| A Common Name |
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| Thursday, 07 August 2008 01:05 |
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Here is FDN's own "Pick of the Postings" on what may seem a minor issue, but is of great importance to our people and society. Everybody is talking about "a common name". We at FDN have our own views on this but we don't have a common view. The views of our team members differ on this one great question, but they don't divide into the two obvious categories. Our ethnic make-up is mixed. One of us is the proud bearer of the heritages of our two major races! Last night we sat around a bow! or two and discussed the question for couple of hours. Like everyone who has lived overseas and faced the question "where are you from", we get used to being tangled up on the question of "but are you Fijian"? The simple fact is, and we all agree on this, that outside of Fiji it doesn't make a whole lot of sense not to be called Fijian if you are from Fiji. How many times have we heard the response from people who know little about Fiji; "so you were born in Fiji but you're not Fijian?" In Australia it's not so bad because people are often aware of Fiji's complex ethnic issues and history, but even here you can still get into weird conversations. After hours of chewing the issue over in the way you do when you're around the yaqona bowl we agreed on a few things. First, it makes sense to have a common name. After three or more generations in a country to have to explain your ethnic heritage is a bit silly. But how do you do that given the sensitivity of many, probably most Fijians (I trust we don't have to clarify who we mean here) to the issue of their name. In Fiji, the word Fijian has entered the English language as the translation of i Taukei. That's a fact that no-one can change. "Native" might be a better translation but that's not what the colonial government or Fijians wanted. FIJI Islander is a way around this but you can imagine the kind of confusion that could lead to overseas: "so you're an Islander but you look Indian." We all agreed pretty quickly that Fiji Islander is a dead end. Another thing we agreed on is that the question of a common name is really pretty trivial, at least to us, when you consider all of the problems we've got, but it is vitally important that any change is made by a democratically elected government. The last government that could ever make any change to use of the name Fijian is one that has forced itself upon the people of Fiji at gun- point which is at the same time doing all sorts of things to provoke and antagonize Fijians, by sacking Fijians from civil service and board positions and making provocative statements about land. The thing that the quest for a common name needs most desperately is democracy. Only a democratically elected government can have the mandate for such a change. The un-elected National Committee for Bullshit and Bluster wants to give us pure democracy, as they see it, but why do they want to give us a new name before they have introduced their pure democracy? We think we have an answer: it's because the Illegal regime wants to sow the seeds of anger and distrust in order to prolong their dictatorial rule. Far from wanting to move Fiji forward they want to mire Fiji in confusion, anger and distrust. We say return democracy and the rule of law to Fiji now. Let's move back to the rule of law, not forward, because if this is the future we don't want it. |
