Repúblika | June 2014

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[In truth, freedom | In veritate libertas]

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Volume 2 | No 8 | Issue 13

ROY RAVANA JR

US GUN VIOLENCE HITS HOME SENI NABOU TAKES ON POLITICS Page 22

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THE BETRAYAL OF WEST PAPUA Page 32

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KIRIBATI’S FIJI LAND DEAL Page 28

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COVER

16 | Roy’s violent end republikamagazine.com

[In truth, freedom | In veritate libertas]

June 2014 | ISSUE 13 | $4.95VIP

Roy Ravana Junior, 20,

Repúblika had a promising sports

ROY RAVANA JR

SENI NABOU TAKES ON POLITICS Page 22

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THE BETRAYAL OF WEST PAPUA

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Page 32

KIRIBATI’S FIJI LAND DEAL Page 28

FIJI VOTES

ESSAY

FACEBOOK

Volume 2 | No 8 | Issue 13

COURTESY ILENE LASAISAMOA

career before him. Despite losing an athletics scholarship in the US GUN VIOLENCE US, he had managed to HITS HOME secure another one and was working towards starting at his new university. However, his life was cut short by a bullet in a notorious area of South Sacramento in California. His violent death at such a young age shocked Fijians both in the close-knit community in the US and in Fiji. It brought home to Fijians the twin problems of gun and gang violence in the United States. Was Ravana in the wrong place, at the wrong time or was the company he kept a factor in his Cut down Roy Ravana Junior had been playing rugby in Sacramento while awaiting death? the start of the new university year when he was shot.

DISPATCHES

KELVIN ANTHONY

CHRISTOPHER PALA

26 | What’s in it for me?

Sharon Narayan writes an open letter to Fiji’s politicians

22 | Women in politics Seni Nabou on why she’s standing in September

28 | Kiribati deal Christopher Pala investigates Vanua Levu land purchase 32 | West Papua Jason McCleod on ministers’ betrayal of Papuan struggle

REGULARS

OPINION

6 | Briefing DPP considers file in Sereima death investigation

13 | The Rising Ape Alex Elbourne on cultural appropriation

12 | Pasifika Post Tongan police officers convicted of manslaughter

14 | The Green Line Nakita Bingham on melting glaciers

SALON 37 | Trending Demayble Pasoni on what’s in a selfie

46 | The Last Word Ashfaaq Khan on the art of politics Issue 13 | June 2014

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editor’snote ricardo@republikamagazine.com

@RicardoMorris

Tragedy touches home for Fijians

Vol 2 | No 8 | Issue 13 Publisher & Editor Ricardo Morris ricardo@republikamedia.com WRITER Kelvin Anthony kelvin@republikamedia.com

the White House website under the headline: “Now is the time to do something about gun violence.”

The White House website says: “The President strongly believes that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. But to better protect our children and our communities from tragic mass shootings like those in Newtown, Aurora, Oak Creek, and Tucson, there are common-sense steps we can take right now.

“While no law or set of laws will end gun violence, it is clear that the American people want action. If even one child’s life can be saved, then we need to act. Now is the time to do the right thing for our children, our communities, and the country we love.”

But a plan by Obama aimed at revamping the nation’s gun laws came to a frustrating end on the floor of the US Senate in April 2013.

All seven measures proposed by Obama - expanded background checks, a strengthened federal gun trafficking statute, limits on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines - were rejected leaving President Obama angered and gun-reform advocates searching for explanations.

As long as America fails to address its gun problems at the highest level, it will be doomed to continue suffering at

the hands of dangerous people who use guns to commit acts of violence.

As we count down the days to the country’s first general election since 2006, political players are beginning to reveal themselves.

The Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama has launched his FijiFirst party and campaigning is underway in earnest. The other established political parties have highlighted the difficulties they face with campaigning because of the new restrictions on political fundraising which limits donations to $10,000 per individual per year and bans companies from donating to political parties. In some cases, candidates have had to use their own money and parties are accepting all the help they can get.

Not so with FijiFirst which runs a slick media advertising campaign, including a free text messaging service, a website, free painting of vehicles in the party colours and four bank accounts to accept donations. Even before it had established itself, the public relations machinery behind the party was obvious And perhaps that lack of PR nous and feet-dragging will be what ultimately hampers other parties who could be left behind by the sheer force of FijiFirst’s voice.

R

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We welcome your comments, contributions, corrections, letters or suggestions. Send them to ricardo@republikamedia.com or leave a comment on our social media pages.

The opinions expressed in Repúblika are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. The editor takes responsibility for all nonattributed editorial content.

Published by Republika Media Limited | 8 Mitchell Street, Peace Embassy Suite A107, Suva | PO Box 11927, Suva, Fiji | Phone: +679 3561467 Mobile: +679 9041215 | Email: info@republikamagazine.com | Printed by Quality Print Limited, Suva | ISSN: 2227-5738 4

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In veritate libertas

T

hat the United States has a terrible problem with gun violence is an established fact. Trying to find ways to eliminate it is another story altogether.

In early June, Fijians came to experience just a portion of the heartbreak that gun-and-gang violence visits on thousands of people each year in that country.

Already somewhat of a star athlete, Roy Ravana Junior was only 20 years old and hoping to make it in the “Land of the Free” when a bullet cut his life short on a Sacramento street.

Whether the bullet was meant for him is moot, but the ripples from that lunchtime shooting in a street far away from Ravana’s homeland has brought into stark relief the human cost of gun violence in a country where carrying firearms is a constitutional right.

It may not have been as dramatic as the many recent mass shootings in the US, but for Fijians here and abroad, it made the problem personal.

US President Barack Obama has had to confront this problem, perhaps unlike other presidents before him. He has been under pressure to find a way around the Second Amendment of the US Constitution in addressing gun violence.

The issue features prominently on

Issue 13 | June 2014

inbox Your letters, feedback and viewpoints

How to understand sex crimes By the mid 1970s crime in Fiji was a ‘social issue’. Chief Justice Grant had published a report, and media were full of it.

For several years I lectured on the subject at USP and in the ‘80s published some research results. Crimes generally, I found, were not usually serious: media exaggerated. Only one offence contradicted this: sex crime. The rate was already alarming.

Today the number and ratio of such offences have apparently escalated. Their nature has grown more disturbing. Greater readiness to report might explain some of the rate, not all, but it still wouldn’t explain their nature.

I concur with Rajesh Narayan (Letters, Fiji Times, 3 May) who thinks there could be a link between rape and online pornography but we need analysts who understand statistics and can get offenders (and others) to talk.

We must also triangulate court records, reports to crisis centres, police records, and readily available police and prison statistics.

We need data on times and places of offences, offenders’ ages and educational attainment, their prior relations with victims, and role (if any) of alcohol.

Above all, we must examine rape in the context of the social and economic structures of Fijian society, in villages, settlements, and towns, and in the context of rural conservatism, power, male peer groups, drinking patterns, and the collision of these with the liberal – sometimes libertarian – gender-equitable values of urban cosmopolitanism.

It is unfair to leave comprehension and resolution to ministers of religion, prison counsellors, or even corrections service psychologists. Their role is important, no doubt, but it is not enough. We need analysts with a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research skills.

Dr Christopher Griffin Rakiraki

TALK BACK TO US Issue 13 | June 2014

inbox@republikamagazine.com

Counsumer Council and health The CEO of Consumer Council (Mrs Premila Kumar) very responsibly informed the public (Fiji TV, 26 May) that consumers keep making serious complaints about the Ministry of Health due to: n bad and insensitive attitudes of the staff; n inefficiencies; n gross negligence n with some patients even dying n and with the Dental and Medical Councils not responding to consumer complaints, even when the complaints came via the Prime Minister’s Office.

Although Mrs Premila Kumar quite understandably praised Bainimarama for raising this health issue (just four months before the elections), sensible tax payers must be mulling over many questions: (a) Why would Mrs Premila Kumar tell the country that she was working very closely with the Prime Minister’s Office on this health issue? (b) if most problems in the country are being solved by the Prime Minister’s Office (as it seems from the media) does this indicate that all other Ministries are not doing their respective jobs, and should everybody (following Mrs Premila Kumar) make a beeline for the Prime Minister’s Office? (c) if the Minister or Permanent Secretary of Health have not responded to Mrs Premila’s complaints after eight years, should they both do the honourable thing, and resign? (d) why have the Dental and Medical Councils not addressed the complaints and should they all resign? (e) given the numerous media statements by the impassive and impressive Permanent Secretary of Public Service (Mr. Parmesh Chand) about their many initiatives towards improving the efficiency of civil servants (such as retiring civil servants at age 55 and sending everyone for training to China), have all these efforts been a failure as far as the Ministry of Health is concerned, and should Mr Chand resign? (f ) given the seriousness of com-

CORRECTION In our May 2014 issue (number 12), on page 18, we wrongly stated the name and position of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) representative as “Patrick Shamal Singh, Suva Branch Youth President.”

His correct name is Pratick Shamal Singh and he is the president of the PDP’s Suva branch. The PDP says it believes in inclusivity at every level and does not have a separate youth or women’s wing. There is no entity known as the PDP Youth Branch. We regret the error and apologise for the wrong impression potentially caused.

plaints from the CEO of Consumer Council, should Rear Admiral (retired) Bainimarama himself resign, given that his government has been in charge for eight years now (the lifetime of two normal governments), given that he has determined his own salary, and given that the buck should stop with him in more ways than one? (g) or is the real fundamental problem that the Ministry of Health budget has been severely constrained for the last eight years, the salaries of doctors and nurses have been totally inadequate, they have been over-worked, and the funds for medicines and equipment have been grossly inadequate, because of the Bainimarama Government’s other spending “priorities”? (h) for instance, would the $230,000 of public funds, unnecessarily paid to Fiji Sun to print the 40,000 signatures for the registration application of Fiji First Party (when only 5,000 was required), have been better spent on medicines for the Ministry of Health? (i) Or why was not a mere $10 million reallocated to Health in the last budget, out of the massive allocation of $1 billion (i.e. $1,000 millions) to FRA over the last two years?

Professor Wadan Narsey Suva n EDITOR’S NOTE: This letter was also sent to the Fiji Times, Fiji Sun and Islands Business.

4Join us on facebook.com/republikamag4Email to inbox@republikamagazine.com 4Follow us on twitter.com/republikamag4Write to PO Box 11927, Suva, Fiji facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

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briefing The nation reviewed

Naoise Dolan/Flickr

WORLD VIEW

NUMBERS

760

The number of cases Vodafone Fiji assisted police with by providing call details on the production of a search warrant or court order.

226.3

Grams of methamphetamine discovered by customs officials on 9 June in cookies sent from overseas.

12

The number of missing person cases reported to police since 26 May.

$1.4m

The amount committed by China towards the 2014 September general election.

550k

The number of people registered to vote as at 26 May.

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| Repúblika | republikamagazine.com

SEREIMA’S DEATH

DPP mulls police file on Sereima’s death THE file containing the police findings in the investigation involving the death of 13-year-old Sereima Degei in Nabouciwa village, Tailevu in 2007 has been given to the Director of Police Prosecution.

Police Commissioner Major-General (Ret) Ben Groenewald responded to a query from Repúblika on the status of the Sereima investigation more than six years after she died and six months since an inquest ruling that found Sereima met her death through foul play.

“I enquired about the status of the investigation and can confirm that the case docket under discussion was handed to the DPP this morning (6 June 2014),” Groenewald told Repúblika.

On 10 April 2014, the Fiji Sun quoted then acting Police Commissioner Ravi Narayan as confirming the file had been sent to the DPP. However, it soon became apparent the file had not been received

by the DPP. On 2 May 2014, the DPP responded to an article in the Fiji Times about the case in which it attributed to Nausori magistrate Charles Ratakele, who conducted the inquest into Sereima’s death last year, comments suggesting the DPP and the Attorney-General’s chambers would decide whether to lay murder charges against the four men named during the inquest.

