Rooftop solar WILLARD MILLER ELLIS PLACE, SUVA SUNIL Chand’s opinion last Saturday analysing “Fiji’s costof-living trap” (FT 9/5) outlined priority areas for structural reform, with expanding rooftop solar at the top of his energy list. This resonated with me since my stepson and his family from Melbourne had just visited Suva on a cruise ship. He grew up with his grandma in Lomaivuna where he attended high school, then managed to finish at the top of Form 7 in 1992 and win a generous Australian government scholarship to study at Monash University. He eventually migrated to Australia in 2006. Now, he owns rental properties there and tells me his tenants all enjoy free electricity since ample reliable power from rooftop solar panels costs him nothing. I was amazed! How did Australia manage to achieve the world’s highest rooftop solar capacity per capita? The answer was easy to find online and should be well known to our current Fiji government that is committed to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030. Despite about four times more rainfall in Suva, we get 25 per cent more PSH (peak sun hours) here with less seasonal variation than Melbourne due to our tropical latitude.
Scottish Parliament RAJNESH ISHWAR LINGAM NADAWA, NASINU I WARMLY congratulate Fijiborn Simita Kumar who is set to become a new Member of the Scottish Parliament. Simita, who made history in 2022 when she became the first ethnic minority woman to be elected in Edinburgh Council, attended Samabula Primary School and Dudley High School, has set the benchmark. Her achievement is believed to be the first for a Fiji-born person in Scotland. Simita stands as a powerful symbol of the resilience, determination and global legacy of the girmitiya and her entry into Scottish Parliament comes at an opportune time as the nation commemorated Girmit Day. Simita had a remarkable upbringing as her maternal grandparents were farmers in Tailevu. She grew up in a working family in Samabula, Suva. The 36-year-old is still a huge fan of the Fiji 7s team despite living abroad for more than two decades. Her political success speaks volumes of her calibre and the rising brand of leadership Fijians overseas are displaying on the world state. Go on Simita!
Rugby league A.SHARIFF SHAH SAVUSAVU WHEN I read or hear about Rajesh Singh, I know he is a man who loves rugby. What is now Fiji Rugby League’s gain is a loss for Fiji Rugby Union and the FFA. Congratulations to Rajesh. You are already mapping out plans, and I think that in another five years, FRL will take over both the FRU and the FFA. Please invest in club league competitions in every district. In return, it will take you to greater heights with a huge player base. All the best, mate. Bring it on!
Soccer venue SURESH CHAND NADI ACCORDING to media reports, the Fiji Football Association has finalised the venues for staging this year’s Fiji FACT, BOG, and IDC tournaments. As per the official announcement, the tournaments will be hosted in Labasa, Ba, and Suva over the next few months. This decision once again brings significant disappointment to the people of Nadi, who are yet again excluded from hosting any of these prestigious events. Such consistent exclusion raises concerns about whether Nadi is being unfairly overlooked despite its capacity and infrastructure to host major football tournaments. Many locals have begun questioning the criteria used for venue selection and why Nadi always seems to fall short of consideration. Some speculate that it could be due to political or logistical reasons within the football governing body, while others blame a lack of proper investment in sporting facilities compared to other venues. Regardless of the rationale, the decision alienates loyal football fans in Nadi, who continue to feel sidelined despite their passionate support for the game over the years. This ongoing trend also affects local businesses and the community as a whole, which miss out on the economic benefits associated with hosting such tournaments. It is time for Fiji FA to evaluate its decision making process and provide transparency to ensure equal opportunities for all eligible affiliates to showcase their love for football on a bigger stage.
