The Government has summarily dismissed Kemueli Naiqama from his position as Government Statistician and head of the Fiji Bureau of Statistics.
We are informed that Mr Naiqama had breached the law on statistical surveys and consequentl, the terms of his contract of service, by allowing the 2019-2020 Household Income and Expenditure Survey to include “unverified data” on household poverty levels in Fiji based on ethnicity and religion.
What is surprising about this is that earlier surveys and analysis of poverty in Fiji such as, for example, the survey undertaken for the Fiji Bureau of Statistics by Professor Wadan Narsey on the incidence of poverty in Fiji in 2008-2009, included an analysis of poverty based on ethnicity, ie the iTaukei, Indo- Fijians and other communities in Fiji.
In this 2008-2009 poverty survey, based on the population living below the poverty line, Professor Narsey found that whilst the overall poverty rate for the whole of Fiji was 31 per cent (compared to 35 per cent in the 2002-2003 survey), the rate of poverty by ethnicity was 31 per cent for the iTaukei (compared with 35 per cent in the 2002-2003 survey) and 32 per cent for Indo-Fijians (compared with 36 per cent in 2002-2003).
He concluded that the poverty rates for both the iTaukei and Indo-Fijians were almost the same. Now to the findings of the “unauthorised” 2019-2020 household`incomes and expenditure survey.
The overall incidence of poverty in Fiji was 29.9 per cent. Out of this, the poverty level among iTaukei households was 22.33 per cent and 6.82 per cent for Indo-Fijians.
How does one explain this huge disparity in the decline in the rate of poverty by ethnicity?
And does this explain why this Government was adamant that the 2019-2020 HIES survey should not include a breakdown of poverty levels in Fiji based on ethnicity?
Or is it because this Government fundamentally believes that we should not look at our country as comprising a society of ethnic communities, but only as a political community of individual persons?
There are those who believe that we should look at ourselves only as individual persons.
All that matters is that we are all Fijians as our common identity and we belong together as one political community by our common and equal citizenry.
On this basis, the poverty survey should have focused only on households without regard for one’s ethnicity or religion In the 2013 Constitution’s Bill of Rights, other than the recognition and protection of iTaukei, Rotuman and Banaban ownership in common of their customary lands, all enshrined political, social and economic rights are based only on the right of every individual person.
In contrast, those who have welcomed the extended scope of the 2019-2020 HIES to also show relative poverty levels in Fiji based on ethnicity argue that this is very important because we are more than simply a political community of individual persons.
We are also a society of communities, and it is in our collective interests to ensure that economic and social development opportunities and outcomes equitably benefit everyone in Fiji, both as individuals and communities.
No one should be left behind. For there can be no long term assurance of peace and stability in Fiji if a community or two feel that they are being marginalised and denied equal opportunities of participation and benefit in the economic and social progress of our country.
And let us not forget that the iTaukei comprises more than 62 per cent of Fiji’s total population.
So, I commend Mr Naiqama for his courage in simply emulating what was done in earlier poverty surveys undertaken in 2002- 2003 and in 2008-2009 in including an analysis of poverty based on a household’s ethnicity.
I must admit though that analysis based on a household’s religion was quite unnecessary.
- JIOJI KOTOBALAVU has served as PS at the PM’s Office under four of Fiji’s PMs — Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Sitiveni Rabuka, Mahendra Chaudhry and Mr Qarase. The views expressed in this article are his and are not necessarily shared by this newspaper.
