We are only now starting to realise what the Coalition government and the iTaukei establishment mean by changing the 2013 Constitution as the veil begins to lift on precisely what changes they have in mind. And it is deeply disturbing for the future of non-iTaukei citizens in the country.
Grubsheet has been asking for months precisely what sections of the Constitution these elements want altered. And whether it is the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, his Coalition partner, Biman Prasad or any number of other politicians, the question is studiously avoided. Which merely fuels the fear of many members of the minorities that whatever changes emerge will disadvantage them.
Last November, the Chair of the Great Council of Chiefs, Ratu Viliame Seruvakula, cited no less than 33 clauses of the Constitution that he claimed were “bad for the iTaukei” and the chiefs want altered.
At the time, incredibly, he didn’t specify a single one. And equally incredibly, Ratu Viliame blamed the 2013 Constitution for most of the problems of the iTaukei – a proposition that Grubsheet described as the time as “patently absurd”. Because the problems of the iTaukei cannot be ascribed to a single document and it is this kind of transference of blame that is clearly the main problem with the iTaukei leadership.
Now in the wake of the defeat during the week of the government’s bill to change the constitution in the parliament, we are finally getting some answers from the GCC about precisely what changes they want. And it certainly confirms that those ex-members of FijiFirst who refused to support the bill were right to do so. Because it is clear that the chiefs want to fundamentally alter the status of the minorities and reassert indigenous supremacy.
Think I’m exaggerating? Well, here’s an extract from what Ratu Viliame has told the Fiji Times.
Let’s just dissect what the GCC Chair says here:
- the 2013 Constitution has hindered the opportunities of the iTaukei to realise the “full potential of their natural resources” and to “fully enjoy their indigenous rights”.
This statement feeds into widespread concern – fuelled by the former attorney general, Siromi Turaga, – that the Coalition is intent on reintroducing a qoliqoli bill of the kind that partly triggered Frank Bainimarama’s 2006 coup. This would require non-indigenous Fijians – locals and visitors alike – to pay the iTaukei to use what they can now access for free – to fish and use beaches and surfing breaks. And even to traverse local waters.
The same objections that applied in 2006 to a qoliqoli bill apply now – that existing land rights for the iTaukei would be vastly extended and that non-indigenous Fijians would be obliged to pay for what they should be able to access freely.
The implications for the tourism industry would be just as serious – resort and hotel operators having to pay landowners for access beyond the shoreline and impose extra costs that would threaten the viability of the local industry.
Ratu Viliame needs to elaborate on precisely what he means or a crisis of confidence in the tourism industry, let alone the wider community, is inevitable.
- The 2013 Constitution has “changed the indigenous Fijians’ ethnicity as a Fijian to iTaukei without even being consulted”, a development the GCC Chairman describes as “mischievous at best”.
This is a reference to the common identity provisions that are at the heart of the supreme law – that every citizen has the right to share the term “Fijian”.
As Grubsheet has said ad infinitum over the years, the word “Fijian” is a English word that doesn’t belong to anyone. It describes someone who comes from Fiji, the place, in the same way that someone who comes from Australia is an “Australian”, someone who comes from Canada is “Canadian”, someone who comes from Japan is “Japanese” and so on.
The term “Fijian” does not belong solely to indigenous Fijians. It is part of our collective identity that has nothing to do with ethnicity or culture. And it is deeply perplexing that 12 years after the common identity was enshrined in the 2013 Constitution that this issue has arisen again. Because it threatens national unity and the security of non-iTaukei and their sense of belonging in a manner that is totally contrary to the national interest.
We need to hear now from the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka whether he shares Ratu Viliame’s views, which are clearly those of the GCC. And it is also high time that the chiefs come clean on precisely what other clauses of the Constitution they want changed – the full list of the 33 their Chair has cited.
Why? Because no-one can form an opinion about whether changing the Constitution is in the interests of every citizen while we are kept in ignorance of what iTaukei supremacists intend to do if they get the numbers – a margin of just two thirds in the parliament that the Coalition already has and no referendum of voters, which is what the Supreme Court will be asked to rule on.
It is also high time for the NFP leader, Biman Prasad, to come clean on what he understands any review will produce. It is simply unacceptable for him to rail against the 2013 Constitution being “diabolical” without saying why. Because what’s genuinely diabolical is his silence.
