The Government has announced a major breakthrough in the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, aimed at healing the wounds of the past and seeking greater happiness, tolerance and mutual understanding.
Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka told a meeting with members of the Ba business community this week that “the terms of reference will soon be drawn up for selection of members of the commission.”
“The United Nations will provide technical expertise and funding,” Mr Rabuka said.
“We expect to launch a nationwide awareness campaign to encourage all Fijians to respond to the commission as it meets with the people.”
Mr Rabuka said his personal experience and what he did in 1987 “has given me a deeper insight into the complexities of reconciliation, forgiveness and apologising”.
He said the coalition moved the motion in Parliament in a bid to take the country into a new era of unity.
“I make the point that it is natural in a nation as diverse as ours, that there will always be a sense of its different parts. However, those parts can become one nation.
“We have the majority indigenous community; descendants of the girmitiyas, with all their distinct groups. There are citizens of mixed heritage, Europeans, Chinese, Rotumans, Banabans, those with Melanesian origins, people of Samoan, Tongan, Tuvalu and Wallis and Futuna descent, as well as i-Kiribati and citizens from other parts of Micronesia and elsewhere.
“All these ethnicities have their own customs and traditions and often communicate in their own language. But they all call Fiji home.”
Mr Rabuka said it would be proper to seek unity that comes from a greater sense of patriotism — love for and devotion to country.
