Record number of i Taukei to contest polls for NFP
Fiji's National Federation Party says it is fielding a record number of indigenous candidates for the September polls.
Transcript
Fiji's National Federation Party says it is fielding a record number of indigenous candidates for the September polls.
Fifteen iTaukei candidates are proposing to stand and the party hopes to lift that number to 20 before candidates must be finalised.
Fiji's political parties face a new style electoral system which attempts to do away with voting along traditional ethnic lines by abolishing communal seats and creating one large national constituency.
A recent NFP recruit, Eci Kikau Nabalarua, is the party's spokesperson on education and she told Sally Round she was attracted by its inclusive policies.
ECI KIKAU NABALARUA: The party focuses a great deal on merit, and not the province you are representing or where you are coming from, and they wanted to ensure that there was a good representative of iTaukei candidates women and youth, and we've got all that in the current line up.
SALLY ROUND: Are you finding as you go about talking to people in the community and so on that race still does matter in politics in Fiji?
EKN: It depends. I think people have begun to realise that while race is a matter of fact in Fijian society there were some things that will not change. For example, Fiji will always continue to be a multi-racial society. And that's the thing that we work towards, especially in making sure that inclusivity is included in the kinds of policies and things that we talk about. And I think there is mutual respect between the two ethnic groups in the party and as we go out into the community when they ask the question as to why is it we are joining an Indian party and then when we remind them of the earlier iTaukei candidates, they realise that we are just continuing the tradition of the NFP being a multi-racial party.
SR: As I've been around Fiji in this last week a lot of people have said to me we like the Fiji First Party, we like what Frank Bainimarama has done, especially in education. You are the education spokesperson for the NFP, how are you going to win votes considering that he has dropped school fees and so on, which appears to be a big draw card for many voters especially in the grass roots?
EKN: For me, free education is okay, but I am more interested in the quality. It can't be free and you're still having inadequate resources, still having composite classes, year one and two you have one teacher, or in some schools it is year one two and three you have one teacher. It is free tuition, but the number of kids still walking around the streets not in school is a problem for me. There is a need to basically review the national curriculum. Because there is I feel a mismatch between the curriculum that we offer and the expectations of competencies and skills that the employers are looking for. On the 30th of May the National Employment Centre put out a figure that 30,000 young people had registered for unemployment. And of the 30,000, 12,000 are university graduates. And that's a worry. If you're having free education and the market is not able to absorb the people who pass out of the system, then something is wrong. Maybe the national curriculum needs to be reviewed, maybe the programs at the universities need to be reviewed. It is the same budget, so when you add more to education something suffers, either health, social welfare, agriculture. This election is a very crucial election. And I've said it, if people are not thinking carefully especially with regards to the 2013 Constitution which is being imposed upon us, I think that this election basically will either be doom and gloom for the iTaukei or more economic growth if this current government is not being put back into power.
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