They accused the church of supporting Western institutions against the traditional order, even though the church had repeatedly gone on record as endorsing inculturation and supporting in principle island ways. So the quarrel over justice is substantive, it seems, having to do with who should be given what. Pacific Islander and Westerner look at the matter from very different perspectives. The islander sees the rights and responsibilities of a person tied to that person's status in society. The quarrel has to do with much more than words, but the language gap that has arisen between these parties has only compounded the misunderstanding and added to the confusion.
Westerners come from a recent tradition of human rights.
Everyone from the least to the greatest possesses these inalienable rights. A recent international conference even produced a list of rights of children. Not to a Pacific Islander, or to many an Asian or African, I would be willing to bet. In some of the local languages, the English term has been adopted into the vocabulary. It is tantamount to embracing the cause of the single human person over and against the good of the entire society, selfishness versus communitarianism.