COMMON NAME The issue of the common name Fijian applicable to all citizens of Fiji has become a political football and political parties led by the FFP are defending it as if it was their own innovation. The aggrieved party to this debate are all the native Fijians, irrespective if they are members of other parties; oh well except Bainimarama. The Taukei have every right to be opposed to this idea for obvious reasons. The name Fiji Islander was already being adopted as it went through the legal process in parliament. However this common name Fijian had no legal base because it was not agreed in parliament. It was imposed by an illegal regime which did not have the mandate to make such a change. The regime also breached the ILO Convention 169 on the protection of indigenous & tribal rights. Fiji had already ratified this Convention. I am surprised that other parties like NFP, PDP and others are jumping on the bandwagon of FFP to discredit and ridicule Mr Qarase for raising this issue of common name, Fijian. Your memory is very short and you are like a yo-yo as you keep changing you stand, especially on this heritage of the Taukei. Mind you those Taukei in your party would like status quo to remain and keep using Fiji Islander as our common name. Another dimension to this common name, as now being perpetrated by the advocators, which has already brought unnecessary fear amongst the native Fijians, is the equal citizenry, whereby every Fijian are entitled to land and qoliqoli, the removal of traditional titles of Ratu and Adi from the births registration, as well as their mataqali and tokatoka et. etc. The Taukei see this as a ploy to slowly remove their heritage and rights under the guise of equal citizenry. No legal or illegal government that plans to homogenise a nation will not be faced with opposition, civil disobedience that may lead to nation-wide anarchy. As the saying goes, Let sleeping dog lie
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 22:05:56 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015