Regular readers of Grubsheet may have realised by now because of my silence on the issue that I have little or no time for a national truth and reconciliation commission as a panacea for the nation’s ills.
For a start, Fiji is too much of a nation of liars and practitioners of liumuri and masi polo for the concept to work. Yes, we are used to apologies being issued at the drop of a hat. But as the apologies that constantly drip from the lips of the Prime Minister show all too starkly, few people are genuinely sorry for the hurt they cause and these “apologies” have become regular devices to evade responsibility for wrong-doing.
Are they genuinely contrite? No. Does it mean that these people alter their conduct? Usually no.. So if truth and contrition are absent, what is left is a lot of hot air. Just a stream of blah, blah, blah that fills column inches in newspapers but is utterly meaningless. A few headlines of prominent people saying “sorry eh?” and then more of the same. Ad infinitum.
I’m not specifically blaming the Coalition government because the idea for a truth and reconciliation commission originally came from Frank Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. Are they going to tearfully tell the nation the truth about their own wrongdoings? Of course not. And neither is Sitiveni Rabuka and the miserable bunch of people around him who tricked us all into voting for him on the basis that he was “sorry” for the events of 1987 but isn’t sorry in the least. And instead of governing for all, is now completing the agenda he began 37 years ago to entrench the paramountcy of the iTaukei, aided and abetted by the likes of Uncle Mac Patel of Sydney and Uncle Colin Deoki of Melbourne.
Does Sashi Kiran – the Assistant Minister for Women – honestly believe that she was given the job of setting the scene for a truth and reconciliation commission because she is the best person to deliver an outcome? She is among the most junior of the Coalition MPs, isn’t even from the majority party, is an Indo-Fijian and a woman. Is she genuinely going to be able to encourage those hard men – the coup makers, mutineers and miscreants of the past four decades – to open up, tearfully confess to their crimes (because that’s what they are) and join in a chorus of Kumbaya, followed by hugs all round?
Seriously, Fiji, we are not South Africa where it was a matter of life or death. And from where I sit, if you think this is going to work, you might as well believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Call me cynical but I didn’t come down in the last rain shower and neither did those who have been genuinely harmed by the events of the past four decades – the tens of thousands of Fijians (yes, that means everyone, as the supreme law describes us) who were beaten, raped, abused, marginalised, sacked or made to feel unwelcome and left the country altogether in despair.
Is Sitiveni Rabuka going to get up and tell us all who was really behind his coups of 1987 that throttled democracy altogether? Tell us precisely what his role was in the mutiny of 2000 in which he appeared at the Camp with his uniform in his car and was forced at gunpoint to leave on pain of being shot? If your answer is “yes” then Santa and the Easter Bunny are right behind you.
Are the paramount chiefs – including the Maras and Cakobaus – going to tell us their precise roles in successive coups? “Ho, ho, ho” and have another piece of chocolate egg.
And are the likes of Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Richard Naidu, Vijay Naidu, Shamima Ali and Victor Lal going to tell us about their precise roles in the Indo-Fijian resistance campaign of 1987, which involved arms, ammunition and explosives being diverted from the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka and brought to Fiji to fight Rabuka and his indigenous supremacists? More ho, ho ho-ing all round.
The historical white wash and finger pointing has already begun, with a prominent youth leader, Litiana Ligabalavu, getting up yesterday and blaming Fiji’s colonial past for the country’s ills. Yes, the poor British, it seems, are going to carry the ignominy of being invited by Fiji’s chiefs to come and save them and then having the gall to insist that they eat toad-in-the hole instead of each other.
It’s the British who brought us the curse of the rule of law instead of the club, who brought workers from India to give Fiji an economy because the “natives” weren’t inclined to work and set up those dreadful hospitals and the schools that have taught modern Fijians how to complain and blame each other in the King’s English. Yes, let’s just blame the British, who’ve been gone for almost 54 years but not long enough to still be in the firing line because Fijians left to their own devices haven’t been able to make a go of being independent and are still relying on handouts and loans.
This is just the start of what I fear will be a massive blame game and an exercise of national finger pointing all round. Instead of being truthful with themselves in the privacy of their own thoughts and resolving to extend the hand of friendship to their fellow citizens, Fijians want to sit around in government-organised love-ins with cups of tea and keke, circling around the main causes of the nation’s dysfunction and blaming everyone else.
A truth and reconciliation Commission? No thanks. Living a lie isn’t going to make a jot of difference to producing one nation capable of meeting the challenges of the modern world. And there can be no reconciliation when the tyranny of the majority is still intent on making second class citizens of the “vulagi“.