No wonder Rinesh Sharma and Sanjay Kirpal changed their minds about backing the Coalition’s bill. Because the rights of the minorities are again under concerted assault and we are simply not being told what the true position is, even by those we installed in the parliament to put a brake on the extremists and keep the bastards honest.
This is exactly what Rabuka did in 1986 onwards. Rabuka started planning the 1987 coup a year before he executed the coup. His rationale was that Fiji Indians were majority in the country and they were not allowed to make the decisions that led to the Bavadra government winning the elections in 1987.
Let’s be clear. 1987 wasn’t a fight against Indians. They were simply the scapegoats. The fight was I-Taukei against each other for power. Rabuka wanted power and he did exactly that. In his biography, he clearly states that he had even taught his group of 60 elite soldiers to kill their own people if they became involved. Yes, you heard that right. He trained his i-Taukei elite soldiers to kill their own. So anyone who stood up and came in the way and said he was doing wrong was to be killed. Anyone who went against the wishes of the far right racist nationals were to be killed.
Rabuka has had many years of power. He notes bravely in his biography that the Almighty gave him the opportunity to take over and lead. He wanted to lead a year before the coup in 1987 and applied for other high positions jobs in Fiji but didn’t get any.
It was also clear that Rabuka didn’t want common citizenry for all but what is interesting is how he talked up the council of chiefs and for him others didn’t really matter, even though he was a commoner himself. Back then, the indigenous population were mostly poor too, according to him. They still are today. What’s changed? And as GD says, this is no longer a reflection on anyone else but the indigenous peoples themselves. Back then more than 90% of the land belonged to the indigenous. It does too now. What has changed?
There is a common saying. It is no longer a problem if there is no solution to it. It has been nearly 40 years of the same issue that Rabuka and GCC have stated. It is time that people come to accept that they are the issue and the solution lies within them. Blaming any other Fijian is not going to help. Start farming your vast land. Start fishing the vast oceans. Start investing your indigenous money well. Look in the mirror and seek your own solutions within your people. A document even if it was glittered with diamonds won’t provide any solution. You, the people, are the solutions. Your chief’s ceeded you to Great Britain well before Fiji Indians came to Fiji as slaves. Your chiefs sold you on. When independent was gained, more than 80% of your land was returned to you. Rabuka wanted all land to return to the indigenous but that would have been hard to navigate a 100 years on given some land was crown and some freehold by then.
The qoliqoli bill doesn’t do any country any good. The resource management bill must already cover that. Back in the day the concept of a qoliqoli bill made things hard for the investors because the landowners were always chasing tourism venture owners off their resorts, tourists were chased from the sea while they were diving, ordinary Fijian had to pay $5 per person for a swim in the sea! That is how a qoliqoli bill was abused. It was an easy money maker but a separatist act.
I hail those who voted against the change of the constitution.
It is time the chiefs reflect rather than reflex.
Among trinkets the white fellas “gifted” the native “chiefs” were shiny objects, including shards of glass mirrors.
The native for the first time ever saw the mirror image staring back at the chief. They were scared sh1tless by their on reflections– frightened as heck of the ghost- tevoro starring back.
To this day since, the natives do not do reflection well. Hence the inherent arrogance and ignorance.
The natives have long desired and constantly dream of becoming wealthy.
As an experiment let them have the qoliqoli bill, the sole right to being called ‘Fijian,’ free access for interest-free loans while everyone esle pays 18%, let them have the constitution they bleat about, and goverment must give them more handouts.
Let’s see where the natives are in 7 years after granting all that they demand now.
At least stealing yagona, dalo, tapioca from each others farms might stop. The Indo-Fijians might catch a break from home invasions, cattle stealing, vandalism, verbal abuse, bullying, and out right racism the natives practice as second nature.
We shall see whether they all become wealthy. Or if all their desires remain a pipe dream.
Hopefully, 7 years later the natives might come to the realization that everyone makes mistakes. Winners study their mistakes and don’t repeat them. Losers ignore their mistakes and continue to repeat them.
And while this second hope might be a bridge too far, hopefully another lesson the natives might glean is the road to prosperity is not paved in gold.
