Opposition parliamentarian Jone Usamate has called on Government to allocate funds for the preservation of the iTaukei language, fearing it will become extinct.
While deliberating on the iTaukei Trust Funds Board Annual Report of 2020 in Parliament, he said many young iTaukei cannot speak in iTaukei but can do so in English.
Mr Usamate said it was important that funds were available for the preservation of the iTaukei language. “Our young need to know the language,” he said.
“I have used some of the YouTube, it is very important that this be propagated widely because in a lot of families now, people are not using the language correctly.”
He added iTaukei people have also lost the ability to try and do things for themselves.
“I think in a lot of sense, they ask for everything,” he said.
“I remember once I commissioned a water project, at the end of the project they said, thank you Minister but can you replace the small taps, the $5 taps?
“So, hopefully in this social leadership training, it has lost that capacity to be able to pull people together so they can do things for their own benefit and then Government can come in and help them. I think this is very important.”
In response, Minister for Communication Manoa Kamikamica said the FijiFirst government was the cause of young indigenous people not been able to speak in iTaukei.
“In this Chamber, what language was spoken to until we got to Parliament,” Mr Kamikamica asked.
“Only English, the iTaukei language was not spoken here, nor the Hindi language. Shame on you guys, Absolute shame.”
He said if Mr Usamate had concerns he would have had raised it with his leader then.
