Death of democracy

At Issue: After two years since granting political rights to Indo-Fijians, democracy died recently in Fiji.

Our View: Is ethnic supremacy via coups the answer to planting the seed of equality and harmony?

Descendants of Indians who were brought to Fiji in the 19th Century to work in sugar plantations have called Fiji home. Their children were born in Fiji. While they may know their roots, Fiji is home for thousands of Indo-Fijian children.

How sad that at a tender age, descendants of Ethnic-Indians are forcibly shown that there’s such a thing as ethnic supremacy, therefore, they become victims of their ancestral origin. Imagine if this were the law of the land across the great US of A. Minorities will never see the benefits of “We the people…the pursuit of happiness….”

To see, understand and appreciate the absence of ethnicity is to watch young school children interact inside and outside the classroom. Hardly any of the venomous elements of ethnicity exist. It’s so humbling what their focus is: welfare for one another in academic preparation.
Their faces beam with love and care! Their origin or ethnicity is furthest from their minds. Harmony is nurtured and strengthened from the moment they enter the classroom until they bid adios to their teachers and classmates at the end of the day.

Perhaps the analogy may be inappropriate when viewed against our individual insecurities or immaturity or both. But the point that must be remembered is the grand opportunity to nurture the abundance mentality that grants one and all an equal footing in the pursuit of lifetime skills and dreams in peace and harmony.

We feel for the displaced Indo-Fijians who know no other place as home except Fiji where they were born. How unfortunate that envy for their success has reached boiling point that further envenomed bigotry. Thus, prominence was given the a political agenda of ethnic supremacy. This must the saddest day in the history of Fiji.

We also feel for Fijian-Fijians whose livelihood have also been derailed because an insecure and failed businessman redefined democracy to mean ethnic supremacy. Why wasn’t the nurturing and strengthening of similarities among peoples given a chance over ethnicity? Isn’t the basic needs of mankind the same all over the world?

We pray and hope that democracy will eventually return to the island nation of Fiji. It’s the only way to ascertain the true enhancement and enrichment of both Ethnic-Fijians and Fijian-Fijians. Si Yuus Maase`!