The bigger lesson to be learnt- just might be learnt – is that mob violence and a sense of entitlement is not acceptable when people don’t get the outcome they want.
This is errant nonsense. Rabuka planned his 1987 coup after Bavadra’s Labour Party won the 1987 elections. Read his book ‘No Other Way’.
Stop the lies please.
Vilikesa,
I remember reading that self serving crap written by Steven Ratuva. A great example of post event rationalisation from Siti the Snake about how he was motivated by the Indian curse. Put simply, Ratu Mara was not keen on losing power so Sitiveni the lap dog volunteered. Except when he got to execute the Coup, he realised he wanted to stay.
Everything else that followed is pure theatre and history.
Nice to see the saviour of the Taukei rolling about in his rolex watch. The watch tells time, Prime Minister. I hope there is a God as you need to face His wrath for what you have wrought on our motherland.
An unconvinced former Kaidia but now proud Australian.
Read it well yourself. It states clearly in Chapter 3 that he started the preparation for the coup a year on. Did you think people were chosen and trained overnight in a highly scrutinised environment?
Captain X, and we all know now who he is, was in charge of training the soldiers.
Rabuka states very clearly that he started the hard core precision training of the elite 6O soldiers before the election results were out early April 1987. He started thinking of a military takeover as early as 1986.
According to the apostle vilikesa, the snake’s book is the gospel truth.
Gone are the days when chiefs were held in high regard. And whose fault is it that they are no longer able to expect that respect? It is theirs 100%. Look at the Tabuya case recently. We have seen a deliberate attempt to degrade chiefly mana and that is on the chiefs and their Vanua.
It is time the chiefs reflect rather than reflex.
The chiefs have been living in the nicest house in the village. They get served the finest food. They have been eating and merry making while their people fall to night clubs, alcohol and drug abuse, and youth homelessness. It is their children mostly sitting in the streets and abusing and sniffing glue.
The chiefs don’t care. They are simply lazy. Some get a bottle of rum and they are happy. I know because the resort I worked at the chief would roll in every 3rd day and demand money and alcohol. The poor villagers from the village worked hard in the same resort as any other ordinary Fijian but the chief was milking the benefits by himself. He was the only person to own a car, his wife was always dolled up, his children were treated like royals, and he was drunk half the time.
It is time the indigenous people start taking responsibility and care for their own.
Changing the constitution won’t change the Chiefs. Take my word. It is the lazy and fraudulent ways that need to go.
Just ban the GCC. They are the cause of all problems in Fiji. Never have they solved even one problem in Fiji.
Get rid of them and many of Fiji’s problems will be solved.
They are blood suckers and a drain on society. Totally useless bunch intent on taking Fiji back to the dark ages.
The qoliqoli bill gave the elite chiefs a chance to be thieves. Period.
They made the money. Nothing went to the commoner in the village.
This bill gave rise to elitism amongst the indigenous. They abused their own. They want it back because the Indians have stopped working on their 80% of the leased land. This is the land that the indigenous own. The Indians are giving the leases back. This is the last generation of sugarcane farmers. Next 10 years the sugarcane farmers will be gone too. Khalas. Sa oti.
So there you have it. It is a desperate attempt to monetise and abuse minority. These chiefs have sat on their fat cheques while their own had nothing. Now that the milking cow for free schemes have stopped, the qoliqoli bill is given birth again because that is another way to make money. How about for once just get off your lazy arses and work!
The Great Council of Chiefs (GCC) appears to be moving toward consolidating control and administration of customary properties[recognised by common law]. If the motive is pure and they are doing this for the sake of the nation, then they must supported.
They have a function which they have largely dispose satisfactorily to the gain of everybody, eg negotiating an international agreement with the Crown to save us from the American debt, the demarcation of all native lands to allow others to deal with it, and many more. Under both the current and previous constitutions, customary rights and interests have consistently been recognized as property. Furthermore, the GCC along with the concurrence of the Crown, they have long understood that they own the seabed. However, formal ownership was never vested in them due to uncertainty about the legal mechanisms required. A writ of mandamus could have resolved this issue, but institutional inertia prevented action.
