FIJI - VKB: DAILY POST, PACNEWS ED-2, MAY 28 1993
Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs has thrown out a controversial report
which recommended that former Reserve Bank Governor Savenaca Siwatibau
and 35 other people be declared non-indigenous and struck off the
register of Fijians.
Great Council of Chiefs members told the Daily Post the issue was very
sensitive and could create hatred among various provincial group.
The report was listed as one of the major issues which were to be
discussed in Thursday's session of the Great Council of Chiefs.
Observers were expecting heated debate on the matter following
publication by the Daily Post on Tuesday May 25 of sections of the
report and the names of 36 people, including a number of prominent
citizens, who were to be struck off the register.
According to the report, the 36 failed to fulfil the selection criteria
set by the Chiefs in 1962 which disallow the registration of people in
the register if the listing was based on requests from the material
side.
Some of the chiefs interviewed said the report had caused an uproar
among their ranks and they challenged the validity of the Vakatora
Committee's recommendations. ....ends.