An eerie sense of deja vu in Fijian tale

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Windspeaker's Paul Barnsley was one of three journalists sent on a two-week tour of the South Pacific by the Victoria-based Pacific Peoples Partnership (PPP). The non-governmental organization seeks to raise awareness of social and political issues in a part of the world that is not seen as a high-priority area in Canada for international aid. The other reporters were Nelson Bird, host of CTV Regina's Indigenous Circle, and Tania Willard, editor of the Vancouver Native youth magazine Redwire.

The challenges faced by the Indigenous Polynesian people of Fiji have their own distinct character. But for those who monitor Indigenous issues in Canada, there's more than the occasional sense of deja vu. Fiji couldn't be more different from Canada, but when the Fijians talk about their history, the reaction of the Canadian journalists was frequently, "That sounds kind of familiar."

The former British colony achieved independence in 1970. Valued by the colonizers as a place ideal for the operation of vast sugar cane plantations and now overly dependent on sugar production and tourism, Fiji's political system is open to bullying by international agencies.

A colonial governor was so charmed by the Fijian people that he ordered them confined to their villages for their own protection. The villages became very much like reserves, complete with something like the pass system that confined First Nations' people to their reserves earlier this century. Economies did not take root and grow in the villages; the traditional subsistence lifestyle remained strong.

Meanwhile, the British imported labor from another colony, India. Today, the Indigenous people represent just over half of the county's population. The Indo-Fijians make up 46 per cent. They run the businesses, work in the shops and drive the cabs. While the Polynesian people were confined to their villages, the Indians took over the economy.

Tensions between the races occasionally run high. There have been three coups since 1987. Many sources believe the coups were engineered by politicians who attempted to play the races against each other in order to gain political power. The most recent coup, in 2000, prompted many Indo-Fijians to leave the country. A large segment of the middle class packed up their assets and left, causing even more economic trouble.

"After the coup a lot of factories closed down overnight, people leaving and people being laid off or showing up to factories that are closed. Those are the kind of domestic trade policies our government came up with to encourage investment from overseas. They gave tax holidays, so many attractive things to foreign investors who could easily just close shop and leave," said Tupou Vere, assistant director of sustainable human development for the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre in Suva.

With the exodus of capital, the government, desperate to attract foreign investors, offered deals that have caused further hardships for the people in the villages. It also opened Fiji up to a type of foreign influence that is feared by Indigenous peoples in the South Pacific.

"The thing is we are now joining the World Trade Organization, which is not like the United Nations with one country, one vote whether you're a rich or you're a poor country, a developing country," Vere said. "But you have the richer countries in WTO in control. It's those countries that are running the show. They are representing their corporate interests in negotiations. It's sad, but it's developing countries that are really finding it difficult to negotiate effectively in a mechanism such as WTO. It's a case of government promoting corporate interests. And government's supposed to be for the public sector."

Poor countries are vulnerable to manipulation at the international level because of their poverty, she said.

"It's a lot of endless committee meetings and closed meetings that go on. It wears you down. And who is rich enough to be in Geneva throughout th year to be engaged in lobbying and locked in rooms and continue to negotiate? In the Pacific, we only have one rep there who's supposed to be promoting our interests. And that's one officer, but there are so many meetings."

There's that deja vu again. First Nation leaders claim they are run ragged going from meeting to meeting in Ottawa or provincial capitals trying to maintain a presence to protect their people's interests. They complain regularly about a scarcity of financial resources to compete with government or corporate interests that win crucial battles simply by having deeper pockets.

Indigenous Polynesians found themselves 30 years behind their Indo countrymen when the policy of confining them to their villages was abandoned. They are now finding it hard to compete in the economy because of that disadvantage.

Rajeshwar Singh is the assistant national secretary for the Fiji Trades Union Congress. He's also general secretary for the Fiji public service union.

He said his unions are struggling in the non-government or informal sector.

"It's the greed of the businessman, the corporate greed. They keep making money by paying sweatshop wages," he said. "And the directors of the companies are driving four-wheels (SUVs). But they do not have the social conscience to see that what they are paying to their workers, on their blood and sweat they are able to live in large, air-conditioned houses, driving four-wheels, partying, going overseas on holidays with their friends, families. They don't want to lose the profit so they're paying their people less, a pittance actually."

One of the most striking examples of that is the mine operated by Australia's Emperor Gold Mining Company in Vatukoula in the northwest region of Viti Levu.

In what has been called the longest strike in the world, the Fiji Mine Workers Union walked off the job in 1990 to protest low wages and unsafe conditions. They have received little support or attention from their government, a governent that gives Emperor a very favorable deal, allowing the country to take millions of dollars in profit out of the land every year.

And, as in Canada, land is a huge issue. Unlike in Canada, where the colonizers relied on terra nullius, the concept that the land was empty and legally available to take over, the British recognized that the Fijians owned their land and arranged for a land cession for the sugar cane plantations and settlements areas.

When land was returned to Fijian control after the British left in 1970, the chiefs gained control of most of it. Grassroots Fijian people say they have to file land claims against their own government to regain their own land. And the political structures in place often frustrate the true landowners by ruling in favor of those with political power, grassroots people say.

Father Kevin Barr, a Catholic priest who works out of the Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy in Suva, Fiji's capital, said it's well known that the chiefs colluded with the mining company to the detriment of their own people.

"I think that's on record. Even in the early days here, some of the land that was sold and has become freehold land was actually sold by chiefs. They got the money out of it and they had no responsibility to their own people. They just sold the land for their own benefit. That's sort of on record," he said.

The strike is seen by many Fijian social activists as the last stand against a most virulent strain of colonialism.

The Emperor mine was opened in 1935. Many of the striking workers live in four barracks that were built at that time and were originally designed to house single workers. Now families of five or more live in less space than the interior of a mini-van. Open sewers run through the barracks. The buildings have been abandoned by the company after an unsuccessful attempt to evict the workers early in the strike.

The children living there appear to be malnourished. Their parents desperately cratch out a living for their families any way they can.

Joseva Sadreu, the union president, leads the 13-year-old strike. Scab workers, frequently relatives of the strikers, have kept the mine operating. Sadreu's own son-in-law works in the mine.

"Vatukoula mining is the lowest paying mining industry in the whole world. At the time of the strike, it was $1.65 an hour. Over 13 years of the strike, the wages have risen up to $3.65," he said.

The company claims they fired these workers a long time ago and they are not on strike and not their responsibility.

"That's the company way of thinking, that we've been sacked," the union president said. "But to us, we're still in a walkout over improper mining because we've been in a dispute. We had to walk off our jobs because the conditions and the salaries and the living conditions are not to the standard. A high court said it's legal, the strike is legal."

But, as Rajeshwar Singh pointed out, the labor laws in Fiji are inadequate to protect the workers.

"That's a big problem in Fiji. They don't have to care about us," said Sadreu. "They just put us aside. We've been urging the government and asking them for assistance but they don't give any assistance to us. They just leave us here. I think the companies have more power than the minister of labor in this country.

Outside influences continue to create social problems for his people, said Francis Sokonibogi, a traditional Elder who has worked to organize the grassroots Indigenous people. In many cases, he said, the British didn't displace the chiefs, they co-opted them.

"You see, [the chiefs] are not owners of the land but they get the lion's share. It facilitates the administration. You talk to one person instead of talking to thousands. That's a method that Christianity brought in. Convert the highest chief and there is no more problem."