Kumar: Many left after 1987

Girmit descendants in Fiji

EDUCATION Minister Premila Kumar told students from around Suva and Tailevu during a girmit celebration event at the Civic Centre in Suva yesterday that many descendants of girmitiya left Fiji after the 1987 coup by Sitiveni Rabuka.

She spoke of the 1987 coup and 2000 coup but said nothing about the coup of 2006.

She said many left because they were made to feel they did not belong to their country of birth.

She said these racial tensions and double standards made life very difficult.

Ms Kumar said the 2000 coup that followed saw further brutality, mistreatment, and the loss of the fundamental human rights, which were under threat — rights of freedom of speech, action, assembly, and religion.

She said the true identity of all Fijians came from the 2013 Constitution.

Ms Kumar said the constitution allowed everyone who was born in Fiji to have the right to be called a Fijian, regardless of race, religion, colour, gender, or socio-economic status.

“We should not take these things for granted,” she said.

“It is all thanks to the leadership of our prime minister and his vision for a united Fiji, his vision to provide education to all children, and his vision for a peaceful nation,” she said.

Mr Rabuka, who is now leader of The People’s Alliance party, said he regretted what happened in 1987.

“Yes, we regret 1987 but we are grateful to those countries that received those that left Fiji after 1987 and gave them better opportunities,” he said.

“We are grateful that Fiji had played a huge part in preparing those that left Fiji for ‘greener pastures’ — notably none returned to India, and, some have since returned to Fiji, more successful than when they left.

“The indentured labourers program for Fiji and other parts of the world was painful for those taken to the receiving countries but beneficial for all for the opportunities the displaced workers had in their new environment and the receiving states, for the injected labour force to support their early colonial industries.”