Common roll

still wanted

Prom a Lautoka correspondent

Fiji’s Opposition party will

continue to push for introduc tion of the common roll system of voting at all levels of govern ment in Fiji.

At the National Federation Party convention at Lautoka in June, Op position leader Mr. S. M. Koya said the NFP had no intention of abandon ing this aspect of party policy now or in the future.

On the question of coalition, he said that while coalition had its advantages there were inherent dangers. It would wipe out all op position in the House of Represen tatives; would entail amending the Constitution to abolish the post of Leader of the Opposition—and would be “a sure-fire way of encouraging certain factions to form another political party overnight without any work or sacrifice.”

Greatly daring, Mr. Koya put his finger into the fire when he turned to the burning topic of Fijian land about which the Fijians are danger ously nervous. He called for a change in the land laws to enable the Taukei (owners) to pledge their lands to raise loans without losing their freehold titles.

Laws relating to Fijian land, he said, were out of date and helped neither the landowning mataqali nor the country.

He didn’t say what should happen to the pledged land if the mataqali couldn’t repay the loan, which is what the Fijian would get all nervous and excited about.

Enlarging on his theme, Mr. Koya suggested that the mataqali, once they had obtained their loans, should be made to invest it in business con cerns approved by the government such as Burns Philp or the Carpenter group. Likewise, it should be obligatory for these “expatriate com panies” to accept them as share holders and give them seats on the boards and an effective voice in the businesses.

It was inevitable that Mr. Koya would also have a shot at the im migration policies of Australia and New Zealand which, he said, called for “universal condemnation.”

It was time Fiji looked to its own policies, he said, to examine whether

they were in Fiji’s best interests. In the name of tourism, the dominion had not questioned the policies of Australia and New Zealand. He claimed Fiji’s policy should be based on the rule of reciprocity and should put an end to the “notion that Fiji, even after its independence, is an economic colony of Australia and New Zealand.”

Nationalisation of the banks was another of his suggestions. He wanted State supervision if not control of all “nerve centres of commerce and industry”. Later, Mr. Koya pointed out that his speech did not represent final party policy.

Mr. Koya has other things to worry about, however. Circulating around the floor at the convention was a document written by Mr. A. A.

Awasthi, of Samabula, a former party official and ex-editor of the Federa tion Party’s newspaper Jagriti. He blamed Mr. Koya and general secre tary Mr. K. C. Ramrakha for a com plete breakdown in communications between the party’s hierarchy and “commoners” and said party prestige had suffered under their leadership.

He was also critical of Mr. Koya’s “deep romance” with .the party’s political foes.

Little is expected to stem from Mr. Awasthi’s revolt, however.