It is all bullshit from arsehole to breakfast, as the Aussies say. A monumental waste of time and effort. Better to say “God Save the King” – someone whose mother Sitiveni Rabuka got rid of in 1987 without asking any of us if that was OK but who has a better grasp of the concept of service than any person in national life in Fiji.
Rather than blame the British, I say bring them back. Because half a century after they left, the truth is that things in Fiji have got a lot worse. And empty gestures, more lies, self delusion and false declarations of reconciliation aren’t going to fix a damn thing.
Got that? Tally ho, pip pip and all that.
Once again, the body language says it all.
Handing Ratu Mara our instruments of Independence. October 10 1970.
Now instead of the British, we have the Chinese.
Who would you prefer?
WTF.
I don’t follow local news except when I travel outside of Taveuni and bump into it.
No radio, no TV, no newspapers, except Grubsheet n Fiji Leaks at times.
Couldn’t believe it, bumped into this Truth and Reconciliation shit a week or so ago.
Some kind of insanity, otherworldly specter, grown men and women, the elite of our society, playing at something, and I don’t know what !!!!!!
Elite, when are you going to call for your Parliamentary representatives to do their jobs, that is, make law for Section 121 of the Constitution, you know, something that might give us plebs some agency by making the Civil and Public servants accountable.
I have been waiting past 10 years for Parliamentary Committee to arrive in Taveuni so as to be able to present a submission in regard to Sec 121, the Transparency and Accountability Commission.
In regard to reconciliation, are you willing to pay repatriations ?
If not forget it, or look for a billion dollars with interest.
It is clear to me that even before the Truth & Reconciliation Commission is established, Sashi Kiran will be the lead coup apologist and the defender of the perpetrators. She already has a well-documented history of apologising since she was elected to parliament – some for no apparent reason. She is already an apologist for the recent reconciliation held by the RFMF in QEB and in Sukanaivalu Barracks where not a single Indo-Fijian was in sight. The Indo-Fijians are a minority anyway and they should know their place according to her implication.
Just imagine Rabuka fronting the TRC to tell the truth!!!
The way things are looking, I am not confident that the TRC will achieve what it should really be designed to do. I have a distinct feeling that instead of truth, this exercise will be an apology commission with a lot of crocodile tears being shed by a bunch of liars.
And then, they all will go back to being racist , prejudiced and arrogant. Nothing will have been achieved and nothing will have changed. The whole thing will be a total waste of time and money. Does anyone really think the TRC will achieve anything? Does anyone believe changing the Constitution will achieve anything?
My take is this whole TRC is just a load of hot air. It will never happen. This is just another distraction by the government and its members from the real issues for which they do not have any answers. The likes of Mahendra Chaudhary and others have fallen for this distraction. The snake is smarter than anyone thinks even though he is still a rapist of democracy who has been forgiven. Even Chaudhary has embraced him physically with his arms around him. I would never be seen in the same room or the same picture with him let alone shake his hand or embrace him. What a f*cked up country this is and what a bunch of idiots there are everywhere. And then they complain about everything.
In Fiji, everyone is taught from the day they are born that everything is someone elses fault. It is never their fault. Fifty years after the British left, the small brains of the people is the fault of the British. They recycled and elected a dickhead as PM is the British’s fault. Ok, maybe not the British in this case, it was the vulagi’s fault, ok not the vulagi, it was bloody someone elses fault, it does not matter who. As for Litia Ligabalavu, whose fault is it that gave you a small brain? The British? People like these will contribute immensely to the TRC and to the future of Fiji. These are the up and coming future leaders of the country. Such people are ideal to make parliamentarians of the future. And then they all wonder why the country is where it is.
Definately not the current PM’s fault for 1987, it was the f*cking British!!!!! This kid was born well after 1987 just so that she could reveal the truth!!!!! She is a prophet and the bringer of the message from God himself….. or is it herself?
F*cked up, don’t lie,who told you that everyone born in Fiji is told that everything is someone else’s fault. Your name says who you really are.
So tell us Tex, whose fault was it all? Are you going to own up?
Thanks GS. Pre British there was no written language in Fiji and therefore no concept of a news paper. Unfortunately we had to stop reading the news paper of repute, Fijis oldest news paper, the Fiji Times after the Media was ‘freed’. Too many twisted articles titled like the one you post. ‘Past coups result of trauma left by colonisers’ is enough to ruin my day. That’s not the voice of the Nation and if it is, it’s sick. That is so disrespectful to the British pioneers and missionaries of those days who forged something here then handed it all back. Anyone who has a grasp of basic history of Fiji knows there was absolutely nothing here worth talking about for the depravity of it all. A lot of work went in to make Fiji a good country by the British. Investment, time and building of industries etc etc etc. Fijis Dollar was so strong. To many personal opinions being published that have no history, facts or are twisted or are flat out disrespectful from Fiji Times news Paper which even itself was of the Colonial Era.