In a statement DPP Christopher Pryde said: “The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions wishes to clarify that it is the Director of Public Prosecutions that will make a decision on this matter and not the Attorney-General’s Chambers.”

Pryde added it was the sole authority of the DPP to decide whether to initiate criminal proceedings.

“That decision is made according to the sufficiency of evidence and whether it is in the public interest. A decision Issue 13 | June 2014

briefing

The nation reviewed

MILESTONES Fiji Airways has rebranded the airline servicing its regional and domestic flights from Pacific Sun to Fiji Link. Fiji Airways chief executive Stephan Pichler said the rebrand would add value to ‘Brand Fiji’. The first two aircraft to arrive in Fiji on 6 May from France have a 68seat capacity.

1

The Grand Pacific Hotel celebrated its 100th birthday anniversary on 23 May and incidentally became a double celebration as it also marked the end of renovations and reconstruction to one of Suva’s historic landmarks. Construction began in 2011.

SUPPLIED BY APISALOME RABO

2

The Grand Pacific Hotel created history during its 100th birthday celebration in Suva on 23 May by introducing the world’s longest swiss roll cake measuring 131m metres breaking the world record set by Japan of 130.68m.

The record attempt was not verified by Guiness World Records.

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Issue 13 | June 2014

Sereima Degei, above, in a photo taken several weeks before her death in September 2007.

At right, Eparama Saint John, 30, who alleges he was involved along with three other men in Sereima’s muder in Nabouciwa village, Buretu, Tailevu. Saint John testified under oath of the event during an inquest at the Nausori Magistrates Court in 2013.

Former High Court Judge, Nazhat Shameem became Fiji’s first ambassador to the United Nations and Fiji became the first Pacific Small Island Developing State with a presence in Geneva, Switzerland after Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama opened the Geneva Mission on 2 June.

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Vodafone Fiji Under-20 football team created history after winning the 2014 Oceania Football Confederation Under-20 World Cup Qualifiers by defeating Solomon Islands 2-1 in Suva to qualify for the 2015 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand. This is the first national side to ever qualify for a World Cup. Fiji is one of the lucky 24 team out of 209 to compete in the World Cup from 30 May to 20 June.

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SUPPLIED BY APISALOME RABO

to prosecute or to discontinue criminal proceedings is made by the DPP alone and without reference to or in consultation with the Attorney-General or any other Minister or Government entity.

In relation to the Berwick case, Pryde said: “The file will be reviewed by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutives in the normal course once investigations from the police have been completed. A final decision on what charges, if any, will then be made by the DPP.” Mid-way through the inquest, Eparama Saint John, a 30-year-old who had lived in the village in 2007 came forward and testified under oath about what he said was an account of how Sereima died and who was involved.

Ratakele directed police to re-open the investigation into Sereima’s death after naming the suspects at the close of the inquest in December 2013.

Acting Police Commissioner at the time, Ravi Narayan ordered two investigations: one into the circumstances surrounding Sereima’s brutal death and another by the internal affairs unit into officers’ handling of the case at the time of Sereima’s death.

Sereima was found suspended from a small mango tree behind her house on 7 September 2007 after being missing for at least two nights.

The police at the time wrote the case off as a suicide, although circumstantial evidence pointed to foul play, as the n RICARDO MORRIS inquest found.

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briefing

The nation reviewed

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Nazhat Shameem began her new role as Fiji’s first permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) office in Geneva with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama opening the Fiji mission there on 2 June.

Ambassador Shameem’s key responsibilities during her three-year term will include representing Fiji at international forums and agencies in Geneva and Vienna, as well as to promote Fijian interests on the global stage.

The former High Court judge was commissioned to the diplomatic position on 15 May in the presence of acting Fijian President, Justice William Calanchini. She presented her credentials to the UN’s acting director general, Michael Moller and other senior UN representatives on 26 May. In an e-interview with Repúblika from Geneva, Shameem said the first few activities she would engage in immediately would be setting up of the Fiji mission office, followed by developing relationships with UN agencies and other ambassadors.

She notes: “Fiji’s foreign policy is based on the belief that we should be friend to all and enemy to none.”

Shameem says the fact the Geneva mission is a new office, will have a strong role in the development of human rights work, and will work closely with international agencies to strengthen Fiji’s role and function internationally, was what motivated her to apply for the role.

“I have always believed that Fiji can develop a leadership role on the world stage,” Shameem said. “Fiji’s chairmanship in 2013 of G77 plus China, and of the UN Executive Board has confirmed this and I also believe that Fiji will lead the way on international developments in relation to the effects of climate change.

“The Pacific island countries are the least responsible for carbon emissions yet a disproportionate number of Pacific islanders are affected by climate change. Fiji can and already has made a difference in raising awareness and prodding the international conscience on this,” Shameem adds.

Fiji Labour Party (FLP) general secretary Kini Marawai objected to Shameem’s appointment.

In a statement, Marawai claimed 8

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MINISTRY OF INFORMATION

Shameem leaves law for diplomacy

Justice William Calanchini and Acting President of Fiji congratulates Nazhat Shameem Khan at her commissioning on 15 May as permanent representative to the UN’s office in Geneva.

the position was not advertised by the government and Shameem was handpicked ahead of other deserving senior civil servants by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

Marawai claims Shameem was actively assisting the regime over the years and “it seems she has been chosen to leave Fiji ahead of the elections in September to live near her children who are in London.”

He also questions the government on the need to create another diplomatic position when Fiji already has a permanent representative to the UN based in New York.

In response to the claims by Marawai, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Corporation, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola said the position had been advertised and Shameem was the best person to take on role.

Ratu Inoke was quoted in the the Fiji Times saying Shameem’s “wide experience in the civil service, her extensive legal background and expertise make her the most suitable candidate

for the type of diplomacy work and advocacy required of Fiji’s representative in Geneva.”

Geneva is the main European base of the UN, housing 32 international organisations, many of them specialised agencies of the UN including the World Trade Organisation, World Health Organisation and the International Labour Organisation.

Shameem says she is delighted to be designated Fiji’s first ambassador to Switzerland and believes she will have to work very hard at establishing the mission, representing Fiji at the international level and identifying strategies to ensure that Fiji’s voice is heard.

“This is an elegant, cultured and gentle country, which has remained neutral in the face of surrounding conflict through world wars and the cold war. It is a pleasure to have the privilege of living here for the term of my appointment,” she adds. n KELVIN ANTHONY Issue 13 | June 2014

briefing

The nation reviewed

YOUTH & POLTICS

ON THE RECORD

RICARDO MORRIS

Student’s scholarship returned

Tamani Seruiraduvatu

A 21-year-old university student had thought his tertiary education had come to an end after he received a letter from the scholarship board terminating his bursary because he is claimed to have aligned himself with “political agendas”.

Tamanirarama “Tamani” Jone Seruiraduvatu received a letter dated 21 May from the Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Board advising him his scholarship for a bachelors of tourism management degree at the University of the South Pacific had been stopped on grounds that he had breached unspecified rules.

The termination letter signed by letter signed by TSLB coordinator Tavenisa Tofinga stated: “… [Y]ou have been associating yourself in political agendas without taking into consideration your obligation with the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs (MTA) … and as per clause 5 of your award letter, you are required to abide by your institution’s rules and regulations.”

It went on: “MTA has zero tolerance level of behaviour that contravenes the above, both on and off campus.

Therefore MTA reserves the right to terminate your scholarship if a report is Issue 13 | June 2014

received from your institutes, or from a law enforcement agency concerning a breach of regulation.”

Seruiraduvatu said the scholarship was removed because he had been helping independent political hopeful Roshika Deo’s campaign for registration.

At the time the three parties involved in the termination - MTA, the TSLB and USP, remained silent on the circumstances of the case.

But after a social media campaign and mainstream media coverage in Fiji and the Pacific, including a heartfelt plea from Seruiraduvatu’s mother on the front page of the Fiji Times, the scholarship board reversed its decision and put the responsibility for the controversy on USP which it said had provided the board with “incorrect” information.

In a statement in early June, the TSLB chairman Dixon Seeto said: “The TSLB had terminated his scholarship on the basis of information given to it by the education institution involved with the student.

“There is a clear document trail on this case which led to the TSLB decision. Meanwhile, the TSLB came to be aware of certain information and decided to further investigate this matter. The investigations showed that the initial information and the resulting recommendation from the education institution were incorrect. The education institution later confirmed our findings on further investigation.

“The TSLB relies on institutions for advice and feedback on students’ performance as per their scholarship conditions. In this case after its investigation, TSLB found that the information provided by the education institution was incorrect. As such, TSLB has decided to reinstate the scholarship of the student.”

Dixon added while scholarship students were expected to adhere to their study programme, the board “in no way restricts” student activities outside of their studies.

Seruiraduvatu, meanwhile, was back in classes in time for the end-of-semester examinations. n

“It is the duty of any government to look after the poor.” National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad in his opening remarks at the party’s working committee meeting in Tamavua on 25 May. “We normally have coverage towards the back of the paper - after Bainimarama’s photo and whatever he has to say on the front page, and then after all the supermarket ads and the sports and film and television ads.” Social Democratic Liberal Party leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa quoted in a report on Radio Australia on 5 June about free and fair elections in Fiji.

“We are in the throes of a human rights revolution in Fiji, one which upholds the basic rights of ordinary people in a way that has never been the case before. We are also increasing access to justice for ordinary people...” Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama in his speech addressing UN officials at the opening of the Fiji Mission in Geneva, Switzerland on 2 June.

“This government has been in place for almost eight years now.

It is in no position to blame anyone other than itself.” People’s Democratic Party leader Felix Anthony in a statement on 5 June in response to Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum who had accused Anthony of rubbishing Fiji on the international stage and implied he should feel responsible for the jobless situation in Fiji.

“For this election, a SODELPA and FLP combination is the winner.

We have to do something for the people of Fiji. We have an opportunity this time to bring the indigenous Fijians and Fijians of Indian descent together.” Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry quoted in the Fiji Times on 5 June about post-election coalition government.

“The deputy commissioner, officers and members of the police force, be assured that we as a team are ready to make the police force ... one of the best in the world.” Fiji Police Force Commissioner, Maj-Gen (Ret) Bernadus Groenewald quoted in the Fiji Times about leading the force.

KELVIN ANTHONY facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

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The nation reviewed

PICTURE

COURTESY LEMEKI LENOA/TWITTER @LLENOA

THE BIG

briefing

On finals ... A medevac flight makes a turn towards Colonial War Memorial Hospital over Suva’s central business district on 3 June.

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Issue 13 | June 2014

Issue 13 | June 2014

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pasifikapost Regional current affairs worth noting

news@pasifikapost.com

Tongan cops convicted of manslaughter Police Inspector Kelepi Hala’ufia and Police Constable Salesi Maile were convicted of manslaughter in early June of the death of New Zealand police officer Kali Fungavaka in Nuku’alofa in 2012. They are remanded in custody for sentencing on 1 July.

Mr Justice Cato delivered a synoposis of his 66-page verdict to a full courtroom that included the family of the deceased at the Supreme Court in Nuku’alofa.

He found the third accused Police Constable Fatai Faletau guilty of assault, after acquitting him of manslaughter and the alternative charge of grievous bodily harm.

The judge acquitted the two other accused Police Constables Tevita Vakalahi and Manu Tu’ivai on both charges of manslaughter and grievous bodily harm.

When the guilty verdict was delivered on the two accused policemen of manslaughter, tears were shed by members of Fungavaka’s family. His mother Rosemary, wife Audra, and ex-wife Cally Letalu-Ruahe the mother of the victim’s five children, and other members of his extended family were present to hear the verdict.

