Repúblika | March 2014

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THE REFORMIST REVEREND REV TUIKILAKILA WAQAIRATU

How will the Methodist Church keep his vision alive?

EXCLUSIVE

Explaining indigenous Fijian silence

By Joni madraiwiwi

republik amagaz ine.com

Insert to RepĂş blika |

CHAN

Volume 2 | No 5 | Issue 10

IMAGE COURTESY THE FIJI TIMES

GING

INSIDE

Fijians flying the flag in Afghanistan

Tikoitoga Naming murdered takes over at Delainabua Mawlee

OF TH

E GUAR

DS

March

2014

contents republikamagazine.com

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@RepublikaMag

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Vol 2 | No 5 | March 2014

COVER

When Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu died last month mid-term as president of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma, the institution did not miss a beat.

Like a well-oiled machine it ground on relentlessly, receiving thousands of people who paid their respects to the fallen leader and preparing to bury a respected cleric in the religious equivalent of a State funeral. Today the church rolls on, preparing to enact the reforms proposed by Waqairatu for greater involvement of women and youth, increased inter-faith dialogue, strengthened spirituality of members Farewell Students of Dudley High School form a guard of honour along Cakobau and economic development of the Road as Reverend Waqairatu’s body is taken on its final journey through Suva. people.

FEATURES

RICARDO MORRIS

COVER IMAGE COURTESY The Fiji Times

16 | Farewell to a visionary

SALON

BEN BOHANE

GREGORY RAVOI

34 | Murder most foul Margaret Mishra recounts the death of a girmitya

28 | Desert islanders Ben Bohane meets Fijians in Afghanistan

REGULARS

39 | The tattooist Gregory Ravoi profiles a self-made body artist

OPINION

ESSAY

6 | Briefing Tikoitoga takes over at QEB

13 | The Rising Ape Alex Elbourne on irony, drugs and secularism

24 | Opinion Dr Wadan Narsey on the hibernation of Taukei intellectuals

12 | Pasifika Post New Caledonia poll build-up under scrutiny

15 | The Green Line Nakita Bingham on rethinking the way we live

26 | Opinion Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi explains indigenous Fijians’ silence

46 | The Last Word Kalafi Moala on the incorporation of pina

38 | Coconut Cognition Gregory Ravoi on rude taxi drivers

March 2014

republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

3

editor’snote ricardo@republikamagazine.com

@RicardoMorris

Political progress and dengue woes

T

his year is already turning out to be an interesting one in politics and just about every aspect of our lives.

Six months away from the general election due before the end of September, we await the regulations that will tell us what the electoral system will look like and how it will work. Since we will be voting under a new system, much time and effort will be put into educatin the voting public.

Political parties don’t see any virtue in patience over the regulations because for them the less time there is to familiarise themselves with the new electoral system and the less time to prepare to fight the polls, the more of a disadvantage they will face.

Political parties who are forming themselves into an opposition against Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama have an uphill battle.

This month, the Republic of Fiji Military Forces have a new commander in Brigadier-General Mosese Tikoitoga.

Bainimarama, who led the military for 15 years - almost half of it in the dual role as prime minister - finally stepped down after a tearful and no doubt heartfelt speech to his men at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks on 5 March.

For almost his entire tenure as commander, the events of 2000 and especially the mutiny of November that

Vol 2 | No 5 Publisher & Editor Ricardo Morris ricardo@republikamedia.com MANAGER ADMIN/FINANCE Prethi Vandana admin@republikamedia.com

year, have dominated his thoughts and shaped his thinking on the role of a military in an emerging democracy. After the mutiny attempt in which he escaped with his life, he began to feel that the military should have more of a say in the political life of the state to prevent extremists from taking control of the national agenda.

And this year he finally gets his chance to put himself forward as a civilian leader. As Bainimarama declared in August last year: “I will form a political party and my party will submit itself to the collective will of the ... Fijians who have registered for election.”

Having resigned as commander, his next step now is to form his political party, a move that will be watched with interest as the months tick down towards that all-important September date.

In the past four months, a dengue fever outbreak has ravaged many parts of the country, although it took a while for the authorities to begin mitigation measures such as spraying and cleanup campaigns until the death toll began mounting. The health authorities had not anticipated the quick spread of the mosquito-borne disease and were caught flat-footed.

In the Western Division, the disease has taken hold with rapidly rising numbers of confirmed and suspected cases

despite being told earlier that “tourism areas” were not affected.

On Facebook and Twitter there have been reports of poor conditions in hospitals. The health service is straining under the weight of the influx of patients.

Visiting a colleague at Suva’s CWM Hospital over several days in February, it was shocking to see hospital waste including bloody bandages and other biohazards left in garbage bags in two landings on the staircase leading up to the wards of the new wing.

For some time now, patients have had to provide certain drugs themselves, but now even the most basic supplies such as oxygen tubing will need to be supplied by patients (in Nadi for example) because they have run out of these items.

It is either the health ministry is woefully under-resourced or staff on the ground are not communicating their needs or coordinating their logistics supplies better. Either way, a public hospital visit or stay is not something that many would relish under these conditions.

We accept resources may be stretched but some things such as cleanliness, hygiene and safety should never be compromised. Here’s hoping that the financial aid from Australia will R help us combat dengue better.

ADVERTISING & MARKETING Rosemary Masitabua rosemary@republikamedia.com

CONTRIBUTORS

COMMERCIAL OPERATIONS/ RAKAVI.COM Vilikesa Rinavuaka vilikesa@republikamedia.com

Joni Madraiwiwi

GRAPHIC DESIGN Gregory Ravoi gregory@republikamedia.com

Fiji Alex Elbourne Margaret Mishra

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

Nakita Bingham Wadan Narsey Pacific Ben Bohane Kalafi Moala

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 | Issue 10 4

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March 2014

inbox Your letters, feedback and viewpoints

Great green read It was great to read Nakita Bingham’s “Why are we trashing our islands?” article in Repúblika (February 2014). The extra awareness and education about the effects of mindless littering is so important, and it seems like there’s a “rising tide” of activism on this issue in Fiji. For example, I like this new ‘dob in a litterer’ page on Facebook: www.facebook.com/shameonyoufiji. Looking forward to seeing positive change around this beautiful country soon!

Kerry Barker via inbox@republikamagazine.com Woman of courage Congratulations Roshika you deserve this honour for your tireless work, and commitment to the cause. Continue what you are doing and we will all support you. You have brought honour to our beloved country. Vinaka vakalevu.

Sekove Naqiolevu via facebook.com/republikamag (Commenting on Roshika Deo’s

inbox@republikamagazine.com

‘Woman of Courage’ award from the US Department of State.)

Religion in schools I don’t believe that religion should be forced in public schools. Why should a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, atheist, or other denomination have to pray to a Christian god if that is not their beliefs at home? Religious freedom is great and everyone should feel free to pray to their respective god but it should not be imposed on those that believe in a different god. My god may not be the same as your god. That’s okay. Just don’t make my kids feel like they have to pray to your god. School should be religion free (unless you go to a school run by a particular religion. i.e. Marist Brothers or Nadi Muslim).

Adam Wade via facebook.com/republikamag Navua hospital Isa, what’s the status on the new (Navua) hospital? My word, about time

they relocate to higher ground. Such a hassle to be relocating patients every single (time it floods).

Corerega Mere via facebook.com/republikamag Attorney-General’s jobs The Attorney-General needs to delegate some of his job and entitlements to other government workers so the promised deadlines could be met.

Chay Habbib via facebook.com/republikamag CORRECTION In the February issue of Repúblika in an article titled ‘Deaf bus-builders hold their own’ on page 30, we inexplicably referred to PA Lal group general manager as Lawrence Rao. He is in fact Lawrence Robert. The PA Lal group was awarded the Investment Fiji Prime Minister’s import-substitution award, and not the export-substitution as reported. These error are sincerely regretted.

NEED TO CHARTER A BUS?

Phone: (679) 3477 268 Fax: (679) 3477 511 Email: info@krlatchans.com P.O.BOX 2427 Government Buildings, Suva

krlatchans.com March 2014

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5

briefing The nation reviewed

news@fijireport.com

GREGORY RAVOI

GREG’S VIEW

MILITARY AFFAIRS

NUMBERS

Tikoitoga takes over AFTER a delay of several days because of bad weather, the command of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces was finally handed over to Lieutenant-Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga on 5 March. Tikoitoga was promoted to brigadier-general the same day.

Armed guards patrolled the perimeter of Queen Elizabeth Barracks as a church service took place at which outgoing commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama gave a final, emotional speech to his troops.

Bainimarama’s daughters wiped their eyes as the soldiers packed into the Reverend Tuvasa Hall sung several of the army’s favourite hymns.

Bainimarama’s son, Meli, was present outside the hall but did not join his sisters during the service. He was dressed in the khaki cargo pants and a red T-shirt.

The Methodist Church service was led by the army chaplain Reverend Major Josefa Tikonatabua.

Bainimarama delivered his final speech 6

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in the Taukei language, but the Ministry of Information released an English version which

was

labelled

as

having

been

delivered at the handing over ceremony.

In a rare public display of emotion, Bainimarama’s voice quivered as he said the day marked the beginning of a new era, as he passed the baton on to a new commander.

“Today, I leave behind my 39-year career in the RFMF to become a civilian and lead a political movement to contest the 2014 general election – a political movement that we all started together,” he said, according to the English translation of his speech.

“I have to admit to a feeling of regret because I am leaving a job that I dearly love. I will miss you all and the camaraderie of military life.” n

n RICARDO MORRIS See insert in this issue: Changing of the Guard for photos and story

3556

Fijians confirmed infected with dengue (to 9 March) since the outbreak began in October last year.

31

Structural fires recorded since the start of the year as of 17 February.

70

Drivers booked for mobile use during a three-week operation in February.

$0.95m

The amount commited by the United States government to help Fiji prepare for the general election.

31,000

People registered with the National Employment Centre March 2014

briefing

The nation reviewed

DIPLOMACY

MILESTONES

Australia’s change of heart

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop visited Fiji for the first time on 14-15 February as part of the Pacific Islands Forum’s Ministerial Contact Group. Her meeting with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama was hailed as historic.

1

Home Finance Company (HFC) on 3 March launched the first 100 per cent Fiji-owned commercial bank since the collapse of the National Bank of Fiji in the late 1990s. Fiji National Provident Fund owns 75 per cent of the bank and the Unit Trust of Fiji 25 per cent.

2

The Fiji Rugby Union announced a major $40million five-year sponsorship deal in cash in a bid to address its financial viability issues. The Vodafone Fiji-led consortium which included Fiji Airways, CJ Patel Fiji Limited, Home Finance Company, Fiji Telecom Limited and Fijian Holdings Limited are FRU’s back. Vodafone has also secured the naming rights of the Fiji 7s and the Flying Fijians teams.

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION

3

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop meets Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama at Government Buildings, in a formal warming of relations between the two countries since December 2006.

THE détente between Fiji and Australia could not have come on better day.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop shook hands with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimara on Valentine’s Day, officially bringing to an end the strained FijiAustralia relationship of the past seven years since Bainimarama seized power.

However, it is clear there is still work to be done. The meeting was held behind closed doors. Along with members of the Pacific Islands Forum’s six-country Ministerial Contact Group, Bishop met with Attorney-General Aiyaz SayedKhaiyum who briefed them on the buildup to the general election.

The Lowy Institute’s Jenny HaywardJones, an analyst on Fiji-Australia relations, said Bishop “sprang a surprise”.

Hayward-Jones said Bishop “pulled off what looked like a friendly meeting” with many developments in the pipeline.

“But I did not think it likely that Bishop would move to normalise relations quite so early in the year,” Hayward-Jones wrote in a post on the Lowy Institute’s blog, The Interpreter.

“Despite her commitment in March 2014

opposition, I thought the influence of cautious DFAT officials and the advice of New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully, who has been burned on several occasions for making overtures to Fiji, would act as a brake on her enthusiasm for normalisation.”

Rowan Callick of The Australian who accompanied Bishop to Suva described the meeting as “a historic come-in-fromthe-cold”.

Callick wrote: “In the Coalition’s most decisive step away from the foreign policy position of the Rudd-Gillard years, it is restoring links with Fiji across the whole of government, including, crucially, defence ties.”

As part of the normalising of relations, the travel sanctions against government ministers and senior officials will be reviewed, trade increased, a twinning arrangement will be implemented between Canberra and Suva for public servants to gain experience in treasury, finance and foreign affairs. The seasonal workers programme would also be opened up to Fiji. n

Minister of Education Filipe Bole opened a new $20million complex which marked a new beginning for Fulton College and ended five years of insecurity for students and staff at Sabeto, Nadi. Mr Bole said the institute, which is recognised as a university by the Fiji Higher Education Commission, had been in the region for over a century.

4

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-haiyum has announced parliamentary sittings will be brought back to Government Buildings, where the first coup took place in 1987. The move is said to enable better access to the public. The parliamentary complex at Veiuto will be converted into premises for the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and Family Court.

