No citizen of this country Should be Called a vulagi

Vulagi is a generic term for visitors. In the iTaukei context you are a vulagi when you are a visitor to a village.

In other words you really have no links or ties with that village.

Nationally, you call a tourist or a visitor or a foreigner to Fiji as a vulagi too.

But to call a locally-registered political party vulagi when many of its members represent a particular ethnic community does not fit the same definition.

In fact, it is out of kilter with the normal use of the word vulagi.

The ethnic community referred to in the controversy is the Indo-Fijian.

Let’s get one thing straight. When you are born here, a citizen of this country, you are not a vulagi.

You enjoy equal rights like everybody else whether you are iTaukei, Indo-Fijian, part-European etc.

So the use of the word in a political meeting obviously was to project a certain political agenda.

The politician or politicians who used it cannot masquerade it as an innocuous application of the word vulagi.

The generic vulagi cannot be applied in this case. They simply do not gel or mix because of the political context.

To refer to the Indo-Fijian community or other citizens vulagi is racist and repugnant. It’s uncalled for and unacceptable. Those who utter this word for political gains are irresponsible and incite racial tension.

It does not help when Ganesh Chand, the ViceChancellor of Solomon Islands National University, an Indo-Fijian and a descendant of the Girmitiyas, says he is a vulagi.

He says: “You must stop demanding to say that I am not a vulagi. For you are in the traditional sense of the word ‘vulagi’.”

Mr Chand is wrong. When the first Indian indentured labourers arrived here to work in sugarcane plantations they were probably called vulagi. That was okay. But it not okay now. When they chose to live here and assume Fijian citizenship, the vulagi tag disappeared. Their descendants who are born here are citizens and enjoy equal citizenry.

Let’s not confuse and mislead people. When we do we cause unnecessary anxiety, fear, suspicion and mistrust.

What’s the solution? Politicians should refrain from using the word vulagi to denote a group particularly when we are all fellow citizens and no one is a foreigner.

Many Indo-Fijians today are fourth and fifth generation of the Indian indentured labourers. This is their home. Those who have passed away before them were born, bred here and contributed in a variety of ways to build this country to what it is today. They know no other home. This is where they were born and this is where they will die.

By right, they cannot be called vulagi.