The judge said he did not find beyond reasonable doubt that the assaults by the policemen had a common purpose.

The Crown had submitted they were in a joint enterprise because the victim resisted arrest and in various ways the accused assaulted him starting from when he was led on foot from the bar to the police station.

He told the court he had heard a great deal of evidence in four weeks of trial but did not infer beyond reasonable doubt that it was such a common purpose and

passed his verdict based on their individual acts.

Justice Cato found beyond any reasonable doubt that Hala’ufia was responsible for causing the skull fracture and brain trauma with a torch together with secondary trauma caused by the act of strangulation.

“I have no reasonable doubt that his deliberate act of hitting Fungavaka with the torch with such force that it fractured his skull, with a lethal blow and was a very material and indeed a substantial cause of his death.”

He said the strangulation was a further trauma that disrupted the blood flow and oxygen to his brain being a secondary factor also materially contributing to his death. “During this incident he broke a bone in Fungavaka’s throat in an effort to control and subdue the latter. There can be no lawful excuse for these actions or any justifications of them.”

For Maile, the judge also found him guilty of manslaughter.

“He deliberately stomped on Fungavaka’s head with considerable force with his face uppermost and off the ground so that his head impacted with the floor in the passage way to the cells with sufficient force to cause him further serious head and brain trauma and indeed a substantial additional cause of Fungavaka’s death.”

Meanwhile, the accused Faletau who was the other arresting officer with Maile was acquitted of manslaughter and the alternative of grievous bodily harm The judge found him guilty of assault on the basis that his actions beyond any reasonable doubt involved punching of

Fungavaka outside Langafonua Centre and his act of applying downwards force with his foot to the genital area during the search in the watch house.

The judge acquitted police constables Tu’ivai and Vakalahi on both manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm. He said the quality of the identification evidence did not meet the standard for prosecution.

“In their cases, I do not find beyond any reasonable doubt any other alternative charge established and they are both acquitted and discharged,” said the judge.

Justice Cato ordered for the two convicted policemen to be remanded in custody, while Faletau remained on bail for sentencing on 1 July.

The manslaughter trial comes to an end after nearly two-months of sitting starting from the first judge-only trial for the five accused policemen in April followed by the jury trial for the civilian Semisi Kalisitiane Manu.

Manu who was in prison cell 7 with the deceased, whom he punched, was convicted by jurors of grievous bodily harm on 30 May. Kali Fungavaka sustained multiple skull fractures, subdural haemorrhage and contusions to his brain after he was assaulted in police custody. He later died at Vaiola Hospital on 23 August 2012.

He was arrested with a relative outside a Nuku’alofa bar following a drinking episode after the funeral of his grandfather.

The judge said that Fungavaka did not make this fact known to the Tongan police. He also said that not much is known from the evidence as to why they were arrested or what led up to their arrest. n

MATANGI TONGA ONLINE

You don’t have to suffer in silence free and confidential counselling services and legal advice are available at our branches in suva, nadi, Ba, rakiraki and labasa. You can call our hotline 24 hours a day.

‘

’

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Dr Martin Luther King Jr (1929-1968)

Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre | 88 Gordon St, Suva | Phone: 3313 300 / 9209 470 (24hrs) | www.fijiwomen.com 12

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Issue 13 | June 2014

OPINION

Land of the oonga-boongas The Rising Ape with ALEX ELBOURNE

S

o did you catch that story about the fraternity house in the US called Phi Gamma Delta aka Fiji because they’re apparently not allowed to use their full name for some reason. Ok cool, some frat house in the US is using Fiji. Not exactly a glowing recommendation but hey. Anyway, the fraternity has always claimed that the name Fiji as they used it had nothing whatsoever to do with our country.

Riiiiiiight! If that’s the case then why in heaven’s name are they holding islanderthemed parties which by the way were pretty culturally insensitive, and in one instance at least when they had an “Oonga-Boonga” theme, downright racist.

What really irritates about this whole sorry episode is the wilful ignorance on display. Yes, we are a small island in the middle of nowhere and you guys are college students in the world’s most powerful country but seriously guys, would it hurt to spend a few seconds typing the search term “Fijian Culture” into Google?

It’s infuriating, understandable but still.

It’s like how when you watch the 7s and the commentators will inevitably say this when Fiji is playing “And they’re watching this in the villages back in Fiji”. Yeah dude because that’s where ALL Fijians live. And we all run around wearing grass skirts and frolic underneath palm trees. Anyway, more on the “FIJI” fraternity story.

Tagi Qolouvaki, also wrote a letter to the editor while she was an undergraduate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln expressing her discontent regarding Phi Gamma Delta at her University. She recalled seeing “guys running around in coconut bras and grass skirts, and there were ads in the university paper for a luau party using language like, ‘oonga-boonga,’” mocking and denigrating Pacific Island culture for their personal amusement. This also highlights the lack of knowledge of the differentiation between Pacific Island cultures and the fact that most western countries think that we are the same in terms of our cultural practices Issue 13 | June 2014

and traditional protocols.” (See http:// tiny.cc/8libhx) And coming at it from the other side…

Cultural appropriation. Terrible thing as we saw with what I was talking about before this. Here’s the thing I’ve been wondering about: isn’t it a bit rich for those of us who do not come from Western European cultures to complain about cultural appropriation when we’ve pretty much appropriated everything about life in the 21st Century from the white European?

We take their religion, their forms of entertainment, their fashion, their food, speak in their language. Many of us have their blood in our veins and we’re surprised they still think they own us. And then all the peoples staunchly in favour of a system of governance formalised in Greece and then spread worldwide by white people. And of course, the glaringly obvious case of writing all this in English.

Haha! And then we have the nerve to get precious when the white man acts like he owns everything? That’s because he does.

Speaking of democracy…

Election coming up in September and with a large portion of population being classed as youth (at what age are you a youth anyway?), young people are being encouraged to be a part of the process.

Good call that. Yay! Youth power woohoo!

However, one certain youth who tried to be a part of the process was told that that wasn’t happening. Isa. Here’s the thing, I fully sympathise with what he’s going through. It’s slack, unfair and shocking that someone could get their scholarship revoked simply because they happen to be a part of a political campaign. However, at the end of the day, isn’t it the discretion of those who awarded the scholarship to decide whether or not they want a certain person to keep on enjoying the benefits of said scholarship?

If he was on a scholarship for the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs and they decided, for whatever reason that they wanted all those on their scholarships to be politically neutral, isn’t that their choice? And don’t get me wrong, no matter how you

look at it, getting your chance of further education taken away simply because you wanted to be a part of the civic discourse of your country is terrible. It truly is. But, in the real world, terrible things happen to good people because we all have someone to answer to. It’s harsh and unfair but oh so true.

What’s up ‘Merika?

How you doing anyway? Heard you had yourselves ANOTHER mass shooting. I’m sure this definitely be the catalyst for change that’s needed. Oh wait, after the one before this, nothing changed and the one before and the one before and the one before. I don’t get it America. Maybe because I wasn’t fortunate enough to be born a citizen of the land of the free and the home of the brave but man you guys love your guns. What’s the statistics again? Something like there’s enough guns in America for every single American to own one? Is that right? Over 300,000,000 guns. Wow. Just wow. Keep on hearing the National Rifle Association say that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Realllllyyyyy?

Well, how about the next time you decide to invade another country, just send the people not the guns. You know, since, according to you, people kill people. And how come there’s like one failed attempt at a shoe bomb and you all have to take your shoes off at the airport. But there’s been 31 (THIRTY-ONE!) mass shootings since Columbine and NO change in gun regulations in your country.

What’s up with that ‘Merika. I mean, shoot (haha), you guys are pretty awesome at so much. The moon landings, Facebook, Fight Club, elevating bacon to the status of superfood. But when it comes to guns, you all seem to lose your collective shit.

Hope you can fix this, we’re all rooting for you. From a distance, in case one of you decides to unleash on us with a highR powered fully automatic rifle.

n Alex Elbourne is the Breakfast Show host on Legend FM. The views expressed are his own facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

13

OPINION

When glaciers melt The Green Line with NAKITA BINGHAM

J

ust months after the IPCC’s 5th Assessment on Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability was published, projecting a 98cm sea level rise by 2100, recent scientific findings of two separate studies – one a collaboration between NASA and the University of California (UC) Irvine, as well as a another carried out by the University of Washington, have unveiled evidence that the massive thawing West Antarctic glacier system won’t cease retreating. It has been labeled “unstoppable”.

So if you’re planning on building a beach house for your grandchildren to enjoy, or you want to get back to your roots and return to your shoreline village to reside, you should probably reconsider. Wise planning for a resilient future now means looking towards higher ground because there’s a good chance three generations down the line, your house on a hill will end up being beachfront real estate anyway.

The new studies estimate that by 2100, sea levels will rise by at least 121.92cm. Projections made by the IPCC 2014 Report didn’t factor in the melted Antarctic glaciers mentioned above.

However, scientists have seen this coming for a while now, and NASA and UC’s data has provided confirmation of the theories.

It appears their studies’ findings are evidence the state of climate change is even worse than the IPCC anticipated.

NASA and UC’s troubling conclusions were drawn after 40 years of observing the six glaciers in West Antarctica slowly retract, while the University of Washington used a computer modelling system to map the projected future of Western Antarctica based upon maps from the past. According to glaciologist and lead author Eric Rignot at UC Irvine and NASA’S Jet Laboratory (JLP), the situation on the icy continent is “past the point of no return”. Which is also 14

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probably a fair foreshadow of the greater state of the world to come.

It’s suggested that rising ocean temperatures have attributed to the glaciers thawing. Stronger Arctic winds are forcing warm water towards the frozen continent, subsequently defrosting the floating portions of the glaciers that dwell on the ocean’s surface. There’s a strong argument based on evidence that greenhouse gasses are a driving factor in the destabilization of the frozen masses.

If this is the case and the West Antarctic glaciers were to completely liquefy, global sea levels would rise by 1.2 metres. Rignot said there’s a strong possibility that once the six glaciers near the coast thaw out, the rest of the ice in West Antarctica may follow suit, elevating sea levels another 3.3 metres.

That being said, such an occurrence would take centuries. Weather conditions are the main factor to be considered when accounting for how long we have to prepare for the slow and imminent flood.

In any case, one thing is certain; should the glaciers in Antarctica melt, the resultant water would turn all shore lying areas into swamps. Cities and towns would be destroyed, and nearly all coastal communities would have to be relocated.

Suva and all coastal towns in Fiji and the South Pacific would be under water. The South Pacific is the first part of the world where citizens have already begun to relocate due to rising sea levels attributed to climate change, and the infrastructural stresses will only increase unless international preparation and change take hold now.

The growing tides at Narikoso Village in Kadavu have forced villagers to retreat to higher ground.

Tebunginaka Village on Abaiang in Kiribati has already been relocated to another part of the island, partly due to elevated sea levels.

The resettlement of citizens on the low-lying atoll of Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea has been an ongoing government initiative, proving to be both time-consuming and costly.

Such crises of habitat will eventuate, but given the warnings from the scientific community, we have time to prepare for the changes that will continue occurring hundreds of years from now.

Since there is currently no apparent mechanism to stop the glaciers from melting, humanity will have to adapt to this slow and steady procession of the sea.

Perhaps people are the most accountable with our careless and thoughtless rush toward development since the industrial revolution at the turn of the 19th century.

Our contribution to greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere has undoubtedly only sped up the inevitable fate of the Earth shifting gears out of the current Ice Age, also known as the Quaternary Glacation, provoking Mother Nature to hit the reset button because humans have severely disturbed its equilibrium.

Our destructive habits, dangerous embrace of fossil fuels, environmentally toxic large-scale agricultural practices, and massive livestock farming are all contributors to the greenhouse effect, extreme weather conditions, and rising sea levels.

