Charan Jeath Singh has been warning privately for some time that Fiji is steadily being “depopulated” by the exodus of skilled workers and faces a crisis as the tax base needed to pay for everything steadily shrinks. Now the multi-millionaire Minister for Multi-Ethnic Affairs has gone public with those concerns, speaking of a “troubling decline” in the Indo-Fijian population as they become a minority group whose presence – he says – could plummet to just 28 per cent by the next election in 2026.
But why is it happening? For someone who has chosen to side politically with the indigenous nationalists in the People’s Alliance, Charan Jeath Singh isn’t entirely honest about the cause of the exodus.
He blames it on the lure of higher paid jobs overseas and a falling birthrate among Indo-Fijians in Fiji. When anyone with half a brain knows that a bigger factor is growing disillusionment with the policies of the Coalition government. Many Fijians – “Indo” and indigenous – have simply given up on Fiji. They waited to see what would happen when the Coalition replaced FijiFirst and it has been an unmitigated disaster.
Charan Jeath Singh is as culpable as Biman Prasad in not standing up to his Coalition colleagues, and especially Sitiveni Rabuka, when they said it was OK for the iTaukei to refer to the minorities as “vulagi” – visitors in their own country. He is also as culpable as Biman Prasad in allowing overt workplace ethnic cleansing to occur in the civil service and offices of state, with iTaukei catapulted into top jobs at the expense of the minorities. And he is as culpable as Biman Prasad in not standing up to the Coalition’s repeated violations of the Constitution and general assault on the rule of law.
Indo-Fijians and members of other minorities know where this is all heading. The failure of senior politicians from the Prime Minister down to rule out the possibility of the Constitution being changed to abolish the level-playing field of a common and equal citizenry and a common identity tells them that it is probably going to happen. And the increasingly aggressive rhetoric about “indigenous rights” (see below) also suggests that it is only a matter of time before the “qoliqoli” provisions that triggered the 2006 coup are revisited and the minorities in Fiji have to pay to access beaches, traditional fishing grounds and the like that they currently enjoy for free.
Just as importantly, the “tone” of the country has worsened dramatically under the government that Indo-Fijian leaders such as Charan Jeath Singh and Biman Prasad have chosen to support. They have remained silent while indigenous nationalists have fundamentally questioned the right of the minorities in Fiji to belong. That includes our new “Pedophile President” who in a travesty of epic proportions, has become head of state less than a month after he publicly questioned the right of an MP of Melanesian descent to genuinely be regarded as Fijian.
Add to this the growing crime wave, the national drug crisis, the corruption of our institutions of state such as FICAC and the ODPP, plus the chaos and corruption at senior levels of government , then Indo-Fijians need a very good reason to stay. And the Coalition simply isn’t giving them one. Instead, they see one of their number in the form of Biman Prasad escaping a FICAC charge and making a mockery of the criminal justice system. And Indo-Fijian leaders enabling and appeasing their iTaukei political colleagues in a manner that would have been inconceivable in previous generations.
Charan Jeath Singh can’t say it because it would undermine his own political position. But the reason the Indo-Fijian population is falling and tens of thousands of people are leaving is for the same reason they left after Sitiveni Rabuka’s coups in 1987 and after the rebellion and mutiny of 2000. They have given up hope. And they also know that the current government has no hope of restoring that confidence.
They are going to other countries where their skills and investment are not only valued but where they are welcomed as equals, with equal rights and opportunities and a common identity and where they know their children will have a better future. The power of belonging is the most important test of national allegiance for most people, more important than a better standard of living. And on any reasoned evaluation for most Indo-Fijians and other minorities, Sitiveni Rabuka’s Fiji has failed the test.
As I said, it isn’t rocket science. Take a look at the following messaging from another government minister in today’s Fiji Times.
Could these stories perchance be related? You bet.
A welcome analysis and candid picture of the reality, which in part is exacerbated by so called leaders such as Biman Chand and Charan Jeath Singh!
Charan Jeath Singh has also gotten away abusing his Ministerial powers by handpicking people to crucial positions such as in FSC, Sugar Research Centre, Multi-Ethnic Affairs (which remains under-resourced and under-rated) and other Boards/Committees. He has used his position and relationship with the Tui Macuata to further his business empire. Remember how he announced one day he was getting Bangladeshis to fill the skills gap when scores of other business are still navigating through the immigration bureaucracy to import the necessary skills.
As a PA member he has survived as Rabuka turns a blind eye to all his excesses, as he does to the other opportunities such as Ajay Amrit and Pramesh Chand.
The reality is that many skilled and educated people have lost faith in the country due to the poor governance, a compromised judiciary and rampant corruption and cronyism. Indo-Fijians, in particular, are investing heavily in children’s education and already have a foot in the door of many countries like Australia, NZ, Canada and US, and see no future in Fiji. They are not investing or buying properties. Is it a wonder that the real estate market has declined by more than 25% in the last 2 years! They know that they will be the collateral damage once again as the country steers its ugly head towards provincial politics.
