Fiji's Moral Decay

Bubu predicted a rapid rise in crime. Isn't it strange that with the soldiers reportedly withdrawing from checkpoints, crime suddenly rises. So now the soldiers are being brought back because they are "needed". And this justifies the emergency decrees ? And now we are supposed to be grateful ?! Hellloooo !

The public isn't stupid - crime has been rising all the time but incidences just were not being reported. We know why people are committing crime - they are hungry and frustrated and bored and the coup-makers have taught them its okay to bash others around, bully, and to take from others because you can go to God on Sunday and all will be forgiven. People have lost sight of morality and good value systems.

The FIJI TIMES in its editorial today (Tuesday, May 08, 2007) addresses this and says the following which points to the greater worry in our society : this lack of morals, values and principles - the same vacuum that causes people to be sympathetic to the coup-makers, the same fuzziness that makes people "accept" what is going on and even preach it from the pulpits, the same decay that causes our own people to beat up and bash and kill innocent citizens and to abuse our fellow human rights , and the same moral ineptness that thinks the the coups are just and right , and the same lack of principles that has Bainimarama and his cronies lie to the people of Fiji on a daily basis, and go hunting down it's citizens who only want the truth (eg. Military goes after Sereimaia Tui May 8th):

CRIME MIRRORS MORAL DECAY

THE surge in violent offences .................. is alarming to say the least. It is, however, the nature of the offences that is even more worrisome. For now, we appear to have more people being stabbed as opposed to the usual punches or threats that robbers in the distant past have employed.

Take for instance the incident involving Dharmend Krishna. He was robbed, stabbed in the neck several times, shoved in a boot then dumped, possibly left for dead, in a creek! Again, it was a group of men behind the offence. Dharmend today lies near-motionless in hospital as his family struggles with the painful incident and the need to make ends meet. Then, there's the equally horrific incident on Sunday in which a mother, who ran to her husband's defence, was struck in the head with a cane knife by one of the robbers.

It is accepted that poverty and greed are factors that influence criminals to do what they do. But in recent years, the nature of crimes in Fiji points to an even deeper, complex problem that is more worrisome.

That problem is moral degradation.

How is it that despite our small, communal setting, our morals appear to have broken down at a disconcerting proportion?

What has happened to our cultural teachings that espouse values of respect handed down from our elders and of the sense of community and fellowship?

For a country that boasts a multitude of different faiths, why then is there so much moral decay? We need to wake up to the fact that our crime problem is more than economics.

Somewhere in the scheme of trying to pass on the fundamental moral values to the next generation, we have gone wrong.

Our leaders in society need to consider this aspect and set about resolving it before it's too late.

Fiji is not safe - not for us ordinary citizens fearing for our lives and our rights and our freedoms from our fellow citizens and certainly not safe for it's vulagi. Where will it all end?