would go amongst those who oppose the stance taken by the two gentlemen – and there are many of these progressives. From experience I know that much more would’ve been involved to prod the schools to make a public stand and ban sulus among Indo-Fijian students.

Having said that, I’d like to take us back three  decades and share my own experiences with the sulu issue. I was born in the village of Vuna in the southern tip of Taveuni; the most beautiful of Fiji’s many islands. I spoke Hindi at home and Fijian outside. Those were my two native languages.