2023 a year of reconciliation
OUR country is free after 16 years of oppression. In 2006, the freedom to speak was a choice that was taken from us. Let us be honest to begin with, we gave it permission for various reasons.
Power and opportunity clouded and blinded judgement.
A desirous platter provided under the guise of control to which many succumbed. We were delusional — thinking that things were legitimate and going to be better. A daylight robbery, such trickery with the obvious markings of a dictatorship to begin with.
In early January 2007, a group of youth workers in Suva gathered, to form a notfor-profit organisation focused on the needs of young people. They pre-empted and forecasted dismal times ahead for young people in the country.
By this time the military had taken over as heads of government departments. We were told that all not- for-profit registrations had ceased in the country. In true Fiji style, knowing who headed the government department, we discovered he attended mass every Sunday in a quaint church placed in the Eastern Division that an aunt attended.
So it was a matter of whispering in the church aisle after Sunday service. A group went to his office on Monday morning and the paperwork was signed. All in the name of relationship. And then life happened.
Countless of young people were taken into custody over the 16 years. Some were beaten that ended in death, others living today with the scars of their trauma.
Families were traumatized, their loved ones taken in the middle of the night. This was the reality of daily living in Fiji for 16 long years. Too many stories to recollect in this brief article.
As a country we underwent a major cultural shift - you could call it a revolution, where our values, practices and principles were assaulted at the highest levels. We became a nation jaded and damaged in our relationships and disloyalty towards each other.
The 2006 political regime forced separation and we must all admit this period brought out the worst in us as a people.
By 2010, the writing was on the wall. In Fijian diaspora communities across Australia, New Zealand and the USA, pocket groups of freedom and democracy movements were formed. Voice and content creation could only be safely done outside of Fiji as this was safer.
Incoming and outgoing travel bans were placed as a result. People were arrested within Fiji who posed the slightest threat. To question the authorities placed a threat on you and your family.
Families distanced from one another.
Diaspora communities were separated. It became unsafe to vocalise anything towards the regime, for people living in Fiji and overseas.
The exodus of Fijians out of the country was well under way during this assault. People migration has been at its highest in our small country, as people sought income overseas.
Remittance levels soared. It was not unusual for children to be bought up in single -parented homes. Unbeknownst to us, it left us with a most impressionable generation.
The escalation of the cultural and technological revolution in the outside world, presented a whole new set of issues for young people growing up in Fiji. The absence of structure within family homes meant access was unlimited, and this has reflected in our diminishing values.
So here we are at the end of 2022. For online content drivers against the previous government, freedom fighters in the online community, and activists on the ground. Where do we take this energy and expend it in 2023?
Energy flows where your focus goes. We are sitting at the cusp of great social change in our country. How we expend our energy is the question we must ask ourselves. Is this current government going to be the architect of positive social and cultural change? How or where do they begin rebuilding? Indeed, a massive responsibility sits on their shoulders.
As a people we equally have a part to play. We must confront the fact that for the last 16 years, we have suffered a national trauma, that means, we must consciously allow ourselves to be in a place of reflection, and healing.
Looking at the past and planning forward for a future that is about all of us, being active participators as equal architects of change.
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