OPPOSITION leader Ro Teimumu Kepa says an iTaukei slur word heard by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama during parliamentary proceedings on Monday may have been a Hindi greeting that was misheard.
Mr Bainimarama had taken cause with what he said was the word kaisi aimed at a Government MP by an unknown member of the Opposition.
But yesterday, Ro Teimumu said what Mr Bainimarama might have heard was someone saying kaise instead.
“My comment on that is that there was nobody who actually heard that word (kaisi) being said by anybody,” Ro Teimumu said.
Fiji language expert Paul Geraghty said the origin of the word kaisi is only partially known and its meaning has not changed since Fijian was first recorded about 200 years ago.
“Its most common use is as a noun meaning ‘person of the lowest rank’, and it can be used as a purely descriptive term or as an insult, equivalent to the English ‘pleb’ or ‘peasant’.
“Demeaning words used in anger always have repercussions, though there is no record of any particular punishment for calling someone a kaisi, though if used by a chief to a commoner, it would be considered not necessarily demeaning but factual.”
However, the day’s Hansard report that records the parliamentary proceedings did not record the word kaisi uttered by a member of the Opposition as claimed by Mr Bainimarama.