5

RICARDO MORRIS republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

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briefing

The nation reviewed

GREGORY RAVOI

SELF-DETERMINATION

Seru Serevi with Procera managing director Mohammed Akif, along with backup vocalists Meme Koroi and Marika Nakete.

Vude King finally keeps his West Papua promise WHEN Seru Serevi first performed in Papua claimed as an Indonesian province, where New Guinea in 1993, he met members of a raising the Morning Star flag is a criminal band called the Black Brothers, made up offence under Indonesian law. of West Papuans in exile.

On his return to Fiji, Serevi set about They shared with him the plight of writing Rise Morning Star and managed West Papuans and their struggle for to get studio time with Procera Music to independence from Indonesia. The band’s record the track. leader Augustine urged Serevi to sing “This is our moral obligation to support about his homeland and Serevi promised those who are oppressed. And we as he would. human beings must stand up and at least The years passed and still Serevi hear their cries,” said Serevi on launching had not found the time to Listen to Seru Serevi’s ‘Rise Morning Star’ at this link: compose a piece he had http://tiny.cc/SeruSereviFreeWestPapua promised Augustine. or scan the QR code on the right In October last year, while in Port Vila he met Get updates on the Free West Papua Campaign: facebook.com/FreeWestPapua members of another band and in the course of their Join the Facebook group Fiji West Papua Friends conversation, the Black http://tiny.cc/FijiWestPapuaFriends Brothers were mentioned.

Serevi was surprised when he was told that their vocalist, his track on 6 March at the Fiji Performing Right Association (FPRA) of which he is Josephine, was Augustine’s daughter. a director.

When Serevi asked her how he dad The launch coincided with the visit was, she told him that he had passed away by an Indonesian delegation to Fiji and in 2012.

Twenty years after making his came several days after University of the promise to raise the plight of West Papua, South Pacific students were subjected to Augustine was dead and nothing much searches while entering an auditorium at had changed for the Melanesian territory the Laucala campus where the Indonesian 8

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officials were attending an event.

The chairman of the Fiji Performing Right Association, Eremasi Tamanisau Jnr said: “It is our fervent hope and prayer that this pointed message in this piece of music behoves us to find it in our hearts to be as one with our West Papuan brothers and sisters in their struggle for selfdetermination and freedom.”

Tamanisau acknowledged the support of Procera Music Studio and its managing director Mohammed Akif, sound engineer Adriu ‘Drix’ Saranuku.

Supporting vocals were provided by Jim Ratusila of Rosi Loa and Meme Koroi, a student of Fiji National University.

Tamanisau also thanked for their support the Pacific Conference of Churches, the Pacific Regional NGO Alliance and the former Pacific Concerns Resource Centre.

Serevi hopes to secure funding to create a video clip of the song, and has promised to add more references to “the sisters” of West Papua to the track in the interests of gender balance. n

RICARDO MORRIS March 2014

briefing

The nation reviewed

ELECTION 2014

ON THE RECORD “This is my message to the nation: Don’t judge me on what I say but what I have done and will do. I will never make cheap promises – the kind you make to get what you want and trick people into voting for you. I want you to vote for me because I keep my promises - I do what I say.” PM Bainimarama’s speech at the opening of Dawasamu Secondary School new buildings, 21 February.

Six months out from the deadline for Fiji’s general election to be held, regulations detailing how the election would be carried out under the new system was yet to have been promulgated.

The electoral commissioners held its first news conference on 27 February in which it outlined some of the tasks that are the commission’s priority.

But while chairman Chen Bunn Young acknowledged that the electoral regulations decree was a priority, he said the decision “is not really ours.”

“We’ve been given the opportunity to comment on it. I think they (SolicitorGeneral’s office) would have a lot to digest after they have our comments,” Young told journalists.

He added the commissioners would be holding a further meeting with the decree’s drafters before it was promulgated.

He said even if there was some delay to the regulations, elections was “still doable” in the time left.

Young said the commission’s experts believe even if the decree came out in March and a supervisor of election was appointed the same month “it still gives us enough time to do it in” but “it will not be without challenges.”

“If all things being equal, I think we will be able to meet the deadline but it won’t be without challenges. It’s not something that will happen naturally on its own,” Young said.

In December, Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said time was being spent formulating the decree because he wanted to be as thorough as possible because it would be the first time Fiji would hold a one-day election.

GREGORY RAVOI

Electoral rules still pending

Electoral Commission chairman Chen Bunn Young.

In February, Sayed-Khaiyum said the decree would be released by the end of the February. This was later revised to but the deadline was missed again.

Political parties have protested the delay in the release of the regulations and want to be included in the consultations for its drafting.

“Why is the draft decree being kept so secret?” asked Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry told the Fiji Sun. “The rapport between the Electoral Commission and the Bainimarama Government to the exclusion of the rest of the community is a matter of concern to us,” Chaudhry told the Fiji Sun. A priority after the regulations come out would be voter educaiton, which Young says would take up a substantial portion of the commission’s budget.

He says the success of a one-day poll depends on the thorough education of voters. n

RICARDO MORRIS

“The atmospherics were warm. He was engaged. He laughed a lot.”

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, quoted in The Australian, 15 February, on her first visit with PM Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, as the Coalition government officially began reversing the hard-line policy position of the Rudd-Gillard years. “improving relations is positive, however I think they ought to be a bit cautious. Australia needs to be cautious and not settle on our behalf for half a democracy in this country.” Felix Anthony on FBC News, 18 February, on the restoring of Fiji and Australia’s diplomatic relationship.

“One day polling requires massive organisational capacity and resources which the Elections Office will be unable to build in the short time before the polls. We are now effectively less than six months from the promised elections and the Elections Office is still in the process of recruiting key staff.” Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry quoted in The Fiji Times, 24 February, referring to what he said was Bishop’s mistaken confidence.

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 March 2014

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briefing

The nation reviewed

RICARDO MORRIS

THE BIG PICTURE

The reformer goes home ... The Methodist Church president Reverand Tuikilakila Waqairatu’s casket is carried in to a packed out Centenary Church in Suva on 20 February while church members and onlookers brave outside the heat to pay their last respects. n See cover story page 16

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March 2014

business

news@fijireport.com

HFC Bank opens doors

The HFC cash machine on Victoria Parade, and below, staff and guests at the opening.

One of HFC Bank’s first cutomers, Andrew Houng-Lee, holds up his new HFC bank card with a staff member during the official opening of the HFC Bank.

PHOTOS GREGORY RAVOI

Reserve Bank of Fiji deputy government Inia Naiyaga and HFC chairman Tom Ricketts cut the cake to mark the start of operations.

Despite entering an already crowded banking market, HFC Bank is confident it will be able to compete against the five other banks operating in Fiji.

HFC is banking on its 100 per cent local connection and its existing customer base to build brand loyalty and growth, to help it banish the ghosts of the National Bank of Fiji saga which collapsed in the late 1990s.

HFC Bank commenced operations on 3 March after the brand was launched by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama on 20 February.

HFC Bank chief executive Isikeli Tokaduadua said up to $9m had been invested in setting up the banking operations.

HFC has already provided about 80 per cent of banking products, but their clients often had to go to other banks for services that required transactional

March 2014

accounts, cheque accounts and access accounts and ATMs. The bank employed 20 extra staff to meet capacity demands, taking its total staff numbers 120.

HFC Bank is 75 per cent owned by Fiji National Provident Fund and the remaining 25 per cent is held by Unit Trust of Fiji.

At the brand’s launch, Bainimarama said: “This is a time for celebration but also a time for sober reflection about the sorry history of our first 100 per-cent Fijianowned financial institution – the debacle of the National Bank of Fiji. “ Bainimarama added: “My Government expects that the proper mechanisms are now in place to ensure that the Home Finance Company Bank meets the highest prudential requirements and the highest standards of good governance.”

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pasifikapost Regional current affairs worth noting

RICARDO MORRIS

news@pasifikapost.com

Kanak men play pétanque along the beach at Anse Vata in Noumea.

New Caledonia gun claims ahead of poll The French Government sent a group of magistrates to New Caledonia to check on allegations that thousands of people who should not be allowed to vote in upcoming congressional elections are on the electoral roll.

The Congress that takes shape in May will be able to decide whether or not New Caledonia moves towards independence, but three-fifths of those elected need to vote in favour.

The pro-independence FLNKS claims the discrepencies on the rolls amount to seven per cent of the total vote.

The pro-independence leader and President of the New Caledonian Congress, Roch Wamytam says he has questions for the French Government over why there are so many guns in the various ethnic communities.

Speaking through a translator, Wamytam says: “There are more than 100,000 guns that were sold during that three-year period to now, noting that ... the election is coming up. So the thinking is ‘if things go bad, that’s okay, I have a gun!’”

Wamytam says when the independence struggle turned bloody in the 1980s the French government imposed strict gun controls but it eased those in 2009. parties lead two of the provincial governments - in the north and the Loyalty Islands - in the south, where Noumea is, they are well and truly outnumbered. But 12

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there are some suburbs like Vallee du Tir where the indigenous Melanesians predominate.

On one wall in the commercial heart of that suburb there’s a mural on a wall depicting four of the heroes of the independence struggle. Three of those four died violently - Chief Atai, who led an 1878 uprising against French settlement; Eloi Machoro, who was shot by French police in 1985; and the most famous Kanak leader, Jean-Marie Tjibaou, who was assassinated in 1989. But Roch Wamytam has another concern beside guns.

The Noumea Accord which was signed

by Jean-Marie Tjibaou provides that anybody who moved to New Caledonia after 1988 should not be able to vote in the May elections. They can vote in the French national elections and so there are two rolls - the special roll for those who can vote in the crucial elections this May and what is called the Annex Table for those who don’t qualify because their residency has been too short.

“Around 6700 people are registered on the Special List of 2014 but they arrived after 1998 - thus they are not supposed to be on the special electoral List. I have spoken to the Government of France about this issue through the High Commissioner for France here in New Caledonia as well as with the United Nations Committee of 24 in October 2013. So what

does this mean? In general it means that five per cent of the whole electoral body,” says Wamytam.

Wamytam also claims 2000 young Kanak voters who should be on the list are instead on annex table list of those who can only vote in elections to the French Parliament. So both lists, he maintains, are wrong.

“And that represents seven per cent of the whole electoral body here in New Caledonia. It’s just unimaginable to think that this is happening here in New Caledonia in a country that is administered by a French State that always gives us lectures about good governance and democracy.

At an FLNKS meeting at Wamytam’s village one of his advisers on youth issues, Pidjot Roch, took the complaint a step further.

“What is pretty obvious is that there has been a lot of cheating and a lot of manipulation especially at the municipality level and some of the councils especially here in Noumea. And most of these younh Kanak have not been registered on the electoral rolls for the next election,” Roch said.

Politicians opposed to independence have made a counter claim that 4000 Kanaks should be struck off the roll. And Paris has sent in Magistrates to try to resolve the issue. n

SEAN DORNEY/ABC NEWS March 2014

OPINION

Irony, drugs and secularism The Rising Ape with ALEX ELBOURNE

J

ust in case you missed it: From Sekove Delai, the Ministry of Health’s reproductive health divisional HIV/ STI officer: “If the father is sexually aroused and you the mum is not there, his only option will be his daughter, the only other female in the house.”

Obviously, people lost their collective s**t in reaction. Here’s the thing though, as distasteful as the comment was and how poorly put, does he have a point? Is anyone else sick of hearing about another father, uncle, grandfather, etc raping his daughter, niece, granddaughter? I certainly am. At this point we have to ask ourselves, where the hell are these men coming from? Let’s not fool ourselves here, when it comes to our children, if I were a mother I would be hesitant to leave my child alone with their male relative.

It’s harsh and uncomfortable, but is it really unfair to consider every man a potential child molester?

Definition of irony…

This conflict in Ukraine. Pretty messy stuff. Ukraine says this. Russia says that.

Crimea says something else. It’s like a really, really bad family fight. With added killing. In the midst of it all, John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, tells Russia this: “You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext.”

Really John Kerry? You’re really going to go there? Wow. My flabber-was-gasted when I read that. Seriously, the 2003 invasion of Iraq anyone? The false reports of weapons of mass destruction stockpiles under Saddam Hussein. What really gets me is the seemingly sincere delivery of the statement. Damn John Kerry, whatever you’re on obviously causes amnesia.

And on the subject of drugs…

The debate around the legalisation and/or decriminalisation of marijuana fascinates me. On both sides of the argument you’ll have people arguing the health benefits or not of ganja. Here’s the thing, it’s the wrong thing to argue about. People who want ganja to be legalised need to realise that it DOES do you damage. But, it’s also arguably LESS harmful than alcohol and cigarettes.

March 2014

But that’s not the fascinating bit. What intrigues me is how certain drugs are perceived as socially acceptable. In Fiji, grog, cigarettes, alcohol … we all KNOW it’s bad for us. But tell someone you got full cut over the weekend and the reaction is like “you man!”

