These matters are all derived from the basic decline in services like water, electricity, as well as the volatile land issue.
Fiji Times Letters to the Editor.
Arrogant PM
IT was sad to hear the Prime Minister's blunt refusal to accept the Fiji Human Right's report on the Government's Affirmative Action policies.
His unfortunate response showed great arrogance and stubbornness and a refusal to listen. This is also evident in the PM's determination to reintroduce the Reconciliation Bill despite a caution to him by the Vice President that he should not go down this road.
People always accuse FLP leader Mahendra Chaudhry of arrogance and stubbornness but it seems that the PM wins the prize hands down.
Not all Fijians support the affirmative action policies of government.
Many think that these policies do not address the cultural causes which are at the root of Fijians' failure to do well in education and in economic ventures. Moreover, it seems that those Fijians who have been helped by these policies are mostly in rural areas and have the right political connections.
We know deserving Fijians in urban areas who have applied for help but have never received it. And most of all we think that any form of affirmative action should benefit all who are in need not just Fijians.
The PM does not like to be called a racist yet he claims to see racist motivation at work with the Human Rights Commission.
He may be well intentioned in wanting to see Fijians advance economically but he is Prime Minister of the whole country, not just of the Fijian people and all who are disadvantaged need affirmative action, Indo- Fijians, Kai Solomoni and others.
In defending the affirmative action policies, the PM stated that "virtual exclusion of Fijians from major sectors of the economy was big factor in what occurred in 1987 and 2000" and consequently "at the root of our past instability".
Yet many of those who have written on the two coups have refuted the claim that "indigenous Fijian rights" and the "indigenous cause" were the real reason behind the coups.
No doubt about misinformation and exaggeration about the economic disadvantages of the Fijians vis a vis the Indo-Fijian populations was used by the instigators of the coup to stir up racial animosity and gain support for Fijian nationalism.
But the real causes of the coup must be sought elsewhere. One writer speaks of Fijians nationalism as being the "Trojan horse" which acted as a cover up for "a complex coalescence of greed and competing interests". The preservation of vested business interests was certainly involved. Moreover some politicians who had lost their political power wanted to regain it and there was definite power struggles also within Fijian society. "Fijian nationalism" was a good scapegoat.
Certainly many Fijians are poorer than they should be and the root causes behind the Fijian economic disadvantage must definitely be sought.
However, some of us think that these root causes are not being addressed by the present form of affirmative action policies.
Semiti Qalowasa
Suva
Human Rights
WHO does the Fiji Human Rights Commission represent? Aisake Delai wants to know (FT 7/7/06). I wish to let him know that the FHRC represents me, my wife, my mother and my two children. We are all citizens of the country.
There might be other families who feel the FHRC represents them as well. Aisake Delai might not know it but the FHRC also represents him as well because he belongs to the same species, humans who live in this part of the planet earth.
Rajend Naidu
Nasinu
Club Em Designs
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