Ethnic eruptions in Fiji

The civilized world will unanimously condemn the crude attempt to topple the democratically elected government in Fiji, in particular to oust its prime minister. That the principal victim is of Indian origin is only an additional reason why India and Indians will be outraged by the manner in which a gang of disgruntled but apparently powerful men have held Mr. Mahendra Chaudhary and his cabinet at gunpoint inside the country's Parliament. Whatever the final outcome of the effort to end the crisis, the way the so-called coup leader, Mr. George Speight, has held out threats and subjected the country's Prime Minister and others to unbearable psychological and physical pressure is reprehensible.

The Indian diaspora, unlike the Chinese and others, in some respects was a colonial legacy as the British recruited indentured labor to serve in their distant colonies and helped in the transplantation of large populations. Decolonization threw up problems. Where people of Indian origin assimilated themselves in the local society, as in the West Indies and South Africa, everything was easy and smooth.

Problems began elsewhere when native politicians started to target these ethnic groups in their attempt to capture and retain power. Eastern Africa in the seventies saw much turmoil and uprooting of people of Indian origin. In pockets like Fiji attempts to construct a multiethnic society in the post-colonial era have been repeatedly thwarted by interested groups. These must be defeated and the country helped to evolve acceptable constitutional arrangements that safeguard the rights of the minorities while providing for the majority's unhindered progress.

People of Indian origin must be allowed to live with dignity and self-respect and not be reduced to the status of second class citizens. The international community must make it clear that it will not countenance the creation of a system which does not respect and protect the rights of all Fijians regardless of the accident of their ethnicity.

-- The Hindu, New Delhi