Tess Newton Cain
Development Policy Centre
Interview with Tara Chetty
Fiji Women's Rights Movement
June 2013
Tess Newton Cain, Development Policy Centre
Interview with Tara Chetty, Fiji Women's Rights Movement
June 2013
Tess:
My name is Tess Newton Cain from the Development Policy Centre in Canberra and
this week I'm in Fiji, which is great. And particularly exciting is that I have an
opportunity to talk with Tara Chetty, who is program director at the Fiji Women's
Rights Movement. So Tara, thank you very much for making some time available this
evening for us to have a chat.
Tara:
Great to be here Tess. Great to have the chance to have a chat about some of these
very interesting questions that you've come up with.
Tess:
Okay. Well let's kick off with my first question, which is about the work of your
organisation, the Fiji Women's Rights Movement. And in particular, how FWRM has
participated so far in the processes surrounding the drafting of a new constitution
for Fiji.
Tara:
Yeah, that's a really interesting question because we've been really at the forefront
of women's engagement in this area through a collective known as the Women's
Forum. So the Women's Forum is made up of four organisations: Fiji Women's
Rights Movement; femLINK Pacific, which is a community media, women's media
networks organisation; Soqosoqo Vakamarama, which is a network of indigenous
Fijian women through the traditional village networks; and the National Council of
Women, which is the women's machinery umbrella bodies which are throughout the
Pacific.
So these four organisations have come together as the Women's Forum. The
inaugural one, which was kind of a gathering together of women leaders from
around the country, happened in April 2012, and we sort of set our women's
leadership agenda in the lead-up towards a return to democracy.
And part of that was really then looking at the government's agenda in terms of the
constitution and trying to reframe that from our perspective in terms of how we
wanted to engage with it and what we wanted to see in a new constitution.
So we had a Women's Forum in April, a second one in June to really hone in on what
strategies we had in mind, and then a follow-up one in December, and then a more
focused one just earlier this year in terms of Women and Politics.
So basically what the women then - we broke up into a few different areas. A few of
us went off to do analysis. A few went off to mobilise around civic education in
getting women involved in the constitution-making process in trying to enable their
submissions. So that was a very successful process in relation to the Ghai
Commission. And what they came out with, the Ghai Draft is also known as the
People's Draft, which reflects the level of integration of particularly women's
perspectives as well as other communities, other groupings into that draft.
So there was a lot in there in terms of things we were very concerned about like
temporary special measures for women's political participation. That was included
in the draft. There were very comprehensive sections around gender equality in the
Bill of Rights. And a lot of really, that spirit of getting women, enabling women's
participation in decision-making was throughout the constitution - we felt.
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Tess Newton Cain, Development Policy Centre
Interview with Tara Chetty, Fiji Women's Rights Movement
June 2013
Tess:
Okay. What about what happened subsequently? Because obviously as we know the
Ghai Draft is no longer the working draft. There is now a new draft. And I
understand that one of the concerns of your grouping, that Forum, is that some of
those aspects that you've just outlined are no longer present.
So how has that affected your strategies more recently?
Tara:
So it's quite interesting, the timing of everything.
I think to answer your question in a slightly roundabout way, just to give the
background, the Women's Forum created an example of how you create a
democratic space in a non-democratic context. FWRM took that example to a
broader level, partnering with the Citizens’ Constitutional Forum to create the
People's Constitutional Forum, so a people's forum model based on the women's
forum model.
And it was in this space at the moment we were having this People's Forum that the
government released their draft and also informed the public they had cancelled the
Constituent Assembly. So that process of a more representative forum perhaps for
people to debate a draft constitution had been eliminated.
So the People's Forum, which was made up of all different sectors, became in effect a
sort of people's constituent assembly where we debated - we had been looking at
the Ghai Draft, but then very quickly mobilised to have a look at the government
draft as well and compare, and of course came out with some big concerns about the
absence of women in the government's draft and the really paring down and
limiting of rights in the government's Bill of Rights.
So what was interesting to see within even the People's Forum's dynamics was how
the women of the Women's Forum quickly mobilised. When the drafts came out, the
announcements came out, you could see the women caucusing and getting together
and saying, okay, what now?
And what now was a public statement by the Women's Forum, the co-conveners.
And then they also decided to - that was kind of a reactive thing - but also decided to
continue with the proactive opening up and creating of our own space and trying to
keep things to the women's agenda rather than just conforming with whatever had
been issued by the government.
So they continued with plans for the 4th Women's Forum, which they had later the
following month, which was focused really on Women in Politics and getting us
ready for the next stage beyond the constitution. But also it was a chance to discuss
what are the implications of what the government is proposing?
And given the very short time - I think it was about three weeks maybe - that the
public was given to comment on this really radically reframed constitution, the
women did manage to get out into a couple of communities and have a discussion
and invite other women to make submissions to government processes, although
that was more a chance for people just to have a conversation about it, because it's
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Tess Newton Cain, Development Policy Centre
Interview with Tara Chetty, Fiji Women's Rights Movement
June 2013
very unclear how the public submissions, how the public feedback will be
incorporated, if at all, into the government draft.
So what we've basically, in sum, what we've really tried to do is keep to our
principles of the Women's Forum that have come out - the human rights-based
approach, pushing temporary special measures for women - just continue on that
track to see, okay, if the constitution is shutting us out, if the government process is
shutting us out, what else can we do?
So some of the things to look at in the future may very well be to try and work with
political parties to push women and decision-making through them and to try and
empower women as candidates in this process.
Tess:
Okay, so maybe to pick up on that point and also something that you did mention
earlier, from the FWRM perspective, what do you see as the opportunities and
challenges for increasing the role of women in political representation in Fiji after
2014 when we are expecting there to be elections?
Tara:
Sorry, the opportunities and challenges?
Tess:
Yeah.
Tara:
I think that any point of disjuncture, in any point when the social contract in a way is
being renegotiated, there is an opportunity. So the Pacific as a region has the lowest,
among the lowest representation of women in formal decision-making. In this new,
as we're embarking on kind of a return to democracy and we're creating a new
framework, perhaps now it's really important to keep pushing this. This is the
moment to push this agenda.
It's not, let's return to democracy and deal with women's issues later, as is often
pushed in a broader pro-democracy framework. Now is the moment to make the
commitments to this, to push political parties to make commitments: on paper, in
practice, to women. So if there's going to be this radically different electoral process
- big electoral divisions, big constituencies, a proportional representation system then what we've been doing is equipping ourselves with the knowledge. What
works best for women? And pushing that.
So for us it's been, what we've come to understand is, we need, if we're going to go
with proportional representation system, we need a closed list, closed zippered list,
which is kind of a man-woman, man-woman list proposed by political parties, which
will allow a greater chance for more women to get in. So that's kind of the technical
aspect of it that we've equipped ourselves with.
And now we've pushed that through the constitution. That we feel is probably
largely getting blocked. Now is our moment to try and work through, work with the
political parties. So coming up next, coming up for the next 12 months for us is
working with political parties on their manifestoes to get women's issues in,
working to upskill women candidates and get more women as candidates in the next
election, and then also working on the other side - working with voters, women as
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Tess Newton Cain, Development Policy Centre
Interview with Tara Chetty, Fiji Women's Rights Movement
June 2013
voters, and also just some general public awareness level to try and get Fiji voters to
recognise women as leaders and to vote for women.
So those are the several prongs we're going at. Those are the opportunities that
we're trying to reframe. The challenges are many. We're in a military-run
government, military-run state that is inherently hostile to women and has been
particularly hostile to efforts to get better representation of women decisionmaking through a new constitution. Categorically they've said no, no temporary
special measures, no affirmation action.
So that's been a very difficult place to get any traction on. We are, within this, we are
existing within a fairly conservative cultural context, which is also in and of itself
quite hostile to women decision-making in a more general sense. We have women
chiefs, but women have a fairly subordinate role in households, and it's been quite
difficult.
That said, we have at the same time, relative to the rest of the Pacific, a very vibrant
civil society, a very active women's movement, a very active kind of human rights
movement. So that's where the opportunities lie in trying to push back at some of
those challenges.
Tess:
Okay. Thank you for that. That's a really good exposition of those issues. I want to
move on in a while to some wider questions about political engagement, but before I
do that, I guess as sort of a related issue is one about gender-based violence, because
I think, as we know, that's a very particular manifestation of some of the challenges
that you've identified in that political space. And, as we know, it's a very significant
issue throughout the region.
Based on what you know and your conversations that you have with your colleagues
in related organisations, what do you think is the significance of that issue currently
in the Fiji context?
Tara:
Gender-based violence. Gender-based violence remains a really serious issue in Fiji.
Our sister organisation, the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, takes the lead on this issue in
the country. But all of our work is in some way attempting to address this. Pacific
rates, the rates of gender-based violence in the Pacific as you said, are just
monumental. It's a serious problem.
And in Fiji, it's very difficult often to gauge the level of the problem because of the
methods of data collection. So for example, you know, a bit of a disjuncture between
the health sector and the judicial and the police sectors. So where your cases and
incidents and patterns are slipping through the cracks.
The Crisis Centre does a lot of work through its service delivery to capture some of
that picture. And what they're suggesting is that anecdotal evidence is suggesting
that in the context of a militarised state, in the context of political crisis in a kind of
entrenched socio-economic crisis that goes with it, that tends to exacerbate the
levels of gender-based violence, partly because of the kind of machismo that
accompanies that kind of state overthrow, that kind of militarised context, but also
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Tess Newton Cain, Development Policy Centre
Interview with Tara Chetty, Fiji Women's Rights Movement
June 2013
because of how it damages efforts to address gender-based violence that have gone
in the past.
For example, all the work done on no drop policies. All the work done with kind of
police force in the past that gets dismantled and rolled back when that police force
becomes militarized. Or when women's NGOs become persona non grata in relation
to the state. So it's the dismantling of work that's gone on before that then
exacerbates the situation.
Tess:
Okay. Thanks. I think that's a really important point. I think obviously it's particular
to Fiji, but I can see also that it resonates also to other countries, sometimes just a
changing government can mean all of that stuff can get rolled back, as you said.
I'd like to come back to the political landscape of Fiji a little bit more generally. And
you've made reference to the impact of military rule. Looking a little bit more
broadly, how do you think that this prolonged period of military rule has affected
political engagement in Fiji more generally. I guess both in terms of the quantity of
political engagement and possibly even the nature and the quality of that
engagement?
Tara:
Yeah. That's, I find this question very interesting, because you're hitting on a very
serious problem for a country trying to rebuild democracy, trying to build a lasting
democracy. Having been in such a prolonged period of un-democratic rule, military
rule, has got serious implications. And in particular it's when you look at young
people.
In the coming elections, we are expecting the voting age to be dropped to 18, and
we're looking at a huge, a whole host of new voters. Fiji is quite representative in
terms of the Pacific. Across the Pacific, we've got 47% I think it is youth population,
roughly half. And Fiji is quite representative. We've got a very big youth bulge. And
these young people are coming to vote for the first time.
But most of their experience has been in a military state, so they don't have
experience of what it means to be an active citizen in a democracy. And they are
really going to be facing serious challenges in trying to make decisions about picking
leaders and their expectations of what a democracy is as voters.
And we're trying to address this in the Fiji Women's Rights Movement, our partners
in the Women's Forum, we're looking to go out and do some work particularly with
young women, and with our engagement with other movements. Like there's a lot of
young people working for democracy at the same time. But just anecdotally from
our work in the community, we're seeing that young people have really switched off
from that, because there's not the expectation or the space for them to engage, so
they've really begun to switch off from that.
As it is, it's sometimes difficult to get young people to engage in this kind of - as
voters, feeling like they can make a difference. When they've really been shut out,
that task becomes so much harder.
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Tess Newton Cain, Development Policy Centre
Interview with Tara Chetty, Fiji Women's Rights Movement
June 2013
At the same time, I have to point to the young people who have been involved in
pro-democracy work here in Fiji who are young women who are leaders within the
women's movement. So at the same time there are pockets of young people doing
just really amazing work. But yeah, that is still a serious concern.
Tess:
Okay. Thank you. And finally, looking more broadly again, what do you see as the
future role of Fiji in the Pacific on a regional level, going forward?
Tara:
Historically, and despite the current environment, Fiji continues to be a leader in the
region. And what the (Pacific Islands) Forum is finding now is it's really difficult to
move forward on some of the regional kind of mechanisms that they're wanting to
implement without Fiji's involvement.
I think Fiji will continue to be a leader. And you can see the way in the diplomacy of
the region, the way it's drawn a lot of focus into the Melanesian Spearhead Group
now, because of Fiji's basic exclusion from the Forum, there's a lot more focus on the
Melanesian Spearhead Group and the way it is operating. It's able to get a lot of
support from other states.
So yeah, Fiji continues to be kind of a hub for the South Pacific. And even though
other countries have, I guess, tried to capitalise on the shift in power, Fiji being out
of the Forum at the moment, that hasn't really worked. I think Fiji continues to play
really a leading role, for good or for bad.
So what's really important I think, why we feel the civil society, it's really important
to take Fiji back to democracy and to try to get that democracy working from a
human rights based perspective is that because of its influence across the region.
So we don't want it to lead the way in bad practice. It has a lot of influence and we
want it to lead the way in terms of women and decision-making, in terms of better
practice.
I think when we're thinking regionally also, we have to be mindful of its geopolitical
importance and economically. We've got other players moving into the region.
We've got a very close relationship now between Fiji and China with its Look North
policy. We've got Fiji going ahead and making decisions about things like sea-bed
mining, about taking a strong focus on extractive industries, and things like that
without really a mandate of an elected government, but these decisions are going to
still, are having a big impact on the country and on the region.
Because once Fiji leads the way, other countries feel comfortable in following. And
in an area, for example, like experimental seabed mining, that's very dangerous. So
Fiji has had really great impact on the region in the past, and we want to push it
back towards that type of a leading light rather than a very negative example.
Tess:
Tara, that's great. Thank you very much for your time and your thinking. It's been
fascinating to hear your perspective on a range of issues. So yes vinaka, thank you
very much for your time.
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Tess Newton Cain, Development Policy Centre
Interview with Tara Chetty, Fiji Women's Rights Movement
June 2013
Tara:
Thanks Tess.
[end of transcript]
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