PM: 1987 COUP, MOTIVATED BY ETHNIC HATRED, TARGETS OUR INDO-FIJIAN COMMUNITY’
THEY WERE DRIVEN OUT OF THE ONLY HOME THEY HAD EVER KNOWN They performed the hardest work of building the colonial economy; working cane fields, farming copra, laying brick, and carving out roads.
Fiji’s first coup on May 14, 1987 by Sitiveni Rabuka was an added insult to a grievous injury that indentured labourers were already suffering since their arrival in 1879.
That coup was motivated by ethnic hatred targeted at our Indo-Fijian community.
This was highlighted by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama during the 143rd Girmit Day celebration and 120th anniversary of the first Ram Leela at the Civic Centre in Suva on Saturday.
“A single man’s pursuit of power robbed thousands of Fijians of any faith in the future of their country. They fled Fiji in droves,” he said.
“They left their homes in desperation with fear in their hearts and devoid of hope for their future. Families were separated.
“More than one hundred years after their ancestors had been brought to work Fiji’s land, they were driven out of the only home they had ever known in fear and desperation.
Mr Bainimarama said indentured labourers were already brutalized from the inhumane working conditions they had at the time.
“They performed the hardest work of building the colonial economy; working cane fields, farming copra, laying brick, and carving out roads. They worked under the whip.
“They lived under constant threat of abuse and sexual assault. –– whether you were called a slave or a servant, a thrashing cuts the same. Rape is rape. Abuse is abuse. The conditions were so terrible it was not uncommon for labourers to be driven to suicide.
“And they endured five years of this labour while earning wages too meagre to fund a decent living, much less to fund a return home to British India
for most.
He said that Britain systematically lied about the nature of their work including the duration of work, and the likelihood that any indentured worker would ever return home.
“So, once the terms of their indenture ended, Fiji became their home –– not by choice, but by circumstance.
“And it was our good fortune that they remained because they made the best out of those circumstances through wonderful contributions to the nation in agriculture, education, medicine, and literature.
“They founded schools and started businesses. Their food, festivals, and traditions added richness to our cultural fabric. So much of what we think of as “Fijian” ––including roti and curry –– was introduced by the girmitya.
Mr Bainimarama also said that the colonial government failed to do justice to the wounds they had created.
“To maintain the European position of prominence, they made a scapegoat of the Indo-Fijian population, painting them as outsiders who were undeserving of a full place in Fijian society.
They left their homes in desperation with fear in their hearts and devoid of hope for their future. Families were separated. Voreqe Bainimarama Prime Minister
“They created anti-Indian sentiment and implemented a discriminatory system that placed one kind of Fijian over another, in law and in practice.
“No matter how much an individual achieved in a lifetime of work and study, they were always of lesser value because of their ethnicity.
He said the hardships they endured and later overcame was a story of resilience.
“They surely could not have conceived of the Fiji we know today, a thriving country in which their descendants are leaders in science, education, technology and so many other fields.”