South Pacific island nations must prepare for the worst, adapt to climate change, modify the way we live to better accommodate our fate, live sustainably, and be environmentally conscious in every decision we make.

We don’t have the option of retreating far inland like citizens of bigger continents. The face of the planet is changing and if we don’t change, set the example, and take the lead on changing with it, we of the South Pacific will be the ones to pay the dearest price.

In the grand scheme of the universe, the planet will be here billions of years to come, but given the current trajectory of civilisation, I’m not sure if anyone can say the same for all of humanity. R

n Nakita Bingham is a Suva resident and works as an assistant in sustainable marine managed areas. The views expressed here are her own.

Issue 13 | June 2014

Issue 13 | June 2014

facebook.com/republikamag | RepĂşblika |

15

FIJI TV

COVER

Cut short ... Roy Ravana Junior runs his leg of the 4x400m senior boys’ relay in the 2012 Coca-Cola Games at the National Stadium in Suva for Marist Brothers High School which clinched the gold medal and broke the games record in 3m 15.85s. Ravana Junior had hoped to build an athletics career in the United States.

Shooting star

In death, sprinter Roy Ravana Junior has brought home for Fiji the gun and gang violence that plagues the United States

By RICARDO MORRIS

R

arely does the death of a young man galvanise a nation in shock and bring condolences from people of all walks of life. But when news started spreading of the shooting death in Sacramento, California of former Marist Brothers High School sprinter Roy Ra16

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vana Junior, 20, the sense of bewilderment was palpable.

Here was a promising sportsman who had secured a track and field scholarship in the US and was hoping to experience the American Dream. Yet his life was cut short on a street in a notorious neighbourhood of Sacramento by a bullet on 9 June (10 June Fiji Time) a

world away from his homeland.

Ravana Junior’s death not only made news in Fiji and the US, but also around the Pacific region and as far as the UK. It prompted a statement from Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama who said he was “appalled that Roy – an innocent bystander – should lose his life in this way.”

Issue 13 | June 2014

DAVID BARPAL PHOTOGRAPHY

COVER

Try time ... Roy Ravana Junior celebrates a try with his Sacramento Lions team mates recently.

“To have his life cut short when he had so much promise is a terrible tragedy,” Bainimarama said in a statement.

“Many people dream of being given an opportunity to pursue success overseas. Roy was living that dream when he died. And many young Fijians, even those who didn’t know him personally, will feel a sense of shock and loss at his passing.”

Ravana Junior’s death made such an impact that even the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) recognised its significance. In a statement, athletics world governing body said: “The IAAF, on behalf of the Issue 13 | June 2014

global athletics family, joins with its national member federation Athletics Fiji in expressing its deep shock at the tragic loss of such a young sporting talent and the terrible manner of his death.”

For Fijians, only familiar with shootings and gangs through Hollywood films, Ravana’s death instantly made personal the United States’ twin problem of gun- and gang-related violence.

Fatafehi Ditoka, on her blog ‘Heart on Platter’ wrote: “A young man, a young Fijian man, a young Fijian man that I just happened to know, had been shot and killed in a land not our own.

Land of the free they call it. Nothing

free about the way he was taken from his family. From his friends. From his beloved.”

Top Fijian sprinter Banuve Tabakaucoro, a contemporary of Ravana’s from Marist Brothers High School, who Ravana once beat during an interhouse event told FBC News: “To lose a training partner who has pushed you to your limits and has been there through your struggles, it’s really tough to take in.”

Ravana Junior’s murder was just one of the more than 1000 homicides that are carried out by firearms in California each year, according to data from 4CONTINUED PAGE 18 facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

17

ILENE LASAISAMOA

COVER

Remembering Roy ... Ravana’s friend Ilene Lasaisamoa sits by a memorial for him near the spot where he was fatally shot on 48th Street in Sacramento.

2010. In Sacramento County, where Ravana Junior died, there are more than 30 murders each year.

Ravana had gone to the US in 2012 on an athletics scholarship at Iowa Central Community College in Idaho after he was recruited by scouters who saw him run in Fiji. But a year later, the scholarship was terminated because of what is understood to be disciplinary problems.

From Idaho, he went to California in late 2013 where he stayed he had extended family in Sacramento. He eventually ended up staying with a Tongan family and was a valuable addition to the Sacramento Lions rugby club, coached by former Flying Fijians rep Ifereimi Tawake.

In a posting on their Facebook page, the Sacramento Lions said: “While words can’t describe such a senseless tragedy, it’s good to that Roy’s legacy is 18

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being told on such a widespread scale and impacting people across the globe.”

With the loss of the Iowa scholarship, Ravana had been working on redeeming himself. About a month before his death he had received confirmation from the University of Louisiana of a track and field scholarship to start later in the year, according to Ilene Lasaisamoa, 21, with whose family Ravana also spent a lot of his time. He was working on passing his SAT – the US college admissions test – in California before taking up the Louisiana scholarship.

Lasaisamoa told Repúblika: “The whole Fijian community were shocked as majority of them didn’t know how Roy was a big star back home or because they didn’t know he was here in Sacramento.”

Indeed the very weekend before Ravana was shot, some Fijians and Ra-

vana’s supporters in Sacramento had planned a fundraising event to support the Sacramento Lions winger, whose head coach is former Flying Fijians rep Ifereimi Tawake. They wanted to help him get back into college and resume his track and field career.

But the Fruitridge neighbourhood where Roy stayed with the Kaihea family is an area “often plagued by gun and gang violence,” according to Sacramento’s ABC affiliate News10.

South Sacramento, nicknamed “South Sac Iraq” by gangbangers – members of gangs – has been the focus of the attention of law enforcement officials who are trying to find ways to quell the violence that’s been claiming lives, many of them young people.

Day of death Roy Ravana Junior and another man, Issue 13 | June 2014

KCRA.COM

COVER

Crime scene ... 48th Street in South Sacramento, California where a bullet ended 20-year-old Roy Ravana Junior’s life on 9 June.

Kevin Ohta, 21, were reportedly cleaning the front yard of Keleni Kaihea’s home near the corner of 48th Street and Baker Avenue at around midday when two teenagers on a bicycle fired at them from the street.

One of the boys was sitting on the bicycle’s handlebars while the other was paddling when they opened fire with two handguns and a rifle on behalf of the Norteño street gang, prosecutors said. Ohta was shot in the leg but survived. Ravana was standing around the corner when he was hit. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

The suspects, Elias Guevara, 17 and Rozco Gutierrez, 16, have been charged as adults with murder and attempted murder because of their alleged gang links. They were arraigned two days later but did not enter pleas, according to the Sacramento County district attorney’s office.

The exact circumstances of the shooting were unclear. Sheriff’s Sgt. Lisa Bowman told the Sacramento Bee it was not clear whether the victims fired any shots or whether they had any gang afIssue 13 | June 2014

filiations. Friends and family of Ravana say they were not aware of his involvement in any criminal behaviour, according to NBC television affiliate KCRA. Keleni Kaihea, at whose home Ravana Junior had been staying told News10: “He was such a sweet guy. I don’t know why they did that. I’m so sad and I’m so angry why they did that.”

She said he was not in a gang. “They don’t do anything wrong,” Kaihea told News10.

When asked about the company Ravana kept, Lasaisamoa said: “I just know that Roy was at the wrong place at the wrong time. He wasn’t supposed to be harmed.”

But just a year ago, at the same place where Ravana was shot, sheriff’s deputies were called to the location where they found Keleni Kaihea’s son with multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body.

Atelea Matini Kaihea Jr – nicknamed Shrek – had been celebrating his 27th birthday into the early hours of 18 May when he was gunned down in his front yard. He was pronounced dead at the

scene – 4801 Baker Avenue near where Ravana met the same fate.

Witnesses told investigators they saw a car speeding away from the area after the gunshots, but did not have a description of the occupants of the vehicle. That murder remains unsolved but is believed to have been a gang-related shooting.

Roy in gangland country It was into this volatile environment that Roy Ravana Junior, disappointed at losing his scholarship but apparently hoping to get back on track, had arrived in late 2013. He settled in and was well liked in the Fijian and wider Pacific islander community, spending much of his time with the Kaiheas and other Tongans who considered him a friend and brother.

But apart from rugby and hanging out with his Fijian friends, the young Tongan men Ravana associated with appeared to have affiliations with the Tongan Crip Gang, one of the estimated 4CONTINUED PAGE 20 facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

19

COVER

Brothers in arms ... Roy Ravana Junior and his younger brother Samuela at Marist Brother’s High School and as toddlers.

33,000 gangs active in the US, according to the country’s National Gang Intelligence Centre.

Although Ravana himself may not have been an admitted member of a gang, any perceived connection between an innocent person and a rival gang can prove fatal in the territories where gangs operate and run their criminal enterprises.

On Twitter and Facebook, suggestions in posts by some of those who Ravana had been with in the days before his death point to gang affiliations.

A man with the Twitter handle @ TkTheTonganKidd who called Roy “my bro” and attended his memorial service in Sacramento wrote: “Im from tongan crip, pass da cash nd get on.”

Images posted on Keleni Kaihea’s page show Tongan men flashing gang hand signs in memory of her son, Atelea Junior. Keleni did not respond to requests for an interview from Repúblika.

Ravana is believed to have been the first Fijian in Sacramento to have been killed in a gun-and-gang related shooting.

He had been out of contact with his Fiji-based girlfriend Finau Tabakaucoro 20

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and she had been worrying about him.

Their relationship appeared strained judging by her social media posts and the Fiji Times quoted her as saying she had been “bugging” Ravana to return home while awaiting word on his new scholarship.

“He was struggling and I kept telling him to come back and wait here. He didn’t have the money to pay for his fare so he said he would work and save,” Tabakaucoro, 20, told the Fiji Times.

Just an hour before his shooting she finally received a text from him after weeks of silence. But that was the last time she would communicate with Ravana. Not long after that she spotted a condolence message on his Facebook page and contacted the person who posted it to get confirmation that he had been killed.

Ilene Lasaisamoa says she received a call that day from a friend who knew Ravana.

“I didn’t believe it at first ‘cause he was the last person I thought … would die in such a way,” Lasaisamoa said.

Roy’s legacy For a man who lived a tragically short life, Ravana Junior had the potential to

rise to greater heights and was already on his way there, those who knew him say. In the hours after his death, Facebook pages in tribute to him sprung up and garnered thousands of “likes”. He was declared a hero for allegedly trying to “save” Kevin Ohta, although it is understood now that he did not run to save Ohta but was hit some distance away from him.

Roy’s life and death has many of the elements of a hopeful yet ultimately heart-breaking story. One of the many hundreds of condolences on social media pages read: “You could have been my son.”

Ilene Lasaisamoa says she will forever remember Ravana as a “practical” person.

“He did good from the heart and didn’t care what anyone said about him or anyone else. As long as you were a good person just like him, he gave you respect.”

A memorial service, organised with help from the Marist Old Boys US members, was planned for Ravana before his body was flown back to Fiji accompaR nied by his parents and brother.

Issue 13 | June 2014

COVER

GANGLAND SACRAMENTO

Dying by the gun T

he day before Ravana was shot, he had gone swimming at a Tongan friend’s place in Valley Hi, considered one of Sacramento’s most violent neighbourhoods.

The Sacramento sheriff’s department gang unit says there are more than 300 documented gangs in northern California, and that number is growing. In Sacramento, the Sureños (Mexican for Southside) and Norteños gang subsets are the most active. The teenagers accused of Ravana’s shooting are allegedly affiliated with the Norteños.

In recent months a feud between South Sacramento and Oak Park groups has been reawakened on social media with violence often spilling over into real life.