Tell them you got higher than a kite over the weekend and the questioning looks begin. It’s weird no? They both cause chemical changes in the brain, they both do you harm but one is fine and the other?

Not so much. I wonder where it comes from. There’s a double standard that can most probably only be addressed by making it all illegal or making it all legal.

Otherwise we’re just being hypocrites as we talanoa this kind of thing around a basin of grog or a carton of beer. Oh and for the record, I don’t smoke ganja, I only indulge in the socially accepted drugs.

Like my cousin Tuco in Lautoka says: “Ganja is like the Judas Iscariot of drugs.

We all say we hate it but without it, who’d be the bad guy?”

The secular state in action…

Did you see it? At the RFMF commander handover? Last time I checked the RFMF was an apparatus of the state. Isn’t the state supposed to be secular? So what was up with the churchiness (trademarked brand new word)? Was that even military protocol?

I mean I thoroughly enjoyed the tradition and pomp but really, having only one culture and religion (and specifically the Methodist church) prevalent at what was, a state affair was something I thought we were supposed to be moving past.

Apparently not.

So you’re anti-government now?

When I posted the bit above on Facebook, I got a few people asking me if I now didn’t like the government. Here’s what irritates me about a lot of us here in Fiji. Too many don’t realise that it’s entirely possible to be highly critical of those in charge while also being aware of the good they’ve done. Contrary to what many here seem to think, politics and/or governance is NOT a black and white issue. Do I support the current government? Well, I certainly like a lot of their policies, foremost amongst them, me finally not having to call myself an “Other” in the country I was frickin’ born in. Does that mean I’m going to agree with everything they do? Certainly not. And if and when they do do something that I feel goes against their stated objectives then I will say something.

Hey WAF… How come when there’s water disruptions you guys always say it’ll happen in elevated areas but good ol’ Wailoku which is pretty much at sea level also gets it? Just wondering like. But we know you’re trying. And we love you for trying.

And about love…

Yes it’s late but I posted this on my Facebook on Valentine’s Day: “When I was much younger and thought being cynical and jaded was the ULTIMATE mark of coolness I used to get so pissed off about Valenine’s Day. “Over-commercialised piece of s**t day,” I’d sneer, taking another puff of my kavuru. “Why we gotta show our love on one day only?” I’d lament while making obscene motions. “Man you people are sheeple, dancing to the Hallmark tune,” I’d say, wiping my backside with a Valentine’s Day card. (Not literally, you dirty-minded scatological fantasists) “You know what? I was an UTTER idiot when I was young. Seriously, I really was. Valentine’s Day is AWESOME. It really is. Any, ANY day that gives you license to get sappy with the person you love the most in the world is all right in my book. Of course we should love each other every day and we do but Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse/opportunity to get all sloppy. It’s an “Awwwwwww” kind of day and it’s blerrie fantastic. And if you’re single, treat yourself you romantic you … if you can’t love yourself how are you gonna love someone else? And if you ARE with someone, then use the day to make that person feel like the empress or emperor of the world. Sure you could do flowers and chocolates and expensive stuff...if you can afford it go for it. If you can’t, so what? My point is, today is a day when we collectively affirm that love is the most powerful force of all and setting aside one day to observe that isn’t trivial or stupid. It’s an affirmation that life can be hard but love makes things, if not easier, certainly more bearable. So in the words of Bob ... “forget your troubles and dance.

Forget your worries and dance. Forget your sickness and dance.” And whether you dance alone or with someone else, it doesn’t matter...the dance does...it tells you you’re alive and here you dance!”

R Peace! n Alex Elbourne is the Breakfast Show host on Legend FM. The views expressed are his own. republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

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OPINION

Rethinking the way we live The Green Line with NAKITA BINGHAM

F

iji has undoubtedly gained a global reputation for being an exotic tropical holiday destination. Despite this image, there’s no mistaking our reality is far from the picturesque gem marketed to the world. Aside from luxury hotels, friendly smiles and warm hospitality, is the not-so-glamorous truth of receding shorelines due to climate change and the rise of non-communicable diseases, a consequence of modern economics and poor lifestyle choices.

The solution to such problems involves moving forward in sustainable and innovative ways. It is through the implementation of green initiatives and education that our health can be restored and our longevity secured.

Living green Green rooftops and rooftop gardens are a craze sweeping cities around the world because of their environmental and health benefits. Green rooftops have an elaborate waterproof layer that’s covered in vegetation completely, often without the use of soil but an alternative-growing medium. A few of the benefits of having a green roof is they provide insulation in cold weather and helps keep a building cool in warm climates. The vegetation also acts as a filtration system for airborne pollutants and carbon dioxide, improving air quality.

Rooftop gardening involves growing plants, grass, flowers, and even fruits and vegetables in pots, or boxes.

The problem with urban elements like buildings and roads is the materials they are made of soak up and trap heat, making cities hotter than the actual air temperature. People then crank up their fans and air conditioners to offset this effect, consequently consuming energy to cool off. Green roofs and roof gardens are practical to help reduce heat naturally because vegetation absorbs solar energy and radiated heat.

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Roof gardens are also an efficient way to utilise limited space in the city.

Take Darshan Singh Rai Pur, a Suvabased rooftop farmer who has done exactly this. The avid gardener grows chillies, cabbage, tomatoes, okra, spinach, long beans and pineapples. He eats what he can and sells the surplus yield on the side. Perhaps we can all learn something from him, planting more so we buy less processed food, saving more money and energy. Rooftop gardening promotes good health, cleaner air quality and can of course produce a delicious outcome.

Waste management Curitiba, Brazil is considered one of the world’s sustainable cities. Waste is managed by the cooperation of its citizens. Through a progressive green exchange employment programme, low-income families are provided with the opportunity to collect waste in their neighbourhood and surrounding areas such as rivers and parks, in exchange for bus tickets and food. This decentralised waste collection achieved great results because the city of Curitiba hasn’t exhausted resources it didn’t have to begin with to begin to fix a systemic issue such as pollution.

By providing incentives for participants, citizens willingly spent their time doing the city and themselves a service by cleaning it up, promoting a healthy and cleaner environment. Citizen participation combined with other initiatives such as education and awareness on how to properly dispose of waste, have been implemented in the primary education curriculum. The cooperation of the city’s residents has resulted in 70 per cent of Curitiba’s waste being recycled by them. The city’s successful paper recycling programme is estimated to equate to 1,200 trees a day.

The former Lami rubbish dump and current dump pile on Yawa Street in Nepani, Nasinu are both a testament of how centralised waste collection is a broken down system and needs to be reformed. The Nepani dump pile was originally intended for the Nasinu

Town Council to use as a “green dump site”. However, non-organic waste has ended up in the pile, causing an all too familiar smell like the former dump at Lami. Residents near the Nepani site believe the town council is responsible for dumping rubbish and green waste.

If a green exchange programme were implemented here for low-income families, the social and environmental benefits would involve a large part of the community and villages. Establishing such a programme would motivate people to get out and be an active part of the resource management solution. The collection of waste by people encourages physical activity and the decentralisation of waste management makes each individual accountable in their community. Such responsibility, mixed with waste management awareness to introduce and implement through the primary education system would result in a mechanism where natural beauty and environmental integrity are maintained by community involvement.

It’s up to us Fiji is considered the hub in this corner of the world and must lead by being an example of clean and sustainable living for other small Pacific Island nations to follow. Moving forward and executing practical solutions involves simple measures that have proved to be the most effective. For example by planting vegetation along with reducing our fossil fuel consumption, we combat climate change. When we manage our communities better to promote environmental consciousness people begin to make healthier lifestyle choices, minimising potential for the development of non-communicable diseases.

Sometimes things are a lot easier said than done though, and rethinking the way we do things now means changing much about how we live our lives today.

Change is inevitable though but the direction we head in relies on us all.

R

n Nakita Bingham is a Suva resident as is employed as a legal assistant with experience in environmental and corporate law. republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

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Farewell to a visionary

By RICARDO MORRIS

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COURTESY THE FIJI TIMES/PHOTO ELIKI NUKUTABU

P

ortions of Suva came to a standstill on 20 February when the funeral procession of the Methodist Church president Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu made its way through the city from his official residence at Pender Street to Centenary Church in Stewart Street.

For a religious denomination that had felt the brunt of State power for much of the past seven years and been sidelined from its normally central position in Fijian society, it was a moment of realisation that the Methodists continued to make up the biggest portion of this country’s demographics.

When Waqairatu died at the age of 66 on 11 February, he had only been in the job of president for six months, but in that short time had effected wholesale change within the church, like never before witnessed.

Consumption of yaqona and smoking were prohibited in church-owned premises.

He was determined to realign the church with what he believed were its core functions and calling. Of course, he had his detractors, but in his quitely determined manner he set about formulating the church’s new vision with the church’s leadership.

“There have been mistakes in the past and we have not remained abreast with the changes, we have not evolved but it is time to change,” Waqairatu, who hailed from Moala in Lau, told Netani Rika in an article published in

Man on a mission ... The late Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu after his election as Methodist Church president on 28 August 2013. He is pictured with Saliceni Raiwalui of Namaka, Nadi and Reverend Aisea Katonibau following their conference in Suva.

Islands Business in September 2013 following his election as president.

The reforms even extended to a redesign of the church’s familiar logo as well as designing of new stoles - the shawl worn by clergy.

On his death, condolences poured in from around the world. At his four-hour

long funeral service, Centenary Church was packed to capacity, and people also filled the corridors and streets outside.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama attended the funeral, squeezed in among the people he once vilified, in4CONTINUED PAGE 18 March 2014

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In mourning ... A woman sobs on the road outside the Centenary Methodist Church in Suva on 20 February as the funeral takes place of church president Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu.

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Final farewell ... Hundreds of people throng the streets outside Centenary Methodist Church as Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu’s casket is carried inside for a four-hour funeral service.

3FROM PAGE 16

cluding directly behind him, the man he ousted in December 2006, Laisenia Qarase.

In 2009, when Waqairatu was general secretary, he was among Methodist leaders charged breaching the Public Emergency Regulations for holding a meeting ahead which involved planning for their annual conference. When Waqairatu passed away, the charge was still pending against him in the Suva magistrates’ court.

During the long service, messages of condolences were read out from around the world, some acknowledging the church’s problems with the political establishment. In attendance were many more religious representatives from around the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, the US. Outside on the pavements, people listened to the eulogies and the sermons. One woman mourned loudly as she approached the elaborately masidecorated steps of the church. Others braved the harsh sun.

It was as if the Methodists had final18

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ly begun to embrace the changes ushered in by Waqairatu, only to have him snatched away. They appeared stunned.

After the service, the funeral cortege headed along the highway for Nausori to Baker Hall at Davuilevu.

There, hundreds more people and students gathered for a final prayer before Waqairatu’s was buried in the grounds of the church, a final honour for a man whose service was short-lived but full of impact.

One of the condolences was from UnitingWorld’s Bruce Mullan.

He described Waqairatu’s death as an absolute tragedy for the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma.

“To be struck down just as he was leading the church in the changing context that is Fiji is a huge loss both to the Methodist and the ecumenical movement in Fiji,” Mullan said.

But among all the messages of sympathy from the religious fraternity, perhaps the one that was the most heartfelt and gave an insight into Waqairatu’s personality, was the eulogy delivered by his only child, Roko Salote Senirewa Waqainabete.

Waqairatu had given her away in marriage just three days before he passed away.

She was fortunate, she said, that her father was able to perform his last duty as a dad at her wedding.

Describing her father’s compassion, she said his love for his family extended to the family’s pets. She recalled a time when her father conducted a funeral service for their pet rooster.

“Even the pets at home feel his loss.

He loved God’s creation and he would not want to hurt any of them,” saidWaqainabete, a lecturer in marine studies at the University of the South Pacific.

Her father, said Waqainabete, led by example and she would emulate him in her married life.

“My parents are my role models in marriage and in life. He was my mother’s best friend and although my mother has lost her best friend, heaven has surely gained an angel.”

She remembers that when persuaded to go with the family on holidays, he would say that as long as he had his Bible, his wife, his daughter and his books, he would rather stay home.

R March 2014

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Heavenward ... Methodist Church general secretary Reverend Tevita Nawadra Bainivalu, right, takes a breather during the funeral of Reverend Waqairatu, while immediate past president Reverend Ame Tugaue, in red stole, stands behind him at Davuilevu, Nausori.

Methodists march on W

HEN Reverend Tuikilakila of small committees that are organised

By NETANI RIKA Waqairatu died last month to ensure the continued operation of the mid-term as president of the organisation.

Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma, Today the church rolls on, preparthe institution did not miss a beat. Like a well-oiled machine ing to enact the reforms proposed by Waqairatu for greater it ground on relentlessly, receiving thousands of people who involvement of women and youth, increased inter-faith diapaid their respects to the fallen leader and preparing to bury a logue, strengthened spirituality of members and economic respected cleric in the religious equivalent of a State funeral. development of the people.

