Fiji can hold its head high
Before the armchair experts in Fiji start blaming the referee in Fiji’s loss to Australia in the Rugby League World Cup on Sunday night, let me tell them the score line would have been much wider by a huge margin if Australia had fielded its full-strength side. I believe Fiji did very well and must be congratulated and must hold their heads high for their performance. What irks me, however, is the reliance on public prayers and calls for divine intervention before and after games. I respect that these practices reflect tradition and culture, but I believe matches are decided by preparation, discipline, fitness, tactics and execution not appeals for supernatural assistance. Fiji’s performance showed that its players possess courage and talent. To close the gap with the world’s best teams, the focus must remain on sustained investment in coaching, development pathways, conditioning and high-level competition. Faith may inspire individuals, but success on the field is earned through preparation and performance. Fiji should be proud of what it achieved — and realistic about what is required to improve.
Jan Nissar
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Constitutional equality
A NATIONAL constitution is the supreme law of a country and must serve all citizens equally, regardless of ethnicity. If the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC) is to be written into Fiji’s Constitution, it must include representatives from all ethnic groups—including Indo-Fijians and minority communities. Any institution given constitutional status exercises national authority, and in a multicultural state, national authority requires universal representation. If the GCC cannot include non-indigenous members due to its traditional hereditary nature, then it does not belong in the supreme law of the land. Instead, it should operate under the Ministry of iTaukei Aff airs as an advisory body on indigenous culture and land. Enshrining a single ethnic institution in our constitution risks allowing customary law to dominate national governance, creating conflicts with the rights of ethnic minorities. To safeguard true equality, traditional leadership must remain within its administrative framework, while the Constitution remains a document that belongs equally to all Fijians.
PAULA KALOUKOCEI
Levuka, Ovalau
Insurmountable issues
SAVUSAVU resident, Judy Cakacaka during public consultation on Constitution Amendment Bill 2026 says the proposed 23-member Senate must be weighed against the financial struggles of ordinary Fijians. Savusavu mother, Delicious Tupou says finding $120 a week to keep her six children travelling to school has become a struggle. She questions why her children’s blue bus card fare was $4.01 from their home, while the adult fare through the red bus card was $3.27. We are a nation of less than one million people. Since 1970, rather than resolving our everyday problems, we’ve been adding more and more issues leading to in surmount able problems. The idiom, “too many chiefs and not enough Indians” have now become culturally insensitive because it uses Native American terms (Reddit). Therefore, we will use a common non-offensive alternative idiom, “too many leaders and not enough followers”.
RAKESH CHAND SHARMA
Nadi
To be a city
SKYSCRAPERS, grandiose malls and arcades we have none, but you can be assured of flooding after heavy rainfall, the unsettling roar of planes coming in and taking off, every fifth person you meet is a tourist or airport worker, and traffic congestion which is partly to do with having to slow down at the nearby village settlements. Lautoka City is just 30 kilometers up, while Votualevu is a growing suburb which already boasts the nickname, Vote City. Citizens will have to cope with higher city rates and thinly stretched municipality services when more communities are roped in to the extended city boundary.
SAMU RAILOA
Nadi
Luxury items
A FRIDGE and a TV, I read somewhere, are considered luxury items, as per some test reportedly called “asset test”. I can only hope that it is not true that some senior citizens are automatically disqualified from receiving social pensions. I read a former prominent leader raised this, and his claim was refuted by the line minister. I believe more information is required for me to stop feeling gutted for the affected senior citizens. Plenty jargon, confusing. People going through “asset test”, leaders soon going through “acid test”. Before the last election, this minister (then campaigning as a candidate) had said this (then) leader was going to become history after the election. Didn’t happen. Ironically, this (now) minister has announced she herself will be history after the next election. Too good, the entertainment. But fridges and TVs ain’t luxury.
DONALD SINGH
Nausori
What’s in a name!
