Young children showing us the way forward in articulating meaning of Constitution
They may be young children and still at school but their interpretation of the 2013 Constitution reflects a deeper understanding of the country’s supreme document than some of their older folks.
The winners of a national competition to mark Constitution Day hit a common theme that prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion l, age, physical and mental state, political beliefs and socio-economic backgrounds.
The winners say COVID-19 does not discriminate between those with physical disabilities and others without them, the gay-lesbian-transgender individuals and those who are straight or normal. In fact it threatens everyone, rich or poor, male or female, young or old.
We are all affected by it. Even a frontline worker, eqiped with all the protective gear, tested positive and was admitted to a hospital isolation unit.
The message is we need to be on the same page, united with one common purpose to protect and save the life of every person in this country.
That’s the reason the Constitution has provisions for equal rights to safeguard everyone. This is a universal principle.
This does not mean that group rights have been ignored. The Constitution guarantees, for example, the rights of the iTaukei to their land in terms of ownership and cultural practices.
What some are confused about is the perception that the Constitution is responsible for iTaukei lagging behind in education, business and commerce. This is not true. The gap has existed for a long time, since the colonial days.
Under previous constitutions the issue was addressed through the policy of affirmative action or positive discrimination to improve the economic status of iTaukei.
If they were successful we will not be talking about it today. It will be a non issue. The FijiFirst Goverment has been addressing It through various initiatives. But it is going to take time. It took previous governments 36 years.
The Bainimarama regime took eight years and the FijiFirst Government is into its sixth year.
Obviously more needs to be done to continue addressing the issue. All ethnic groups need economic empowerment not just iTaukei.
The challenge for iTaukei is not the Constitution, but how to convert 91 per cent of Fiji’s total land mass into cash and improved living standards and take advantage of the various Government initiatives including free education.
The young winners of the Constitution Day competition have emphatically struck the right note that we all have equal opportunities irrespective of our differences. The choice is all ours to take advantage of these opportunities.