It would have been obvious to observers – especially the The general secretary, Reverend Tevita Banivanua, says interim government – that despite eight years of isolation and the reform process will not stop. victimisation, the Methodist Church has lost none of its in“(The reform) has to be finished, fulfilled,” he says in an fluence. interview for Repúblika at the church’s headquarters at EpIndeed, the interim Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, worth House, Suva. paid his respects at the ireguregu (traditional condolence “This is not the president’s plan, it is the church’s plan and gathering) and attended Waqairatu’s funeral as a church we are bound by conference which approved the reform to member. Failure to attend this event would have been a faux continue the process. Only an act of conference can change pas with enormous political consequences. our direction.

The attempts made by Bainimarama through coercion, “We have started our strategic plan roll-out; it’s in the pilot threats, bans on meetings and fundraising events have not stage in Suva, Tavua, Macuata divisions before we move on to crippled this 209,000-strong juggernaut. circuits and individual churches.”

At the core of this institution, which celebrates its 180th year in October, are the Methodist conference and its series 4CONTINUED PAGE 20 March 2014

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Paying respects ... Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama postponed his engagements to attend Reverend Waqairatu’s funeral.

Women in his life ... Reverend Waqairatu’s wife Iowana, right, and only daughter Roko Salote Senirewa Waqainabete, centre, at his funeral.

3FROM PAGE 19

more time to reflect on and be more receptive to the teachings of Jesus Christ, reflecting these values in daily life.

Banivanua hopes that by 2016 every local church will have a strategic plan which allows spiritual, physical and economic development and reflects the goals of the national organisation.

In an effort to ensure the development of young church members and create a financially independent society, the Methodist Church will open up vast tracts of its land to young farmers.

“The Navuso Agricultural College will train young farmers from this year who can return to the land and use their skills,” Banivanua said.

The church is seeking clarification from the iTaukei Land Trust Board on whether land gifted to the Methodist mission by landowners can be leased to farmers.

For young people in urban areas the church wants to offer unemployed graduates the opportunity to work on strategic planning and development initiatives. It is even willing to look beyond the confines of faith.

“We’re looking for funding so that we can offer people an allowance to work with us while they search for employment,” Banivanua said. Like Waqairatu, Banivanua believes that in the area of social justice the church is bound to address the needs of all people, regardless of ethnicity and creed.

In this conservative establishment, the old guard may take some convincing when it comes to dialogue with people of

The strategic plan is designed as 12 pillars of church development, which touch the lives of members in practical, meaningful ways. Designed by the church’s divisional heads at Nataleira, Tailevu, last year under Waqairatu’s guidance, the plan is the foundation of the Methodist reform.

While there was an initial reluctance in some quarters to attempt the reforms, the initiative has gained momentum as church members begin to grasp the possibilities that change can bring.

“In Naitasiri the local church bought a five-tonne truck which it uses to transport produce like ginger and dalo to the markets and increase its self-sufficiency,” Banivanua said.

“They are using their own resources to develop their lives and fund church activities locally.

“The Suvavou and Indian divisions are using their human resources to roll out strategic plans at local church level.”

Banivanua says it is important that the church does not try to be rich but instead works to enrich the lives of all people by using institutional resources in the service of humanity.

“If our people can run the church at local level there is less pressure on the connexional office (secretariat) to fundraise and provide financial assistance,” he said. “Whatever (money) the church raises should be for service – for the people.”

He says the church has – perhaps for too long – preached about heaven and eternal life while neglecting the practical aspects of a meaningful human existence on Earth. The church hopes that a financially stable congregation will have 20

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Rev Laisiasa Ratabacaca: the man with the mantle

Back at the helm ... Reverend Laisiasa Ratabacaca, interim president of the Methodist Church, performs the last rites for his predecessor, Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu, who was buried at Davuilevu in Nausori on 20 February.

3FROM PAGE 20

other faiths. Acting President Reverend Laisiasa Ratabacaca has been swift in addressing conservatism and traditionalism, which are the real threats to reform.

Immediately after his election the 74-year-old drew the attention of the standing committee – the church’s governing body outside of conference – to the need to remain steadfast in the pursuit of reform.

He went further, calling attention to the abuse of women and children and urging the church to bring an end to what March 2014

OUTSIDE the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma, Reverend Laisiasa Ratabacaca is not well known. But at the age of 74, the former president who served from 2002-2004 will guide the church to the end of the year and oversee the election of a successor to the late Rev Tuikilakila Waqairatu.

Born in Tarukua Village, Cicia, Lau, Ratabacaca was educated at the local school to class four.

He became a lay preacher in 1957 and moved on to the circuit school at Gaunavou, Lakeba. Sheer determination saw him enter Davuilevu Theological College in 1963 and the Pacific Theological College three years later graduating with a degree in 1969.

Ordained the same year he attended Claremont School of Theology in the United States, graduating with a Masters degree before serving around the country in various posts and as military chaplain in Sinai and Lebanon.

Ratabacaca has served three terms as principal of the Davuilevu Theological College, two as interim president and one term each as general secretary and president of the church. Married to Luisa Vunibola, he has four sons. n

NETANI RIKA

he described as the unjust, inhumane actions of selfish individuals.

That was a clear signal that the church is serious about maintaining its position as an influential institution with the ability to listen to the concerns of all Fiji’s people.

Ratabacaca holds an interim, ceremonial position until conference later this year but will have tremendous influence on who will guide the church on its path towards reform.

While the Methodist leadership has remained silent on 4CONTINUED PAGE 22 republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

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3FROM PAGE 21

politics and will continue to do so until the elections, it will not shy away from matters of social justice. Next month 112 church leaders will gather in Suva to discuss plans for the 180th anniversary celebrations, part of which will be the ritual washing of feet as an act of atonement and reconciliation.

Once that reconciliation is completed the church will surge forward, strengthened and renewed, its congregation empowered, independent and fully versed in the institution’s plans for the future.

Waqairatu has passed on but the Methodist reform is here to stay because the church conference continues to live the vision despite the challenges of politics, conservatism and doubt.

Banivanua is emphatic. In a statement released days after Waqairatu’s funeral, he said: “The work must and will go on.”

R n Netani Rika is former editor-in-chief of The Fiji Times and has reported on the Methodist Church since its troubles in 1988.

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By NETANI RIKA

T

HE choice of Reverend Laisiasa Ratabacaca as interim head of the Methodist flock through 2014 sends a clear signal from church elders that the reforms introduced by the late Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu are here to stay.

Many observers were of the opinion that Waqairatu would be replaced in the interim by immediate past president, Reverend Ame Tugaue, as dictated by precedence. The Methodist Constitution allows for past presidents to act as head of the church upon the death of the incumbent.

In its collective wisdom the standing committee looked past Tugaue – known for his fondness of yaqona and confrontational stand against Fiji’s interim regime – to the elder statesman figure of Ratabacaca.

Upon his election Ratabacaca immediately praised the work of his predecessor and urged the church to continue the journey of reform upon which it embarked under Waqairatu’s guidance.

“I respected his leadership. He did his best and we were all looking forward to his leadership during his three-year term,” Rev Ratabacaca told church executives.

He then called for the church to return to its basics, the cell group or mata siga, which has at its core such values as a prayerful life, hard work, the importance of family, daily reflection on the Bible and living according to Christian values.

When Ratabacaca was a young man growing up on Cicia in Southern Lau, Christian values would have meant living a disciplined life of obedience to elders, attending church services three times a week, working hard, living frugally and drinking kava sparingly.

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Journey home ... The cortege of Reverend Tuikilakila enters the Davuilevu compound at Nausori where he was buried in the grounds of Baker Hall. Left: young men take turns beating the lali as a sign of mourning at Davuilevu.

Bucking the trend Waqairatu attempted to instill these values in a church whose leaders were rapidly losing their way to the new values of huge meals instead of frugality, less prayerful lives in the face of television and DVDs, consuming yaqona in the name of pastoral work and travelling in comfortable vehicles instead of walking from house to house to visit the congregation.

His revolutionary ideas did not sit well with many members – clergy and laity alike.

Another issue which did not sit well with this conservative church was Waqairatu’s views on the need for greater respect for women and young people while giving them greater roles in leadership.

Here again Ratabacaca has rallied the faithful, reminding them of Waqairatu’s call and urging the church to push forward with the reforms which are covered as 12 broad pillars: n Salvation of people n The family n Education n Constant nurturing of faith March 2014

Renewal of worship and stewardship City mission and social services Constant in-service training for church workers Preparation of future church leaders Evangelisation to non-Christians Inter-church and inter-faith partnerships Development of church land and buildings Christian stewardship and other creation.

Eight years ago Ratabacaca spoke out against the military coup which removed the Qarase government and called for an interim administration to rule until the return of democracy.

Now he is in an interim position and prepares to lead the church until it democratically chooses a leader at its annual conference later this year. Ratabacaca’s task now is to see that the vision of conference comes to fruition. The interim president has shown that he stands by that vision and church reforms. There will be little time to engage secular leaders and a major shift in the State-Methodist Church relationship is unlikely before September.

R n n n n n n n n

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ESSAY

The hibernation of indigenous intellectuals

S

ince independence in 1970, this last seven years have probably been the most earthshaking for indigenous Fijians as a community, yet Fijian* (Taukei) intellectuals seem to be in public hibernation.

A military regime, with unknown advisers, is bringing about major changes to Fijian institutions: the Great Council of Chiefs has supposedly been abolished; provincial governance structures reorganised; the laws of management of communally owned Fijian land and marine resources (some with serious environmental impacts); flagship Fijian companies such as Fijian Holdings Limited have been reorganised; controls have been placed on Fijian churches and villages; Fijian cultural symbols are being changed by decree, without their consent.

Massive changes in economic policy are affecting not just Fijians but all Fiji citizens in: taxation and expenditure of tax-payer funds, privatisation and sale of public assets, restructuring of pension funds, controversial approval for new industries such as casinos and mines, a huge increase in public debt that must be paid for by future generations which will be increasingly indigenous Fijian, and much more.

The views of the Bainimarama regime leaders are prominent every day on radio, television and in the newspapers, with extremely limited coverage given to opposing political leaders.

It is dismaying therefore that there is a deafening silence from Fijian 24

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By Wadan narsey

intellectuals from the universities and the private sector – with the exception of a few rare individuals such as Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi or young youth leaders like Peter Waqavonovono.

One may well ask, where are the Rusiate Nayacakalou’s, Jo Kamikamicas, Savenaca Siwatibaus, Amelia Rokotuivunas and Ratu Sir Kamisese Maras, of today?

I have previously written about Fiji’s “cultures of silence” and these are still of relevance today and to this article (read more here: http://tiny.cc/ NarseyCultureOfSilence and here: http:// tiny.cc/NarseyCancerousSilence) Hibernating intellectuals?

It is natural that ordinary indigenous Fijians look to indigenous Fijian intellectuals at the universities, corporate entities and non-government organisations for guidance and debate on their major societal issues.

Yet indigenous Fijian academics, corporate types and the plethora of legal professionals appear to be lying low.

In a pattern repeated from the 70s, senior Fijian academics at USP (and now FNU) happily allow themselves to be promoted into sterile administrative work, or export themselves to universities abroad.

Also largely absent are the voices of Fijian senior corporate types from the

private and public sectors, currently working in Fiji or abroad, or retired.

Even prominent Fijian intellectual political leaders (of whom the electorates expected better), disappeared out of sight (leaving Qarase to cop the flack alone), or have joined the bandwagon.

Are these intellectual leaders (Missing in Action) secretly discussing these issues amongst their communities?

Or are they waiting to see who are going to be the winners, before they jump on the winning bandwagon?

The curse of entertainment and blogging Is it a coincidence that most of our media organisations (television, radio and newspapers), are diverting the largest part of public discourse into entertainment – sports (rugby sevens), Bollywood and Hollywood, singing competitions, and religious frenzy.

Policy debates are raised quite rarely, and even then in a totally innocuous fashion, without the attention they deserve.

One phenomenon of our times, with mixed blessings, is the massive rise of anonymous blogging (by all ethnic groups), where the calm rational voices are totally outnumbered by nasty posts, often racist and violent in nature.

Is the ability to blog anonymously dissipating the energies of Fijian intellectuals, thereby ensuring that they make little attempt to engage in honest public debates using their own names?

The real misfortune is that the anonymous blogs are usually read largely March 2014

ESSAY

by the “converted” and not those whose minds have not been made up, but are daily being influenced by the media which is currently dominated by regime propaganda.

I suspect also that even the rational educative blogger is ineffective, since anonymity robs the views of their full effectiveness.

Who will dispute that a public statement by Savenaca Siwatibau or any other respected Fijian leader, would have a far greater impact than an anonymous letter to the editor or a similar but anonymous blog posting?

Of course, having views unpopular with those in power, must come at some personal cost, as it does everywhere in the world.

But are indigenous Fijian intellectuals as a group choosing a totally wrong balance between active transparent social responsibility and self-seeking, self-preserving “culture” of silence?

