Sugar cane conflict 'could spark Fijian violence’

Press, 4 July 1987, Page 6

Sugar cane conflict 'could spark Fijian violence’

By

MELISSA

LANGERMAN NZPA-AAP Brisbane Sugar cane could provide the spark for violence to flare in Fiji where there are indications the social system is breaking down and rumours of a counter-coup abound, said the general secretary of the Fiji Teachers' Union, Mr Pratap Chand. Mr Chand told a Brisbane news conference that if the Administration took the sugar cane crops in terms of emergency regulations violence could flare. “I’m surprised there has not been more violence. The Indian community has shown immense tolerance and restraint as have a very significant section of the indigenous Fijian community,” he said. It was being realised that although the new Administration had political power through the army they also needed economic power. The economy was largely based on sugar cane and many of the mills were not running. Mr Chand, who is also vice-chairman of the Council of Pacific Teachers’ Organisations, told the Queensland Teachers’ Union conference the social system in Fiji was breaking down and there was total instability in schools.

“Most schools have been drastically affected by the coup, many are struggling to stay open and some have been closed for three weeks,” he said. Mr Chand said half of the schools in Suva have been closed and that security officers had fuelled rumours of a counter-coup when they took their own Children out of schools. ■ “Attendance at schools varies from 0 to about 70 per cent and depends on the situation each day. “Many Indians are not allowing their daughters to go to schools for fear of molestation.” Racism in schools had not been a problem before the coup, but now relationships between teachers and pupils in multi-racial schools were deteriorating, Mr Chand said.

Indigenous Fijians were asking Indian teachers when they were leaving the country. Insecurity about the situation had led to between 80 and 100 teachers like himself resigning from the Civil Service. A brain-drain of teachers and other people with scarce skills from Fiji had started.

Some schools and offices had been searched but it was impossible to say how many teachers had been arrested. “We don’t know who is

arrested and who is not; anyone can get arrested, someone living there or a tourist,” he said. “Since the catastrophic day of May 14 we have witnessed a transformation in the attitudes and pronouncements of leaders who had until recently championed a lofty multi-racial policy of share and share for all. “The most obvious and critical issue is: Was the coup generated through a genuine fear of the indigenous Fijians being swamped by Indians. “Or was it the loss of power by the Fijian elite which considered itself invincible? “It was only when the Alliance Party was voted out of Government that racism began to rear its ugly head,” he said. Richard Walsham, deputy secretary of the Australian Teachers’ Federation which invited Mr Chand to Australia, said the federation had asked teachers not to go on holiday to Fiji as a protest. “The federation is critical of the Hawke Government in that it hasn’t imposed economic sanctions against Fiji.

“If it can do it with South Africa it should be able to do it with Fiji where there has been an attempt to create an apartheid-type situation,” he said.