GOPIO
CONFERENCE ON
PIO
HUMAN RIGHTS EXPERIENCE
Country Report
by
Under the power sharing provisions of Fiji’s constitution, Fiji Labour Party is entitled to 47% of Cabinet Ministries, in proportion to its numbers in the House of Representatives. This was denied by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase after the 2001 general elections, in a move that effectively marginalized the Fiji-Indian community who constitute 44% of the country’s population.
Labour mounted a legal challenge to this. The government allowed the case to stall for some 15 months before referring it to the Supreme Court for deliberation. In June 2003, the Supreme Court, the country’s highest appellate court, ruled in favour of the Fiji Labour Party in declaring the FLP’s right to representation in Cabinet in proportion to its numbers in the House of Representatives.
The Qarase government has deliberately embarked on a policy of institutionalised racism under the guise of affirmative action for the indigenous people that discriminates against the people of Indian origin and other minority communities in Fiji and denies them social justice.
These affirmative action policies are unconstitutional in that the Fiji constitution requires affirmative action to be based on needs and not race. It also places time restrictions on the duration of such policies.
Housing Assistance in rural areas – under this scheme the indigenous population receives two-thirds of the cost of housing as assistance from the State. This assistance is denied to Fiji-Indians
To quality for this assistance, the criteria for the indigenous community is that their assets must not exceed $100,000. In the case of Fiji-Indians and others this is reduced to $50,000.
The Fiji Constitution
provides for employment in the Public Service to be in line with the racial
composition of the population. Yet Indians who constitute 44% of Fiji’s
population, comprise only 34% of the civil service; that is 10% less than their
actual entitlement. This racial imbalance gets even worse in the top echelons
of the service where Fiji-Indians are grossly under represented. Certain government
departments have a blatantly anti-Indian bias such as the Ministry for Fijian
Affairs and the Public Works Department.
Fiji-Indians comprise less
than 1% of the Fiji army as part of
a deliberate policy to maintain the army as an exclusively indigenous entity.
This is particularly repugnant considering that the army has thrice initiated
coups against the Fiji-Indian community.
Despite the fact that 90% of
all land in the country belongs to the indigenous community and is
non-alienable, under the Social Justice Act government is allocating special
interest free loans to the indigenous people to buy back freehold which they
consider to be their ancestral land.
This is particularly unjust
at a time when thousands of Fiji-Indian tenant farmers have been made homeless
and destitute overnight due to the non-renewal of their native leases. Any
affirmative action, to be just, should have been directed towards displaced
Fiji-Indian tenant farmers to help them acquire land to keep them out of the jaws
of poverty. This was not done.
Nor has the government
initiated any special measures to assist displaced families whose children have
been forced to drop out of schools by the hundreds as a result of this
catastrophe.
An indication of the tragedy
and suffering that has befallen these unfortunate people, is the explosion of
squatter settlements that have mushroomed around urban centres particularly in
the outskirts of Suva, the capital city.
Land has always been a
volatile issue in Fiji politics, with indigenous politicians using the threat
of non-renewal of land leases to try and subdue Fiji-Indian demands for
political and other civil rights. This has not worked under the leadership of
the Fiji Labour Party which has advised farmers that they should move away from
their dependency on native leases and seek other means of livelihood.
This policy has been
markedly successful. Faced with thousands of tenant farmers moving away from
farms, the Native Lands Trust Board, the semi-state body which manages leases
for the indigenous owners, has now reversed its earlier hostile stand and is
openly wooing Indian tenant farmers to return to native leases.
Still, the uncertainty on
land matters continues. Confidence will only return once a satisfactory settlement
on leasing of native land is reached at the political level.
A 20-year development plan
by the SDL government has put in place further racially discriminatory
measures. Under this, indigenous businesses will be entitled to special
concessions and preferences including:
·
Tax holidays
·
50% of all government contracts even though their
tenders may be 20% higher than others
·
the reservation of 50% of all government contracts
and import licences for the indigenous community
·
reservation of 50% of all taxi permits to the
indigenous community
·
proposed demarcation of all off-shore rights to the
indigenous community as their special fishing ground. Other communities wishing
to access the ocean for fishing, water sports etc will require special
permission which maybe granted on payment of prescribed levies.
These are some examples of
the kind of racial discrimination being practised by the current Fiji government against the
people of Indian origin. They cannot be justified on the grounds of the
indigenous community being disadvantaged because they are not. Independent UN
studies have proved that poverty in Fiji does not have a racial bias.
Indeed, if anything, the
Fiji-Indian community may have a slight disadvantage in relation to other
ethnic groups, and should therefore be eligible to at least equal State
assistance.
Fiji’s racist policies have
been strongly condemned by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of
all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) which met from 11-12 March 2003 to
examine the Fiji situation. In its concluding statement issued on 21 March,
CERD has highlighted 22 areas of
concern including the land issue and has asked the State to address all these
concerns which breach the articles of ICERD.
A joint committee of
Government Ministers and senior Fiji Labour Party MPs working with a conflict
resolution representative from the East West Centre in Hawaii, has drawn up
recommendations to resolve the land issue and remove racially discriminatory practices
in line with the recommendations of CERD. These recommendations have been
sitting with the Prime Minister for the past seven months. He has not acted on
them.
The law and order situation
in Fiji is far from satisfactory. The wheels of justice are moving very slowly
in bringing to account all those who were implicated in the overthrow of the
democratically elected government in May 2000. Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase
continues to include in his cabinet people who have been charged with
coup-related activities. One of these so-charged individuals continues to hold
the high office of Deputy Speaker of Parliament and chairmanship of the
parliamentary sector committee on Justice, Law and Order, making a mockery of
the entire system.
Government’s unwillingness
to bring to justice high chiefs, certain of its ministers and other prominent
personalities implicated in the coup, has led to increasing tension between it
and the army commander who is determined to see that all those implicated are
prosecuted. Because of this, it is now wanting to remove the current army
commander from office when his term comes up for renewal in February.
We are therefore
disappointed that the Government of India has taken steps to fully normalise
relations with a government that is still unconstitutional, that has put in
place measures blatantly discriminatory against the Fiji-Indian community and
shows scant regard for the rule of law and democratic processes.
GOPIO must stand firm on the
issue of the civil and political rights of the people of Indian origin in Fiji,
and else where. It should be remembered that in Fiji the main victims of the
government’s racist policies are those who are the most vulnerable: the poor,
the workers, the farmers, the farm hands and people with ordinary incomes -
people who comprise more than 85% of the Fiji-Indian population.