I WAS emotional after watching Savusavu resident Sharina Singh breakdown in tears, raising concerns over claims that Indo-Fijians were regarded as second-class citizens in Fiji. As an Indo-Fijian born in Fiji, I felt Mrs. Singh’s pain, having taught her daughters at Savusavu Secondary School and knowing how hard-working and patriotic she is. She shared her experiences growing up peacefully with the iTaukei. I agree with her that Indians belong to Fiji, and we must be treated equally. Despite the circumstances, Indians have chosen to be in Fiji rather than migrate for better opportunities, so why should we be regarded as second-class citizens. Our ancestors shed blood, sweat and tears towards Fiji’s progress, development and prosperity, and we deserve to be treated better. Mrs. Singh, speaking in vernacular said, “Nah gharke nah ghaatke. Abtohhum dhobi kekuttahoige”, meaning our contributions should not be ignored but valued, or else we will not belong to Fiji, having bid India goodbye. Shallow-minded thinkers will continue to debate on a ‘name’ for the citizens, while critical thinkers will focus on the ‘real issues’ that are devastating and tearing apart our beautiful Fiji. These ‘real issues’ include the rising cases of HIV/AIDS, hatred and malice on social media between the different ethnic groups, impact of TikTok, deteriorating behavior of children, rise in cost of living and prices of land and housing, drugs, youth crime, violence and murder, deteriorating public health, decline in the sugar industry, and family values, ties and bonds to list a few.
RAJNESH ISHWAR LINGAM
Nadawa, Nasinu
School
athletics
LAUTOKA Primary School just had the zone athletics at Lautoka Methodist School grounds which has a hard grass surface. Some years back Lautoka City Council was boasting about the new synthetic athletic track and the best playing field in Fiji. I believe those who later became special administrators have failed to maintain the Churchill Park synthetic tracks and now our kids are suffering, running on hard grass turf. Wake up Lautoka City Council, while Nadi is taking a leap forward, Lautoka has taken 10 steps behind. From Churchill Park, gardens, filthy market, uncollected rubbish are a daily problem in Lautoka.
JOSEPH CHAND
Lautoka
Look down
syndrome
IT seems everywhere we go, one will witness a group or an individual looking down at their phones. It is happening everywhere, even in churches, conferences, among drivers, people crossing the roads, Parliament, front desk reception, toilets, meetings, even with the security agencies while on foot patrol. I believe we are now in that era of looking down syndrome where our phone is attracting our every day attention and decisions we make every day.
JUKI FONG CHEW
Nadawa, Nasinu
K9
results
TURAGA Compol has demanded that Police canine investment must produce improved results. 100% agree. Illegal stuff entering our borders seems to be rampant and is no longer news, so those sniffer dogs at the refurbished airport kennel definitely need to step up. The puzzle is how to explain this to the canines. Even if they do understand it, they might bark back and say “I only sniff what you need sniffed”.
DONALD SINGH
Nausori
Living expenses
WITH the incessant cost of living increase, very soon talking about the price of food will be immoral. Sobo!
WISE MUAVONO
Balawa, Lautoka
U15
World Cup
FIJI Football under 15 boys went to play at the World Cup. The team scored three goals in total against five and a total of 30 goals were scored against them. Was the tour another tick in the box for Fiji soccer?
NARAYAN REDDY
Lautoka
A Christian
state?
I URGE those who want Fiji to be officially declared a Christian state to think again. Many of us recall Sundays in the early days of the 1987 coup with a mixture of sadness and hilarity; bemusement and disbelief at the ignorance behind many of the prohibitions put into effect at that time. At Pacific Harbour, a man named Pio Cavuilati, was told by soldiers that he must stop playing ball with his boys and go inside, sit down, and read the Bible. Our son, six years old at that time, was learning to play golf and to sail, the latter activity taking place at the RSYC – but the Yacht Club was shut on Sundays and so our son had to choose between Saturdays sailing his P Class or playing golf. My foster sister-in-law had neighbors on Clarke Street with a newborn baby. A truckload of soldiers checking on Sunday disobedience stopped mum when they saw her hanging out nappies on the washing line; she was told that she must not do any washing on Sunday as Sunday is a day of rest. Lyle Cupit of CONAG farm in Navua was telephoned and told that his workers had been seen milking cows on Sundays and that the practice must stop. The fact is that if you tell people that they cannot do something perfectly innocent or absolutely necessary, they will find a way to do it. Therefore, many families from as far away as Suva and Nadi, and further, would travel to Sigatoka on Sundays for a delicious lunch, a cooling swim, and a fun get together with friends at a well-known watering hole. It might interest those who advocate a shut-down Sunday that a number of those lawbreakers drove all that way after attending church. Are these examples Christian? Is God so heartless that he denies young boys a game of ball? Is God so jealous of our pastimes that he requires a club to close on Sundays so that kids and adults are forced to make difficult choices about their innocent recreations? Is God so unsympathetic as to demand that babies’ nappies lie stinking in buckets from midnight on Saturday to mid-night on Sunday? And if God created all creatures, surely, He must know that if cows are not regularly milked – even on Sundays – there is an increased risk of them developing mastitis – a problem causing great pain to the cow and great cost to the farmer.
SUE CAUTY
Pacific Harbour