Currently, common law jurisdictions such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have developed customary legal frameworks that align with what is perhaps sought by the GCC as envisioned for Fiji. In the absence of a legal framework, exclusive use of qoliqoli areas adjacent to hotel beachfronts and other marine area developments has been granted without compensation, despite marine organism assessments conducted by fisheries authorities. However, these assessments serve a distinct function and should not be mistaken for legal determinations of ownership and usage rights and interests that are adversely affected.
If the law recognizes these rights, then a fair and transparent process should be established to uphold them. An equitable approach is essential, particularly given past State actions—such as waiving fishing rights policy and enacting the Surfing Decree—which amount to extractive takings without compensation. Using mitigating drafting as” this Act takes effect as if compensation applies” does not cut it anymore
While we are all citizens, our interests and privileges are not uniform when it comes to customary resource ownership. It is our collective responsibility to respect and uphold these rights, as doing so ensures legal certainty and promotes peaceful development
Let’s get one thing straight. They are not doing this for the “sake of the nation”. They are doing it to extract more money for the iTaukei from other citizens and the tourism industry.
You are clearly iTaukei yourself yet are using the name “Abu Jamin”. Talk about cultural appropriation. It is also pretty sinister under the circumstances.
Abu Jamin is prejudiced and a pretender. He does not know he is both. People like these with twisted logic must never be trusted. These people are snakes. The iTaukei already own 95% of the land. Even if they owned 110% of the land and the sea it will not be enough. The vulagi will still be blamed. “Our interest and priviledges are not uniform”. Are the priviledges of the iTaukei more than the vulagi because they are visitors.
If there were no vulagi in Fiji, who would you blame then, Abu Jamin? Do you think the iTaukei would be all millionaires driving 4WDs.
Perhaps you should ask the people in PNG and Solomons.
Your head is full of rubbish.
“Our interests and privileges are not uniform”. What a stupid statement from a deluded individual. Info-fijian threat to the natives back in the 80s when land ownership was 87 percent to the itaukei now it’s over 90 percent still they comprise the majority of the poor. A time will come when there will be no vulagi to blame. Wonder what their excuse will be then?
Abu Jamin
You are deluded just as these chiefs and anyone thinking consolidating control of resources to the native owners is good and should be supported.
Those jurisdictions you have mentioned are well developed economies with plenty money to compensate traditional resource owners and give them control of what they claim to own without major impact on their economies.
Imagine if you do that in Fiji. It will instantly kill off the tourism and primary industries that the economy depends on.
Let us not mention the infighting between the native Fijian mataqali fighting over the control and the monies that come with it. We see that often enough already with the current system. It destroys clans and families.
Because, we the Fijian people have been told that we own the land and this has made us become self entitled and think that we should get anything we want without working hard for it. This is why prosperity eludes us.
We need to learn the value of hard work.
If we want to be prosperous, we need to earn it.
If we want to be a successful indigenous businessperson, you first need to learn how to run a business on an equal footing with everyone else. No handouts.
Changing the 2013 Constitution will not change anything.
What was the excuse before the 2013 Constitution? We have had 3 constitutions before that. Some way in favour of us native Fijians.
And to threaten the peace of the nation if it doesn’t happen is treasonous.
The proposal just takes us back to a feudal system consolidating control not just by the traditional chiefs but also by the Fijian elites already in power.
You need to open your eyes and stop smoking whatever you have been smoking.
Abu Jamin is obvioulsy a God-fearing Christian who probably has recently realised that he is really an Israelite from the lost tribe now living in the Pacific.
His diatribe does not make any sense at all. He wants people to be treated based on their race but has not said it clearly but in a round about way.
There is an ingrained sense of entitlement because the iTaukei are special. This is their land after all. So everyone else should ask for permission and pay if they want to breath the air on their land. This is how f*cked up some people’s thought processes are. And then they all wonder why they are where they are!!!!
And many really believe that lost tribe of Israel bullshit.
This kind of thinking is exactly the reason why the rest of us will never feel 100% safe in our own country. While I can except that there will always be people who think they are more privileged than others, it is very scary to see our government aligning themselves with those views.
*accept
Kindly don’t compare NZ Māori with the indigenous people of Fiji. NZ Māori have invested well into their economy prosperity. What have the GCC done all these years? They ate off the poor by taking what was given for the village.