It is certainly the indigenous way or the airway!
I’m surprised Charan was sober enough to stand up straight and parrot off these largely incorrect statistics.
Indo-Fijians have realised they have no future left in Fiji. The very people they elected to serve as their voice in parliament have sold them out. Parents may stay but they’re definitely getting their kids out as quickly as they can..
I happen to know three Indo-Fijian families who have sent their kids off to Sydney to stay with relatives while their parents work hard to send money to support them. These children will likely never return to Fiji and settle in Australia over time. Their skills are permanently lost to Fiji.
As horrible as this sounds, the situation in Fiji is almost like Germany. The Jewish people started leaving just before Hitler started taking everything they had worked hard for.
In Fiji, this government is doing exactly that and Indo-Fijians who can see their future know they have none and are getting out before all hell breaks loose.
Charan (Jeet Singh) (Ratu William ) Katonivere Holdings Limited:
Many of those Indo Fijians leaving or wanting to, would not have been able to make profitable, convenient alliances with a strategic business ally as in Charan’s shrewd partnership with the Tui Macuata. It then potentially muzzles what you could be honest about as you don’t want to offend or get on the wrong side of your itaukei resource owner partner. There is nothing illegal about such partnerships, however personal interests could make you blind to the interests of the public you might be representing.
Delighted and happy by this trend. The elites can go and rely on the Itaukei population to do all the hard work and live off them, getting fat.
I hope Fiji Indo population reaches 8% by 2036.
Get out. Get a better life.
With 95% of the land and than more than 70% of the population, the indigenous airheads such as Siromi Turaga are still complaining about indigeneous rights! Who will they blame when there are no more vulagis left and they have 100% of the land?
Who are the Papua New Guineans and the Solomon Islanders blaming?
Why don’t the good people in Fiji clearly and unequivocally tell the likes of Siromi to f/off.
Are they all lasulasu?
They will find something or someone else to blame – don’t you worry! It will always be some else’s fault – of the past or the present. Eg: Colonialism, Missionaries, Queen Victoria. Rising sea levels, Climate change. Starlink. Mobile Phones and internet connectivity. Illicit Drugs. Modern Medicine. Processed foods. Democracy and Westminster system etc etc etc ! (Not forgetting the UN, World Bank, ADB, Bill Gates and the WEF – World Economic Forum!!)
Spot on!
Like South Africa, Indo Fijians need to become less than 10%.
My itaukei brothers can enjoy fiji.
They will become paid servants of fat rich remaining vulagis. The vulagis will own businesses, stay inside locked gates. They will all have a passport ready for another country.
You said it GD, Biman Prasad and Charan Jeath Singh are enablers of this biased indigenous government.
They have their private reasons for selling their souls to the devil but publically they will be perceived as traitors to their own race and destroyers of the future of minorities in Fiji.
Siromi Turaga is the descendent of Mathew St John , a half American Black legal advisor to Seru Cakobau of Bau in the 1860s and 1870s.. he married Adish Tuituba of Bau and they settled in Nairai, Lomaiviti.
So Siromi is an Afro Fijian. He declared his origins at a Lomaiviti Provincial Council meeting at Nasova, Ovalau after the last general election that was broadcast on FM Fijian radio.
He should go back to America.
The only barrier that the indigenous population have faced stopping us from decision making is our chiefly system. It’s a feudalistic system and does not belong in this day and age.
This and our racial politics are what’s stopping us from self-determination.
I wonder if Siromi reads and understands what he is talking about.
No one has ever stopped us from achieving our aspirations.
Native land is well protected by statute. Has been for a long time. Anyone saying otherwise is just scaremongering for political purposes.
Secure land tenure? We own 90% of the land. What else do you want?
No one is taking away your food system, or our identity or our culture. We are successfully doing that on our own.
We are the ones polluting our environment.
We are the ones not passing on relevant tradition and culture. Whose fault is it that your children do not speak their own native language?
Inevitably, there are some traditions that will need to be discarded as they no longer become relevant. It’s called progress.
The problem is you politicians using the race card to stay in power or get into power.
You lie to the indigenous people that we will be rich if indigenous people are in power.
You make us to be self entitled and lazy and now to rely on government handouts.
We need to start taking responsibility for our own actions. Learn to work hard if we want to achieve our aspirations.
There are some indigenous people that have done well. They did so because they worked hard. Not because they are indigenous.
No one has ever taken anything away from you.
Let’s move away from this sense of self entitlement that is making us lazy. Stop relying on government handouts.
Stop electing parliament representatives based on race. Elect them based on the policies and philosophies of the party.
