We have all accepted each other as citizens and as communities, and Fiji is our common and permanent home. But we also have peculiar features, which bear directly on inter-communal relationships within our society. We have a total population of around 800,000. The second major ethnic group is our Indian community. The other communities in Fiji are Europeans, Chinese and Pacific Islanders.
Ethnicity is only one basis of distinction and difference in Fiji.
Then there is land ownership. In our urban areas, the situation is the reverse. The majority of property owners, of businesses, of those in the professions, of those working for a regular income, are non-Fijians, and mostly Indians. Then there are our culture and value systems. Indigenous Fijians and Rotumans have a hierarchical social structure.