Communalism and Constitution-making in Fiji

Abstract

I N PLURAL SOCIETIES the Constitution, the supreme law of the land, is of more than usual importance, for during the formative period of the nation it provides the broad framework for the development of mutual relations among the various communal groups and, more important, it indicates the thinking and attitudes of the majority community or the indigenous community (who believe that they have an inherent right to political paramountcy) towards the other communities and towards the fundamental problems of communalism and nation-building. The Constitution also indicates whether the ruling community has faith in the eventual economic and political integration of the various communities and the creation of a united new nation where, in the words of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, people, regardless of their race, religion and different cultural backgrounds, should get a just share of the good things of life as citizens of equal worth or that it believes in the involuntary assimilation or absorption of the minority or immigrant communities and seeks to establish the paramountcy of the majority or indigenous community through constitutional and political means. The present article examines this problem as it is manifesting itself in Fiji. According to the i966 Census, Fiji's population consisted of the following:1 The most important demographic fact is that the Indians, the immigrant community, are not only the largest single group but that they con-