Unfortunately Siromi, what you have just said is complete utter rubbish.
Just further proves the point I’m trying to make.
Well said, great post.
Agree. Self entitled uncivilised people. They only have themselves to blame while they have everything.
And they have always had everything.
So they need to stop blaming others.
Look at the women who sell by the roadsides in Fiji. See what a Fiji Indian woman will sell vs what an i-taukei woman will sell. My mother made the comment of what is stopping an i-taukei woman from being as entrepreneurial as an Indian women? It’s laziness and self awareness. The Indian woman sells everything and anything. Why? Because she is raising her children to be educated and leave the country for better opportunities abroad. The trend has begun again where Fiji Indians are getting themselves or their university age children to leave and study abroad. These young people are not coming back.
Good on those who can leave. Do so. The country has nothing for any of you.
One thing I want to remind my Indian (as you seem like to be called) friends. You should not generalise on racial lines. Ratu Mara looked after Indians for so many years. Your champion FB is also an itaukei, so many Itaukei people voted for him. Every race has got shit people, please don’t just pick on one race. Call them by name is ok. You can swear at your own Indo-fijians by name, C. Singh, B.P, A. D, S. K (chutney girl looking for a chance to taste with old Naiqama). You kai-indias stabbed ASK for B.P, only now you realise your mistake. Why pulling us in your rubbish then.
So true. itaukei are itaukei’s own worst enemy. And they’re taking everyone down with them.
CJS should just shut up. Idiot can’t even speak without downing the imported stuff. Why is he worried? Just get the itaukeis to work for their country. But did anyone see the RFMF reconciliation program. The widows were lined up to greet that rebel fella. I noticed that the ladies didn’t seem happy at all and two openly ignored him. He stood there for a while then had to move on. Why do these things to women who have lost loved ones? There were some great comments on Facebook from the itaukeis voicing their unhappiness.
Oh and that Deoki bloke loved the farce.
And hell has a special place for the NFP lot.
There is no ounce of good governance or credibility left in this administration! Rich for this not-so-sober Minister to talk who together with recently booted-out Pressi are busy enriching themselves.
You have no one but yourselves to blame along with jhoota Baiman.
You have let the indo-Fijian population down and they have realised they have nothing to stay back for. A difficult decision for them – however a most practical one considering you coalition cronies have left them none!
Typical for the I-Taukeis to have short-term vision to kill the golden goose which lay the eggs.
What a sad sad situation!
There is no patriotism in Fiji whatsoever. U can thank Rabuka and the RFMF for the deep-seated distrust most people have towards government and the military in particular.
If there were a mobilisation tomorrow the organisers would be staring at an empty hall.
Nobody cares any more. That’s why the able and the skilled are leaving our shores in droves.
CJS typically looks through rose-tinted spectacles, he only sees Indo Fijians leaving our shores and its impact at the ballot box.
The reality though is for every Indo Fijian who departs there are three taukei wanting also to leave in search of a better life and better work overseas.
Yet CJS and his one eyed Coalition Govt have it within their means to make Fiji attractive a place for all citizens to live a good life in, and be prepared to die for for it.
But this farce of a Truth and Reconciliation process is alienating the public further.
It’s total madness.
The next time you are in Honolulu town drop by the house for a drink (Napa Valley Brown Estate Zin is all I have, some Japanese single malt perhaps). But then if you prefer a Tanoa, and you are insistent and inflexible about it, I will defer to your seniority and pretend that you are my senior when in fact you are not. You know: Shakespearean “willing suspension of disbelief.” There’s some lewena from Vanuatu somewhere around here waiting for a distinguished vulagi. So: vakasama taka mada o kemuni saka na turaga dokai.
If you have WhatsApp or Messenger either will work. I think both are encrypted. Feel free to call me.
But this is what Rabuka wanted. In one of his books he concluded that the best way to fulfil his goal was to “force” Indo-Fijians to migrate to reduce the population ie make living conditions difficult. Remember that pre 1987 Indo Fijians comprised over 50% of the population of Fiji. There was mass exodus post 87, which never recovered, and it is happening again now. Looks like he will go to his grave having accomplished his goal- but what awaits is the after life and divine judgement, and no amount of kowtowing to God’s “chosen” people will change that. And the indigenous supremacists are deluded if they think the country will prosper after losing its best and brightest, be they indigenous or not. Unless a country has significant oil/gas/mineral wealth its people are its greatest asset. Oh the Fiji that could have been.
Like most of the Ministers of this Government he is late to the obvious. The exodus started within days of the election of the coalition Government and accelerated once it became clear that the NFP members of Government were spineless regarding acts of the PAP and others.
Even his highly experienced Permanent Secretary has resigned and gone to greener fields.
