Ethnic blindness conceals the underlying ethnic inequities and divisions, which has potential to spawn grievances and long-term instability.
This, according to Fijian academic and director Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies Professor Steven Ratuva.
He made the comment in response to queries from this newspaper about comments made by Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum that ethnicity and religious data would not contribute towards Fiji’s progress as a nation.
Prof Ratuva said policies of ethnic blindness, a form of ethnicity denial which dictates that no ethnic-based statics be used, were used by authoritarian states like the Soviet Union to suppress other cultures and take total control of power to ensure submission to the singular ideology of authoritarian state elites.