Silence is not golden Elections will be held within the next six months and political candidates of all persuasions will be expressing their views in trying to influence the outcome of the elections.

It would be of great help to indigenous Fijian voters (and others) if politically neutral Fijian intellectuals from the universities, private and NGO sectors, were to actively express their views on national policy matters which will become election issues, whichever political side their views happen to fall.

Silence from our Fijian intellectuals March 2014

at this critical juncture in Fiji’s history, is not going to be golden. It certainly has not helped the Fijian community so far.

Postscript: 28 January A long-standing friend of mine was dismayed that I did not name a number of prominent Fijians who are currently speaking out on issues, as they indeed are. Some of those named are friends of mine with whom I have had ongoing discussions. Most of these people, however, are currently perceived by the public as belonging to political parties, and nearly all their statements are seen as anti-Bainimarama, without any neutral discussion about the merits and demerits of the policies (which is what I think would be useful for ordinary Fijians).

One person who my friend named is indeed very visible, but heads an organisation which stands accused of being funded by foreigners and being biased, yet it does sterling education work in the community, to which I have also contributed over the years.

The disappointment I express in my article above is with senior academics, professionals and corporate types from whom the Fijian community expects greater guidance. Perhaps I should have also named their professional organisations like the Fiji Institute of Accountants, the Law Society, and yes, the Economics Association of Fiji, which have all been relatively mute bodies, compared to their pre-2006 activities which dealt with issues which are of even

greater concern today, yet little discussed because of the continuing media selfcensorship.

One instigator of my article is that I do have very senior Fijian friends (including former senior civil servants) who have themselves lamented to me that there is not enough of public discussion and debate among senior Fijians. They attribute this to their sense of insecurity, and not being able to trust people any more. Nevertheless, they do discuss the issues in their small private groups, which has at times included me.

I acknowledge also that there are many senior Fijians who have continued the important development work that they have been doing in their communities for decades.

There are also senior Fijian academics at USP (like Dr Ropate Qalo) who have focused on academic work and eschewed what I unfortunately referred to as “sterile administrative work”. I have been correctly reminded by one friend that honest, efficient and accountable administrative work is also a necessary part of a society’s development and not R “sterile”. I stand corrected. *Professor Wadan Narsey uses the term “Fijian” to refer to the indigenous Fijians, the Taukei. n Wadan Narsey is Adjunct Professor, the Cairns Institute, James Cook University and former Professor of Economics at the University of the South Pacific. republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

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Beyond a culture of silence

T

he apparent absence of debate, particularly among the Taukei, is attributed by commentators to ‘a culture of silence’. Open, vigorous public discourse is not yet a feature of Taukei or Fijian society at large. It has been explained in terms of a cultural milieu in which authority and communal structures coalesce to muffle expression. While media controls and self-censorship have not helped, it is the epistemology, ways of thinking, of the Taukei that invites closer scrutiny.

‘Silence’ does not necessarily mean consent. It is the lack of oral and written expression about issues passing for acquiescence. From the colonial era to the present, Taukei took refuge in silence until the political climate improved. Social media (Facebook, Twitter, blog sites etc.) represent a contemporary variation, allowing disaffected Taukei to express opinions anonymously. An assertive few, on opposing sides of the divide, eschew such inhibitions in that virtual world. Safe haven notwithstanding, it is outside the wider public domain. Sanctuary afforded by ‘silence’ comes at a price: uncontested interpretations of issues and events become historical truth and received wisdom.

Reluctance persists among Taukei to ventilate issues of interest openly whether the traditional system, sustaining Taukei culture, the Taukei language, qoliqoli, the protection of land or the status of indigenous people postDecember 2006. It is compounded by several factors. Blood and kinship ties remain significant. Personalities matter more than issues. Opinions are an extension of the person and difficult to separate. And the ubiquity of connections renders security in numbers of larger societies meaningless.

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By Joni madraiwiwi

Consequently, leaders take offence easily because there is no distance between them and their audience. The ‘personal’ element permeates and colours all relationships: traditional, political, economic, social and religious.

Social interaction is complicated by the relative frequency with which people meet at weddings, funeral gatherings, other ‘oga’ (traditional/social obligations) and settings. The implications for free-flowing discourse are obvious: reluctance to disagree for fear of offending.

Communal thinking is interwoven with this ‘connectedness’. The group is preeminent and the individual secondary. The latter is a component of the whole. His/her utility lies in the credibility and weight lent to the consensus.

It is sometimes self-evident, but more often a combination of interventions from key persons or groups and circumstances. There is little leeway for the self-validation essential for the flow of ideas. Seniority determines one’s right of audience and “who can and cannot speak”. Empowerment constitutes work in progress particularly for women and youth.

Advocating a public position necessitates taking a stand. It is not as simple as Nike’s ‘Just do it’ slogan. Consequences arise: it obliges others to react.

This may be unsettling if they prefer not to be involved. Individuals or groups are identified with a position, limiting their room for manoeuvre with possible repercussions. In June 1977, as naïve law students, my good friend Graham Leung and I wrote to the Fiji Times criti-

cising then Governor-General Ratu Sir George Cakobau’s decision not to invite Mr S. M. Koya to form government. The National Federation Party had won a plurality in the May election. My fleeting temerity was swiftly aborted by the opprobrium my politician mother endured.

Dissembling is a valued cultural trait: maintenance of relationships and social cohesion is the highest good.

Consensus is valued and dissent discouraged. Where it arises or is anticipated, the preceding discussion and ensuing outcome are framed in general terms. It allows those present to project a ‘consensus’, interpreting proceedings to their benefit. Individuals usually reserve judgment during this process to gauge the tide of debate. Throughout this exercise, details are glossed over and face is saved. Either way, it does not allow for closely argued exchanges characteristic of intellectuals and academia.

There is also a sense that indigenous identity is a Taukei prerogative.

While not a view I share, the assumption is only Taukei can appreciate the essence of indigeneity. Disinclination to participate in public fora is the result. Interestingly, the extent to which Taukei are committed to “a common and equal citizenry” of the present dispensation is intriguing. Ambivalence in acknowledging this country belongs to all Fijians continues. Fuelled by a perception that shared identity has been unmatched by reciprocal gestures, for example as in recognising the autochthonous and unique character of the Taukei language. A simple illustration: Taukei wince at references to the Taukei rather than Fijian language, bespeaking inferiority. Furthermore, use of the phrase “iTaukei” in English displays egregious unfamiliarity with the Taukei March 2014

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language itself (legislative fiat aside – The ‘i Taukei’ reference is mandated by Fijian Affairs (Amendment) Decree No 31 of 2010). ‘I’ partially serves as the article as in ‘Na i Taukei’ (the Taukei) or ‘Na i Vola Tabu’ (the Holy Bible). The phrase ‘the iTaukei’ in English (lit. ‘the the Taukei’) sounds repetitive, awkward and pretentious to Taukei ears, especially when uttered by non-Taukei.

These minor irritants nevertheless demonstrate how the ‘culture’ curtails more honest dialogue. Taukei keep these feelings to themselves, stoking victimhood. Shared, it serves to heighten awareness and sensitivity among Fijians although that process may be confronting. Those observations about use of ‘i Taukei’ exemplify the spectacle of unchallenged perspectives morphing into accepted orthodoxy. Wadan Narsey has expressed concern about this trait in analysing possible causes for the ‘hibernation’ (Narsey’s description) of ‘Fijian’ (i.e. Taukei) intellectuals.

The manner in which Taukei relate to authority bears on this discourse.

The hierarchy of the traditional system, although modified, continues to apply between leaders and led today.

Forthright, direct comment yields to endorsing the prevailing orthodoxy. It safeguards the position of followers in terms of anticipated largesse, guising their actual opinions. Taukei are accustomed to dealing with their rulers in this way as a means of self-preservation.

The extensive protestations of support for the government, some of which is doubtless genuine, may be understood in that light.

At the same time, some perspective is useful. While the culture has tended to reinforce the status quo by limiting challenges to authority, individuals capable of strong leadership have been able to buck the system to attract a following. Navosavakadua, Apolosi R Nawai, Ratu Emosi of Daku, Sairusi Nabogibogi and Ravuama Vunivalu formerly, Butadroka, Ratu Osea Gavidi, Bavadra, Rabuka, George Speight and Bainimarama more recently have lain claims to prominence.

Their populist appeal and charisma, the promise of a better future and a pointed rebuke to the ‘establishment’ for supposed failings partly account for their success (though varied).

Levelling of both the Taukei comMarch 2014

‘Silence’ does not necessarily mean consent.

From the colonial era to the present, Taukei took refuge in silence until the political climate improved.

Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi Former Vice President of Fiji munity and wider society, particularly since independence, reflects an irreversible trend: those from more representative backgrounds dominating leadership. That dynamic will have a liberalising effect over time. A vision of the future surfaced during debate in 2006 over the Qoliqoli Bill which sought to extend property rights to Taukei fishing rights. It was protracted, vigorous even fierce but open and peaceful. Such scenarios are attainable but an enabling environment is a prerequisite.

The other relevant consideration is that informed and sustained debate requires familiarity with issues, intellectual inquiry and reflection. For Taukei, earning a living, raising a family, undertaking tertiary studies and involvement with ‘oga’ consume their time, energies and resources. It is one reason Taukei are often absent from activities such as service clubs. ‘Service’ as they conceive it is material and financial support provided to immediate and extended family; or bearing the educational and boarding expense of close kin in straitened situations. Taken with obligations

to the vanua and the lotu, there is a cost: capacities for conceptualising and articulation thereof are appreciably diminished.

Additionally, the phenomenon of reading not being popular among the Taukei and wider population is worrisome. It is more than a means for acquiring credentials. Exposure to ideas, development of rational thought and nurturing of imagination engendered by this process is critical. Reading moulds the shape, quality and frequency of debate. It stimulates the ability to formulate, synthesise and articulate ideas clearly and logically.

Despite that lack, the situation is changing gradually. Regulation is being eased accompanied by empowerment initiatives for women, youth, people with disabilities, rural populations and other marginalised groups. Rising standards of education and exposure especially in the form of foreign work experience, the present dispensation, the pervasive presence of the media, in addition to accessibility to information technology have all had an impact. The resulting paradox: a more permissive social environment facilitating increasingly diverse opinion.

There remains a need to provide more open, honest debate within Taukei and wider Fijian society, so citizens are able to participate effectively in the issues of the day. It is critical for our development as a nation and as part of the global village. For this to happen, understanding this psyche of ‘silence’ makes possible remedial measures through socialisation, educational initiatives, empowerment, community and civil society support and other means.

While ensuring the emerging landscape is focused and engaging rather than visceral; promoting balance with respect but not hostage to sectarian sensibilities. Journeying beyond a culture of silence to where meaningful dialogue and R debate become commonplace. n Joni Madraiwiwi is a traditional leader, lawyer and a former Vice President of Fiji (2005-6). republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

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The desert islanders

Bula-stan ... Fijians raise the colours of the Royal Regiment of Scotland at their Camp Bastion base in Afghanistan, from left “Highlander” Koni Fatiaki from Rotuma; Cpl Asaeli Saumaka from Tailevu; Drummer Lepani Secake from Tailevu; and Colour (Staff) Sgt Ilimo Dovibua who is the company quartermaster.

Ben Bohane/wakaphotos.com

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March 2014

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world away from their homeland, Pacific islanders are part of an international force helping to restore order in Afghanistan. Photojournalist BEN BOHANE travelled there in 2013 where he discovered many Fijians, among other islanders. The communications director of the Port Vila-based Pacific Institute of Public Policy, Bohane filed reports examining the role of Pacific Islanders in the restoration of democracy in some of the world’s hot spots.

NATO forces helping Afghanistan return to civilian rule have already began withdrawing. The United States, by far the largest contributor, announced that 34,000 troops will have returned home by mid-2014. The drawdown will be completed in 2014 for most nations taking part in the Afghan mission.

Although Australians and New Zealanders make up the largest number of soldiers from Oceania, smaller Pacific nations are also playing their part.

March 2014

They are drawn mainly from Guam, which has close to 600 men and women serving.

Every part of the Pacific has soldiers serving, from tiny Micronesian states: Palau and Northern Marianas for instance; to Polynesians: Samoa, Tonga and Tahiti; there are even a few Melanesians from PNG, Solomon Islands and Fiji. (Most Fijian soldiers are deployed either in Iraq or on the Golan Heights.)

PiPP exists to stimulate informed public policy debate. We have an interest in investigating the role Pacific islanders are playing in these international conflicts. The experience of Pacific soldiers, both at home and abroad, is an important and often-overlooked issue.

What sort of policies are in place to cater for the physical and mental needs of service members once they return from the war zone? Given the financial constraints of many of participating

nations, how are national governments responding to their needs?

PiPP’s communications director Ben Bohane spent a month in Afghanistan in 2013 observing how Pacific island soldiers are performing as the international aspects of the conflict wind down.

Bohane embedded with the US Army’s Guam Battalion, following its members as they went about their work. Name notwithstanding, Task Force Guam features other Pacific nationalities as well.

