Corruption Perceptions Index and the Anti-Corruption Landscape for Young Fijians

Shalom Tehilatti, Grace Konrote and Samu Walosio

In 2005 when Fiji’s Corruption Perceptions Index came out, we were 5, 3 and 6 years old respectively. We were too young to understand the implications of Fiji having a score of 40 out of 100. For the next 8 years from 2006 to 2013, Fiji had a military Government. Fiji was also not featured in the CPI until the latest release in 2022. (It needed a minimum of 3 international sources of data which was not available!)

We constantly hear remarks that we see the illiberal democracy we now have as normal as we did not live through a liberal democracy milieu. The CPI journey from 2005 to the deafening silence in between has reflected our own journeys from childhood to young adulthood, living through the COVID-19 pandemic and the limitations of public freedom, not to mention the corruption that it usually breeds. Life has not been easy in 2020 - 2021, because Fiji relies on tourism and when they stopped coming, we struggled.

Credit where it is due

We feel that we have to give credit where it is due. We may not always agree with the way things are run in Fiji but in their own fumbling way, the Fijian Government has scored 55 out of 100 in 2021. This gives it a rank of 45 out of 180 countries. A New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Officer (We were funded by them in 2019 and continue to receive their funding through Transparency International) noted that Fiji is a country where its anti-corruption agency (set up under the provisions of UNCAC) actually works. 

We just feel that Fiji should not feel smug comparing our score to Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands or PNG. As the hub and the largest economy in the South Pacific, Fiji should be aspiring to emulate Australia and/or New Zealand.

Politically aware and active

Going back to our point on living in an illiberal democracy, we feel that we should be politically aware and be active in ensuring that democracy is nurtured and that human rights is protected. We are inspired by the statement of Ms Delia Ferreira Rubio the Chair of Transparency International that, “Human rights are not simply a nice-to-have in the fight against corruption. Authoritarianism makes anti-corruption efforts dependent on the whims of an elite. Ensuring that civil society and the media can speak freely and hold power to account is the only sustainable route to a corruption-free society. “

Transparency International’s analysis showed that upholding human rights is crucial in the fight against corruption, with countries who violate civil liberties scoring lower on the CPI.

Transparency International noted that since 2012, 90 per cent of countries have stagnated or declined in their civil liberties score. They add that corruption undermines the ability of governments to guarantee the human rights of their citizens. This affects the delivery of public services, the dispensation of justice and the provision of safety for all. In particular, grand corruption committed by high level officials usually combines the large-scale, transnational theft of public funds with gross human rights violations.

  Young people need to be anti-corruption fighter

Although many young Fijians of our generation are more interested in Uni studies and getting employed afterwards, we feel that they should be more politically active, questioning how they are ruled and fighting to curb corruption. Our demographic group had the lowest margin of voters in the 2014 and 2018 National Parliamentary Elections. One youth leader (perhaps uncharitably) quipped, “One set of thieves gets replaced by another. The political party name may change but the politicians’ motivations don’t seem to change. Why waste our time?”

This is the kind of thinking that breeds corruption in high places. We can change the way things are done by strengthening the integrity pillars of Parliament, the Judiciary, the Civil Service, Religious and Cultural Institutions. We should move towards a culture of integrity. We plead with the Fijian mainstream media not to be timid and to have the balls to be courageous in exposing corrupt acts.

There is no indication that voters in the 18-25 age group will vote in huge numbers in the 2022 Fijian National Elections despite the well-meaning efforts by the Fijian Elections Office. Not a week goes by without a headline from the mainstream media reporting on squabbles and bickering from the opposition parties. “They’re always fighting,” JonJon (He has a nice Fijian name but prefers to be called by his nickname!) said. ”If they are forever fighting and all parties are run by ex-military officers then it’s just not worth it to go out there and vote for one set of army types with another.”

Fijian CPI journey

The Fijian CPI journey for Fiji from 2005 to 2021 is also a story ‘in progress’ for us at Youths for Integrity and our NGO, CLCT-Integrity Fiji.  We have to model good behaviour. We are currently having our organisational and project audits. We have also faced some challenges working with conservative institutions run by baby boomers.  They find our emphasis on ‘social media education’ and our almost religious ‘Children of the Corn’ (their words!) devotion to our anti-corruption work quite unnerving.

We have our work cut out for us – The CPI 2021 results for Fiji has come out and the hard work needs to be done to ensure that Fiji’s score in 2022 increases rather than decreases.

We are so thankful for the wonderful support provided to us by Board Members and Staff of Transparency International New Zealand, the TI Pacific Office and all friends and well-wishers throughout the world. It means so much to us in our fight against corruption.