SODELPA MP Ro Teimumu Kepa believes that sadly over the past 14 years unbeknown to many people, the Bainimarama Government has given little consideration or respect to the Vanua or the Lotu.
While responding to the 2021-2022 National Budget Address, Ro Teimumu said had Bainimarama taken the time or factored some wisdom into his policies, he would have woven together the individual strands of Vanua, Lotu and Matanitu and without a doubt Fiji would indeed be a better place and a real force to be reckoned with.
She says instead from 2007 onwards besides telling the chiefs to drink home brew under a mango tree, she believes Bainimarama has been systematically stripping the Vanua of their rights and privileges as indigenous of this country from over 3,500 years ago, centuries before any other group stepped foot on this land.
Ro Teimumu says from the Fijian Affairs GCC suspension regulations 2007 to Bill No 17 of 2021, it has been typical of the Government not to fully consult with the TLTB or any landowner.
While saying that the landowners of Rewa have written to Bainimarama to withdraw Bill No.17, Ro Teimumu says what the Prime Minister is doing is not right and she knows his conscience is telling him it's not right.
Ro Teimumu says the Vanua or the indigenous or iTaukei was the first on the scene in Fiji and this is supported by radio carbon dating of Lapita pottery which dates the early Fijians arriving here 3,500 years ago.
She adds the Lotu arrived much later in the early 1800s and the Matanitu in the late 1800s.
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