Bohane says he was fortunate that under one roof, so to speak, he was also able to meet up with many Pacific nationalities. They spoke to him about their experiences and how they have coped since the decade long conflict began.

Their stories will help to inform policy-makers decide the best outcomes for their own soldiers on other missions.

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Ben Bohane/wakaphotos.com

Flying the Fijian flag Home away from home ... Fijian contractors at the Fijian Club, next to National Air Cargo office at Camp Bastion, where Fijians, Tongans and other Pacific islanders gather for an occasional round of kava. At right is contractor Luke Tokaduadua.

By BEN BOHANE

I

knew there would be a lot of Micronesians serving in Afghanistan, but what I didn’t expect was the high number of Fijians and Tongans. There are at least 300 Tongans and 100-200 Fijians in-country at any one time, making them the next most numerous after the Micronesians, in terms of Pacific island nationalities serving there. Fiji as a nation is not deployed as part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF); instead you have Fijians serving with the British and Australian armies, and also as civilian contractors. From infantry soldiers to truck drivers to din30

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ing facility staff, Fijians can be found in a variety of jobs here.

While only a handful of Fijians serve in the Australian and New Zealand defence forces, there are currently more than 2000 Fijians enlisted with the British Army worldwide, a substantial number. Fijian troops have a well-earned reputation as professional soldiers, particularly as UN peacekeepers in the Middle East. Although many would be aware of the famous Gurkhas from Nepal serving with the British army, less well known are the large numbers of ‘Pacific Gurkhas’ serving with the Brits and the active recruitment that still goes on in Fiji.

Many cite the benefits of career and pay that comes with a stint in the British Army, but there is a price to pay – so far nine Fijians have been killed in Afghanistan, with many more wounded. They are included among the 447 British soldiers killed there so far (to 15 February 2014), and their names and place of origin are on an online list of casualties (icasualities.org) “Bula!” It took a moment for me to understand the mix of thick Scottish brogue and Fijian language coming from Staff Sgt Ilimo Dovibua. I guess that’s what happens when a Fijian spends 13 years with the ‘the Highlanders’, 4th Battalion, Royal Regiment March 2014

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of Scotland. They are the ‘desert rats’ who found fame in north Africa during World War Two, but are now deployed in various other desert conflicts.

Sgt Dovibua joined the British Army in 2000, with no previous background in the Fijian army.

“After the Fiji coup in 2000, I was looking for work and worried about the local situation. There were British Army recruiters in Suva so I decided to join up,” says Sgt Dovibua.

“We do six-month tours here and then go back to our base in Germany.

This is my third tour and I was also in Iraq. It is basically the same conditions and same hostilities, but in Iraq we were March 2014

mostly in armoured vehicles whereas here we do a lot of foot patrols.”

Sgt Dovibua has risen in the ranks and is now a company quartermaster, handling a lot of the supplies to keep British troops on the go. Like many of his Fijian comrades, he loves his rugby and says proudly: “Half the British Army rugby team are Fijian and almost all the rugby sevens team is Fijian. It’s a good way for us to integrate and be appreciated.”

He notes that there are also some Fijian officers in the British army who have gone through Sandhurst for their training; there are at least five majors, a bunch of lieutenants and some in the

SAS, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force too.

“We even have a couple of Fijian chaplains in the army, so we are bringing God back to British!” he laughs.

Apart from a group of Fijians serving with the Royal Regiment of Scotland, I also found Fijians serving with the Royal Engineers who have come to help pack up parts of the base as the UK contingent in Bastion also starts to wind down.

Many of them cited the same reason for joining up: the coups of 2000 and 2006 prompted them to think there was no point staying at home where the politics – and job opportunities – were republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

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Sgt Venima Qarau, from Lami, handles stores and logistics at Camp Bastion.

Ben Bohane/wakaphotos.com

Forever Fiji ... Graffiti at the “Fijian Club”

Brothers in arms ... Fijians serving with the Royal Engineers at Camp Bastion. From left: Sapper Mishael Hesed from Lautoka; Cpl Elijah Salate from Suva; and Sapper Asalai Vaqe from Suva.

too unstable. The chance to earn good money and work overseas was a significant draw. Yet unlike so many who join the US army (mainly from Mexico and South America) so they can get a ‘green card’ after five years’ service, the Fijians say they want to return home at some point. None claimed that getting a British passport or residency was a reason for them joining.

For some, like Sgt Lisa Rokoyadre from the Lau islands who handles ammunition supplies, joining the British 32

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Army “was all about adventure – and escaping from my parents who wanted me to do something else.”

There are Fijian contractors everywhere in Afghanistan, and I found a couple in Helmand who had even created their own little ‘Fiji Club’ in the compound of National Air Cargo, Camp Bastion, where some of them work. I had brought a packet of prized Vanuatu kava with me all the way to Afghanistan with the hope of sitting around the kava bowl one evening with Fijian troops and

having a few shells in this most unlikely setting. But our British Army minders forbade our kava session so I ended up leaving my kava packet with Luke Tokaduadua and his fellow Fijian contractors to add to their regular kava sessions. Somehow they are able to source kava and manage to have a couple of sessions per month here in the Afghan desert.

They take me one evening into their club, where Fijian graffiti, flags and memorials line the wall in a room next to March 2014

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On the job ... Sgt Lisa Rokoyadre, from Lau group of islands, Fiji is an ammunition supply point operator at Camp Bastion.

the National Air Cargo office. There are some moving tributes to fallen Fijians here and this club is where Fijians from all over Afghanistan come on their National Day to celebrate – a little corner of Afghanistan that is forever Fijian, you could say.

I had also hoped to visit the Tongan troops based here at Camp Bastion, especially since they have a significant number of troops here (around 300) by Pacific standards and are the only Pacific nation to have deployed under their own flag, as a sovereign nation. But I March 2014

was informed by my British minder – who said he had been given no explanation – that I would not be able to meet or interview any of the Tongans deployed.

This was one of the few disappointments of my trip – the only Pacific soldiers not open to share their experience and be documented. Whether this was for any tactical reason or a hangover of Tonga’s rather autocratic, royalist history is uncertain.

It certainly doesn’t reflect Tonga’s attempts to move towards an era of democracy and transparency and it’s un-

fortunate not to have them represented in this Pacific soldier project, and without an explanation.

So after spending a few days with the Brits and Fijians, it was time to return to Kandahar and our next mission – a convoy patrol down to the Pakistan border to watch Guam Battalion soldiers being R trained how to fly drones. n

Ben Bohane is an international photojournalist who resides in Vanuatu. He is also the communications director for Port Vila-based Pacific Institue for Public Policy. republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

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HISTORY

Mawlee’s murder In March 1890, an indentured 18-yearold woman from India was brutally murdered at Rarawai in Ba. Her story was symptomatic of the plight of Fiji’s girmit women during indenture and how they suffered disproportionately more than their male counterparts.

By Dr MARGARET MISHRA

O

n Tuesday, 11 March 1890, 18-year-old Mawlee was brutally killed at the Rarawai Plantation in Ba. After an interval of six to eight weeks, this crime was reported locally in The Fiji Times and internationally in The Advertiser and Auckland Star.

The publication of these stories coincided with the death sentence meted out to indentured labourer, Dhunnoo, by the Supreme Court in Nausori. On 5 May, the Court heard that the accused and deceased were living together as man and wife until Mawlee left Dhunnoo to live with indentured labourer, Badloo. Then on 11 March as Mawlee was returning from work carrying a bundle of firewood, a hoe and a billycan (a metal pot used to carry food), she was confronted by Dhunnoo and dragged into the cane. An eye-witness recounted: “She clasped her hands and implored him not to kill her, saying that she would go and live again with him.

The accused then struck her a blow on the hands, severing one completely at the wrist and severing the other all but the skin; he then struck her two blows on the throat, almost cutting her head from the body, only leaving it hanging by a small piece of skin.”

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‘dreadful’ in the newspaper headlines in The Advertiser and Auckland Star forewarns readers that this act of ‘wife or woman murder by an Indian immigrant’ was more distressing than those that occurred frequently from 1879 to 1920. Its dreadfulness, in addition to the deliberate, unlawful act of killing that had taken place, is uncovered in the shocking revelation at the end of the accounts. After Mawlee was mutilated and murdered we are told that Dhunnoo picked up the billycan she was carrying and “by its means drank some of her blood”.

Although the event of Mawlee’s murder was publicised locally and internationally, newspaper conceptions of this event failed to provide a voice for the subjects and a context for the crime.

In some ways, the pronouncement of Dhunnoo’s death sentence and the act of drinking human blood are accorded prominence over the actual event – that is, the brutal murder and mutilation of an 18-year-old woman in the cane belts in Fiji. Mawlee’s voicelessness is particularly disconcerting.

Mawlee’s murder was indeed a ‘small drama’ - one so small that it did not figure in the mainstream historical scholarship on indenture. Indeed, this absence may have been fostered by the patriarchal assumption that women had no historical significance. This article draws on archival fragments to recover personal, miniscule, details about the primary subjects that were excluded from newspaper conceptions of this event. These include death records, emigration passes, court proceedings and manuscripts from the Colonial Secretary’s Office. The article’s intent simultaneously intersects with the feminist challenge “to restore women to history and to restore our history to women.”

(Kelly-Gadol, 1976) My attempt to situate Mawlee and Dhunnoo’s pasts within the context of indenture begins at the end – with their death records. As indentured, colonised subjects, their roots are traceable through the one-line, handwritten entries in the ‘Death Register of Indian Emigrants for 1890-1904’. These records

or legacies of the British Empire confirm that Mawlee, the twenty-first death for the year 1890, was murdered on 11 March at the Rarawai Plantation in Ba. Dhunnoo, death number 182, from the same plantation was hanged for murder in Suva on April 17. These brief entries are critical because they provide us with the Emigration Pass (E-Pass) numbers for Mawlee and Dhunnoo, thus enabling the retrieval of these Passes from the Fiji National Archives in Suva. The E-Pass, historian Brij Lal, explains: “is the only document that contains comprehensive data on the demographic character of the indentured labourers”. This record, sent to Fiji in the custody of the Surgeon Superintendent of the ship, contains the following information: the name of the ship, departure and arrival dates, the migrant’s depot number, gender, name, caste, father’s name, age and district of origin.

During the indenture period, the EPass was important because it allowed Indian and colonial governments “to facilitate communication between the labourers in the colonies and their kin in India”.

Mawlee’s E-Pass states that she was 14 years old and had a scar on her left knee when she boarded the ship, Boyne, bound for Fiji on February 11, 1886 (Number 5986). She was accompanied by her mother and two younger brothers. The passenger list for the Boyne’s 1886 voyage from Calcutta to Fiji does not include Siveraj, Mawlee’s father. Perhaps Mawlee’s mother, like numerous other indentured women who migrated under the ‘single mother’ category, was escaping from a domestic quarrel or economic hardship. It is also possible that she was lured or kidnapped by an unscrupulous recruiter who promised her “an abundant supply of food and relaxed working conditions” (Lateef) While we can only speculate why she came to Fiji, we can through the E-Pass trace Mawlee’s family’s origins. They came from the district or zila of Ghazipur in the village of Goranu in Uttar Pradesh, formerly known as the United Provinces (Emigration Pass 5986).

Historian Kenneth Gillion notes March 2014

HISTORY

that: “The majority of the Indians who these spaces sometimes leading to “de- The marriage agreement, ijut and went to Fiji under the indentured la- pot marriages”, Brij Lal disputes this sexual jealousy A few months after the Boyne’s arbour system embarked from Calcutta, claim arguing that the notion of depot and had been recruited in the United marriages was “greatly exaggerated”. rival in Fiji on 26 April, 1886, Mawlee’s Provinces, especially in the densely However, while Lal’s research shows that mother became gravely ill and appopulated and very poor north-eastern most families migrated as family units, proached her jahaji, Dhunnoo, to marry in some circumstances, temporary liai- her daughter. In his sworn testimony, districts.”

While there are economic expla- sons that took place in the depots later Dhunnoo stated: “The woman [Mawlee] was young. She was made over to me by nations for this trend of migration in became formalised as marriages.

The probability of Mawlee and her mother when she died. I took care impoverished districts, Lal argues that there was a “long tradition and popular- Dhunnoo meeting on the Boyne be- of her for four years”. When 14-year-old ity of colonial emigration in these re- tween 11 February and 26 April 1886 Mawlee was ‘made over’ to Dhunnoo, this agreement siggions” in comparinified the transferson to other parts of ence of ‘ownership’ India. It is therefore from her family no surprise that (mother) to DhunDhunnoo was from noo. Following the the district of Shapatriarchal tradihabad in the village tion of arranged of Kasiza, also in marriages, once a Uttar Pradesh (Emwoman marries, it igration Pass 5657). is assumed that her His E-Pass reveals husband has comthat, like Mawlee, plete control over he was a passenher. The ‘arranged’ ger on the Boyne. marriage between When the Pass was 14-year-old Mawlee prepared, he was and Dhunnoo was twenty-six years acceptable durold, five feet three ing the time it ocinches tall and had curred. a pock-marked face Dhunnoo and (almost certainly On the record ... A report in The Fiji Times dated 26 April 1890 discusses Dhannoo’s trial.

