Tonga's Fiji community worried by student violence

Transcript

In Fiji the Tongan community is trying to counter growing violence among its students at the University of the South Pacific.

High school brawling has long been an issue in Tonga and the secretary of the Tongan Community Group in Fiji, Eleni Leveni Tevi, says there are links between fights involving Tongans in Suva with what happened when they were at college in Tonga.

Earlier this month in Tonga former students from Apifo'ou College and Liahona High School were involved in a brawl during an inter-school rugby game.

Eleni Leveni Tevi says such incidents are linked to happenings in Suva, with frequent fights at nightclubs and other places involving former Tongan college students now studying at the USP.

She says her group has brought in a zero tolerance policy to violence and is having some success.

ELENI LEVENI TEVI: Here in Fiji we have seen some positive indication that students want out of violence but through peer pressure and also not knowing how and not trusting certain people to share the deep pain that stays with them for many years, this hasn't been healing for some time so this is why the Tongan community is stepping in. We're actually pulling on all our resource people that we can use. We have missionaries, we have professionals from regional organisations and international organisations and what we basically do is encourage students to come together and dialogue over this. Not mainly because we have answers but because we have ears to listen and understand and we're encouraging them to share something that is deep inside them that hasn't been healed for many years and has been neglected.

DON WISEMAN: Why are they hurting? Do you have any idea about just why it is that these people are hurting so that they lash out?

ELT: We even encourage one on one consultation and we keep information very confidential to protect the students but in general the pain accumulates from peer pressure, from a brotherhood kind of feeling to be proud, to belong to a school, is to stand up and fight and even die for that school. When we started talking to the students then we realise the zero tolerance to us should already be inflicted when the child enters high school. So we proposed to Tonga, we will be also formally sending a proposal to the Ministry of Education to consider having as one of their criteria for scholarship holders that their history is clean from school brawls so that when the child enters secondary school they already know that there is no chance to hold a scholarship or opportunity as a future leader of Tonga if they involve themselves in school brawls. We feel that if we inflict this already at that point in time, there is no chance for a child to grow into this passion, frenetic, kind of brotherhood that brings about these brawls, and pain and anger against each other. It exaggerates itself in the process.