Beware 2000! Fake News, Misinformation Being Used to Stir Up Emotions, Incite

Escalation of hate talk in various forums including social media is a worrying trend. It is even more worrying when people diametrically opposed to an ideology are being personally attacked and vilified publicly: Even violence and the use of vulgar language are being mentioned in a casual way as if they are part of the norm.

Fake news and misinformation

Fake news and misinformation are thrown into the mix to stir up emotions and incite feelings.

If they are not monitored and addressed they have the potential to develop into civil unrest and conflicts and the situation may get out of hand as we saw during the political upheaval in 1987 and 2000.

In 2000 the then Police Commissioner the late Isikia Savua had told me that he received intelligence that there would be an uprising in protest against the election of Mahendra Chaudhry as the country’s first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister by radicalised pro-indigenous supporters. This came after weeks of surveillance and monitoring by undercover Police officers.

Mr Savua said in order to prepare for any eventuality they planned to beef up the force with additional resources of manpower and finance to cover essential items like transport.

When he warned the powers that be of the impending threat and danger, he was brushed aside,

The street demonstrations turned to violence, burning and looting of shops.

The Police were clearly outnumbered and some of them present were helpless as they watched the carnage.

One would think that the events of 1987 should have taught them a lesson.

Hopefully we have learned from a dark past when extremism was allowed to fester and explode into street demonstrations and coups in 1987 by Sitiveni Rabuka and 2000 by

George Speight.

Today Police have a cyber crime unit that monitors online exchanges on social media. It is understood they work in tandem with the Republic of Fiji Military Forces on matters of internal security and national interest.

This arrangement is likely to be further enhanced when the Constitutional Offices Commission announces the new heads of the disciplined forces soon.

Political rhetoric

What is of concern is the use of political rhetoric to push a particular narrative that incites and radicalises people into embracing extremist views that are not true and lack common sense and logic.

In 1987 and 2000 it was used to appeal to the base instincts of the ITaukei who were promised a better life which of course did not happen.

If it did it only benefitted a selected few.

The events that created the upheavals can be classified as acts of domestic terrorism because they created terror and brought the country to its knees. They were inspired by an extreme ideology that spewed hate against Indo-Fijians.

Those who use violence to cause damage and create instability to advance their extremist ideological beliefs are terrorists. Extremism and terrorism complement each other and hate is an essential ingredient.

They grow from intolerance - rejection and lack of respect of others’ beliefs, political, religious and cultural.

If we can change this mindset, then we can resist extremism.