Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry called on Fijians to reflect on what they are celebrating on Girmit Day.

The former prime minister said Fijians needed to reflect on whether they were celebrating the bondage of Girmit or “the enslavement of our people under a system that was evil, humiliating and degrading.”

He claimed that in many ways, Fiji’s journey from bushland to a leading South Pacific island nation “began on that fateful day of 14 May 1879 when the Leonidas anchored in the waters off  Levuka.”

“Our forefathers did not only work on cane, banana and cocoa plantations,” he said.

“In the years to come they contributed immensely to the country’s development via the education system, commerce and the professions.

“Yet total acceptance remained elusive as evidenced by the racially motivated coups of 1987 and 2000.

“It forced thousands of Indians to leave Fiji in search of a more secure future for themselves elsewhere. We now have a sizeable diaspora of our own in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada.

“For those who remained, the future remains insecure in many ways quite apart from the issue of acceptance. Lack of access to land coupled with insecurity of tenure remains a major problem for the farming community.

“For urban dwellers, lack of affordable land for housing, a constitutional right, is a serious handicap forcing families to survive as squatters deprived of decent living conditions.

“The rights of minorities are no longer secure under the current constitution. The Independence 1970 constitution as well as the 1997 constitution had specific representation provisions for the minority communities in Parliament as well as in the State services.”