The Sacramento Bee’s Kim Minugh reported that “in just two months last year, members of a northern Sacramento County gang allegedly killed two people and injured two more in a spate of violence that law enforcement officials have described as unusually heinous.”

“Detectives fear the carnage caused by these gangsters is far worse than those numbers suggest,” Minugh, who also reported on Ravana’s death for the newspaper, wrote in mid-June.

Police have said they believe members of the same Norteño gang subset are responsible for as many as six other violent crimes.

Retaliation against real and perceived enemies drives the bulk of violent gang crimes, but the victims usually turn out to have no connections to the perpetrators.

Minugh reports that the “vast majority of victims in the confirmed cases and those of interest to the detectives were not gang members – instead, most were innocent bystanders, some of them targeted because of a perceived connection to the Norteños’ rival Sureño subset.”

The severity and frequency of the crimes, and the young age of several victims have detectives worried.

The police believe there are people who can identify those responsible for the gang violence, but fear of retribution and a street culture that forbids “snitching” has been a consisten hurdle in solving cases, according to the Sacramento Bee. Over the past two decades, Sacramento has been struggling to understand the changing dynamics of the gang culture.

James Hernandez, a Sacramento State University criminal-justice professor who has studied California street gangs for more than 25 years, was quoted in an article on NewsReview.com as saying law enforcement

Issue 13 | June 2014

Tongan Crips ... Top left: the Twitter page of a confessed Tongan Crip member ‘TkTheTonganKidd’ who was a friend of Roy Ravana’s. Top right: A gangbanger sporting Tongan Crip tattoos depicting two of the gang’s hand signs. Above: Atelea Kaihea, nicknamed Shrek, was shot and killed in May 2013 in the same place Roy Ravana died. Atelea Kaihea’s shooting death has never been solved but was considered a gang-shooting.

officers are sometimes too quick to label anybody from a rough neighbourhood as part of a “gang”.

“The term ‘hybrid’ has gained favour in the criminaljustice sector in the US to define gangs that don’t behave life typical gangs,” writes Raheem F Hosseini on NewsReview.com.

While the total number of gangs is not as great as it used to be, experts say a hard-core gang element that is scarier than it used to be is being developed.

Hosseini quotes Hernandez as saying: “The hybrid gangs are mostly made up of people who have left other groups and have started again. There is a question if they R are gangs or just groups of violent friends.” facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

21

ELECTION

NFP women are ‘no pushovers’

By KELVIN ANTHONY Staff Writer

S

eni Leba Nabou, is one of the new faces in Fijian politics. She was one of the two female candidates who were announced on 30 May to be part of the National Federation Party’s (NFP) campaign for the September elections.

From Dakuiloa village in Oneata, Lau and maternal links to Naikeleyaga, Kabara also in Lau, she is 42 years old, married with four children. Seni has worked with the international environmental NGO, Greenpeace, for the past eight years as a political advisor for the Pacific, before resigning in March.

She is now a full-time post-graduate student of international relations and diplomacy at the University of the South Pacific. She holds post-grad qualifications in educational technology from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, and also has a background in journalism.

Nabou says she and the NFP are ready to serve Fiji. Here we ask her something about her background, plans in politics and why she chose the NFP. 22

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WOMEN IN

P litics

Experience in politics “Politics was never something I consciously aspired to and my immediate previous role as a political adviser (with Greenpeace) was often behind the scenes. But this time around in Fiji these elections have never been more critical for us as a people, and I became convinced that despite the often unpleasant side to politics, my love for this country and the legacy for my children outweighed everything and I could either sit on the sidelines waiting for decisions to be made for me, or I could step up and offer my abilities to voters.

“My maternal grandfather was also a very involved politician who served under the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara in the Alliance Party and in reflection family genetics may have also had a hand in this new pathway.

“The public side of politics is something I find challenging but it is a small price to pay for something I strongly believe in. Fiji is worth it.”

Decision to represent NFP “I am deeply honoured the NFP selected me as a party candidate for the 2014 Fiji elections and that the party sees value in what I can offer and to the direction the party collectively thinks a democratic Fiji should take under free and fair elections.

“There was never any other option for me because this party has a longstanding and noble history always premised on inclusiveness in Fiji.

“The NFP has always championed and defended universal freedoms and equality and as a matter of principle has never supported or been involved in coups - which was very important to me.

“I have always been impressed with the NFP’s selfless sacrifice which gave Fiji the 1997 Constitution that I worked closely under in a previous role at the Fiji Human Rights Commission.

“What may surprise many people is that the NFP stands tall on the giant shoulders of so many visionary and credible leaders such as the late Hon. AD Patel, the late Hon. Justice Jai Ram Reddy, the late Hon. Siddiq Koya, the late Hon. Ratu Julian Toganivalu, the late Sen. Ratu Glanville Lalabalavu, and the late Hon. Edmund March to name but a few. Inclusivity and multiculturalism is not a fad for the NFP and this will Issue 13 | June 2014

ELECTION

KELVIN ANTHONY

#FIJIV TES

Ready to serve ... Seni Nabou is standing in the September general election under a National Federation Party ticket.

be evident once our final line-up of candidates is announced. We all need each other to fix this country and take it to the heights that it deserves.

“I have to also acknowledge that the party president, Roko Tupou Draunidalo and party leader, Professor Biman Prasad and all the long-serving present party members who are as diverse as they were credible were also a big motivating factor in my decision to join the NFP.” Plans for the elections? What do you offer?

“What I can offer to voters is my passion for social justice, environmental protection and my interest in foreign policy issues. Voters will find our manifesto very interesting because it brings all our diverse perspectives together, not as a shopping list of promises but actual practical solutions to many of the problems we know need rectifying with urgency in Fiji.”

Challenges faced in the lead up to elections “There are only a couple of months Issue 13 | June 2014

left in which to reach voters and share the NFP’s views with them so the time factor will be challenging but there is no doubt that with our line-up of formidable candidates we will give 200 per cent to ensuring that we can speak to the people of Fiji.

“As a female candidate, I can confirm that the men in the NFP know all too well that gender is not an issue and that the women associated with the party are no pushovers. More importantly the men in NFP are very welcoming of it.

“Being on the campaign trail as a mother and a wife there are moments when I worry about how my family back home is faring and I am always thankful that I have a solid support mechanism on the home front and I gratefully acknowledge and credit my husband for this. It would be remiss of me to not also acknowledge the support of family and friends whose feedback motivates me daily.”

How do you get people interested in the politics of the country?

“Not everyone will be attracted to taking a public stand politically and

that is understandable because I was in that position once until I became convinced otherwise. However we will hear the voice of Fiji on 17 September when they resoundingly tell all the political candidates who they believe is worthy of best representing their interests in Parliament.

“All I can urge voters to do is to make this powerful decision on 17 September based on a fully informed view and what their heads and hearts tell them is the right thing to do for themselves, their communities and most importantly for Fiji.

“If voters reflect deeply enough they will know that the NFP is a valid and credible option.

“Fiji’s destiny is in the hands of voters and it is no small responsibility.

Just as political candidates will be campaigning hard, voters will also need to invest some energy into their civic duty and really examine all the political parties’ histories and ideas in their various manifestos and make their decisions acR cordingly.” facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

23

Life through the eyes of Rio’s children W

ith afp’s backing in Rio, Christophe Simon, afp’s head of photography in Brazil, taught basic photography techniques to a group of 18 adolescents from the “Cidade de Deus” (City of God) favela (the term for Brazil’s slums) in Rio de Janeiro, with amazing results.

Together, they photographed their daily life and their passion for football, at a time when all eyes are on Brazil, set to host the Football World Cup 2014 beginning in June.

It was while covering efforts to “pacify” the favelas that Christophe Simon realised that these underprivileged youngsters were fascinated by photography and his profession.

Seeking to share his professional knowledge and show how much Brazilians love football, Christophe Simon worked with Tony Barros, a local photographer who runs the “Lente Dos Sonhos” photography school in Rio. They found 18 kids ranging in age from 10 to 15 years old who wanted to participate in this project.

Each weekend, for more than five months, they met with these budding photographers in the City of God slum, training them in picture-taking techniques.

Although freshly “pacified”, the City of God nevertheless remains a complex place where anything is possible. Such as coming face to face with drug dealers surprised to find children equipped with cameras. A tricky situation that was quickly defused thanks to the diplomacy of Tony Barros.

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The project rapidly became popular and the young people turned out to be particularly driven, some even showing promising talent.

The end results are striking. The quality of their work is indisputable.

The children caught on quickly to the basic rules (no posing, no flash, etc.). They saw their neighbourhood through new eyes, discovering things that they had not noticed previously.

The teachers selected 70 photos to be sold on ImageForum,afps photo database. Any income from sales of these images will be donated to Casa Geraçao, an organisation that trains underprivileged children to work in the fashion industry.

By selling these photographs and working with Casa Geraçao, afp intends to advance this project further by making a photo training workshop available to the favela children until the 2016 Olympics.

afp has chosen only one newspaper or magazine per country to be given advance access to these photos in return for a donation to Casa Geraçao.

As a client of afp, Repúblika is the only print media in Fiji to publish these photos before they are released on the ImageForum website.

Issue 13 | June 2014

Issue 13 | June 2014

facebook.com/republikamag | RepĂşblika |

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ESSAY

Dear politicians of Fiji...

By SHARON NARAYAN

I

n my almost 30 years of being a Fijian, I will be voting in the national elections for the first time. So I hope you understand that how important this is for me. I assure you that I am taking my voter responsibility very seriously because it is my understanding that should my vote be counted and you are elected, it will be you who will be looking after me for the next four years. You see the next four years are quite imperative for me. As they say, it’s a woman’s ‘prime time’. And before casting my vote, I need to be absolutely sure that my interests are best represented because I won’t be getting my ‘prime years’ back should you cock up.

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I try and keep up to date with what you all are doing to get ready for the elections in September. However I don’t see any of you actually worried about my next four years and it is of grave concern to me.

Hence I am writing to let you know about the things that you should be working on for me.

For a woman entering her 30s, I have certain expectations to fulfill. Like get married. And I can only presume they’ll want me to pop out some babies as soon as that happens.

However the walls of my vagina involuntarily clamp up as soon as I think about childbirth in our hospitals. I drove a linen project a couple of years ago where we donated linen i.e. bedsheets, towels etc. to the eight-bed Nadi Maternity Ward.

Having to lie on those blood-splattered mattresses will be like having ta-

rantulas running up my back!

But that is only if I’m fortunate enough to lie down. Apparently nurses in our country are making women in labour walk to the delivery room. There is also a possibility of complications when a woman has children late – are you working on any IVF programs for me?

As a female in 2014, I should have access to fertility medical care in my own country.

But before I have babies, I’d like to start getting paid proper. By profession, I’m a construction project manager and not just by title. By merit, too. So it’s always bewildering when I get offered almost a third of what my male counterpart would get offered as a salary package. While the minimum wage imposition is appreciated, I hope you know that there are a lot of graduate females in our country doing the same jobs as men for a lot less pay. I would write to Issue 13 | June 2014

ESSAY

the Minister of Women directly about this but she’s too busy worrying about what we should wear.

But if you can’t do anything about my equal pay then at least you could make my job easier – fix your Lands Department. I made a consent application early last year then went on extended leave. I came back to work last month and was asked to follow up on the application that I had made. In my 10 months off, I had travelled halfway around the world and back, some 13,000 miles and yet my application file hadn’t made it from the pile stack to the divisional director’s office, which is about 20 metres away. My constant pestering and ‘lunch monies’ has now placed the file on top of the heap but still not in the director’s office yet.You all keep bringing up the indigenous people.

