Land, Power and Politics are very much alive and well in Fiji with the same educated indigenous landowners, politicizing native land to appeal to the less educated masses to help them regain power and once again govern the country, not because they have a better plan for all the social, economic and other issues the country is facing, but because of an entitlement mentality with land, that has preceded them throughout history, but which has no place in 21st century Fiji. With the election mere weeks away, land is once again a subject they seem to have a lot of knowledge about but unfortunately, that is where it ends. They make accusations about the government taking away native land, or changing land designations for landowners. Yet, they dont explain how or why the government might have done that and whose interests it was protecting. They bring up issues relating to the Fijian Affairs Board and Native Land Trust. But only that the present government has taken away leadership roles of the GCC from the two entities. The whys of the governments moves are not addressed. For every accusation/blame, there is no explanation about the governments motive or probable cause. Just that the governments act was unconstitutional, or it went against a UN Human Rights declaration etc. They dont talk about the history of land ownership in Fiji and compare that to their own history as stewards of indigenous land tasked with its development and growth. They downplay the current governments success stories regarding use of native land, and hide their own contribution to its demise. Just as indigenous Fijians born in the 70s were not educated about the political history of coups in Fiji, the same group had also been running a deficit in their understanding of the history of land ownership in Fiji and how closely that ownership is tied to the political history of coups in the land. The norm has always been to respect chiefs, hence accept their authority even if its misplaced and serves only their interests. They ignore the illegal and unconstitutional acts of some of their well educated leaders and cream of the crop, tasked with keeping native land in a trust to benefit all native Fijians, but who turned around and sold the land (illegal) for their own benefits, or break landowners trust by stealing from them the same money they were entrusted with, for indigenous generations to come. A former leader served a term in prison and a few more are doing the same for their crimes against their own people. Is it really any wonder why this government is being proactive by stopping this brand of indigenous leaders from hurting and bankrupting their own people any more than they already have? How does this behavior earn them the bigger role of running an entire nation? Sa rauta mada na veidabui! The late Dr. Rusiate Nayacakalou et al. Those were the educated, upstanding and respected leaders and administrators that indigenous Fijians are sorely in need of! They knew who they served and who served them. Not much gray area, just being ethical and honest.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 09:42:27 +0000
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