Fiji govt attempts to heal racial wounds

Nearly 10 years after the Fijian army stormed parliament and arrested the entire Indian-dominated cabinet, the South Pacific nation is attempting to heal the racial wounds that have set off an exodus of emigration among its educated-Indians.

This month, a parliamentary select committee will write the concept of a multiparty, multiracial executive government into the country's constitution.

This will be the biggest step in the country's effort for racial harmony between the economically powerful Indians and indigenous Fijians. Relations between the two have been extremely touchy since Fiji's independence from Britain in 1970.

The two Indian Opposition parties -- the National Federation Party and the Fiji Labour Party -- have welcomed the move, lauding it as a ''major breakthrough.''

Half of the 772, 000-plus Fiji population are Melanesian. The rest are mostly descendants of Indian indentured labourers, brought here by the British colonialists between 1879 and 1916 to work in sugar plantations.

Although they own 83 per cent of the land, indigenous Fijians had been restive about the Indians's greater prosperity.Tension broke into the open after a coalition between the two Indian parties swept the 1987 general polls.

Led by Sitiveni Rabuka, the Fijian nationalists revolted against what for them was an Indian takeover, resulting in the South Pacific's one and only military coup.

A new constitution was adopted in 1990. But the Indians were not happy with it -- they see it as a document borrowed from South Africa's old regime.

''It is a racial constitution imposed by presidential decree,'' observes FLP leader Mahendra Chaudhry, ''There is entrenched discrimination against the Indian community in it. The way the parliament is structured, Indians have been relegated to play the role of a permanent opposition!''

Under the 1990 constitution, the parliament or lower house has 70 seats, 37 of which are reserved for Fijians, 27 for Indians and 5 for other races. Voting is done entirely on a communal roll, so each racial group votes only for its own candidates.

In 1995, after much pressure by the Indo-Fijian opposition, a constitutional review commission was appointed. It was headed by former New Zealand governor-general Paul Reeves who released his report late last year.

The Reeves report recommends that 45 of the 70 seats in parliament be contested on a common roll. The remaining 25 seats would be voted on a communal roll -- 12 to be reserved for the indigenous community, and 10 for Indians.

A parliamentary committee, chaired by Rabuka, is now studying the report, based on which they would formulate the blue print for a new constitution by July.

Though many indigenous provincial councils are unhappy with the recommendations, it seems to be gathering support from within Rabuka's party and the community at large.

A recent Fiji Times survey find 60 per cent of the respondents in agreement with the Reeves report. And while half the indigenous Fijians are against cross voting for some seats, 82 per cent of Indo-Fijians are for it.

If the new representation formula is enshrined in the constitution, the prime minister-elect in the next polls will have to invite all parties that have won a certain number of seats to join his cabinet. The party leaders concerned would be free to accept or reject the invitation.

The demographic changes coupled with the economic woes which the country has been facing since 1987 are what prompted the government to pursue reforms at this juncture.

''(Indigenous) Fijians are now the single largest group and growing fairly rapidly. The Indian population, on the other hand, has been diminishing because of largescale emigration since 1987, and lower birth rates,'' says NF Party boss and opposition leader Jai Ram Reddy.

The Indians who, before the 1987 coup, accounted for 48 per cent of the total population are now down to 43. In the last 10 years, 53, 800 Indo-Fijians -- most of them doctors, engineers, lawyers, accountants, teachers and businessmen -- have emigrated.

"In another 10 years this could drop to 35," Reddy avers, "This has made the Fijians a lot more confident. Now they are willing to share power with other communities'.

The just-released results of Fiji's 1996 census confirm that, for the first time since 1901, the indigenous Fijian population has overtaken that of Indo-Fijians. Now, 51.1 per cent of the population are indigenous, while Indo-Fijians make up 46.

''The Rabuka-government tried hard to divide trade unions and political parties along racial lines," allege Tupeni Baba, an indigenous Fijian cabinet minister in the pre-coup government, "These policies were based on the thinking it is race which brings people together."

A United Nations Development Programme study had recently reported poverty levels rose significantly in Fiji during the last decade. Indigenous Fijian households had the lowest incomes. In fact, income disparity was so high that the average earnings of Indo-Fijians in the upper bracket was 42 per cent higher than that of the richest indigenous Fijians.

"Rabuka has realised a racial government of Fijians cannot run on its own -- there's an economic price to be paid," his opposers say, "The coup-makers are confronting the consequences of their coup. Their own people are the ones now suffering."

UNI