Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the Fiji First government is the first government to have delivered a facility such as the Vatuwaqa Funeral Rites Facility although the idea was mooted back in the 1990s.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the $919,000 facility will provide ease for people who need to farewell their loved ones.
He says for the first time ever, 9 Hindu religious bodies have come together to form the Vatuwaqa Funeral Rites Facility Committee.
The Acting Prime Minister says the need for a site for Hindus was raised by former NFP MP, Sayed Khaiyum on 13th July 1992 and the motion was then referred to the Prime Minister’s Office to find out under which Act it could be dealt with. Sayed-Khaiyum says the Prime Minister then was the current leader of SODELPA.
He says despite being deliberated at the highest level, nothing was done by the Rabuka government, the Chaudhry government and the Qarase government.
He says although the idea came originally from the NFP, it is not embraced well now.
SODELPA MP Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu has commended the government for the Vatuwaqa Funeral Rites Facility because we need to ensure that our loved ones are given proper funeral rites no matter which religion they follow.
He also says there is a need to cater for others, as some Christians too are opting to be cremated. He says cost is a factor and the government had stopped the use of mangroves to burn the pyres before.
Lalabalavu says the scattering or immersion of the ashes in the waterfront in Suva, which used to be freely done in the past was stopped by the current government as well, and all of a sudden they have allowed it to continue again. He says there is a need to think about how best to cater for other ethnic groups as well.
NFP MP Parmod Chand said it was NFP that first proposed the idea of the site for funeral rites.
Chand says while opening the facility last Saturday, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had turned the occasion into a political one by saying that NFP had mooted the idea of building such a facility in the 1990s, the government didn’t do anything about it and that Sayed-Khaiyum said that there was a possibility that NFP was likely to form a coalition with SODELPA.
Chand says this is not true.
Chand says they agree with the Acting Prime Minister that religion should be a unifying force. He says mostly throughout history all major communities in Fiji have peacefully co-existed except for those brief periods of political turmoil on four occasions between 1987 and 2006.
He says after the abrogation of the 1997 constitution on 10th April 2009, following the 2006 coup, Public Emergency Regulations were imposed and permits were needed for any Hindu religious events.
