Acting PM warns on deepening gaps in education programmes

There were periods in Fijian history that we did not have peace because people judged each other on ethnicity, scouts were told yesterday.

Acting Prime Minister and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum made the remarks at the International Day for Peace in Lautoka yesterday.

He said a lot of politicians talked about racial and religious differences.

He said these were the issues that people wanted to go away.

He told the scouts, who had converged at Saru MGM School from Nadi, Ba and Lautoka that they needed to feel comfortable about themselves.

He said if they loved themselves they would love others and be at peace with one another. “Nowadays, peace means understanding each other, it means respecting each other, it means helping each other.”

“When we have peace there is no opportunity for trouble to be created and you will be able to respect each other and know you will be able to have that level of tolerance if you want to live in a country where we all treat each other equally.”

“Every single person sitting here, all of us are Fijians. We all belong here and are citizens of this country.

“Therefore, he said, as fellow Fijians, we should learn to be able to look after each other, to be able to respect each other, if one of our fellow Fijians was in trouble, regardless of where they came from or who they were.

“As they say smile is the greatest thing you can give anybody and it’s not going to cost you a single cent,” he said.

He encouraged the scouts to do that, work together, to be able to spread that message of peace.”

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said Government would look into how it could co-ordinate better with the Fiji Scouts Association.

He said he hoped high school students would develop an interest in the scout association. It was highlighted that the scouts movement tended to stop at primary school level.