EXCLUSION THROUGH INCLUSION: the Paradox of Fiji’s Race Politics
B By Tarcisius Kabutaulaka Fiji’s contemporary politics has always been laced with racial overtones, even in the midst of the current FijiFirst Party-led government’s attempts to erase race from Fijians ’ political consciousness. The country’s two dominant racial groups, the iTaukei and Indo-Fijians have been central to political discussions in this country since independence. This, along with other issues, has contributed to the four coups of 1987, 2000 and 2006. The racialization of Fiji’s politics has its roots in the British colonial administration’s recruitment of Indian labors in the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, its policies that created two racial groups that lived parallel with each other but hardly interacting, and post-independence government policies and institutions that perpetuated r