Fiji's Sodelpa Party says its manifesto for the upcoming election addresses basic issues like poverty and jobs.
Transcript
Fiji's Sodelpa Party says its manifesto for the upcoming election addresses basic issues like poverty and jobs.
The party released the plan, entitled Reclaiming Fiji, at the end of last week.
It has also pledged to make Christianity the state religion and see through a controversial indigenous ownership bill which was stopped in its tracks by the 2006 coup.
Sodelpa's leader Ro Teimumu Kepa spoke to Sally Round.
RO TEIMUMU KEPA:We are trying to put food on the table, jobs for our young people, making sure that they have a better future that what we have been seeing the past few years.
SALLY ROUND: And you want to win down poverty levels down to 25 percent over the next 10 years and one of your plans is a 50 million dollar food subsidy plan. How is Fiji going to be able to afford that?
RMK: Well our people that have been working in the Ministry of Finance, that have been working in economic and national planning, they tell us that there is a natural increase in government revenue on an annual basis and it is well in excess of 50 million in any one year so that is where it is coming from. That subsidy will ensure that the basic food items, you know we lower the cost of those basic food items so that it is affordable for most people in the country.
SR: Now also you have said that Christianity is at the core of your party?
RMK: Over 50 percent of our people are Christian and Christianity was what changed the people, [I have] been telling this for many years, and it has been in our previous constitutions from before 2013 and it is well-known that Christianity changed the lives of people here in Fiji, mostly the indigneous. Because when Chrisitianty came
so we changed the lives of the Fijians and we appreciate this. Those who came after, when Christianity was well established in the country, they also came with their religions which we also honour and give respect to.
SR: Can I quickly just ask about the Qoliqoli Bill and I understand you want to continue where it was left off in 2006 with the SDL party trying to bring through this transfer of the land of the Qoliqoli the seabed and foreshore to the indigineous landowners. Now that was a controversial piece of legislation which some say gave rise to the coup of 2006. Are you not worried that this could again foment problems in Fiji and lead perhaps to another coup?
RMK: I think what we have to do here is advise people correctly and this will be done mostly through the media.
I believe that the 2006 coup took place because the media themselves were not well-informed as to what the Qoliqoli Bill actually meant. In Fiji we really don't know much about our own history and the history of Fiji that when Fiji was ceded to go to Britain in 1874 the Fijians who owned the land at that time, that ceded Fiji to Britain, they were the owners of over 90 percent of the land and they were owners also of Qoliqoli so when this was ceded to Britain including the reefs, the seabed, the mountains, the rivers, the streams, all this is contained in the ceding of Fiji to Britain. Now when it was returned, it was not returned to the landowners or the Qoliqoli owners, that is where the difficulty is and we have to ensure that this is corrected and we will do this by legal means. We will enact some of the laws once we get into parliament that will rectify some of the shortcomings, major, that were not addressed when independence was brought to the country in 1970.
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