Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Racism Or Not? THat is the Question...

Ni Sa Bula,

The issue of Racism has reared it's ugly head. Well, this is one arguement that is being used against the SDL by Bainimarama and his followers...the accusation that the policies that were being put forward by the SDL were racist. Namely the Qoliqoli Bill and the Affirmative Action are the two "victims" in the sights of the FMF, a place they have lived ever since they were mooted.

Now let's look at what racism is. Racism is defined as " The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.." The claim put forward is that the Bill and the Affirmative Action program were racist. Now how is that? The area in question was given by individual landowners 125 years ago to the Crown, and when the Crown returned it at Independence, it was returned to the State, which was not the original owner of the area in question. As such shouldn't the landowners be entitled to receive what they had given? If the claim for land by indigineous owners is racist, then the Aborigines in Australia, the Maori in New Zealand, the Native Americans in North America, in fact every indigineous race is racist to claim land that belonds to them, and was taken by means that are often illegal, immoral and just plain wrong. As the State returned Native Land to the Native Land owners, why was there a distinction made to the Qoliqoli areas?

This claim is often made that Fijians are racist when they stand up for what is rightfully theirs. This quote from Wikipedia by an Ashneel Singh states" We believe that God has given three things for free: the land the wind and the sea. I don't think Qarase should have taken the land and just given it to the Fijians. What would be left for the Indian community?" If that was true (and it is patently not, as I will now prove) it would be against the beliefs of the Indian Community to own land. The question asked here is important, because it brings to the fore, the core issue that is why we have this problem in our country - the issue of land ownership.

Land ownership is at the root of one's security. When leases expire, there is a lot of problems because the tenants often feel attachments that often go beyond what the contracts they signed. This, however is the way leases go....you sign a contract and when it's term ends, the decision to extend is solely the owners. Whether the lease is for land, accomodation, cars or any other thing, by signing on the dotted line, both parties agree to be bound by the agreement, which also implies that there is an end date.

We can all agree that there are disparities between Fijians and Indians, with Indians in general, being better off. I say in general, because there are cases of Indians being in even poorer conditions than Fijians. While I am not an SDL apologist, I think this is why the Affirmative Action program was put into place. Having said that, I believe that that is not the answer. A handout is not what Fijians need......Fijians need to adopt the work ethics of our Indian brothers if they are to succeed in this new Fiji. As the Bible says " Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men."

However, there is one point that needs to be driven home.

THERE IS NO ACCEPTABLE EXCUSE FOR A COUP.!!!!!!!

The IG are using this as one of the excuses they carried out the coup...corruption being the other. None of these are valid reasons for taking out any Government, that has won elections fair and square. There has been no evidence of corruption on the previous Government's part. Sure there are rumours and slander floating about, but no hard evidence apart from information obtained.

This coup is surely about other issues. Using racism is just a red herring thrown at us to divert us from the real issues. If we swallow the bait, this problem will not dissappear from our nation...and that wil be a real tragedy.

God Bless Fiji
FijianBlack aka Mawdsomething

1 comment:

Keep The Faith said...

Interesting how a democratic MAJORITY is now being re-defined as RACISM.

Is democracy therefore racism? I think not.

Ask the Americans, the Australians, the Kiwi's...hell you could even ask the Indians & Pakistani's or the UN!