Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu. 3 October 2024 Photo: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji
Fiji's Speaker has come under fire from human rights campaigners after he made comments in response to an MP, who is a descendant of blackbirded Pacific Islanders, which rights groups say were "racially charged" and "evil".
During the September sitting of parliament, MP Aliki Bia delivered a ministerial statement about the Melanesian community, who will mark 160 years since their arrival to the island.
Bia said that the descendants of the blackbirders "sometimes consider ourselves as the forgotten group of people".
He told parliament that the descendants of the blackbirders were treated different and that there were "injustices that currently continues to derail the progress of some Melanesian communities".
He continued that village headmen of the Melanesian communities in some maritime areas were not receiving - or only getting paid half - their allowances to carry out their duties compared to other iTaukei village headmen.
"For 160 years, we continue to cry for justice, writers and philosophers who have wrote publications about our history have labelled us as the landless people of Fiji," he said.
In response, Speaker Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, speaking in the iTaukei language, told Bia to be careful with his words.
Ratu Naiqama told the MP that the descendants of blackbirded Pacific Islanders were also registered in the official register of native landowners, but "you still have the audacity to come and say you are being ill-treated and mistreated, but you are part of us already".
"You said you have been discriminated all this time and how come you are living amongst us?"
"I hope you do not mind me uttering what I have stated because I am also wearing another traditional hat in this House, and I will not sit back and listen to all these kinds of, shall I say 'hot air' without that being fully proven with facts that you have been ill-treated all these years."
'Ratu Naiqama chose to be evil once again'
However, the NGO Coalition on Human Rights (NGOHCR) and the Fiji Women Crisis Centre (FWCC) have condemned the Speaker's comments.
They say Ratu Naiqama's remarks were "unwarranted" and "racially charged".
"Such racially charged rhetoric undermines the principles of equality and inclusion that Fiji has strived to build since gaining independence and feeds into the systematic exclusion of the Melanesian community," the NGOHR said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, these attitudes reflect the barriers faced by many ethnic minorities in Fiji when they seek to highlight the injustices they experience.
They said discrimination can exist even when communities are granted the right to vote or share constitutional rights, and it is evident that differential treatment persists.
The FWCC, which is a member of the NGOHR, said Ratu Naiqama's "leadership does not belong in an evolving democracy like Fiji".
"Fiji is still grappling - in ways large and small - with the legacy of slavery and racism and Ratu Naiqama has no right to minimise people's experiences."
"At a time when the country is moving towards a Truth and Reconciliation process, Ratu Naiqama chose to be evil once again."
The FWCC said it was not the first time for Ratu Naiqama to make such remarks, noting that he was suspended for two years from parliament in 2015 "for making derogatory and misogynistic comments made towards the late Speaker of Parliament Doctor Jiko Luveni."
"He must resign because if our leaders want to help combat racism and inequity in the communities they serve, they need to lead by example."
Rabuka says Melanesians 'looked after very well'
However, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told reporters at a news conference on 3 October that the Speaker was speaking from the point of view of a major landowner when responding to Bia.
"[Ratu Naiqama was speaking as] a chief of a province where the Melanesians have been looked after very well as part of the province.
Rabuka said the compaints raised by Bia referred to only for a small group.
"[Bia] was generally stating that the Melanesians of Fiji have had a very rough go."
He said Ratu Naiqama "was hurt because he had bend over backwards" for those who were Melanesians or what we called Indo-Fijians in his province of Cakaudrove.
