SAYED-KHAIYUM Questions Why Girmit Day Being Celebrated on Wrong Date

Former Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has questioned why the Fiji Government has chosen again to commemorate Girmit Day on the wrong date.

He also questioned why the government chose to launch the Fijian Tourism Expo on the very same day set aside to honour indentured labourers.

“Why is this year’s ‘Girmit Day’ public holiday being held on 12 May, when the first Girmityas arrived on 14 May 1879?” Sayed-Khaiyum wrote on his official Facebook page. “They did not land on 12 May, 13 May or 15 May — they landed on 14 May.”

“Is it because 14 May coincides with the date that Rabuka executed his first coup?” he asked. “Isn’t this appropriating history to suit one’s own political agenda and moral impotence?”

Sayed-Khaiyum accused Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad and other government ministers of lacking the courage to commemorate Girmit Day truthfully, labelling their efforts a “hollow token gesture” and “a means for some to make money” amid controversy over government spending.

He was particularly scathing about the Fijian Tourism Expo opening on the same day. “Would they hold the Expo on Diwali, Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, Easter, or Fiji Day? No, they wouldn’t,” he said. “The fact that it started on ‘Girmit Day’ tells one that it has no significance nor respect.”

He also took aim at what he described as a sycophantic minister “falling over her feet to be obsequious to her political masters”, saying such behaviour shifts attention away from the history and facts of the Girmit experience.

Referencing the Bainimarama government’s initiatives, he recalled how the Ministry of Education had once begun incorporating previously excluded parts of Fiji’s history — including Girmit — into the national school syllabus, along with more recent historical developments.

“Public holidays with no tangible and genuine commitment have no meaning and are bound to fail,” Sayed-Khaiyum warned.