REWA chief Ro Naulu Mataitini has urged the people of the province to change their mind-set, saying the province must move away from a culture of expecting financial assistance before work is done, and instead move towards a results-driven approach to development.
He told The Fiji Times he wants his kinsmen to do away with the notion that government funding should precede action.
Ro Naulu’s comments come in response to a poverty alleviation project that the province, through the Great Council of Chiefs, will pilot for the Government.
“I want us Rewans to see that money is going to come at the end. That work needs to be put in before money will appear,” he said.
“I don’t want money up front. That’s an internal debate we have. There’s a thinking among some chiefs in the province to at least get some seed money from the Government.
“I’m a little bit reluctant. For me, the way I’m looking at it, if you’re going to change the mind-set, we should show the Rewans that they have to work first and money will pour in at the end.
“But we have to work.”
Ro Naulu said this longstanding expectation for upfront government support appears to have contributed to economic stagnation.
“For me, the way I look at it, 55 years after independence we’re still poor, there must be something wrong.
“We have to change the whole mindset, but it’s an internal debate.
“We’re still going through it. I think, like how it’s being done with the Great Council of Chiefs, we will just have to continue discussing it until we somehow reach a consensus.”