Māori are smart. They don’t go looking like fools and branding people vulagi. They give respect and have respect. They call non-Māori “Tangata Tiriti” which gives equal respect and recognition to others. Unlike the Fijians wanting to call others visitors! You lot have no shame and respect for your own first and here you are teaching others about indigenous peoples rights.
What is so “great” about the Great Council of Chiefs?
What have they done in the last 100 years, who missed them in the 16 years they were banned and what have they done in the last 2 years?
What have they ever done except for asking what their entitlements are?
Where did all this greatness come from, in a tinpot little shitbox country like fiji?
It certainly did not exist until the British came. This is a vulagi organisation invented by the British to cause trouble. Liquidate it- problem solved.
Great as in great corruption.
I am saying that as a Fijian.
The GCC being reconvened after its removal by the previous Government has done what?
Held meetings at great expense and come out with the statement that 33 clauses of the Constitution are claimed to be “bad for the iTaukei” and they want them altered.
Tell us what clauses you want ‘altered’ or does that really mean removed? How or why are they ‘bad’? Until those questions are answered, you the GCC, have again shown that Frank Bainimarama was right when he removed you as you had done nothing to improve the lives of the iTaukei during your existence.
As for trying to reintroduce a form of apartheid that would set the country on a path to being a pariah with the rest of the world: The modern world in which Fiji must operate no longer accepts apartheid in any form. Countries who provide aid or support don’t accommodate those who practice forms of discrimination.
Since 1997, what have the itaukei achieved. Lands sitting idle?
Gosh Fiji even has to bring labour and other blue collar workers from Bangladesh and India and professionals from Sri Lanka. It’s not for lack of local people.
Now they just rely on remittances from the family member working slave labour in New Zealand or Australia.
What are all these changes to constitution going to achieve if national psyche is wanting a good life but not working for it and blaming others when not getting what you want?
Porn Alliance Party (PAP) thinks they can get away with increasing their parliamentary salaries by 138% and duty free perks while the people who voted them in struggle to feed their families. They’re working hard to pass these constitutional amendments as their trump card to win back the landslide loss of support from their voters. Already happening in 2025.
Fijian voters should put them where they belong in 2026 – the dustbin of Fiji’s history! Absolutely no idea what they’re doing. Opposition just as stupid.
Just saw two MPs on a FJ flight travelling to China today, shamelessly taking a photo from their business class seats. Hubris much!
Another shameless, scandalous MP thinks Fijians care about what she thinks and is getting ready to be sworn in 🤬 as the Minister for Disinformation in this corrupt government.
They take you as fools, ready to be vesumonataki in 2026. While their bank accounts are full, yours stay as empty as their election promises in 2022. Worst government ever!
Register to vote and prove them wrong in 2026!! People power!
Love him or hate him, when the dust settles, Bainimarama will be remembered as one of Fiji’s greatest statesmen – a true leader for all who got us through the most difficult global reset in modern history while the majority of this lot were chasing their tails for answers, and coming up with no solutions.
But as usual we the people of Fiji are never satisfied. We have short memories, love gossip, tear people down and shoot ourselves in the foot. I had hoped that the so called learned moderates – yes, you Naidu – would champion common sense but they too are shortsighted and caught up in their own biases.
Blind Freddy could have seen this coming 10,000 miles away…but no amount of logic would have convinced the masses who said ‘change the govt’…and now we are seeing the biggest scandals resurface again just like the 90s. Hmmm, who was in charge then?
Do we learn??? No… now we chant ‘change the illegal Constitution’! Have you even read and analysed the 2013 against 1997 Constitutions nimwits? But by then it will be too late….we will return to voting along racial lines enshrining the same old elites instead of leaders that represent everybody and actually take this beloved country forward.
Fiji , you are heartbreaking.
I think history will judge Bainimarama much more kindly than it will Rabuka .
Bainimarama with all his faults put post coup Fiji on a better course and Fiji resumed its place as a wonderful country on the world stage and Fiji was better for it .
He was a capable frontman and through him and his govt they negotiated good opportunities for Fiji across businesses , sporting codes , investment , aid & geopolitics .