Y’all keep making them sound tribal, naive and gullible. Did you know Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna and Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara went to colleges in Oxford. As in Oxford, England. And several iTaukei gentlemen went to colleges in Australia and New Zealand back in the colonial days. Actually do you know the number of iTaukei individuals living in Europe today? Stop making iTaukei a separate agenda.

Currently I’m working on a land dispute where the argument is that the villagers (and this village is in the urban region) are uneducated and therefore could not read the notices published in the local paper. How much longer are we going to keep getting side-tracked with our progress? By the way, colonial days are over. Just because they are white, doesn’t mean they have money. You all have to get on with the memo about the dodgy investors especially with all those digging up in the North.

I am also a traveler. Solo traveler.

And while my blue passport is one of my top prized-possessions, it gives me no sense of security when I am away. A European embassy in Istanbul flat out refused to even acknowledge my passport. All the whoop-de-la about American embassies etc? It’s rightly deserved so. They actually care about their citizens outside their country.

I must remind you that not all of us Fijians want to run away. I will always come back home. But I need you to work on yourselves to care. To care that Issue 13 | June 2014

if I’m not back home and I’m stuck at the India-Myanmar border, you will endeavour to do whatever in your powers to bring me back (like Argo). Stop making trade relations with new countries only. Take a duty of care towards your people from them. So I can roam the world carefree knowing that my government has my back.

Do I even need to go into the dollar value of our money? It pains me to say that Australia has the best seafood.

I come from the islands for god’s sake!

But do you even realise the kind of edible shit we pay money for? Just go and stand in the meat section of our local supermarkets on a hot summer afternoon. *gag* This is not negotiable. You’ll just have to come up with a food production strategy. We cannot grow as a nation on modified chicken and corned beef. Is it true that we are importing sugar these days?

And stop regurgitating the education issue already! The thousands of Fiji-Indians working around the globe as doctors, nurses, chefs are products of the very same system that you all time and again make a campaign around when elections are near. Brain drain wouldn’t have been a problem if our education system was truly faulty.

Adapt it to the current times. And move on. There is so much more you have to do for me. By the way, paying for school bus fares doesn’t make children any smarter. Just saying.

I apologise if my letter has taken a slightly patronising tone but it is so imperative that you understand why is it that I am writing to you. I know you are all busy running around getting ticks to register your parties, painting your buses blue and trying to appeal large taxes that you have to pay, and I understand that’s all part of the process but I feel none of you are tuned in with the people living in Fiji.

It seems that you all are so busy in the administrations of your parties and your political careers that you have forgotten to check in with your citizens.

It looks as if you’ve pulled out your old campaign agendas and dusted them up.

I keep hearing the same washed out, tired topics from the yesteryears.

Perhaps you all have overlooked that you no longer will be serving a majority population from the remnants of 1987

and 2000. You see I belong to a generation who gets their news from Twitter, dates inter-racially, is lobbying for sexsame marriages and believes life is to be enjoyed. The women in my generation are tough, own businesses, contribute equally to the economy by drinking their fair share of wine and beer and by shopping.

Some of you don’t even know how to turn on a computer! Frankly your agendas are making you look stupid. If reading so far has left you disconcerted, then imagine how you’d feel in the third year of your term in government?

You’re dealing with a much smarter and savvier Fijian population than ever.

We’re tired of being referred to as a third world developing country. Though, some of you are quite clever and conduct surveys for the whole Pacific on Facebook. On violence against women no less. Please don’t do a survey on Facebook again. It’s your own credibility on the line. As a new people, we have a new set of problems. We want to travel more, have professional health care, secure childcare and access to world-class beaches where we don’t get chased away because it’s only for the ‘resort guests.’

I am writing to tell you that it’s time you started doing your homework. I know your priorities will be the grass root population and their issues such as land, utility access etc. but where is Shyamni in this election? You cannot ignore me and my generation.

We have stuck out your generations’ mistakes and are still here today. If you are standing up in this elections, you better smarten up, open a Twitter account and start strategising on how to increase the happiness index of Fiji (for its people, not Fiji Me’s TV ad audience.)

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter. I don’t like wishy-washy lines such as “together we can make this a stronger country” and all that shit.

However my next four years are on you and you better start living in the Fiji I do.

R Yours truly, whereishyamni. n Sharon Narayan is a construction project manager by profession based in Nadi. She blogs at http://whereisshyamni.com, where this post first appeared. facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

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DISPATCH

Story and Photos by CHRISTOPHER PALA

O

n 10 February, President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau paid an official visit to Kiribati. At a state dinner, he expressed his “sincere thanks to you, President Tong, for your regional leadership and especially for your unwavering support for Fiji.”

Noting “the potential loss of your entire country,” he said that if the sea level continues to rise, “some or all of the people of Kiribati may have to 28

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come and live in Fiji.” He referred approvingly to Kiribati’s well-publicised intention to buy land in Vanua Levu “to ensure your food security as the sea encroaches on your arable land.” He added, “I want to assure you that if all else fails, you have true friends in Fiji who will not let you down.”

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Issue 13 | June 2014

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For Kiribati, could this be the

CHRISTOPHER PALA

PROMISED LAND OR A COSTLY MISTAKE?

Out of bounds ... Eparama Kelo, a Fijian retired teacher of Solomon Island descent, points to land the Naviavia villagers use to graze their cows on the Natoavatu estate. After the Anglican Church sold the land to the government of Kiribati, Kelo said they were told they could no longer use it.

Issue 13 | June 2014

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CHRISTOPHER PALA

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Done deal ... The village of Naviavia, with 270 people, lies at the heart of the Natoavatu Estate bought in May by the Government of Kiribati.

3FROM PAGE 32

Anote Tong, 62, who has been president for 11 years, has become the spokesman for small atoll nations, declaring around the world that his people are already suffering from the effects of sea-level rise induced by global warming. “We’ve had a whole island disappear, a village has been evacuated, our freshwater is being contaminated and our crops are dying,” he said in an interview in Tarawa last year.

Multiple scientific studies, though, have found that these events have nothing to do with sea-level rise, which has been 15 cm in the past half-century in a region that can see a 45-cm change in six months from the phenomenon known as El Nino. They say the 15-cm average rise has had no discernible effect on any atolls, and that Tarawa has grown 20 percent.

The events Tong blames on climate change, several studies have shown, are simply due to poor coastal management. “Widespread erosion along the ocean and lagoon shorelines is primarily due to (local) human activities” that increase “susceptibility of the reef islands to anticipated sea-level rise,” one study by Colin Woodroffe and Naomi Biribo found.

Forward-looking studies have that atolls have risen with the sea in the past as the live coral below them grew and they expect them to do so again this 30

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century. There are no studies saying the islands will end up underwater.

Still, in 2011, in the midst of his third and last reelection campaign, Tong announced that given what he said was his country’s imminent peril of drowning, Kiribati would dip into its us$600 million (fj$1.1 billion) sovereign wealth fund set up with phosphate profits from Banaba and buy higher land overseas where i-Kiribatis could move to when their islands become unlivable. “We were looking at a place that could hold 60,000, 70,000 people,” said Amberoti Nikora, who was environment and land minister at the time, in an interview in Tarawa.

They settled on a 5761-acre former copra plantation known as Natoavatu estate on Vanua Levu that was bequeathed by its owner, a man named John Campbell, to the Church of England. In March 2012, The Associated Press quoted Tong as saying, “We would hope not to put everyone on (this) one piece of land, but if it became absolutely necessary, yes, we could do it.”

But most of the estate, which is 54 kilometres from Savusavu, is made up of densely forested, steep hills that can’t be used for agriculture or residence.

On the best remaining part live 270 Fijian Solomon Islanders, descendants of blackbirders who arrived in the 19th century and were invited to move on the property in 1947 and convert to Anglicanism. For a half-century, the estate

was used as a copra plantation and a cattle ranch that once held 300 heads, providing jobs for the Solomon Islanders and but liitle income for the church.

But 10 years ago, the settlers said in interviews last month, the manager left and they switched to subsistence agriculture, augmented by kava, fruit and vegetables for cash. At that time, records show, the church put the property up for sale. Some 310 acres were later cut out of it and are to be kept by the church and leased for free for 99 years to the settled community. The remaining 5,451 acres were sold to Kiribati.

On 23 May, Tong went on Kiribati radio to announce that final payment had been made, for a total price of au$9.3 million (fj$15.9 million). The purpose of the purchase, he said, was to improve Kiribati’s food security, with the land eventually producing fruit and vegetables that could be sent to Tarawa.

Nikora, the former Kiribati land minister, said the night of the announcement that he was delighted with the purchase. “This will put us on the safe side,” he said confidently.

An official statement quoted Tong as saying that the acquisition marks “a new milestone in Kiribati’s development plans, which include exploring options of commercial, industrial and agricultural undertakings such as fish canning, beef/poultry farming, fruit and vegetable farming.”

Tong also called the purchase an exIssue 13 | June 2014

DISPATCH VANUA LEVU

CHRISTOPHER PALA/GOOGLE MAPS

NATOAVATU

cellent investment.

But an examination of recent land sale records in Vanua Levu, supported by a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism in Washington, DC, revealed that while Kiribati paid about $3289 per acre, neighbouring properties with similar ground cover went for $1119 per acre (Naiviriviri Estate) and $415 (Garrick Estate), and for $1082 and $403 for two parts of the Nayavu estate.

Looking at all sales other than Natoavatu, the average price per acre is about $755, a fourth of what Kiribati paid.

During a visit to Naviavia, the village alongside the Wailevu West Coast Road, which bisects the property, the Solomon Islanders estimated that the estate could only support subsistence agriculture for a few hundred more people, who would not be able to produce any significant surplus for export to the 50,000 people of Tarawa.

The purchase “makes no sense as a food source,” agreed John Teaiwa, a Banaban former permanent secretary of agriculture in Fiji. He noted the immigrants would require lengthy training to master basic local agricultural skills, which include ploughing with bullocks.

They would also require housing and basic services, adding to the cost of the food grown.

Tong declined to be interviewed for this article. So did the Environment and Land Minister, Tiarite Kwong, and the Attorney General, Titabu Tabane, who visited Natoavatu in May. Rimon Rimon, Tong’s spokesman, refused an answer any questions.

Resettlement plans remains unclear.

In an interview with Kiribati radio, Tabane said Fiji’s laws would determine Issue 13 | June 2014

whether the farming would be done by I-Kiribatis or Fijians. He said a committee would be appointed to figure out what to do with the land. When asked why this particular parcel had been chosen, he said, “Because it was offered to us.”

The conditions of the sale have drawn strong protests from both opposition members of the Kiribati parliament and from the Fijians in Naviavia.

“The government clearly has no plan at all,” said MP Teburoro Tito, Tong’s predecessor as president.

“We don’t know whether our president knew the real value of this land,” said Dr. Tetaua Tatai, the opposition leader, “but we are shocked that the Church of England, which we consider as one of our most trusted institutions, would overcharge us so much – we are one of the poorest and most isolated countries in the world.” Kiribati’s percapita income is fj$3,208, while Fiji’s is fj$8,166.

Eparama Kelo, a retired teacher of Naviavia, said the villagers use 400 acres to grow food and another 300 acres to graze their 50-odd cows, two dozen horses and some pigs. “Bob Harness,” who is a member of the church’s board of trustees and the property’s manager, “told us we would be given 310 acres to live on,” Kelo said indignantly. “We told him that’s not enough, and he said that’s all you’re going to get.”

He and others said they were told nothing about resettlement plans for i-Kiribatis, though they cited with deep concern a report in the Fiji press that Kiribati intended to send between 18,000 and 20,000 people to colonise the property.

Following the Natoavatu estate’s sale to the government of Kiribati, the community of Solomon Island descendants who have been living there since 1948 will lose access to the 300 acres of grazing land they were using for their cattle and horses.

