What is Fiji Girmit Council?
Fiji Girmit Council (FGC) was established in 1979 to mark the passing of 100 years to commemorate the girmitiya who came to Fiji under the Indenture System.
The then-Fiji government under prime ministership of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara donated some 12.5 acres of strategically-placed lucrative land in Natabua as its gesture of goodwill towards memory of the girmitiya and Fiji Indians.
A Girmit Centre building has been built there.
It was opened by Shrimati Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister of India on September 21, 1981.
The Fiji Girmit Council is a non-profit, community-based, non-governmental organisation (NGO) registered in 1979 under a deed of trust.
Its membership comprises 10 Fiji Indian based cultural, ethnic, religious and educational organisations of Fiji.
The supposedly great elements of Fiji Girmit Council
Its members are supposed to be:
- Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji
- Then India Sanmarga Ikya Sangam (TISI)
- Fiji Council of Churches m Sikh Association of Fiji
- Dakshina India Andhra Sangam (Andhra Sangam)
- Ahmadiya Anjuman Ishaat-i– Islam
- Kabirpanth Sammelan Mahasabha
- Fiji Muslim League
- Gujerat Samaj
- Shree Sanatan Dharam Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji
Where is Fiji Girmit Council Board?
Is it another impotent toothless organisation?
Two members from each affiliate organisation are supposed to be appointed to the board of the FGC.
But some of the organisations appear to have abandoned FGC and their obligation to their respective members.
They seem to have abdicated their responsibilities to the memory of our forebears.
It borders on breach of trust, faith, and mammoth betrayal.
Perhaps Fiji Indians need to ask about the effectiveness of the FGC board, which seems to be impotent and sleeping on the job.
The Government has declared a Girmit Public Holiday and staged a grand conference and celebrations.
That initiative was from Fiji Girmit Foundation NZ.
The proposal was first made with FijiFirst Government in 2015, but was ignored.
It had been an effort of some eight years, compassionately approved by Sitiveni Rabuka in 2022.
When the public holiday was announced, and $500,000 celebration fund allocated, did FGC put their hands up to lead the event.
When half of that was reportedly diverted to a dubious international conference, they remained silent, and again it was Kiwis from Girmit Foundation NZ who objected.
And when it came for funds to be used for a Girmit Museum, it was again the foundation which cried on behalf of the sleeping board members, saying a Girmit Museum was more important than an academic international conference with no tangible results to show.
The Y P Reddy connection
There appears to be great deal of misrepresentation and misinformation about FGC.
The first is that it is a dead horse and secondly that YP Reddy “owns” it.
It is not a dead horse, but an injured tiger, in fact an injured elephant, which needs to have some thorns removed from its feet to ensure it gallops along — again.
The Fiji Government had that chance, but wasted it by granting funds to a wasteful Girmit conference rather than consolidate FGC and perhaps a Girmit Museum.
And YP Reddy does NOT “own” it.
In fact, we need to salute the founding trustee Mr Reddy and his Reddy group of companies who have provided that glucose and blood bottles to a terminally ill organisation abandoned by most of its affiliates and members, who are building business empires, and temples around the place, but ignored their pitr, the memories of the departed souls.
And special salute to its secretary Selwa Nandan, who has diligently and faithfully served FGC, trying to help salvage what is left of the memories of girmitya shrine.
Today, FGC has degenerated into a sick and poor organisation of healthy and rich members.
We need to salute Mr Reddy and some other founding trustees for being diligent guardians to our heritage.
Of the 12.5 acres of land donated by the Fiji Government, some 8.0 acres of land remain unutilised.
Financial contributions have not been forth coming from all the member organisations.
Most have concentrated in promoting their own organisations and hence FGC is not in their priority list.
The centre is struggling financially.
Some funding applications have been made to those institutions that should have cared.
But most got ignored.
It is in a sad state after surviving a few cyclones.
FGC has applied for funding assistance from the Fiji Government, other sources and donor agencies, but without success.
In case you have forgotten, that glucose and blood bottles from the Reddy group of companies are still hooked up to this sick organisation for life support, which needs our attention — and urgently.
We should all join hands to bail out the council from its financial doldrums.
It has degenerated into a shame for the memories of girmitiya.
The new Fiji Government has reportedly allocated $250,000 of the Girmit celebration budget of $500,000 to a little heard and dubious Global Girmit Institute which is reportedly run by friends connected with some sections of the Coalition Government.
Instead of consolidating memories of girmitiya at an established venue of FGC, this breakaway group reportedly supported by some in government have decided to open a rival body in a shack at a shopping centre in Saweni, Lautoka, where a library in the name of Professor Brij Lal and his good wife has been opened.
What pride has Fijians have in girmit and girmitiya?
We had a huge hullabaloo in the name of girmitiya last month in a Girmit public holiday the request for which was not homegrown, but came from New Zealand.
The question that goes begging is, where are millionaires and multimillionaire Fiji Indians who have acquired their wealth through sacrifices,
suffering and vision of those girmitiya they just celebrated?
Is this the best they can deliver?
COMING NEXT: How to revive the Fiji Girmit Council and Girmit Centre.
• THAKUR RANJIT SINGH is a journalist, a media commentator and a blogger based in Auckland. He is a founding trustee of Fiji Girmit Foundation NZ, which has been behind the request for Fiji Girmit Public Holiday for many years. Views expressed here are that of the author and not necessarily that of this publication.