His presence on the world stage had strategic reach into Climate advocacy, even being made COP23 President. Fiji also took some prominent roles in advancing cause for women both at home and at the UN during his Govt’s time.
These things are a testimony to his abilities and dedication .
His govt also got the nation through the Covid pandemic which was an unsettling time everywhere & Fiji got its borders reopened safely and had bumper years for tourism since.
Some of the successes of Rabuka’s govt have been from the previous govts groundwork but no one seems to want to acknowledge that.
After 8 years of Bainimarama’s stable govt , Rabuka was handed a country on the up but now to me it seems weighed down with a heaviness and anxiety.
There are dark days that can never be put right but Bainimarama does deserve a pass mark as the ugliness of ethnic tensions were put back in the box after the coup years that started with Rabuka .
As an aside ,the PM flaunting his expensive bling is testimony to one concluding that he hasn’t changed since 1987 as his ego is still his downfall.
This kind of thinking is exactly the reason why the rest of us will never feel 100% safe in our own country. While I can accept that there will always be people who think they are more privileged than others, it is very scary to see our government aligning themselves with those views.
While the iTaukei chiefs smirk in their arrogance and assumed power and entitlements, I remind them that they are forever outclassed compared with the indigenous people of Australia. None of them have Fijian ancestors beyond 3,500 years ago, whereas the Australian indegenous ancestry is 65,000 years. They are the world’s oldest continuous living culture which is also vastly older than India’s which began about 4,500 years ago.
In Fiji, does “iTaukei” specifically refer to the original inhabitants of the country? No! Fiji was first settled about 3,500 years ago. The original inhabitants are now called “Lapita people” after a distinctive type of fine pottery they produced, remnants of which have been found in practically all the islands of the Pacific, east of New Guinea, though not in eastern Polynesia.
Fijian “iTaukei” are not just decendants of Lapita people, but decendants from neighbouring island countries as well.
If you introduce apartheid (a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race) you introduce a monumental backward step where DNA may be the only means of deciding rights. Far better to constitutionally retain Frank’s birth alone gives equal rights.
As Fiji Watcher warns: Countries which provide aid or support to Fiji don’t accommodate those who practice forms of discrimination.
To stimulate wealth for this country, it is simple: all work harder, honorably, be producers; not beggars and thieves. Help the land and seas be productive. Fairly.
It’s funny how Seruvakula and the GCC are saying they want to change 33 clauses of the constitution. This is the narrative that the chief ethno nationalist Niko Nawaikula has been saying since the 2013 constitution came into being.
It’s the old hymn book from Niko Nawaikula, who with his chief, now President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu supported the 2000 coup and later formed the CAMV (Conservative Alliance Matanitu Vanua) Party.
Niko Nawaikula is now an angry, isolated iTaukei who once he came out of prison, became disillusioned with PAP and the Coalition because no one came to visit him and his friends when he was in prison. His young relative (Ratu Rakuita Vakalalabure) stood in the 2022 election and won a seat in parliament mainly from where Niko had his base. Niko is now the biggest critic of the Coalition government.
PAP is the offshoot of CAMV and both are pro GCC.
This week will see the province of Cakaudrove perform the vakasenuqanuqa in Somosomo Village to celebrate their pedophile chief, the President of Fiji’s, ascent to the highest office of the land.
The President was the strongest advocate of the Qoliqoli Bill and other controversial bills before Bainimarama staged his coup.
Fijians don’t forget history as quickly as Rabuka likes to think.
We can join the dots.
Bainimarama should return as the Prime Minister.
Hope he remains in good health
Khaiyum should not be seen near him.
Looks like the laziness of the 90% land owners will again escape scrutiny for the poverty they face and the GCC will again blame the impoverished state of the itaukei on the hard work of vulagis.
The itaukei have not learned that hard work has been the key to any success in the 50 years since independence and will not learn the lesson in another 50.
The vulagis who live or lived here have given their sweat and blood to this country. Many still long to come back here and be home again. They still feel they belong here and want to call fiji home. By driving the most educated people away the GCC has only put the sword to its own people’s feet and necks.
Wait till people from China and Bangladesh fill this country as the 90% land owners are too lazy to show up to work and their predatory instincts kick in. Then we shall see how the GCC behave. Remember what goes around also comes around.