Of special rights for the few

I was born a mixed blood–Chamorro, Carolinian and Filipino–an ethnic mixture that I have never given prominence at all. Nor have I seen the need to use it as a scaffold for special rights to trounce my fellow man or get ahead of others. Perhaps it had a lot to do with character molding pounded into heart, soul and mind by well-meaning folks whom I have met in the deep valleys of life’s realities.

Yes, they were painful years of daily bouts with abject poverty and slave-like conditions. But most other kids had their bouts too and they never had the time to don the role of cry babies. They picked themselves up and moved on to become very successful people in this community. I have nothing short of admiration for their determination, jumping over hurdles many young kids today never had to endure. So what’s my beef?

It is troubling to see how ethnicity has been given divisive prominence than nurturing harmony in various Pacific island nations and the State of Hawaii. The sentiments revolve around special rights for the indigenous people, a right that infringes upon the rights of other citizens. In its purest form, it is riddled with discrimination. It brings into focus various issues, including empty claims of being indigenous when history is replete that our ancestors too (indigenous people) have sailed into islands in the Pacific from distant shores.

Mr. Harold Rice’s family on the Big Island of Hawaii have lived there since the 18th Century. He was born there! He’s as Hawaiian as anybody else. He speaks pidgin English and knows the State of Aloha as any native Polynesian. But there’s only one thing wrong with him: He doesn’t fit the definition of a Native Hawaiian and all because he has the wrong blood. He took his case to the US Supreme Court when denied the right to vote for the board of directors of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. He won a 7-2 decision.

In Fiji, failed businessman George Speight revived what has become a fashionable tool to give the indigenous people special rights–a coup. Many of the educated and elite businessmen (Fijian Indians) have left the country in search of a place they can peacefully call home. Yes, they were born in Fiji as descendants of ancestors who were brought there to work the sugar cane fields of Fiji. They never returned to their country of origin–India. Their children hardly know about it either, but know the place of their birth by heart.

Yet, they are alienated for one reason and one reason alone: They are not Fijians by blood and the ethnic Fijians resent their success in most fields of endeavor. It’s what I call insecurity, none of which is the fault of Indian Fijians. They know they would be discriminated so they stuck to their books for education was the only way that could equip them to endure their rather unusual quirk of fate. Whether we like it or not, people’s aspirations are basically the same all over the world. Those who took the education equation would prevail be it here, Fiji or elsewhere. Those who didn’t would have to make do with the ill-benefits of complacency.

The indigenous people here must also learn to embrace the concept and principle of equality, especially, the rights of ALL citizens. It’s in our US Constitution! It’s also in our NMI Constitution! And unless we buckle down to this new reality, you too would be boxed into that interminable sentiment of insecurity as to shamelessly use ethnicity to buy yourself special rights at the expense of others. This is wrong! This needs to be changed! Hafa mohon?

Strictly a personal view. John S. DelRosario Jr. is publisher of Saipan Tribune.