Indo-Fijians queue up to leave Fiji

["Ulhas Joglekar" <ulhasj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday
16 November 2000

Indo-Fijians queue up to leave Fiji
SUVA: Indo-Fijian leaders may be valiantly fighting for restoration of the
multi-racial 1997 Constitution and political rights of the community
following the May 19 coup, but waging that battle does not top the average
Indo-Fijian's priority list.
If anything takes precedence, it is getting a passage out of Fiji.
Evidence that Indo-Fijians, who make up 44 per cent of Fiji's 800,000
population, are departing in a hurry is visible everywhere.
The immigration department, tax offices, births and death registries
andoverseas embassies are swamped with applications. The national pension
scheme has seen a record number of withdrawals by departing members. "We've
never experienced anything like this," says a government official.
Local immigration consultants cannot cope with such is the demand and
consultants and lawyers from Australia, New Zealand and Canada are filling
the gap.
"Free seminars" are held regularly, followed by $50 per person consultations
and $2,500 service fees. Only skilled professionals qualify for permanent
residence but Indo-Fijians from all walks of life are queuing up. When told
of their impossible situation, farmers and cane-cutters from rural areas and
unskilled, urban-based workers offer their savings to get a visa, or a green
card. In their desperation, some have fallen prey to unscrupulous operators.
Even elderly people who used to say "there is no place like Fiji" are
queuing up. "After three coups, it's time we got the message. We are not
wanted," says 65-year-old Kamal Narayan of Suva who hopes to join his
daughter in New Zealand.
While Indo-Fijian emigration from Fiji is not new, the current rush to get
out of the country was not there even after the 1987 coup. "People are
consumed by the thought," says an overseas immigration consultant.
However, the panic after the 1987 coup, when Indo-Fijians sold their cars
and houses at half-prices and fled, is not there. Having learnt from that
experience, they are going about disposing off their properties in a more
orderly manner.
But the determination to get out cannot be underestimated. Nowhere is there
starker evidence of this than in the basement flat of former civil servant,
Dildar Shah in Suva. Shortly after May 19, he placed an advertisement in the
Fiji Times saying Britain and Australia should open their doors to
Indo-Fijians as they were responsible for their current predicament, having
brought them to the island nation to work for their economic interests.
All those who supported this stand were invited to join his Indian Movement
for Justice and Freedom by signing the petition and mailing it back to him.
Shah had expected a good response but even he was bowled over as thousands
of replies began arriving daily. By September, he had over 100,000
signatures. The group's submission is with the British High Commission.
Fears over personal safety, an uncertain future, discrimination by the state
and a general loss of confidence in the country is driving people away. Says
a senior bank manager headed for Australia: "Coups don't come cheap. Our
experience from 1987 shows that this will put us back another decade, if not
more."
Brij Lal, a historian at the Australian National University, says
Indo-Fijians feel emotionally uprooted, humiliated and unwanted. While aware
that no country will simply open its doors to one whole ethnic group and
thereby set a precedent that could be exploited, he says if the present
generation cannot go, it will ensure that the next does.
The fear of racial violence is also driving Indo-Fijians away. George
Speight's coup unleashed a level of anarchy not experienced before and many
feel worse could happen in future. Jitendra Singh, a small business owner in
Suva who had never thought of leaving, has posted his emigrationapplication.
"We said never again but now we know there are many more Rabukas and
Speights out there. I want to stay but that would be unfair on my kids.
Suppose there is another coup in 10 years? I will never forgive myself. I
regret not leaving after 1987," he says.
Despite a decade of sustained immigration resulting in over 60,000
Indo-Fijians leaving since 1987, there are still around 350,000
Indo-Fijians, University of the South Pacific sociologist Satendra Prasad
points out. "The most vulnerable and marginalized will not get away and we
cannot even contemplate them here as second third class citizens, without
rights, without a political voice," he says.
It leaves Indo-Fijians with little choice but to fight for their
rights,although this will be tough. The pillars of Fijian society - the
Great Council of chiefs, the Methodist Church and the army - may not have
supported Speight's methods but they believe in his cause and are bent on
using "this chance to cement ethnic Fijian paramountcy once and for all.
"Fijians want Indians to live on the sufferance of Fijians: live, work, pay
your taxes but don't have any say in how the money is used. No taxation
without representation: that's the old saying: why should it be any
different for the Indo-Fijians?" asks Lal.
One of the major reasons for Fijian discontent is their perception
thatIndo-Fijians want political power and they point to Mahendra
Chaudhry'selection as Fiji's first Indo-Fijian prime minister as proof of
this. But 32 per cent of Indo-Fijians voted for the National federation
party-SVTcoalition, showing they were willing to accept an arrangement
whereby a Fijian would be prime minister and an Indo-Fijian his deputy.
The more optimistic among the Indo-Fijians, such as academic Anirudh Singh,
believe things could still improve. A major source of discontent, the
disparity between Fijian and other races, is slowly solving itself with most
Fijians leaving the subsistence lifestyles and entering the cash economy, he
says. As they become more educated, they will less likely be swayed by
demagoguery.
Singh describes Fijian opposition to an Indian prime minister as a
"race-hate factor" which is prevalent elsewhere. "We know it is immoral and
irrational but it's a natural feeling that is there and we should expect it
to be there." he says. "Indians should stay put and give Fiji a chance," he
adds. (IANS)
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