Page 33 - IB October 2021

Opinion Opinion

Thoroughly Eurocentric texts and the curriculum, you innocence then.
might say, and now pilloried by postcolonial critics. But I do We may have been blinded by our idealism and our dreams
not disparage this ‘colonial’ education. The books we read for a free and fair society, but the coup of 1987 came as a
opened new horizons to us, connected us to distant pasts and deep shock to us, to see armed soldiers turn on their own
places. They enlarged our sense of who we were, our common innocent civilians. That was something we associated with de-
humanity. None of us ever considered Shakespeare as a ‘colo- veloping countries in Africa and Latin America. Disillusioned,
nial’ or ‘Eurocentric’ writer. That thought is mildly repugnant many left Fiji altogether, taking with them skills and talent
to me. He taught us so much about the vagaries of the human the country could ill-afford to lose. The haemorrhage contin-
condition. ues unabated as Fiji’s best and brightest seek their future in
I have met old timers, now probably gone, who could foreign lands. This, too, is something people of my generation
recite lines from Julius Caesar’: ‘Friends, Romans, Country- had never contemplated.
men,’ from James Joyce’s Ulysses ‘Tho’ much is taken, much For a brief moment in the mid-1990s, a ‘Niu Wave Collec-
abides,’ and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Rime of the Ancient tive’ of writers and artists began once again to write about
Mariner: ‘Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink’. I their personal and collective traumas, but subsequent rup-
found their memories of their youthful reading deeply mov- tures put paid to that.
ing. In recent decades, much local content has entered the It is to the great credit to those who have chosen to remain
school curriculum, which is as it should be, but I hope the in Fiji that they have kept the flickering flame alive.
baby will not be thrown out with the bathwater. I am sometimes accused of being an ‘elitist.’ I cannot,
Teachers were for us figures of great authority, exemplars of in good conscience deny that charge though I completely
correct conduct, always respectfully addressed formally. They repudiate the thought that only elites should govern society.
took their profession seriously rather than as a stepping stone I am genuinely grieved by very bright people who could and
for a career elsewhere in the civil service. They pushed us should have done much better but have not. I have supervised
hard. Some of their examples has influenced my own teaching several doctoral dissertations by students from Fiji and I know
career, the capstone of which was the award of an ANU ‘Top from direct experience how good they are. It is my hope that
Supervisor Award.’ And teaching has remained the cornerstone the coup culture of the last three decades in Fiji will not
of my only career spanning four decades. permanently corrode the spirit of critical enquiry.
One deeply regrettable aspect of education during our time I agree that I am a person of the past both by training as
was its effective ethnic segregation. Fijian boys went straight well as by temperament. I have vicariously witnessed the
from their provincial schools to Queen Victoria School or Ratu struggle of so many over so many decades to create a fair and
Kadavulevu School, and iTaukei girls to Adi Cakobau School just society in Fiji with the consent of the citizens. Failures—
in Sawani. Most Indo-Fijian pupils went to schools which and there were failures along the way—did not daunt or deter
were predominantly Indian, including even the government- them. They were always ready the next day to continue fight-
sponsored Labasa Secondary. Marist was an exception, but not ing for the values and ideals they held close to their hearts.
everyone could afford to go there. The verdict of the ballot box might have been disappoint-
We grew up with scant knowledge of the ethos and values ing, but it was sacred. Rules were made to be observed, not
of our neighbours. The barriers were breached much later. It breached at gunpoint.
is no wonder that Fiji has faltered so much in its postcolonial Fiji was a country of cacophonous voices, sometimes discor-
journey. I certainly hope that racially segregated education in dant even, but that was a condition for a vibrant democratic
Fiji is now firmly in Fiji’s past. society. The Parliament was not a bull pit for belligerent poli-
The University of the South Pacific was a real eyeopener for ticians with insufferable egos and overweening ambition. The
us. It was on the Laucala campus that we met and mingled Parliament was the people’s house to discuss matters with
with students from other ethnic groups for the first time and dignity and decorum (and, yes, a bit of pungent humour, too).
from different parts of Fiji and from wider South Pacific re- That is the past of which I was a part, mostly as a bystander
gion. That broadening experience has remained with me. The and occasionally as a minor participant. That past for me can-
regional character of the university is its greatest strength; its not be erased just because it is inconvenient to the present.
loss would be grievous. As I look back, I ask, with TS Eliot, Where is the life we have
It was at the Laucala campus that we discovered works lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
about ourselves: books by Ken Gillion, Adrian Mayer, Cyril Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
Belshaw, Ray Watters, EK Fisk and Oskar Spate, and poems,
plays and short stories by us: Raymond Pillay, Vanessa Grif- editor@islandsbusiness.com
fin, Pio Manoa, Jo Nacola, Subramani. We talked about such
weighty topics as the meaning of independence and develop- Tabia-born Professor Brij Lal’s books include Road from Mr
ment for our country and punctured pomposity of our hier- Tulsi’s Store (2019). He and his wife Padma have been banned
archs without fear of retribution. from Fiji for life by the Bainimarama government. They now
It was Imran Ali, I think, who published an article in ‘UNI- live in Brisbane, Australia.
SPAC’ about the Fijian Senate which he titled A High Sound-
ing Nothing, after the Congress of Vienna. Such freedom and

Islands Business, October 2021 33