One of the key areas that the government will be focusing on is healing through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and building social cohesion of Fiji and its people so they can reach their full potential beyond these insecurities and fears.
This was highlighted by Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection Sashi Kiran while responding to the President’s speech in parliament.
Kiran says there is a need to acknowledge our past, look at the narratives of the past and how pain, trauma and insecurities have transferred from generation to generation.
She says indenture, coups and eviction from land have traumatised her community and their sense of belonging and it does not help when these things keep being brought up.
She adds Melanesians, Rabi and Kioan, Chinese and part Europeans all have had a history and it is not talked about.
Kiran says we don’t learn about it in schools but instead rely on stereotyping to be passed down between generations.
She says the school curriculum will be renewed to integrate our history much of which was removed by our last government.
Kiran says political upheavals in the last 3 decades have impacted every ethnic group and have left scars that they now carry.
She says the Truth and Reconciliation Commission will provide a platform for collective healing and the Coalition Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka is committed to this process.
She adds this may be a difficult walk and it is hard to look within ourselves and do the hard work but we cannot go into the future as a nation, secured and united until we have confronted the demons of the past.
Kiran paid tribute and acknowledged the efforts of the current Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces Ro Jone Kalouniwai for his own initiatives for the healing and reconciliation in the RFMF that he began this month.
She says we know that the RFMF has played a role in many disruptive political events in the past and she is grateful that we live in times with leaders like the Commander and our Prime Minister who have committed to steering the nation forward from its painful past.
Kiran is calling on all segments in our communities to engage in the Truth and Reconciliation process, including the business community, civil society, the public service and religious groups to create an environment of learning about each others’ culture and tradition.