Any Fiji Indian who falls for this is a fool.
We have spent many years as Girmitya’s and abused by the British and Australians and we shall not fall to this bullshit too.
Let them, the indigenous Fijians, do their things. Let them do another coup after this and let them fight with each other. We have no say and they are using us.
Keep right out.
We are vulagi’s after all.
They don’t need us.
They don’t want us.
Don’t be fooled in thinking they care about your abuse and stories.
They don’t.
They will target you and ruin your families.
Tell me one good thing that Rabuka has done for any Fiji Indian. There is none and there is your answer.
Who says the British left Fiji.
One just has to look at the “noble” banner blue to realise Fiji will forever be indebted to them.
This notion has been cemented by the designer’s of the flag who were/are British!
Sure they gave us ” civilisation ” while having destroyed and/or maimed other civilisations in the process of becoming the Empire!
It was GROT Britain once before colonisation, exploitation, slavery etc before it became the GREAT Britain!!
As regards, that idiot Sashi Kiran…she has no empathy for the IndoFijian male’s who bore the brunt of her mentor Rabuka’s military coups.
The TRC is more torment rather than a process of healing!
China, Taiwan, Japan and most 20th century Aussies, Kiwis, Indians and Fijians achieved their wealth because of one ethical goal: To work long hours hard and be proud of it.
This is the polar opposite to many of the Fijian business goals of today: Extract the most money from the least effort, exploit, scam, beg, steal, default on loans, as taught by Fiji’s prima donna, Lynda Tabuya, the Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, the drug using lover of the wife-bashing Fijian Minister For Education, the Honorable Aseri Radrodro. It is common knowledge that Lynda’s wealth is not earned but from millions owed in America. What an example! What a farce!
All Fijians will age and approach that door called death, when one reflects and asks oneself: Have I given more than I have taken? Was my life productive? Was I a giver or a taker? Was I worthy? Have I lived as my spiritual mentor (e.g. Jesus) urged? This self-reflection will reveal the cause of and solution for Fiji’s impoverished state. The blame is not outside of oneself.
Robert Louis Stevenson could very well be writing about Fiiji when he wrote of Samoa, in February 1892 “it is hard to reach the truth in these islands.” Later Margaret Mead the anthroppilogist, in her book “Coming of Age in Samoa,” became exposed to what became known as “the great Pacific Hoax,” where she was subjected to lies about people’s private lives that people told her with a straight face because they thought that that was what she wanted to hear.
This is what wil happen at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I mean it happened during Land Commission hearings around the country from the 1880 till the present. Already “blame-the-britishh-bullshit” is coming out, next it will be blame the Chiefs, then blame the Indians, and on and on.
Sashi Kiran is a fool to think it will be any different.
The T&RC will become the “Great Fijian Hoax” and well all become a laughing stock.
The TRC will never work in Fiji. Before the 1987 Coup the 2 major population were living in peace and harmony, there was no hatred to the extent of what is today.
Because of Rabuka the itaukei brothers and sister plus elders were so much brain washed by him that the Fijians will steal their LAND if they came into power.
Our 120 years history will reveal that not a single Fijian has stolen an inch of Itaukei land because Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna took care of it by creating NLTB. Even an Itaukei can’t steal their own land. Now the land issue is solved.
The next is economic achievements. It is not the fault of the Fijians who struggled to earn a living after the indenture system ended. Some returned to India others who stayed ventured into sugarcane farming and their children gained education and progressed into other fields of economic survival.
Since the British used the divide and rule tactic Fijians were left to live in their villages under the traditional Ratus and therefore, did not prosper like the sheer hard work of the Fijians. In my opinion the British are to be blamed not the Fijians for itaukei’s short comings in the economic field.
Its because of this the itaukei society is dissatisfied of their economic gap. The itaukei society has come a long way, their children are educated some are doctors engineers and teachers etc, but their spending spree is the culprit, the 10 % church donations, the kere-kere system doesn’t allow an individual itaukei to prosper in life.
In my opinion trash the TRC and create a forum in which itaukei brothers and sister can learn how to achieve success in economic fields and share business with Fijians or get helping hand from them. This will be the only way to drown the hatred.
