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JUNE 7, 2000

Formerly exiled writer Salman Rushdie, an ethnic Indian, writes an editorial in the New York Times about the current state of politics in Fiji. While Rushdie says that the effects of the Indian (India) diaspora have been a "success", he never addresses their impact on the indigenous people of Fiji.

Instead, he goes with the argument that since the Fijians who are primarily of East Indian descent have been there for 100 years, they have a right to claim that they are Fijians as much as indigenous Fijians.

Rushdie does expose some facts behind Speight's takeover that Ethnic Fijians are not the sole controllers of the former Fijian government. But Rushdie does not seem to even give credence to the concept of indigenous land rights, and goes so far as to describe the Great Council of Chiefs, the indigenous, well respected spiritual and moral leaders of Fiji, as craven.

Get the Story:
Salman Rushdie: Fiji's Bigotry of Domain (The New York Times 6/8)
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