Time to relook at native land
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
WHEN clans at Sorokoba blocked a railway line over an unsettled lease over the property, they were told in court that they did not own the land.
The judge told those clan members that the land actually belonged to the Native Land Trust Board and that the clans had no right to put up any sort of rail block.
That statement is one that has major ramifications around the country because the vast majority of land here is native land.
At the very least, it has ramifications over the terminology used and whether clan members should be called landowners at all if NLTB is the actual landowner under law.
Now we see another dispute arise over a primary school in Momi. The NLTB renewed the lease on the land without consulting the clans involved. The clans say they need the land in question for development purposes. They refuse to accept any renewal of lease over the area concerned.
Now the future of more than 50 students in the primary school on the land is in doubt.
NLTB says that the Government through the Ministry of Education has already paid the $10,000 demanded as premium, while the school's committee paid the balance of $1,500 as well as the other charges and rental.
These funds, NLTB says, have been distributed to the clans despite the clan members' protests that they did not want the lease renewed.
Now the clans believe that there is something seriously amiss with the NLTB itself.
It is ironic that the clan members say NLTB has acted as if it owned the land when it granted consent to the lease renewal without the clan members' approval.
For under the law, according to the judge in the Sorokoba case, NLTB does own the land. But surely that does not give NLTB officials the right to trample over the interests and concerns of people that the land is supposed to benefit.
There is something amiss within the NLTB if clans believe that the only way they can get attention is by taking over land. It is time for the Government to relook at the native land question and how native land is being managed in the country.
To do that, the Fijian Affairs Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office must open up the NLTB and find out exactly where it is going wrong when it comes to its relationship with clans.
Until that is done, we will continue to see clans resort to takeovers to be heard.
Fiji T.V 1 news bulletin of Tuesday night reported that Fijian Affairs Board Minister is summoning the General Manager for N.L.T.B for an urgent meeting. This meeting is related to the comments by the G.M, Kalivati Bakani in lobbying actively for a cellular license for the Pacific Connex co-venture.
Sadly it is the entire semi-feudal cultural system that has failed to keep up with the times in Fiji. The same system of waste, cronyism that has permeated into the Government public service and statuary bodies.
This cancer in Fijian society is deeply rooted and designed to keep the elite layer in power and the impoverished and uneducated landowner out of contention.The same sense of entitlement in the G.C.C(to build a $F30 million new complex) is the extension of this cancer.
A cancer that someone like the Police Commisioner is trying to eradicate in Fiji.
Fiji Village reports that, the Commissioner Hughes indicates his favor of having a Commission of Inquiry into the 2000 coup before even considering Reconciliation and Tolerance. A welcome intiative from S.i.F.M.
Club Em Designs
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