Response to your article

Jone Dakuvula,  Suva

I refer to your article headed ‘Ceremony shows significance of Chiefs’ .

The article was about the return of some historical tabua by the Maoris to the people of Nawaka. On this occasion, the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama was present and I quote part of what he said:

“Historically, tabua was exchanged amongst chiefs on only the most sacred and important occasions. For example, they were given as gifts in time of reconciliation …To this day the deep cultural value of the tabua for the iTaukei has remained undiminished as we still exchange the tabua during weddings, funerals, birthdays and during important negotiations”.

In February 2016, I led a team from our NGO Pacific Dialogue in holding workshops on Human Trafficking in 23 villages in Nadi and we began in Nawaka Village. In most of these villages we were received by the traditional Chiefs.

A good number of them in our dialogues shared about the problems of communal living, complained that the respect for them as chiefs and the solidarity of their relationship with their people was breaking up.

They said it was because they could no longer effectively perform their roles as the linchpin of ceremonies and the organisation of village life.

One cause of this they said was their share of lease income had been abolished.

The Assistant Roko Nadi and two Police officers accompanied us at most of these village workshops.

I asked the Assistant Roko why we needed to be accompanied by two Police officers and he said one was from the Police Human Trafficking Unit and the second was the Police intelligence person.

I jokingly suggested to one of the candid chiefs that I hoped the Police intelligence officer’s reports include the complaints of the village chiefs about their loss of income and status. This is the other side of the coin of the crisis and impoverishment in the sugar industry provinces.

We read about the chiefly welcome ceremonies being proudly performed at the COP23 meeting at the UN General Assembly, but at home the institutions of chiefs and their ceremonies symbolised by the tabua has been sidelined and undermined.

There is no national “reconciliation” or “resolution” ceremony (where the tabua as symbol could be used) anywhere on the horizon.

E-Ticketing

Kirti Patel,  Lautoka

Been there done that. Is this really going to work? There is a tendency for people to lose their cards every now and then.

I really think this will be the pattern that will fade away slowly. If it does good for the country and the people then let’s support it. Not that it matters to us but some bus drivers are really going to frown.

Keep our Fiji Clean

Manoah Kaleca,  Nakasi

Everybody is talking about climate change. But we seldom give the same attention to the rubbish that floats on our oceans and spoils the image of our shoreline. One just needs to take a walk along them to see its impact.

This is our beloved nation and it is everyone’s responsibility to keep it clean.

It is as simple as putting our rubbish in the bin.

It’s about time we have our own environmental Police unit to monitor and tackle this problem.

Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj