The current crisis in Fiji should be a warning to the Fijian political parties and indigenous leadership that they cannot afford to just ignore our indigenous peoples underlying social problems.

Blaming the Indo-Fijians or other races will not eradicate this problem either. Indigenous leaders are very quick to issue threats of violence and instability. They never seem to have intentions to address the real issue of poverty, which has been in existence for decades within our indigenous population. These bogus leaders seem to wake up only after they, or one of their Ratu's lose an election. Their irresponsible statements and threats are like the cries of spoilt brats.

Such "leaders" have no way of ensuring long-term growth for Fiji. Their failure to address the ever-existing problems of our indigenous, casts a cloud of social instability over our country and, this will kill any efforts towards long-term stability and growth.

While ministers of the past (indigenous dominated) governments have been quick to boast about progress on several fronts like life expectancy, literacy levels, infant mortality and, tourism etc, they have either concealed or simply ignored indigenous statistics regarding poverty, prison population, school dropouts, urban drift and crime, to name just a few.

These leaders have failed to address the "persistent problem" of Indigenous Poverty, and yet claim to be representatives of Indigenous aspirations.

People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands
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Last update: August 27, 2001