An Alternative Model to Move Fiji Forward: By "Miracle Man"

THE birds who have been yapping constantly have gone silent. The lions have been awakened by the hunger still stretching their arms and legs quietly. The constant waves by the sea have gone to sleep and it is dangerously calm and still. The inner waves are forming and building up the biggest wave that one could imagine with the blessings of the surroundings. Where would it hit? Would it be calm, smooth and beautiful? Would it be devastating to some?  

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THE birds who have been yapping constantly have gone silent. The lions have been awakened by the hunger still stretching their arms and legs quietly. The constant waves by the sea have gone to sleep and it is dangerously calm and still. The inner waves are forming and building up the biggest wave that one could imagine with the blessings of the surroundings. Where would it hit? Would it be calm, smooth and beautiful? Would it be devastating to some?  

A nation is silently waiting for a leadership, model and structure to come to surface that could define the nation, its identity, its supremacy but not dominancy and progress for all as one. Could this become the model for the nation and also an example for the world? How would the nation favour for such a model?

It is the people of the nation which defines them with their culture, history, traditional and religious beliefs. It is the respect for one another that would bring about peace, prosperity and answer to the racial tension. It is about who I am and who you are with respect. It is about having an entity which represents all as one. It is about who and how each segment of the society is contributing towards the economy and how certain segments can be empowered to be part of the economy. It is about who is rich in monetary terms and also in other means. How can we all contribute together to build peace, progress, prosperity and harmony?

The Westminster model with some changes with the principles of democracy is the most accepted in the world today. However it is apparent that democracy does not operate as per to its core values in many countries and also does not reflect the unique identity of nations with culture and traditions are of a key aspects.

Many politicians in the past and even today used race card, multi racial society, secular state and equal citizenry as their trump cards for existence. But none has been able to bring about peace and harmony without any racial tension. Racism does exist in almost every human being and it is natural as long as it is only prominence but not dominance. However it is the extreme ends of racism that can ruin a society and the world. There has to be a model where every single person will have the sense of belongingness and acceptance as a citizen with equal rights.

Chiefs and Church in Moving Fiji Forward

Many argue that the chiefly system belongs to the old era and the church should not be involved in politics.  However both exist today with their network, governance mechanisms and structures. If they are to die then they should die a natural death over the time. Nothing lasts forever and societies embrace the new with arms open wide. But at times one needs to take a step back to move forward.

The suggestion here is to have the chiefly system with the guidance of the church in conjunction with the typical democratic parliamentary system with clear demarcations. The suggestion may need broader participation to discuss further to fine tune the final model. However as a starting point the advantages of such model should be discussed.

Chiefs are widely respected and connected with the grass root level and so as the church. Every single person is either connected with a chief or with the church or any other religious organization. The mechanism can be utilized to assist the government of the day to reach out to the communities on development, education and other programs.

How it should and can work:

·         The concept of confederacies to be abandoned and all provincial paramount chiefs should be treated equally.

·         The heads of provincial chiefs should form in to a something similar to the House of Lords where the members of the House of Lords votes for their leader. Then this entity becomes a monarchy in itself, however not necessarily by birth or power in the confederacy.

·         All the other chiefs come under this entity and treated equally.

·         The church becomes the advisory to the House of Lords where they strictly follow the guidelines of the religious principles.

·         The center for the House of Lords or the traditional capital of Fiji can again become Levuka. All traditional houses to be built with other educational centers for young traditional leaders.

·         None Christian members representing other religious entities can also become a part of House of Lords or part of the advisory committee together with the church.

·         Every single person of the nation will become part of this.
Why and how it would help:

·         Racial tension can only be removed by accepting the facts and respecting one another for who we are.

·         Fijian community will earn the respect as first settlers of Fiji and they are rich with resources.

·         Indian community will earn the respect as the core and the main force of the economy today and they are rich in monetary terms.

* A corporate entity to be formed similar to that of Fijian Holdings Ltd or FHL comes under this entity.

* All investments connected with the resources of the land to come under the new FHL and the resource owner becomes a shareholder of FHL.  The land will become the responsibility of the House of Lords.

* No lease payments or goodwill payments, but only the dividends shared equally in the mataqali and all lease and goodwill payments to be reinvested.

* The members of the mataqali can and should become the workforce of the investment or any other investment under the new FHL. Hence they become operational and empowered with the necessary tools of the trade to be in the corporate world.

* The other races on lease properties will be assured on their tenancy with an agreed period of time.

* The cases where generations lived in Fiji and became a part of parcel of the nation will be assessed the land will be allocated to them for their livelihood and the bigger scale of lands for farming or any other businesses will be treated as investments under new FHL.

* Financial institutions, education centers and traditional colleges to be setup to educate the young traditional leaders on protocols and leadership.

* The network and the mechanism of church and chiefs will become an active mode of governance to reach out to the grass root.

* This can be enhanced further in conjunction with other models to come under the House of Lords.

Parliament and legislatures:

* This will operate as normal as today without any direct connection with the House of Lords. However the president to be elected by people. The presidential candidates to be blessed by the House of Lords to be eligible as a candidate with a limited no of candidates to be stipulated in the constitution.  This would be the only interaction between the House of Lords and the government of the day.

* A chief who is part of the House of Lords or the entity including provincial and village chiefs cannot become a political candidate while holding a title in the House of Lords or part of it by way of being a chief. S/he will have to choose between the traditional leadership and the democratic governance.

* The rules are regulations stipulated in the constitution and the rule of law of the country applies to the House of Lords. They can be charged, prosecuted and punished for any crime they may have committed.

* Another level of justice system can be incorporated in the House of Lords beyond the Supreme Court. However it can only deal with political and national issues such as immunity for previous coup makers or as stipulated in the constitution.

* In an event of a forceful overthrow of an elected government, the House of Lords will become the interim administration automatically.

* In an event of the members of the House of Lords are also detained by the coup makers, the power to act as an interim drills down to the next level of chiefs.

* As an interim in a crisis, their responsibilities and duties should be clearly stipulated in the constitution, for example calling for peacekeepers of UN to attend to the matters of Fiji etc

* The parliament or the government of the day should participate in development programs in conjunction with the traditional entity and relevant funds should be allocated.

* The assistance of the government can continue until the traditional entity becomes self sufficient and self operational.

* The traditional entity becomes part of the government machinery indirectly with no influence on each other apart from the rule of law.

In summary it is a case of state within a state or democracy to its best in a monarchical model. Both entities will be governed by the principles of democracy and only the traditional entity will follow the guidelines of religion in conjunction with democratic principles.

As mentioned earlier this may need broader participation to operate at its best. This model can be used not only in Fiji, but also in other countries where the traditions and religion play a major role. Some may say that this is taking Fiji backwards. Then the challenge is to come up with something better to resolve the current issues faced by Fiji today.

The birds started its yapping again, the innocent animals started to crawl towards the lake for water and the environment seems joyful again knowing the fact that the lions are not in the hunt for hunger and the dangerous waves are not hitting the innocent.

The waves of the sea and the wind from the forests are calming the nation with the expectation of peace, prosperity and harmony.

The lions are again stretching their arms and legs watching every move of the jungle.