Girmit legacy lives RAJNESH ISHWAR LINGAM NADAWA, NASINU A well-deserved and timely reminder on the front page of The Fiji Times: ‘Legacy lives’ (15/05)! As I honour the girmitiya and our descendants, I pay tribute to their journey which I believes was one of courage, unity, resilience, sacrifice and nation-building. Despite enduring a painful separation from their homeland, ordeals and hardships, the girmitiya persevered and helped lay the foundations of what Fiji is today. Their determination, dedication and faith resulted in developments. The girmitiya contributed immensely to Fiji’s sugar industry, which once ruled our economy and became its backbone. Their descendants played a vital role in developing Fiji’s business and agricultural sectors, while emphasising on education, religion, hard work and family values. The nation owes these girmitiya and there is a need to respect their resilience, dignity, courage and contributions. To my iTaukei brothers and sisters, thank you for accepting us as your own and continue to embrace us. Our forefathers endured exploitation, displacement and injustice and their stories will break the hardest of hearts. To the Coalition Government, thank you, for setting aside Girmit Day as a public holiday. It allows Fijians to come together and commemorate the history of a group of people who were drawn from India by promises of work and opportunity as they crossed dangerous oceans to further face turmoils and years of suffering, domestic abuse, sexual exploitation and violence. To the people’s newspaper, as usual, thank you, for the heartwarming stories and that beautiful editorial titled ‘Enduring the legacy of the girmitiya’! I conclude with these lines, “We remember the girmitiya. Their story is our story. Their strength is our strength. And their legacy lives on in the heart and soul of our nation.” Bravo!
Girmit story RAJEND NAIDU SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA MANY wonderful words have been uttered in praise of the legacy of toil and sacrifice of the girmitiya and their contribution in shaping modern day Fiji. Some have even been made by known ethnonationalists! As such they sound hollow and hypocritical. I would like to take this Girmit Day remembrance to honour with gratitude the iTaukei who protected and defended the Indo- Fijian descendants of the girmitiya – their fellow citizens – in their hour of desperate need during the first military coup of 1987 and the 2000 coup when as a community they were subjected to vilification, scapegoating, racism, abuse and atrocities and even hounded out of the country of their birth. I say to these compassionate and conscientious iTaukei thank you for standing up for us when we needed you the most. You restored our faith in our fellow countrymen and in the land of our birth. Vinaka saka vakalevu!
Girmitiya built, politicians destroyed SEVECI TORA TACIRUA HEIGHTS, SUVA MY name may not be in the history books, but my life was carved from the same sugarcane fields that the Girmitiyas first bled into. I was raised in the cane belt of Natawa, Tavua. My first classroom wasn’t just the Tavua District School, or later Nilsen High and Tavua High (now Tavua College). My first real education was in the rows of cane, under the brutal Fiji sun. Before I could even barely walk, I was carried around in a piggyback ride – a cloth tied around the sun-scorched backs of my Indo-Fijian nanimas (grandmothers) humming and singing away their old-folk songs. I was happily tucked inside, munching on soft, rolled roti laced with sugar until I fell off to sleep. One of those nani-mas just recently passed away in Natawa at the age of 97. Another is still living in Auckland, aged 96 – whom I regularly visit during my trips to New Zealand. We talanoa about the good old days, and it brings tears to both of us. There, I learned the true meaning of sangam — togetherness. I studied and toiled side-byside with my IndoFijian friends and their families. We didn’t just work together; we lived together. We shared the same cups, plates, and spoons. I slept in their homes, ate their curries, and knew their grandparents’ stories. We harvested cane until our backs ached, then washed off in the river. We went fishing, played soccer, and dreamed of the future. Back then, in Natawa, there was no “us” and “them.” There was only we. The girmitiya taught us something through their descendants: the dignity of hard labour, the sacredness of the rule of law, the reason we discipline our children and respect our elders. They taught us that life has no shortcuts. Only hard work. Then, I left for tertiary education and started work in Suva. And the world turned black. The year 1987 shattered every lesson of my childhood. I watched, in horror as the ugly reality of racial discrimination exploded in front of my eyes. This wasn’t some distant war on TV. This was my neighbour being bashed. My colleague being chased. My friend’s home being robbed. I watched our Indian brothers and sisters terrorised simply for who they were. It was the darkest day in Fiji’s history. My friends and I tried to help — escorting terrified work colleagues home, driving them through roadblocks, risking our own safety. I stood there, sickened, as power-hungry politicians, who lost an election fair and square, descended into revenge. They used God as a shield while unleashing hell, followed blindly by illiterate minds. That day, I realised the girmitiya didn’t just build this country’s roads and farms. They built its conscience. They taught us resilience in the face of the very injustice we now saw. So, not only on Girmit Day, but every day we must salute those ancestors. The ones who shaped, developed, and built this nation from nothing. Their legacy was stolen — spoiled by leaders who chose power over people. But their spirit lives on in every cup we shared, every cane we cut, and every family we saved. Happy Girmit 2026. They shall never will be forget. Never again.