Most of the land is now overgrown and largely impassable except by horse and by boat at high tide on the small river that goes through it. “Sure, you could clear the land and turn it into a plantation again, but it would cost millions,” said Kelo.

In an interview in Suva, Archbishop Winston Halapua, the head of the Polynesian Diocese of the Anglican Church, brushed aside any notion that the church had taken advantage of an inexperienced buyer. On the contrary, he said. “I felt good about the whole thing because Kiribati is part of my jurisdiction. We were open for any offer, and there was an offer. And when I saw the president of Fiji welcome this, it gave me a kind of positiveness.”

Halapua, who had worked on the property in 1966 as a student and knows it well, insisted it could accommodate several thousand people. He noted that Chinese farmers “transform barren places into green ones where they produce food for the markets,” and that the i-Kiribati could do the same. He said they could also work in hotels or for fishing companies. “I don’t see them coming just for the land, once they come to Fiji they are Fijians,” he said. “So the land for me is a window.”

He denied that the church had failed its moral responsibility toward the villagers by taking away more than half the land they used to survive in order to sell the rest for a higher price. “300 acres is a big land,” he said. “I think this is just.” R n Christopher Pala is a freelance writer

focusing mainly on ocean issues. He received a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism in Washington, where he lives, to report this story, versions of which will be published elsewhere, including by IPS News. facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

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‘A THIEF IN THE DAWN’

DISPATCH

How Fiji, PNG and the Solomon Islands foreign ministers betrayed West Papua’s struggle for independence

MacLEOD

By JASON Joni madraiwiwi Special to Repúblika

W

illem Rumaseb, general secretary of the West Papuan Council of Customary Chiefs, is furious with Fijian foreign minister Ratu Inoke Kabuabola.

In a letter obtained by Repúblika dated 15 January 2014, Rumaseb accused Ratu Inoke Kabuabola – and the foreign ministers of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands – of “not understanding Melanesian values”. They are like a “group of robbers,” said Rumaseb, “sneaking into West Papua under military escort for fear they would meet a real indigenous Papuan.”

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If Rumaseb sounds dramatic consider that Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders went from standing up for human rights, including West Papua’s right to self-determination, at the leaders’ summit in Noumea in June 2013 to refusing to even meet with any West Papuan political leader, except for the pro-Indonesian governor, in January 2014.

Rumaseb is not alone in his fury.

His sentiments are echoed by a diverse group of West Papuan leaders. They include resistance leaders from the three largest independence groups and the 72 Papuan political prisoners languishing in Indonesian jails. Civil society leaders – from churches, women’s groups and student associations – are also furious.

It is not difficult to understand why Rumaseb, and other elders, are so angry.

Like Kanaks, who are also agitating for independence, West Papuans are mindful that the MSG was established in part to hasten the demise of colonialism in Melanesia. That is why members of the West Papua National Coalition (wpncl) applied for membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. They believed in such a thing as Melanesian solidarity.

After the decision in Noumea in June 2013 by members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group to send foreign ministers to Jakarta and West Papua to investigate the West Papuans’ plight it finally felt like the msg was paying atIssue 13 | June 2014

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tention to the Pacific’s most violent and protracted conflict.

Ratu Inoke Kabuabola’s mission to West Papua completely obliterated these high hopes.

Instead of speaking up for the Papuans’ right to political self-determination and decolonisation, Ratu Inoke and his colleagues from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands signed a joint declaration with the Indonesian government supporting greater economic cooperation between Indonesia and Melanesia. Ratu Inoke covered his ears to West Papuan cries for help in order to get access to West Papuan resources, which the Indonesian government was only too willing to assist with.

But as Rumaseb writes, West Papua is “not a poor nation that went to the Melanesian Spearhead Group to seek Issue 13 | June 2014

prosperity.” West Papuans did “not seek to join the MSG for lack of food.” Papuans want decolonisation and self-determination, not foreign-led economic development.

To understand the feelings of anger, frustration and betrayal experienced

by West Papuan leaders it is necessary to revisit the significance of what happened in Noumea prior to Fiji’s foreign minister mission.

The decision in Noumea whether to accept wpncl’s application was delayed pending a visit to Jakarta and West Papua by foreign ministers from the Melanesian Spearhead Group, to assess who represented Papuans. Fiji was chosen to lead the mission. The foreign ministers mission’s mandate was made clear in point 21(d) of the MSG leaders’ communiqué dated 20 June 2013: “the

Mission would be part of a process in determining wpncl’s membership application.”

The decision by the Indonesian government to allow Melanesian foreign ministers to visit West Papua stunned long-term West Papua observers. It internationalised a conflict that for decades had been forced into the margins of international politics.

“Politically [the decision to allow Melanesian foreign ministers to visit West Papua] is an admission by Indonesia that the West Papuan issue is no longer an internal matter for Indonesia as some would like the world to believe,” said West Papuan representatives Dr John Ondawame, Andy Ajamiseba, Rex Rumakiek and Paula Makabory in the 4CONTINUED PAGE 38 facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

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Markus Haluk

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Fire power ... Mama Yosepa Alomang, aged over 70, protests the polIce arrests. A police officer assaults Mama Yosepa, ripping her jacket. The West Papua Unity Action Group visited the Provincial Parliament to seek an audience with the MSG representatives in January.

3FROM PAGE 37

letter.

The Indonesian government’s decision was also a clear indication that the MSG was able to influence one of the world’s most protracted colonial conflicts in a way that the Australian and New Zealand governments had never been able to do.

So how did it go so wrong?

When Papuan civil society leaders learnt late on 11 January 2014 through their own networks that the MSG foreign minister mission would visit Jayapura on 13 January 2014 the delegation was already in Jakarta.

By this stage it was already clear that Jakarta had no intention of allowing the mission to fulfil their mandate. The visit had been repeatedly delayed by the Indonesian government. When the formal agenda was officially presented to the various Melanesian governments it had travelled a long way from the original intention. Meetings with West Papuan political leaders, political prisoners, chiefs, church leaders or even elected West Papuan politicians were not scheduled. Given this, there was no 34

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way the mission would be able to determine wpncl’s application for membership in the MSG. Vanuatu and the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front or flnks) promptly withdrew their cooperation with the mission. Edward Natapei, then foreign minister of Vanuatu told the Vanuatu Daily Post that “the main reason behind Vanuatu pulling out from the mission was because when we received the programme at the last minute, we saw that it would not achieve the mandate of the trip.”

In the days leading up to the mission’s arrival, representatives from the National Federal Republic of West Papua (nfrpb), wpncl and the West Papua National Committee (knpb) – the three largest pro-independence groups – were selected to meet the delegation. An ad hoc representative organising group, The West Papuan National Unity Action Group, was formed to coordinate tactics.

Preparations were also made to welcome the mission in accordance with West Papuan cultural protocols.

By 8.30am on 13 January, members

of the Unity Action Group learnt that the Melanesian leaders arrived in the pre-dawn darkness on a private jet and had been escorted to Jayapura under armed guard by members of the Indonesian military.

This was a cause of great shame to members of the Unity Action Group.

“The delegation came like a thief in the dawn, when the West Papuan people had not even had breakfast, while we were still in our homes,” one leader told Repúblika.

West Papuan representatives including political leaders, chiefs, women, religious leaders and NGO leaders, then travelled to Jayapura – some 50km away – in a last ditch effort to seek the support of elected political representatives to facilitate a meeting with the foreign ministers.

When Papuan civil society leaders tried to enter the provincial parliament building to request assistance from members of the provincial parliament to facilitate a meeting with the msg delegation, they were blocked by a large number of heavily armed Indonesian police. Markus Haluk, a member of the Unity Action Group, told Repúblika Issue 13 | June 2014

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the group peacefully persisted with the request to meet with the msg foreign ministers. The police then arrested seven, including Haluk, and detained more than 40 others. During the arrests Mama Yosepa Alomang, a senior Papuan woman elder, was assaulted

by Indonesian police and cameras and smartphones were seized.

Through back door channels members of the Unity Action Group then learnt that representatives of the two legal (Indonesian) state institutions in West Papua – the Provincial Parliament (dprp) and the Papuan Peoples’ Assembly (mrp) – had not been informed about the visit.

The fact that no attempt was made by the Indonesian government to facilitate a meeting with the official representatives of Indonesian state institutions charged under the Indonesian constitution with representing the West Papuan people, should present a clear picture that the central government does not even trust elected West Papuan officials.

Yunus Wonda, chair of the provincial parliament, later wrote to the msg formally expressing his displeasure about being sidelined by the mission.

A copy of that letter was obtained by Repúblika. “We are concerned that the delegation of Melanesian Foreign Ministers did not meet with members of the House of Representatives, members of the MRP as well as representatives of civil society during the visit to Jayapura on 13 January 2014,” wrote Wonda.

After stating his concerns that West Papuan citizens were arrested and detained by the Indonesian police simply for “peacefully” and “democratically” expressing a political opinion, Wonda concluded “these conditions actually give a clear picture regarding the real situation of humanity, democracy and justice in Papua.”

For this reason Wonda urged the MSG to accept West Papua’s application for membership to the MSG. “Fellow Melanesian nations,” said Wonda need to share “responsibility for promoting the protection of human rights in West Papua.”

As the foreign ministers prepared to leave to Jayapura, West Papuan students from gempa (the West Papuan Student Issue 13 | June 2014

The ‘official’ version ... This is how the story of the MSG foreign ministers’ visit in January played out in Indonesia’s independent English newspaper.

Movement) prepared to block the only road connecting the capital to the airport. Rather than risk a confrontation with ordinary West Papuan citizens the Indonesian police and military flew the foreign ministers by helicopter straight to the airport where they departed for Jakarta.

Ratu Inoke Kabuabola and his colleagues spent less than 10 hours in West Papua, cutting short their visit by at least one day.

The failure of the msg foreign ministers to fulfil the mandate set down in Noumea in June 2013 is a source of deep outrage for West Papuan leaders. But the mission’s failure has implications far beyond West Papua.

After the msg’s visit to West Papua in January 2014, it is no longer clear whether Melanesian governments still share a vision of a free and independent region. That puts the very basis of the MSG in question.

In one fell swoop the political power built up by the msg that compelled the Indonesian government to sit at the table and discuss the West Papua problem in June 2013 was squandered.

In the process Vanuatu and the flnks have been alienated from the msg. That

is why there has been no msg leaders’ summit this year. By failing to stand up for West Papua, Ratu Inoke and Bainimarama have derailed the important cooperation between Melanesian countries on other issues like trade, the free movement of labour and cooperation on climate change, that Ratu Inoke himself championed.

Melanesians – as a people – regularly express solidarity and kinship with West Papuans. Many raise their voices in support of a new West Papua. For too long these voices have been treated with contempt; ignored by their politicians, shunted aside for 30 pieces of silver.

This is what Indonesian, American, Dutch and Australian governments did in 1969.

It was not anticipated that Melanesian politicians would do the same thing in 2014.

Little wonder West Papuans are angry.

R

n Dr MacLeod is an organiser, educator and researcher based at the University of Queensland. facebook.com/republikamag | Repúblika |

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salon Cultural stimulus for the curious mind

courtesy fotofusion photography

FJFW 2014

Grand Pacific Fashion

Mykaela Powell models Anton Wye and Alex Ligairi’s E2 range at Fiji Fashion Week last month.

PAGE 38

RepĂşblika | salon

June 2014

Hupfeld Hoerder

Sarah Todd

Fresh off the catwalk

FASHION Fiji Fashion Week was held from 26-31 May at the Grand Pacific Hotel.

Photos courtesy Fotofusion Photography, the official photographers of FJFW.