The British did not impose separate communities. They did so at the specific request of the iTaukei. So your “divide and rule” argument just isn’t true. They weren’t in a position to dictate integration and the “Indians” were also anxious to maintain their separate identity.
If iTaukei and Indo Fijian remain divided today more than half a century after the British left, it is solely their fault, not the fault of the British.
The biggest failing of the itaukei has been their villages, they should have been encouraged to stay as smallholders on their lands, producing for the market.
Villages perpetuate pre capitalist lifestyles and values, that make them a poor fit in today’s modern world. Now that they form the majority population and the majority in parliament progress is being held back by thr retarded and non scientific thinking of untrained minds.
The Coalition Government is s good example of this. It frustrates progressive taukei and minorities.
We have a political system where the best brains are outside parliament. This system attracts only followers and plagiarists who read speeches written for them by other people.
Watching live parliamentary broadcasts is painful for trained minds. In this cess pool is thrown the TRC
This is a f#%ked up country that needs to be rebuilt from the ground up
Deceit is truth manipulated to serve a purpose and narrative. Rabuka knows this and he, including the many others who were involved in the events since 1987, will never ever tell the truth! TRC = The Rabuka Con
The TRC is a time wasting, money wasting aimless exercise that will achieve nothing whatsoever for all the reasons you have mentioned Graham.
It will not solve the current economic hardship faced by all Fijian.
It will not reduce the current social ills of crimes, drugs, violence against human beings etc
It will not heal the racial divide and hatred that is so rampant in Fiji today.
It will not close the economic gap. (not just between the vulagi and indigenous but also the have and have not indigenous).
It will not ensure long term peace and progress of Fiji as a nation.
In fact, I think the TRC may even have the opposite effect.
Similarly, changing the current Constitution will not achieve anything.
We already have something that gives us some pointers on what to do.
The document is called Peoples Charter for Change Peace and Progress, prepared by the NCBBF post 2006. The document was prepared after wide consultations and actually has really good proposals.
Now, before you start jumping up and down and say that it was forced upon people by a military led government, (or Frank Bainimarama and Khaiyum), please take time and go read the document. I am sure it is still available online somewhere. And most if not all recommendations will still be relevant today.
No need to spend any more money, there will be no farcical TRC process and no meaningless hugging, handshakes and crocodile tears.
Go to the foundation, peel the onion and then understand and if necessary build, rebuild.
My friend Misa Lesuma had a Degree in Transportation or some such. He told me, ” Hey Ian, you can break down any degree down into a couple of sentences. He said this was “being on time, and frequency of service” for his degree. Ooops, one sentence.
I recall many years ago reading a Nobel Prize winner for economics work establishing the following ” capitalist , individualistic system is high in productivity and low in consumption and that communal, village systems are high in consumption and low in productivity”
With the slightest observation one can see this as truth in rural iTaukei life, high consumption, low production.
This was not completely so in the past. There was a counter and solution to the low production factor.
Before independence, itaukei, under the Fijian Affairs Act and other regulations pertaining to iTaukei, was the requirement for every adult male over the age of 18 to be productive. This meant having a farm, with proscribed plants and numbers to be planted.
This resulted in “plenty” and gave backbone to the tradition of Fijian families offering “mai kana” as you walked past their homes. Their culture and their cultural events was of giving, made possible by the abundance in their lives. Cultural life was busy and affordable, all coming together to show and share their abundance of food, mats, tapa, yaqona, tabua.
What we have now is a depleted, bare cultural life, without discipline, there is teenage pregnancies, unwed mothers, fatherless children, malnourished mothers and babies.
Rural Fiji, the TMO Islands ( telegraphic money order), now Mpaisa.
It used to be food and money from rural Fiji to urban Fiji, now the other way around, all happening past 50 years under iTaukei Governments.
So, is the present and future important or this Truth & Reconciliation Commission, where there will,be no truth and no reconciliation. That ship sailed a long time ago, so many of the passengers a dead, if we are to start at the beginning.
What is needed is a TLC Commission ( no, not tender loving care but iTaukei Lands and Cultural Commission ). Revisit legislation from the past and fine tune it for the present and future.
I am sure there can be a way that all those living in villages and the Vanua can democratically decide what they choose to do. If a village or mataqali choose to implement regulations they deem appropriate and best for their welfare, then there should not be any impediment to this, there should be sets of regulations for the purpose and supported by Government.
I am offering my opinion, and if there was a Parliamentary TLC Commission I will submit in detail. No degree, just living on iTaukei land for 40+ years.