Mawlee’s union, from an outbreak of was quite high. When this Nourse Line like many of the marriages that took measles) (Emigration Pass 5657).

Archival documents do not indi- sailing ship (often referred to as ‘The place in Fiji before 1895, fell under the cate where Mawlee and Dhunnoo actu- Hoodoo Ship’ because of the numer- category of ‘customary marriage’ which ally met. Some possibilities include: the ous mishaps that occurred on board), was distinct from a legal or registered holding depot at Garden Reach in Cal- departed Calcutta, 537 passengers were marriage (marit).

In a letter to the Agent General in cutta, during the journey on the Boyne, on board. Eight passengers died during Fiji in 1898, the Governor stated: “The or later at the Rarawai Plantation in Ba, the voyage.

The journey across the kala pani or number of coolies living together and Fiji, where they were stationed.

The holding depot where inden- black water, marked the further disinte- who were married under the Indian tured labourers were housed for weeks gration of social structures like the caste Marriage Ordinance of 1892 is very before they boarded a ship was one of system. In these crowded conditions on small, probably not more than 20%. The the first spaces where the social and the ships, Indians were compelled to eat remainder of those cohabiting together physical impact of the indenture agree- together and share living spaces and toi- had no legal redress if the woman was enticed away”. ment was felt. Parbattie Ramsarran de- let facilities.

A consequence of this somewhat amWhat was striking about this experiscribes the holding depots as: “social spaces governed by powerful and unre- ence was that amidst this site of disrup- biguous definition of marriage – the sitution and dislocation, new relationships ation was exacerbated by the extremely lenting colonial apparatus”.

Here Indians were subjected to a full were formed, in particular, as Brij Lal low ratio of women to men – was that a medical examination to certify whether describe it, “the bond of jahajibhai (ship discontented woman could easily terminate a ‘marriage’ and enter a new relationthey were fit enough to survive the two- mates)”.

Lal’s contention that “the jahaji’s ship quite quickly. It is said that this was month journey by boat and 10 years of manual labour. The depots were also treated each other like blood kin with the primary cause of “frequent murderous spaces where inter-caste relationships all the obligations and responsibilities assaults on women” (Report: Population of between labourers were initiated. While that such a relationship entailed” may Male and Female Indian Migrants, 1898).

Ramsarran suggests that social unions be a contributing factor in the union of among men and women took place in Mawlee and Dhunnoo.

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The official term used to describe the motive for these murders was ‘sexual jealously’ (Report: Population of Male and Female Indian Migrants, 1898). Between 1885 and 1920, the majority of the 230 murders that took place were on account of ‘sexual jealousy’.

Court proceedings from the ‘Regnia versus Dhunnoo’ murder trial that took place on 25 March 1890, at the Magistrate’s Court in Nausori revealed that Mawlee left Dhunnoo to live with indentured labourer, Badloo, some four weeks before she was murdered.

Badloo recollected: “Mawlee came to me six times and Dhunnoo came and took her away. I was afraid. I went to live in the upper lines but she came to me again there”. Badloo’s testimony suggests that Mawlee’s assertive and sexually autonomous nature contrasted with Dhunnoo’s patriarchal conceptions of femininity and submission. In more specific terms, Mawlee’s decision to leave Dhunnoo for Badloo contradicted the patriarchal assumption that women should be chaste amongst a host of other virtues.

It is possible to argue further that as Mawlee transgressed the patriarchally constructed boundaries of sexual behaviour within ‘marriage’, she unsettled binaries of ‘honour’ and ‘shame’ that operated to regulate female sexuality throughout the indenture period in Fiji.

In a letter to the Governor in 1898, the Agent General explained: “There is a principle comparable to our ‘honour’ and called ‘ijut’ in Hindustani, for which, in the abstract, Indians have a profound respect, and which, as a fact, has great influence on their actions’ (Report: Population of Male and Female Immigrants, 1890). When an indentured woman exhibited infidelity and this was discovered and proven, the Agent General concluded that “the matter ends by a sudden blow, followed by blind and mad hacking and mutilation”.

The interlocking relationship between the patriarchal notion of proprietariness, ijut and sexual jealousy is striking in this case. Badloo’s testimony captures the confrontation that took place a few days before Mawlee was murdered: “Dhunnoo came and told me that I was to give up all the woman’s jewellery which he had given her. I told the woman to take it off and she gave it all 36

| Repúblika | republikamagazine.com

In patriarchal terms, Mawlee was the only ‘property’ Dhunnoo could realistically own.

When she refused to let him own and manipulate her, Dhunnoo mutilated and murdered her. to him and he took it away and sold it’ (‘Regnia vs Dhunnoo Murder’, 1890: 13).

In this act of exchange where the ‘gift’ is returned, Mawlee is silent. It is Dhunnoo who approaches Badloo to demand the return of the jewellery. This altercation takes place in a public space and there are witnesses. In his discussion of ijut, the Agent General elaborates: “publicity as a rule is an essential quality”.

Dhunnoo’s attempt to publically reconcile his differences with Mawlee and Badloo fails as he returns to the upper lines later the same day and threatens to murder Mawlee. The aim of this act (within a patriarchal context) may have been to restore his ‘honour’. However, ijut is not a concept that can be detached from the lived realities of the Indian male labourer. I want to argue here that ijut is an outcome of the repressive conditions created by the indenture agreement.

It is impossible to simply transfer the Indian notion of ijut to the Fiji indenture context as it is inseparable from, and determined by, the lived experiences of Indians, in this case, the Indian male colonial subject. In a similar way, notions of shame commonly associated with indentured women like Mawlee cannot be divorced from the harsh living and working conditions and the high incidence of sexual violence against women prevalent during the indenture period. It is within this contextspecific framework that we situate the event of Mawlee’s murder.

The event On the morning of Tuesday, 11 March 1890, Mawlee was living with Badloo in the Upper Lines at the Rarawai Plan-

tation in Ba. The morning ritual for indentured women usually entailed waking up at three in the morning to prepare a meal for the husband and/or family before setting off into the fields to work.

After a long day of toiling in the fields, indentured women would return home to prepare the evening meal.

Mawlee left the Upper Lines early on the morning of 11 March carrying a small bundle which included a billycan and hoe.

As she was returning from the plantation in the early afternoon carrying firewood for the evening meal and the now empty billycan, the primary eyewitness and fellow jhaji on the Boyne, Sachnee, described the events that took place: “We were returning from work – about one o’clock. He [Dhunnoo] was in the bush, close by a creek. We were on the Railway track near the bridge over the creek. The prisoner had a knife with which he struck Mawlee … a weeding knife. She had put up her hands and he cut her hands off. She fell back, he cut her throat with the knife. I saw him do that.”

As Mawlee is mutilated, the act of cutting and disfiguring her body may be read as an attempt to ensure that she is no longer aesthetically or sexually desirable to other men. To some extent it can also be argued that women’s reproductive and sexual capacities are seen as commodities that men can own and control through the use or threat of violence. The punishment for Mawlee’s infidelity is mutilation and murder. When he slits her throat, Dhunnoo reasserts his ownership over Mawlee.

While Mawlee is being killed, Sachnee cries out to Saupharia (the secondary eye-witness) a few chains behind. When Saupharia joins her, Dhunnoo has rushed back into the cane carrying the knife with him.

In her statement, Saupharia reveals an interesting detail about the knife that was used to kill Mawlee. She says: “It was not a knife supplied for working.

It was one he [Dhunnoo] had bought himself and had given to Mawlee when she was living with him. When she left him, he took the knife from her. I know that was the same knife.”

As he killed Mawlee with the gift she was forced to return, Dhunnoo affirmed his ownership of the material possessions given to her and simultaneously March 2014

HISTORY

set out to reclaim a sense of proprietorship he believed he had over her. We can suggest further that Dhunnoo’s desire to possess Mawlee was exacerbated by his status as an indentured labourer.

In patriarchal terms, Mawlee was the only ‘property’ he could realistically own. When she refused to let him own and manipulate her, Dhunnoo mutilated and murdered her in an attempt to publically vindicate his ijut.

The event within the event Mawlee’s murder was similar to other mutilation style murders that took place during the indenture period in Fiji. For instance, in May 1901, “a coolie in the Rewa district, actuated by jealousy, murdered two women. He cut off his wife’s head with one sweep of his knife” (Jealousy and Murder, 1901).

On June 9, 1909, indentured labourer, Sukhrania was brutally murdered and mutilated in the cane fields in Navutoka Estate by the man she lived with because she left him for another man.

The postmortem revealed that Sukhrania’s scalp was fragmented, her brain was dislodged, she had a cut across the back of her neck four inches long, a wound across the back of her right ankle and a wound half an inch long and half an inch deep at the extremity.

In a later incident, which took place on Saturday, 3 January 1913, an Indian man attacked a woman with a cane knife and severed her head from her body.

The question that needs to be addressed here is: Why was Mawlee’s murder more ‘eventful’ than these murders?

In the paragraphs that follow, I argue that the event of Mawlee’s murder was deemed ‘eventful’ by the news media because of the act that followed – ‘the event within the event’.

When Dhunnoo picked up Mawlee’s billycan and drank some of her blood, it was this aspect of her murder that shocked the world. The transgressive nature of the act contributed to the newsworthiness of the event primarily because it violated the fundamental principles of a Christian worldview which was prominent in the West during this period.

To understand the event within the event, it is necessary to re-examine Dhunnoo’s Emigration Pass. The pass informs us that Dhunnoo (and Mawlee) belonged to the chamar caste (Emigration Pass, Number 5986 and 5657).

March 2014

Hoff and Pandey explain that following the strict stratification of Indian society according to caste, “individuals are invested with different social status and social meaning”.

According to this stratification, the four main castes include: Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas/Thakurs (rulers and warriors), Vasihyas (traders) and Shudras (servile labourers). The chamar were considered ‘too low’ to be included in the above categorisation and were branded as ‘untouchables’.

As skin or leather workers, their profession required them to handle dead animals. The discovery that Dhunnoo was of the chamar class – a class relegated to occupations associated with “organic waste, filth, ritual pollution, death or evil spirits” – could explain why the act of killing and the sight of blood did not perturb him. But to kill and drink the blood of an 18-year-old woman is a shocking deed. This deed requires a further context.

Shyam Sah argues that the chamar were dreaded for their association with magic and many believed that they were “exorcist-magicians in whose attendance the ghosts served”.

While they are often represented as superstitious, the chamar are also potrayed as religious. Many are Hindus and worship deities and gods, including mother Goddesses or Devis. With this information we can establish a broad link between the event within the event and the ritual act of (human and animal) blood sacrifice to Hindu Goddesses (Devis).

Sah contextualises this act: “drinking the blood of the victim has been a feature of Goddess worship, particularly in medieval tantric manifestation”.

Some Goddesses in India who are worshipped with blood include Kesai Khati, Sivaduti, Guari, Kamakyha, Gundadabbe, Durga and Kali.

Underlying the religious ritual of blood sacrifice is the belief that the power of the Goddess must be renewed with blood. If we follow this line of thought, the event within the event may be interpreted as the final act of human sacrifice to a Devi.

For Dhunnoo, the consummation of Mawlee’s blood may have signified the destruction of ‘evil’ (associated with infidelity). Also, to rephrase David Kinsley’s argument, through the act of ritual sacrifice, the perpetrator (Dhunnoo)

may obtain victory over his enemies.

While these reasons are speculative, I wish to stress that the event within the event should be read as a patriarchal attempt to silence, threaten and punish women for transgressing the boundaries of ‘appropriate’ feminine behaviour and virtues.

Restoring women to history When Dhunnoo was charged with the murder of 18-year-old Mawlee and condemned to death in April 1890, only three of the four assessors found him guilty. The fourth assessor was uncertain that he had committed the murder because a heavy shower fell at 2.00pm, just before Mawlee’s body was retrieved by an engine driver on his way to the mill. The shower washed much of the evidence away from the scene of the crime. This included the billy-can with Mawlee’s blood in it.

There was also some dispute between the two eye-witnesses, Sachnee and Saupharia, about the colour of the clothes the murderer was wearing.

While these particulars initially casted some doubt on Dhunnoo’s culpability, before he was hanged he made a full confession. His last words were: “The woman would not live with me so I killed her.”

We will never know the entire story surrounding Mawlee’s murder and her relationship with Dhunnoo (and Badloo) but we have come closer to reconstructing the event of her death.

Mawlee was murdered because of her sex but also as a consequence of a host of other interlocking variables.

