 |
||
|
||
|
||
Nearly 6,000 Fijians of Indian origin are leaving the island every year. At such high levels of migration, Indians are expected to become a much smaller minority ethnic group in the Fijian islands.
If the exodus continues at this rate then the ethnic Fijians’ fear of economic and political domination by the Indian Fijians could soon be a thing of the past. Going by rate of migration, it is estimated that Indian Fijians will in the next ten years comprise only 30% of the island’s population. At present, Indians constitute 44% of the country’s 820,000 population, while ethnic Fijians account for 54%.
Since the ’87 coup by Sitaveni Rabuka the exodus of ethnic Indians has been on the rise. And then the ’00 coup by George Speight added to the momentum. Wadan Narsey, a Fiji-born ethnic Indian economist at the University of the South Pacific in the Fijian capital of Suva, says that some 100,000 ethnic Indians have left Fiji since ’87. Narsey projects that in twenty years’ time, Indians will comprise only 20% of the population. Since May ’00, following the second ‘nationalist’ coup, Fijians of Indian origin have been migrating mainly to Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
There are some who are even trying to marry off their daughters to rich expatriates to save them from what has come to be a lifetime of uncertainty in Fiji. Narsey said low birth rate of Indians, half that of indigenous Fijians, has also contributed to the shrinkage of Indian community.
According to professor Vijay Naidu of University of South Pacific, skilled Fijians, who see little prospect of long term stability on the island, are opting to leave Fiji. Thus a majority of the skilled population is of Indian origin. Fijian Indians tend to pursue education longer than the ethnic Fijians.
A fact that has been worrying the Ministry of Education. The ministry has tried offering scholarships to ethnic Fijians, reserving half the seats in educational institutes as well as setting up a commission to encourage Fijians to study. This move of reserving seats has also meant that more Fijians of Indian origin look beyond the island to pursue their studies.
The political climate in Fiji is not conducive to Indians. The ’97 constitution states that any party polling more than 10% of votes in a general election is entitled to a place in a multi-racial government. In the ’01 elections, the Indian dominated, Fiji Labour Party won 40% of the votes. Despite that, Qarase continues to defy rulings by the country’s Appeals court and a February ’02 ruling by the High Court to include members of the Fijia Labour Party.
Besides this, the issue of land is still a sore point between ethnic Fijians and Indian Fijians. Ethnic Fijians own 83% of land, Indians have been tenant farmers.
Since the ’00 coup, many Indians have been forced off the land; often they have had to pay money to the landlords or face continuous harassment.
In August, a Fijian cabinet minister
likened Indians to “weeds taking up space”. Earlier, Fijian prime minister
Laisenia Qarase said that Indians should stay out of the council of states.
By virtue of being elected as prime minister in 1999, Mahendra Chaudhry
became a member of the ‘Great Council of Chiefs’. According Qarase, the
council is only meant for ethnic Fijians.
|
||
|
||
|
||