THE first begging offence in Fiji resulting in imprisonment on August 17, 2016 (FT 03/09/16) is a stark warning to professional beggars; who are astute enough to be on Social Welfare recipients; have a number of homes rented for income; and despite this beg professionally, often young children to aid them in their efforts.
Fiji’s astute beggars come in all shapes, sizes and forms. They move from town to town especially during festivals. Others carry authority letters suggesting that they are collecting for some sick family member funds, without issuing receipts.
Some church organisations, it appears, are now asking ladies to stand on street corners in Lautoka and Nadi for example, where they solicit for funds holding a small sheet of paper where they are supposed to cross a square box. How much of that goes to the person and how much to the church is anyone’s guess.
Others have a kid running after people asking for money while the mother sits on the pavement with a baby crying. Others walk into restaurants and cafes staring at your food on the table, playing the emotional game, asking for some money suggesting that they are hungry.
Others, if you give them a 50 cents coin protest and suggest that it is not enough for a drink. Of course on the higher levels are those that beg in a different form — professional conmen — that would fix a visa or work permit for you or suggest that they have contacts at LTA and would get you a taxi plate or a licence.
Here they fleece people by their smooth talk, many thousands of dollars, and Fiji has many people like these on the streets, and many people in hardship punt of them also.
The worst of them all are the “witchdoctors” who fleece many hundreds of dollars from devotees, or people who have issues of sickness, disease, marital issues, mental problems, poverty — they are like the “Gods” able and willing to fix any human ill or shortcoming. And the worst thing is that after many thousands have been spent, either after someone has died as he or she was not referred to the hospital — people will still move on to another “witchdoctor”.
There is no accountability for deaths or other negligence issues when dealing with these witchdoctors.
Many people have been caught and beaten up after been found to be phony — pretentious — deceiving and insincere. However the problem is that our society is full of others, who will still support these “witchdoctors” who are the worst form of beggars in our society.
They use our trust and faith in God, and try to suggest that they have some very special superpowers when one deity or another can “transcend into their bodies” and become resident for a while and “talk through their (witchdoctors) mouths” to the person being fleeced.
At times the “witchdoctor” will suggest a number of visits, requesting material things to be brought or money in subsequent visit. Also on the side, on every visit one has to bring a packet of cigarettes and kava. Our people are so blind that they will do anything suggested, and the witchdoctor will have a field day on every visit
In the above case a woman begging on the street was jailed, but I suggest long 15-year sentences for every single “witchdoctor” suggesting that they can do miracles for others, when in their own home we see sickness, poverty, and even on one occasion experienced an infant rushed to the hospital for some sickness.
Fiji needs a legislation which will make it a crime if a temple, home, church, or any home or business place was used for witchcrafts. Traditionally all witches and even witchdoctors were tied to a stake and burnt alive — I am not suggesting this drastic action, but we need to avoid professional begging of this nature of outright deception, which is strategically engineered for outcomes that fleeces our society of their very hard earned “blood and sweat” money.
There needs to be a free direct dial or text line where people can call and report a “witchdoctor”, who will have to front up to court, and let us see if he can use his or her witchcraft to avoid a prison sentence!
Selwa Nadan (FT 25/1/15) talks of another breed of beggars called ‘home beggars”. Among other issues he raises the following:
“They knock on our doors on a daily basis mostly at odd hours and sometimes become very demanding and also abusive towards you if you turn them away. So much so that some people have resorted to placing notices outside their gate warning ‘No beggars are allowed’.
“At times it becomes rather difficult to distinguish from their approach whether they are genuine persons in need or another one of those conman around. I hope the relevant authorities will look into this matter and impose some restrictions on such people.”
The Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation profiled 78 street beggars in certain towns around the country following a bilateral initiative with the police (FT 08/06/16). At that time a co-ordinated committee on such beggars was also working to assist people on the streets who suffered from mental illnesses. The beggars were profiled from Suva, Nausori, Ba, Lautoka, Nadi and Labasa.
Committee chair and Minister for Women Rosy Akbar said they had also profiled eight people living with mental illness and had referred them to St Giles Hospital for treatment. We hope that this initiative is ongoing as we still note, especially in Lautoka, a high number of mentally-ill people plying the streets, talking to themselves – waving arms in the air to the laughter of school kids.
At the time in 2015 Ms Akbar said: “The ministry ensures that those living with such illnesses are provided with medical treatment. I am glad to say that two of the women street dwellers who had been treated at St Giles have been reunited with their families. We continue to emphasise on the need for families to take a caring and compassionate approach when dealing with people living with mental illnesses, those with disabilities and the senior citizens.”
Fiji needs a holistic approach to address a number of underlying issues that begging — both real and professional poses — for our community, society and nation. While the government has been trying to help the needy though the Social Welfare programs, it is time now that it also stamps out professional begging and also legislates the manner that people can collect funds for charity and the needy, like those trying to take relatives for overseas treatments.
* Dr Sushil K Sharma BA MA MEng PhD is an associate professor of Meteorology at the Fiji National University. The opinions are his and not of his employers nor of this newspaper.