As others have stated the departing are not just Indo-Fijian, with many iTaukei joining the growing number leaving. Does the millionaire Minister care? I don’t think so!
Now this is what I call a true analysis of what exactly is taking place in Fiji right now.
I mean what do you expect when you blatantly shaft the 2nd largest group of people in Fiji most of which are hardworking tax payers.
CJS has the nerve to talk about this knowing full well that he and his party have been part of the problem since the last election but no someone’s too busy filling his pockets and getting his good ole mates in top jobs.
Furthermore, this is a good opportunity for the itaukei to show their stuff and run the country which is what they have always been after. Let’s see how they pay for it…more loans I guess but no money to pay it back.
The problem in this country is the laid back mentality. It is also the silly smarts like CJ who think he is smarter than his voters.
Then there is Biman, Rabuka, others.
All from the same farm of corruption.
The country is f**ked.
Next election it will be the indigenous fighting the indigenous. Just watch.
No need for Indians, Rotumans and others. They are leaving.
Now hold on to your indigenous entitlement and 90% of the land and cry the world your useless sorrows. Because guess what Fiji! You are just a laughing stock.
With the shrinking tax base, drastic measures will have to be taken to increase govt Income tax and/or VAT and other indirect taxes.
1- lower the income tax threshold from $30k.
2-Increase VAT further.
3-And wait for it: Impose an (income) tax on the remittances sent from overseas to Fijians that was said to be ~ $1.5billion annually.
I bet the professor of economics does not want to be seen behind any of the above measures.
Taxing the tourist more and more overseas aid or loans will be the way to make ends meet.
As an Indian child born at the Lautoka government hospital in April 1966, I can quite conclusively state that as we grew older and progressed through school, our Indian parents would instill into us the same mantra over and over again : EDUCATE
and VACATE during the reign of one Ratu Mara who also would state that blood will flow if the kaiviti didn’t win the elections in the early 70s.
All the treasury money of Fiji was diverted to Lau.
Death by a thousand cuts is what’s currently happening to Fiji. Let the indigenous people run this country as Siromi is pushing, no problems boy, just be prepared. What a bunch of idiots this Coalition is.
We are 23 cousins from my mom’s and dad’s side. Before 2022 elections only 2 were overseas. Today only 2 remain in Fiji.
Those supporting this racist government think it’s all ok that Fijians of Indian origin are moving away overseas and dont even have the brains to realize whats coming in the next decade.
The few like Charan that will remain in Fiji will have all the businesses and money and the itaukei elite will be in their pockets. They will loot the poor Fijians with the Itaukei leaders cheering them on.
This mess is not getting fixed so to all those who can, the gates are open and not only is the pay better, the health, education, security are all better abroad.
As for Charan, can someone ask him next time if his kids stay in Fiji or overseas?
By 2022 elections, Biman had realised that NFP on its own will never be able to form a government.
But his ambition to become a minister at any cost became evident when he went back on his words that he would never align with a coup leader. He did exactly the opposite. With his lies, misinformation, and hollow promises, he was able to hoodwink the voters to get 5 seats.
Similarly, Charanjit also as a greedy and shady but successful businessman saw the signs that remaining in NFP will not progress his political and business ambition. He exited NFP, tried his luck with FFP (good friend of Aiyaz’s father), and after unsuccessful attempts, he went to Rabuka. Being a rich guy, Rabuka needed funds and an indian face in PAP to demonstrate that PAP is a multiracial party.
We now know what PAP is and what NFP is. NFP is far from what the great leaders had made it to be until Biman became the leader. Since he became the leader, he has never spoken against derogatory remarks that Rabuka has been making against Indo-Fijians from time to time and still does.
Biman is the single biggest enemy of Indo- Fijians, and today, he is only concerned with appeasing Rabuka, so he can remain a minister. He doesn’t care what happens to his community. PAP , together with Biman and Charan, are the cause for Indo-Fijians leaving the country. Coalition government’s discrimatory policies, lack of rule of law, and bad governance are the reasons.
Charan is another thick skinned guy who purports to have the solution to the ailing sugar industry. He has put his own buddies in positions so that he can do whatever he likes by fooling the farmers.
Before and after the election, Biman and Charan promised a new sugar mill in Rakiraki. After several trips around the globe to look at a suitable mill, now they have said that a new mill is not feasible.
These two with puppets like Shashi and Agni Deo are there only for themselves. Shashi is leading the unfocused TRC, and Agni is largely paddling the PALM scheme and not issues at home.
Meanwhile, the absolute mess that is the Dept for Immigration is rejecting nearly every work permit application that comes their way. Work permit applications are often for those in senior positions of large companies who earn decent salaries and would be contributing to the tax base in Fiji (as well as the critical skills shortage). Make it make sense!
Does anyone know what percentage of fiji indian left in fiji?