Hefrani

By Aisea Konrote republikamagazine.com

Dazzling Romance

By Ashly Daunibau

E2

By Anton Conway Wye and Alex Ligairi

Rako Designs

By Letila Mitchel

HH Creations

By Hani Harring

Salusalu

By Robert Kennedy

The official Fiji Fashion Week hair and makeup team.

republikamagazine.com

Lepou

By Fai Lepou Peni

PAGE 40

Repúblika | salon

June 2014

MUSIC

From the Inside Out

Demayble Pasoni

A new sound in town

By DEMAYBLE PASONI

S

itting in the vast F1 mobile office at Garden City, Raiwai strumming their instruments softly, the Inside Out band members look incredibly young in the flesh, their boyish frames towering over me as they sat on tall stools ready for their rehearsal. They are far from shy and retiring though, refreshingly smart, talkative and entirely unafraid to speak their mind, whether it’s the usual “vakachi” session or giving each other their views on how they can improve.

As I sat and listened to them jamming, I noticed Inside Out’s roughedged sense of diversity about the type of music they play and how they play it.

A first impression suggests it could be typical reggae but Inside Out has used the basics of reggae beats as the starting point of something that I can only describe as fresh.

Inside Out consists of three talented men who believe that music is a platform to share one’s experiences and views on life. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Apakuki Nalawa, backup vocals and bass, Timothy Solomon, and backup vocals and percussion, Semesa Vilise.

They grew up listening to music that played on the radio, in shops, in school and especially in church. They loved music and never thought they would become a group friends that would form a band later in life.

The 24 year olds played three original compositions titled Sweet Talking, How Much I love You and We Need Love.

As I swayed to the rhythm, I listened to the lyrics and was touched because I

Practice makes perfect ... Timothy Solomon, Semesa Vilise and Apakuki Nalawa rehearsing while a friend looks on.

could relate to what they were singing about. I particularly liked We Need Love because it spoke of how youth look to the older generation for guidance.

Band leader Nalawa explained that regardless of the many struggles they all faced, they want to make and play music that people can adapt to. They have been together for a month and practice every day to improve their unique sound.

“We practice very hard to achieve a sound that people can adapt to and being different in the process,” he says.

The Draunivi man says they don’t want to be just another cover band; they want to make a difference on the music scene.

“There are a lot of cover bands out there and we want to move away from that and become a household name locally and internationally,” he says.

During breaks from their rehearsal session, the boys share what they’ve been through and the enormous support and help they received.

Apakuki or Kuki as he is know has maternal links to Udu in Vanua Levu, was paralysed at the age of 15 and left school. He recovered a year later and started doing mission work where he learnt to play instruments such as the guitar and he started singing. He got married at the age of 18 and now has two children. He wanted to make it in the music industry locally first before moving abroad. He loves Bruno Mars’ style of entertaining. republikamagazine.com

Timothy or Tim hails from M0tusa in Rotuma and has maternal links to Lomanikoro in Rewa. He currently work as a plant engineer at the Fiji Ports Authority and helps support his grandmother, with whom he stays. He looks up to George Fiji Veikoso because of his success abroad through his Pacific style of singing.

Semesa or Mes has paternal links to Cakaudrove and maternal links to Soso in Kadavu. He was part of the renowned western band, The Korners but his work as an electrical engineer brought him to Suva where he was approached to be part of the band. He likes Common Kings because of their great personalities and music.

All three band members agree the reason they have achieved so much in such little time in terms of how they sound and the gigs they’ve lined up is because of good management.

“There’s a lot of talent in Fiji especially in terms of music but to make really good use of it , there should be good management. We are blessed to have Micheal Irava, our sound engineer and Damien Whippy, our manager who have supported us and helped us become professional in our business dealings,” Nalawa says.

He adds the band will be undergoing music theory and voice training to polish their sound.

The band has played at Traps and I-Crave Bistro in Suva and plans to exR pand their list of venues.

SUPPLIED

Lemme take a selfie ... Viviane Vukicanavanua, Joshua Morell and Soro Tarai pose for selfies, the global phenomenon of taking a self-portrait and posting it on social media.

TRENDS

What’s in a selfie?

By DEMAYBLE PASONI

W

alking through town recently, I realised that nearly every second person I bumped into had a smart phone, even children as young as three were holding Samsung Galaxy phones and believe me when I say, I was shocked when the parents claimed that their toddler daughter needed a phone to keep her occupied. I hadn’t really grasped the true extent of the power of technology till that day.

I immediately thought no wonder, there are a lot of selfies on my Facebook feed.

Selfies have been described as many things from attention-seeking madness to a typical photograph that showcases the good side of the subject of the photo.

According to the director of Media Psychology Research Centre at Fielding Graduate University in the United States, Dr Pamela B. Rutledge, selfies are an extension of evolving technology and can be difficult.

“The ‘selfie’ craze is a logical extension of the new technologies – ease of taking photographs with a flip lens and one-click sharing – but life is about balance and spending too much time in pursuit of any single thing to the exclusion of others can be problematic,” she says.

“Using technology to avoid connection rather than enhance it, while not common, does occur. In this case, it is not technology but the individuals who need to avoid others rather than their own sense of self-competence”.

In my opinion, selfies are fun and they capture those memorable moments but they’ve turned us into vain beings that think it’s okay to photograph each moment from waking up to crying of heartache to drinking to kissing our better halves.

My social media newsfeeds are constantly flooded with selfies. Most of the time I don’t mind but there are the chosen few who think they need the world to know every second of their lives. Posting captions like “Look, I’m awake”, “I’m going to take a shower”, “I’m going to add two teaspoons of sugar to my tea.”

Are selfies making us conceited? Are we becoming too vain?

I noticed that the selfie craze has not spared the young as well. I was at a friend’s house and as we sat and chatted over a cup of tea , we heard laughter from the roundabout so being the curious cats that we are, decided to investigate.

It was about 5pm, the usual time for neighborhood’s children to be at play but instead of playing like they usually do, they were taking selfies with a smartphone. They were pushing each other just to get a chance to have a selfie taken.

All I can think now is that each day brings new ideas, new technologies, and this phase will probably pass. But until it R does, let me take a selfie!

republikamagazine.com

PAGE 42

Repúblika | salon

June 2014

POETRY

Delightful distractions Images of Polar bears on melting icebergs Not that relevant to us in the Islands Not relevant until that iceberg is gunning towards you in a 30 metre Tsunami Pulling our grandfathers, aunties and ancestors from the ground and putting our mothers, cousins and children back ... in ...

The ground – the ground that will last for how long?

By SACHIKO SORO

The question I want to ask is why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance?

We are checking our Facebook We are watching the rugby.

Dangerous yet delicious, indulgent distractions.

Dua na bilo?

Oso Lako mai Dabe eke Dua ga na bilo

We are checking our Facebook We are watching the rugby.

We are checking our Facebook We are watching the rugby.

So what do we do?

We drive up here, plug in our speakers, put on our fancy lights and dance about it, write a poem about it Then go home and check our Facebook and watch the rugby.

Where are our once feared Pacific warriors to fight for us now?

We are checking our Facebook We are watching the rugby.

Why are we murdering ourselves?

We are checking our Facebook and watching the rugby We are people of the sea but we cannot live in it as we check our Facebook and watch the rugby.

When did we become so conveniently distracted?

When did we loose our connection?

COURTESY SHIRI © IMAGINESOUTHPACIFIC.COM

Well I’m checking my Facebook and He is watching the rugby.

We should be calculating our own disappearance.

Against everything capitalism has ingrained in us to make our mark Told to consume less but want more?

An inward battle – manifested in the shaking ground and swelling sea.

What are you doing?

What are you Doing?

Day by day, hour by hour to lessen your footprint on this planet?

What am I doing?

I’m checking my Facebook, I’m watching the rugby.

Who are you to tell a man that he can’t turn on his fuel guzzeling Amazon

“Hypocrites all of us” – How is that for my new status update?

munching chainsaw that feeds his family?

It is the hungry greedy economy that feeds a hungry stomach.

So who is to blame?

I don’t know, I can’t deal with it, so I’ll just check my Facebook and watch the rugby.

We are our history in the making.

One melts the other sinks, we all disappear.

One melts the other sinks, we all disappear.

republikamagazine.com

Because you see One melts the other sinks, we all disappear.

One melts the other sinks, we all disappear.

This is when all becomes one – blood, soil and salt.

One melts the other sinks, we all disappear.

No more Facebook No more rugby. n Sachiko Soro, pictured, is the founder and director of VOU dance group.

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Tel: 650 0230 Fax: 652 0354 Email: crowsnest@connect.com.fj

www.crowsnestresortfiji.com

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Issue 13 | June 2014

facebook.com/republikamag | RepĂşblika |

45

thelastword Comment is free*

By ASHFAAQ HASAN KHAN

I

was reading an interesting article in a five-year-old issue of the Readers Digest. The article boldly claimed that satire was dead and people had lost the art of good, clean fun.

Had the magazine not been five years old I would have loved to send the editor an email and tell him that satire was still alive and roamed free in Fiji’s government and political parties. I believe there is absolutely nothing in this world that is more entertaining than politics.

Robin Williams once famously defined politics by saying, “Politics: ‘Poli’ a Latin word meaning ‘many’; and ‘tics’ meaning ‘bloodsucking creatures’.”

This is election year and there are a fair few people who like me will be voting for the first time. This gave me a lot to think about. I pondered long and hard under which party symbol I would tick.

This resulted in months of debates, discussions, attending political discussion panels and hours of hogging Facebook groups in order to decide which party deserved my tick.

Then out of nowhere I see an advertisement on TV telling all Fijians of voting age that the ballot papers will not have party names or symbols to which I said, “okay I can live with that.”

The next thing that the advertisement said was that the ballot papers would not contain names of the candidates as well; instead it will just have a list of numbers and a number each will be assigned to an individual candidate.

This really pissed me off. How in the world is remembering numbers easier than remembering the names of your preferred candidate? I remember jumping off my couch and yelling a few choice words of disappointment.

46

| Repúblika | republikamagazine.com

Politicians all over the world have one thing in common. They all promise to build a bridge where there is no river. Fiji is no different.

As we are on the fringe of elections we are starting to see manifestos develop, political party members setting up regular meetings and hiring analysts and economists to actively construct a mountain of promises to break in the next four years.

The atmosphere that an election brings feels very much like a Mohammed Ali Boxing match in which even before the actual fight a whole lot of viciousness is thrown around.

Attacks are not only ideological but also personal, new “brooms” are employed to find any skeleton in your opponent’s closet.

I have read through Sodelpa’s manifesto and also read the speech our honourable Prime Minister gave when he officially announced his political party, FijiFirst, along with which I have been keenly following the war of words between these two possible top contenders of this election.

I came up with a little story to explain the tension between the two parties.

A woman in a hot air balloon realised she was lost. She lowered altitude and spotted a politician in a boat below. She shouted to him: “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied: “You’re in a hot air balloon approximately nine metres above ground elevation of 715 metres above sea level.

You are 18 degrees, 14 minutes south latitude and 178 degrees, 44 minutes west longitude.”

She rolled her eyes and said: “You

must be a FijiFirst politician.”

“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and I’m still lost.

Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”

The man smiled and responded to the woman, “You must be a Sodelpa candidate.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist. “But how did you know?”

“Well,” said the man, “You don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You’ve risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You’ve made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and now you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now, it’s my fault.”

Groucho Marx once said: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.” The state of democracy around the world is such that very rarely the most deserving person wins an election.

It is therefore of paramount importance to think before you cast your vote.

Our vote is the only power we have over politicians and if we do not exercise this power duly, our fate for the next four years will hang in limbo. Remember the words of the Philosopher Plato: “Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those R who are dumber.” n Ashfaaq Khan is a freelance writer and a filmmaker. He likes to write political satire and making films that are entertaining and educational. He is married with one kid.

Issue 13 | June 2014

*But facts are sacred. ~ CP Scott

The art of politics

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