“The Affirmative Action Dilemma”
by
Aisake Casimira
15/11/02
The 2003 national budget made some substantial allocations to fund the implementation of the
affirmative action policy of the present government. As the government has been saying, one of
their top priorities is the uplifting of the living standards of the indigenous people (Fijians and
Rotumans). To achieve this, the Government aims to provide them with opportunities (business
and education) so that by the year 2020 gain some sort of “equality” with other ethnic groups,
mainly in relation to the Indo-Fijians. The government made no bones about their intention when
they proposed and defended the policy in public. The point of this reflection is that the policy is
premised on an old dilemma, which also underpinned Rabuka’s policy in the 1990s.
It was perceived, that generally the indigenous people are the most disadvantaged or so we were
told. We lack opportunities for educating ourselves, opportunities to earn enough to go into
business and opportunities to train in the required skill. If these opportunities could be made
available to us then we would succeed. Hence, the solution lies in affirmative action or “positive
discrimination”, as the government prefers to call it. It is assumed that we will grab at these
opportunities. Admittedly, some among us were serious and took the opportunities given by the
Mara and Rabuka governments. Those among us who got scholarships and studied hard and
qualified themselves are successful in various fields. Some others who took the opportunities to
go into business are doing well, however small or big that may be. These opportunities were
graciously accepted less as a right but more as valued opportunities.
But today the attitude has changed. Getting scholarships, demanding Board membership on state
or private companies, senior civil service positions are considered a matter of absolute right and
seem not valued anymore. Worse still we do not seem to genuinely appreciate the opportunities
that we get and the lessons of past experiences. The recent financial scams, scholarship and
business scheme failures in our recent past such as the ones facilitated by the Fiji Development
Bank (FDB) which was ironically headed by our current Prime Minister, are some examples of
how we not only fail to value but unashamedly squander these opportunities.
Why is this happening? The answer lies with our unwillingness to change some aspects of our
culture and perceptions. This includes the roles of our traditional institutions and we need to
seriously question and demystify the myths we build around ourselves and our institutions. Some
months ago I was hopeful that the Price Waterhouse Coopers’ review would make a difference.
But now I am deeply saddened to read that our traditional leaders will not accept the report
recommendations. Instead we read about the new multi-million dollar complex our traditional
leaders are going to build. The problem here is not one of need but one that will symbolically
cement the semi-god and near untouchable status surrounding this institution.
We are laid back and are praised for it because our attitude attracts tourists and hence the dollar.
We are prone to take the easy way out, and the easy way out for many of us is to grab at
whatever we can get as an absolute right. And if we do not get what we want we are told to
blame the “others”. It should be remembered that in the past, we, as indigenous people, were
not prepared to take up the jobs created by the colonial administration, for example to work in
the sugar plantations. This is partly because our traditional leaders at the time and the colonial
administration told us that our people were not good enough and they should stay in the village
to protect their culture, and partly because we are a really gullible people.
Today we are still gullible – easily swayed and manipulated - and unwilling to work because we
still believe the myth that we are not good enough. And because we are not equipping ourselves
with the necessary education and skills we continue to depend on others. Our “never mind”
attitude lulls us into a feeling of security that is not justified. We are now more dependent on
foreign and non-indigenous support, both through our government and international financial
institutions.
To succeed we, as indigenous people, must seriously look at our culture, our attitudes, the
institutions within and their roles. We must look at work as a reward in itself. We must regard
what we achieve through work as gift and really appreciate it as such. There should be financial
reward but this must not outweigh the satisfaction obtained from the result of work well done.
We must have the proper work ethics, which involves taking pride in the result of our work rather
than the monetary reward alone.
Changing culture is far more difficult than changing the policies of government. It is easy enough
to propose affirmative action but it is not easy to implement it. The recipients must have the right
attitude if the results are going to be obtained. Once it is realised that creating opportunities is
not enough, attention will need to shift to changing attitudes. Courses and lectures need to be
given on values and culture. We are far from being out of the woods. We are still leaning on the
crutches, given to us by the colonial administration and reinforced by the 1987 and 2000 coups,
of indigenous privileges to protect us. But these crutches weaken us. To develop holistically and
be able to fend for ourselves our false sense of security on these crutches must be discarded.
Unfortunately our view is that our crutches are symbols of our superiority.
Yet we have the capacity to acquire the necessary strength so as to throw away the crutches. All
that is needed is to change our wrong perceptions, demystify some of the myths we build around
ourselves and our institutions, and transform the aspects of our culture that are oppressing us. If
we do this in stages, perhaps, then we would be able to straighten up and to stand tall like
others. There is a minority among us who are confident enough to think of doing away with the
crutches. But they are a very small minority. They are generally regarded as traitors to
indigenous people.
Our sense of pity is very strong. We would not want a handicapped person to overcome his/her
handicap. We would rather openly and loudly sympathise with him/her. “Isa” is the word we
utter frequently. And we would help the handicapped by doing things for them. We would not
want to get the handicapped to overcome his/her disability himself/herself. Certainly we do not
think that the handicapped should earn his/her way in life by acquiring some marketable skills.
Pitying the handicaps, we want them to remain dependent.
There will be a host of protest over this generalisation of our attitude. We know about disabled
indigenous persons achieving success in education and sports. However, this does not prove that
the generalisation made here is wrong. These are exceptions. They only prove that if we change
our perceptions and transform some aspects of our culture, we can succeed too.
It seems that we should not try and yet we know that without some cultural changes we are
going to fail. But this is not the only dilemma we face now. We are a deeply religious people but
many of us are not knowledgeable enough about Christianity to distinguish between what is
Christian and what is not. Religious piety is highly valued by our people but many of us equate
piety with outward appearances and so we parade our piety and holiness for all to see when in
fact this attitude is really oppressive. But this simple perception of our religion opens
opportunities for the seemingly pious, necktie and sulu dress of unscrupulous preachers and
politicians to exploit the simplicity of our faith for their own purpose. Religion is not a matter of
common sense or logical reasoning, as some of our religious leaders would like us to believe in
their push to make Fiji a Christian state. It is a matter of belief, of faith. But we fanatically follow
the dictates of these people even when this leads to the country being misgoverned and
mismanaged for which we now have to pay with the 12.5% Value Added Tax (VAT). As a
consolation, we are told to bear the pain. Its shows how gullible we have become in our silence
over the increasing arrogance of the leaders we elected. But such is the deviation from our
traditional and Christian culture that many of us are willing to vote and support political parties
which advocate and practice structural violence, racial and religious segregation, and which allow
some of its members to label “others” as unworthy human beings.
The affirmative action policy while trying to provide answers to an old dilemma, unfortunately,
does not have any answers to the new dilemma. So what is the new dilemma? Our old dilemma
was whether we should distort the picture a little in order to help ourselves (which the current
government did for us). The new dilemma is whether we should or should not do away with the
crutches that we have become used to and which we in fact pontificate about at every
opportunity. We will be the deprived in this country, not through the fault of others but because
of our own unwillingness to let go of the crutches. That is the new dilemma facing the country
and in particular us, the indigenous people.
- END -
* The views expressed here are his own and do not represent the views of ECREA where he works.
This article first appeared in The Fiji Times, 16 November 2002