The status of Fiji women
p. 32 · Read in the full issue
BASKING in the glory of a
decisive electoral victory, Fiji
prime minister and former com mander of the Fiji Military Forces, Sitiveni Rabuka, recently pulled off an interesting manoeuvre.
And I can’t imagine it is one that is listed in the biblical Book of Strategies studied by all God-fearing coup makers.
Displaying his inimitable charm and good manners to foreign and local journalists who were attending his honeymoon press conference, the Honourable PM managed to do a very neat job of shooting himself in the foot.
The suggestion that the idle moments (hours?) of the Christian Sabbath could be creatively spent by kicking either a football or one’s wife around was of course tossed off in good old-fashioned (patriarchal) jest. And it was, so the official explanation read, just a joke between the boys, or rather two of them
the prime minister himself and prominent Fiji journalist Robert Keith-Reid.
The PM may well be kicking himself now that is with the foot that didn’t get shot. And judging by the furore of responses in the local press from outraged women, there would probably be no shortage of olfers to make sure he does the job properly. Fiji’s women are unlikely to forget the crass and shameless (the shame has only come later) sanction given to wife-bashing by their Prime Minister, even if they are willing to forgive.
For all the explanations, even the formal apology, it just simply isn’t good enough for the country’s foremost citizen, ambassador, not to mention Christian, to engage in such offensive ‘banter’. If that’s the best he can do to enhance the status of Fiji’s women and to steer the cultural values of a male-dominated society in a more progressive (dare I say feminist) direction, then it’s a pretty poor show. It will do little to help counter the alarming incidence of physical and sexual violence against our women and girls, both in the community at large and within the ‘sanctuary’ of the home.
Take for example the number of clients seen by the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre last year. These totalled 1296 of which 514 were for domestic violence, 37 for rape and 35 for child abuse. The statistics compiled by the Fiji Police Force on ‘offences against women’ are no less encouraging. Between 1992 and 1993, the combined incidence of (reported) cases of rape, attempted rape, indecent assault, child defilement, and acts of indecent and other female ‘annoyance’ grew from 183 to 259. While reported rape cases have declined steadily since 1990, the last two years have seen a worrying increase in cases of attempted rape, indecent assault and child defilement.
But post-coup Fiji has thrown up its fair share of interesting contradictions. And the 1994 snap election press conference did not disappoint when the first boy on the block made history (before the kicking comment) by appointing two
women to his Cabinet, and two out of 12 what’s more. Indeed, Rabuka’s ruling SVT party was the only party to field three women candidates, now the only women to be sitting in the new Parliament.
Yet, as is always the case, we need to be wary of just talking numbers. It is not simply a matter of getting more women into the hallowed corridors of power. It is a question of getting in women who will fight on issues like violence, employment, education and poverty which affect so many of our women’s lives in detrimental and discriminatory ways. The class inter ests and concerns of women parliamen tarians matter fundamentally if the women’s movement, and women gen erally, are to make meaningful gains
from greater political representation.
Recent hints by Minister for Fijian Affairs Adi Samanunu Cakobau that a
resurrection of Fijian customary law may be on the cards, is a good reminder of the need for caution. The strengthening of customary law might be welcomed by those who uncritically proclaim the virtues (and right to paramountcy) of traditional indigenous cultures. But the fact of the matter remains that custom can yield a mixed bag of tricks for women, as it can for (non-chiefly) men when unqualified power is allowed to reside with those of hereditary rank.
If customary law is to be brought back from the dead, we may find some disturbing ghosts coming along for the ride.
Public flogging has made an advance booking it seems, justified as part of the traditional system of justice according to Adi Samanunu. And there will almost certainly be some unwelcome ‘pretenders’ claiming though not deserving the status and sanction of tradition.
The application of bulubulu (traditional reconciliation) to rape cases is already amongst the gatecrashers, enabling the family of a (Fijian) rape offender to apologise and be forgiven for his felony. It effectively offers an escape route for convicted rapists. Significantly, the acceptance of the apology is the prerogative of a woman victim’s family (or father) not the victim herself but the practice is nonetheless increasingly popular in the courts and with the police. Bulubulu was never used in pre-colonial times to deal with the crime of rape.
Quite the contrary, the penalty was death.
Whatever agenda they set, Fiji’s women parliamentarians will have few idle moments. In this respect at least, their working week will have something in common with the work burden of the ‘ordinary’ housewife. Of course the average housewife is unpaid and undervalued, and as for the proverbial day of rest, she must also cook and clean up, as well as dodge (or bear with) the kicking foot, in order to make the Sabbath a pleasant and relaxing day for others. Indeed, regardless of whether the fundamentalists succeed in enforcing stricter Sunday observance in Fiji, the Sabbath will remain a day of rest only for some. D