An understanding of the context of indenture – for instance, the ratio of men to women and how this is linked to the reclamation of ijut, the general dreariness of plantation life, and demographical information about Mawlee and Dhunnoo – has enabled us to “bend closer to the ground” (Guha, 1987: 138 and Mishra, 2012: 5) to recover the tragic story of an 18-year-old subaltern woman who defied patriarchal attempts to conR tain her behaviour and sexuality. n Dr Margaret Mishra is a senior lecturer at the USP’s School of Government, Development and International Affairs. This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in issue 16 of the online journal Double Dialogues (http://www.doubledialogues. com/issue_sixteen/mishra.html) where the full version and academic references for this article may be found. Dr Mishra dedicates this piece to the late Joytika Singh, who was murdered by her husband in 2013. republikamagazine.com | Repúblika |

37

FEATURE

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March 2014

Repúblika

salon Cultural stimulus for the curious mind

Tattooing is my religion

photographY Gregory Ravoi

Amoe “Rasta” Aisake

Step right up ... The flight of stairs leading to Amoe Aisake’s tattoo shop

Repúblika | salon

March 2014

photography: Gregory Ravoi

PAGE 40

Focussed ... Aisake doing font work

By gregory ravoi

T

attooing is a unique aspect of Pacific culture and has carried out in the region from time immemorial. Over the past two decades simple tattooing has evolved into more elaborate body art. It has also become a way for many people to earn a living.

Along Suva’s Terry Walk, up a dark flight of stairs and walls covered with artistic graffiti, you will find the studio of Amoe Aisake, better known as Rasta.

There’s no sign board pointing the way because Aisake prefers word-ofmouth to advertising for people who want to find him.

He reasons that the effort people put in to locating him is an indication of their seriousness about wanting him in particular to do their tattoo.

Hailing from Rotuma, Aisake, 30, knew from early on that tattooing was something he wanted to do for a living but didn’t know how to go about it.

As a child he loved drawing, and growing watching his dad do tattoos Aisake realised that he could make money out of it as well. Starting off small at

home, with a home-made machine, he began a journey on what would later become his career.

Aisake explained that tattooing was always a part of his life. He even used tattooing to get his way around school when he attended Rishikul Sanatan College. Students would ask him to do their tattoo and in return they would do his accounting homework. That is why Amoe said that he never really did well in school because the work was always done by other students.

He dropped out of school at form four and stayed home for awhile but still carried on with tattooing. Aisake then started to work at a bike shop in Raiwaqa and later got in to construction.

Later he worked on a fishing boat for some eight years then got the chance to go to maritime school. It was while he was drinking with one of his boat mates one day that his friend told him that the talent he showed at the time was not even half of what he was capable of.

That comment stuck in his mind and he realised he could develop this skill into something he could survive on. To this day, Aisake is grateful for his friend’s republikamagazine.com

comment and has never looked back.

He would earn what he could at his day job and when he was not working he would do tattooing to bring in the extra cash. When he did not have anything else going for him, tattooing would be there.

Aisake then began tattooing on a big scale when he was asked to be the tattooist at a shop in Toorak. Word of mouth was how the owner of the shop came to know of Aisake’s skills.

The time spent at his first tattoo shop was very helpful because he learnt a lot, met a lot of new people and developed as a tattooist. Aisake says his tattooing skills is a result of picking up what he could along the way.

In Fiji there are no formal opportunities to learn tattooing or become an apprentice. “When you’re local and you’re doing the tattoo you know that this a one-shot type of thing and you can’t afford to make mistakes. That gamble type of mentality pushes your work to that higher notch,” Aisake says.

That’s why when Aisake and other local tattooists compare their work to overseas artists they realise that they are

Father and son ... Amoe and Irahlli

Inspiration ... A picture of the legendary Bob Marley above Aisake’s drawing desk

Dels, Aisake’s assistant sketching a tattoo for a client

The crew ... Amoe “Rasta” Aisake, right, pose outside his tattoo shop with, from left to right, colleague Joseph “Jaja” Lesi, a customer carrying Aisake’s son Irahlli, and fellow artist Faith.

not so bad. Given that those artists have some sort of formal education in tattooing and up to four years of apprenticeship, local tattooists are able to match international standards.

Aisake counts among his local inspiration several artists including Roland Wong and Victor Rahiman and they are people who also motivate and encourage him. These simple words of encouragement that they exchange whenever they meet, goes a long way to boost his morale.

The fact that they are great tattooists and they commend him for his work, he says is a great motivator which he never takes for granted.

While he is acutely aware of the value of his work, he will not reject a request simply because of the rate he is offered. He believes that the discounts he offers for people who really cannot pay his standard rates will come back to him in may other ways.

By not focusing on money alone, Aisake is trying to maintain his identity as a body artist. In being a tattooist Aisake emphasises that you need to know how to mingle with the people and be able to

adjust yourself to society to keep pushing your work.

There are many people who claim to be tattooists in Fiji but not many are as good as they claim, says Aisake.

“Most people want to become a tattooist because they think its a cool job, you wear what you want to wear and stuff like that,” he says.

“The thing is that’s the wrong reason and there are a lot of people who do tattoos for the wrong reason and those are the people that bring disrepute to the tattooing circle.

“To become a tattoist it should be for the love of the art.”

Aisake says that people should consider the size, price and placement of tattoos when they come to get it done because once a tattoo is done it is permanent. He has had a lot of people faint on him while doing the work and that is why you need to have a good meal before you have a sitting for a tattoo.

Aisake says there are no limitations to his work. He does the traditional tribal, Japanese work, font work and colour work but his favourite is Japanese black ink. republikamagazine.com

For Aisake, tattooing is now the only job he ever wants to do and the thing he knows best.

Aisake shares his studio with Joseph Lesi, better known as Jaja, who in previous years dabbled in fashion design – even showing at Fiji Fashion Week.

Between the two of them, says Aisake, all they have to offer to the world is tattooing and that everything they achieve is through tattooing.

For Aisake, tattooing can provides everything he dreams of – physical and spiritual.

“It’s like a life, a race, a religion. For people like me tattooing is everything.

Everyone that I know in my circle I know through tattooing, everything that I get is from tattooing and everything that I have to give to the world is nothing but through tattooing.

“For me it is life itself, because like how people say god is life, yes god is life but you know you cannot get life just sitting down praying all day. We all have our hustle, and this is my hustle. I would not want to pretend to be anything else because I believe that I am here just to R serve through tattooing.”

PAGE 42

Repúblika | salon

March 2014

Taxi drivers that annoy us

Coconut Cognition with GREGORY RAVOI

I

s it me or do three out of five taxi drivers you meet in the week seem angry?

There’s the driver that thinks he knows where you want to go. After repeating yourself three times they still go the long way and it usually ends up being the wrong way too.

And does my fare include being eligible to air conditioning when its raining, because the taxis get stuffy and you have to put the windows up or you’ll get wet. So the dilemma is get wet or pass out due to the stuffiness. Not to mention the need for an air freshener.

Then you have a driver who acts like he is late for his wedding. If you stop at the shop to buy something on your way back from work, and unfortunately you get to be the one who didn’t get off, you have just got yourself a load of questions to answer.

With the amount of questions they can ask persistently in that short time, I

reckon they should try being a reporter.

What’s he gone to buy? Where you gang work? You all related? How long they gonna take? With that skill of questioning, who knows they might make it big.

Another issue is the taxi driver who is not able to give change for $10, even if the fare is like $5 or $6. It’s like the general public is expected to have a mountain of coins and $5 notes when travelling.

Another common sight is the messed up doors, it may be easy to open from the outside but a mammoth of a task to open the door from the inside to get out. Perhaps it is new way for drivers to prevent people from ‘stepping’ their taxi.

Another annoying issue is what a friend of mine, Maryann Lockington highlighted very well on Facebook. The times when you don’t need a taxi but they honk their horn hoping to convince you that you should catch a taxi even if your wallet says otherwise.

Even if you’re waiting under a sign that says bus stop, and what’s the most irritating part is when you never even republikamagazine.com

waved or flinched to indicate that you wanted a taxi and they stop right in front of you and say: “You wanted a taxi?”

The reply would obviously be “no” and a few choice words, and they’ll drive off repeating similar words back to you.

Meanwhile, I didn’t stop you, so don’t get angry at me.

I’m not saying that all taxi drivers are this annoying. Maybe I’ve just had the misfortune of catching the wrong taxis lately. There are the good ones that tell a joke or two and actually update you with the news or some fascinating story of something they witnessed previously. Their doors actually work normally, they have the courtesy of turning on the air conditioning on a rainy day, they have air fresheners in the taxi and they even have change. Best of all they actually smile when serving you. To those drivers who make catching a taxi enjoyable and pleasant, thank you!

R

n Greg Ravoi is the reigning Hibiscus King.

He is a graphic designer with Republika Media Limited.

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45

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By KALAFI MOALA

P

INA stakeholders and members found out at their summit in Noumea in February that the regional organisation had been recently registered in Fiji as a limited liability company, Pacific Islands News Association Limited.

Explanations as to why pina needed to incorporate ranges from the need for the organisation to become compliant with the accountability requirements of a profit-making corporate entity in Fiji, to claims that it would make it easier for donors to give money to a corporate entity.

Reactions from participants were mixed. There were those who questioned the reasons given and whether they were really valid. Some also questioned whether this means that the board and all PINA officers would be paid employees of the new entity.

Others questioned the fact that the process of pina getting registered has not been conducted in transparency, as many of the stakeholders and members did not know about it – or the details of it – until the Noumea summit.

In fact, whatever was needed in Noumea from the membership was simply, it seemed, to rubber-stamp a decision and action that had already been carried out in Fiji.

But the president of pina, Moses Stevens, says: “This status means a strengthening of our accountability and governance from a charitable organisation.”

He says that the company status means that pina now has to file periodic reports to the Registrar of Companies in Fiji, and this will ensure good governance and transparency within pina.

The implication from this statement is that pina in recent years has not been filing the necessary compliance reports for a charitable trust, leaving the issue open of compliance with good governance and transparency principles. pina president Stevens of Vanuatu had previously declared that he would step down from being president continued as president under the new

46

| Repúblika | republikamagazine.com

“corporate regime.” But when the announcement was made regarding pina becoming a company limited by guarantee at the agm, members were told that legal advice had been given in Fiji that they should retain the same board and officers for the next two years as “a transition period” while the new entity was being developed. Therefore, no elections, and no change to the office holders took place the agm.

Notable of course at this year’s summit was the departure of Matai Akau’ola, the long time manager of the pina secretariat in Fiji, who delivered his final report at the agm. He stepped down to take over directorship of the Media Industry Development Authority (mida) in Fiji. pina has been in existence for over 28 years having initially been registered in Samoa in 1986, and then shifting to Fiji where the secretariat is located. pina was then registered in 1997 as a charitable trust organisation.

Critics of pina claim that the media association has lost its way. There is the sideswipe that pina has chosen to kowtow to a Fiji agenda concerning the political control of media.

Former pina president Monica Miller of American Samoa, who attended the Noumea summit after many years of absence and is considered a champion of Pacific press freedom , in a speech made while participating in a panel discussion, appealed to the members of pina to uphold the original reason for which the organisation was founded – to defend media freedom.

In Noumea, one of the workshops of the summit was to do with media selfregulation, a subject very much to the distaste of journalists who strongly advocate for media freedom.

Many felt that the drive for self-regulation was a “catch-22” situation for media in which some of the governments in the region have threatened that “if you do not self-regulate, we will.” Rather than resisting this demand, pina has chosen to facilitate it.

The fact pina is leading in this drive for self-regulation is a sure sign that media freedom definitions have changed for

the regional organisation.

But the idea of self-regulation is not necessarily contradictory to media freedom if the aim is to make media more professional, rather than regulate to satisfy government threats and an antimedia mentality.

Keni Lesa, editor of the Samoan Observer, who spoke in Noumea during the panel on self-regulation, said, “the idea is sending shivers down ... (my) spine.”

He said: “The media in Samoa is strictly regulated by law under our Constitution – designed to protect members of the public from being wronged by the media – and laws put in place by our government to stop the media from carrying out the role it exists to perform.”

Other regional bodies such a PasiMa (Pasifika Media Association), registered and based in Apia, have made media freedom the main reason for its existence. And so is the regional online forum – Pacific Freedom Forum (pff) registered in the Cook Islands. (EDITOR’S NOTE: PasiMa is a breakaway organisation created in 2010 by those who felt pina was not focusing on its core role and Moala is a founding member.)

Miller, the co-chair of pff, claims too many media organisations have abandoned pina, and that pina no longer enjoys the confidence of many of its former members.

She questions whether the current leadership is serious about safeguarding media freedom.

“Are we doing our duty and will the PINA we pass on to the next generation be one that we can be proud of?”

Referring to the split among the regional media fraternity, Miller said: “In divorce there is always a chance for the couple to try and settle their differences. While we don’t want to dwell on the past, we need to look at the causes of the break-up and fix them to make the marR riage work again.” n Kalafi Moala is publisher and managing

director of the Taimi Media Network in Nuku’alofa, Tonga. He is the vice-chairman of the Pasifika Media Association.

March 2014

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