Our Young Person of the Year: Jacque Koroi

Samisoni Pareti

Jacque Koroi

On the round table, she sits in with people like Lourdes Pangelinan—the immediate past director-general of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community—hand-picked to advise on the implementation of a roadmap that is directing the future of the region’s more than 5 million inhabitants.

The organisation she leads is looking after the interests of more than one million people. In October, when Pacific leaders met for their annual summit at a resort in western Fiji, she told them her peers needed to be taken seriously and that national budgets for those of her age ought to be increased.

Jacqueline Sekoula Koroivulaono, also known as Jacque Koroi, is an exceptional 21-year old. While girls of her age are spending most of their time fussing about the colour of their hair or what to buy for their boyfriends, our (Young) Person of the Year is agonising about how to put stability back into the so-called arch of instability as one of the eight members of Forum Secretary-General, Greg Urwin’s Pacific Plan Reference Group.

When 1000 young people of the Pacific met in French Polynesia (Tahiti) for the biennial Pacific Youth Congress in July, they elected Koroivulaono as council president, giving her regional legitimacy to a national appointment in 2002 when she became prime minister of Fiji for a day in a joint Ministry of Youth and UNDP (United National Development Programme) youth parliament initiative.

When Urwin welcomed leaders at last October’s summit, he had a special welcome for two people.

“Of the many people who are here today, may I single out just two, Jacqueline Koroivulaono, President of the Pacific Youth Council and Seletuta Visesio, its Vice-President, who are our special guests,” said Urwin.
“We welcome them. They represent our region’s future.”

Indeed in a year that saw violent uprisings in the Solomon Islands and Tonga, worsening relations between Australia and two of its Melanesian neighbours, this University of the South Pacific first year law student’s involvement in regional affairs is almost literally a breath of fresh air.

Of the same stock? Jacque Koroi with her grandmother who is president of the Fiji Labour Party.

While not vigorously pursuing a career in politics as yet, she is however, clear on what needs to be done in her part of the world.

“Oh my god, there’s potential in the Pacific, there’s huge potential here,” said Koroivulaono in an interview she gave this magazine last month (Koroivulaono wasn’t told what the interview was for).

“We have resources and all we need to do is to empower and educate the citizens of our countries on how things are done.

“I believe we can be very advanced 20 to 50 years from now.

“It’s a matter of realising it.

“We have land, we need to cultivate our land.

“It’s also about good management.

“We need to get rid of corruption, there tends to be a lot of corruption in the Pacific.

“Get rid of corruption, manage our resources better, and we will be well-off.”
 
Partnerships

A highlight for her was the invitation to address islands leaders in October with her vice-president.

Said she: “We were sitting in the same room as all these presidents, premiers and prime ministers from different countries.

“On top of that, we made a five-minute presentation to the meeting, so it was really interesting. We spoke about partnerships between adults, leaders and young people.

“Mainly partnerships and how they need to be strengthened, as well as the need to have open communication.

“The response from the leaders was great. A number of them later came and thanked us for our presentation.

“The president of Kiribati, for example, said young people have a lot of energy and we need to channel that somehow.

“He’s right.

“The Marshall Islands president said he was touched by what we said, saying it’s true we need to work in partnership.

“A few of them mentioned they would like to be more involved now in the development of young people.”

Koroivulaono’s own story is a remarkable one. Raised in a family of seven children of four other younger siblings plus two cousins, Koroivulaono’s namesake and paternal grandmother is the president of the Fiji Labour Party.

Another relative is a junior minister in the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. This year both her parents were with her at the Fiji campus of the University of the South Pacific. Koroivulaono’s mother Rosie, is pursuing her master’s degree, while her dad, Michael, teaches at the same university.

Originally from Ono-i-Lau, Fiji’s southeastern-most island, Koroivulaono will be visiting her home island for the first time for Christmas this year.

Showing maturity for a woman her age, Koroivulaono describes herself as a staunch Christian, in contrast with her family’s strong Roman Catholic background. She prefers to attend the Lami (town) Gospel Church.

When it comes to Fijian politics, Koroivulaono believes her religious belief is influential.

“I’m a strong Christian and my Christian beliefs influence my views on politics.

“I honestly believe we have to live together as a people, regardless of what race we come from because God made everyone.
 
Setting examples

“So who am I to say you are not good enough to stay on this land?

“I’m concerned at the examples that have been set for young people by adults.

“They are not good examples.

“It’s a concern because if no one rights the wrong, then young people may think that these are the kinds of things they should adopt.

“I also believe that justice must be met. If anyone breaks the law, then he or she must be punished regardless of their position, whether you’re a chief or not. The law is the law.

“I really belief in a multiracial Fiji.

“God made everyone.”

As for the wrongs that ought to be righted in the Pacific, Koroivulaono has an almost infinite list.

Education and employment opportunities are rated very highly.

“Then you have the scholarship component of education, even the education curriculum itself needs to change.

“Apart from that, you have health issues like reproductive health.

“I’m currently with the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement and we are trying to produce a documentary on reproductive health because we feel a lot of young people are not too comfortable about reproductive health, about making choices with regards to relationship, with regards to STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) and there is a need to increase knowledge in promoting healthy lifestyles.

“There’s a huge gap between those in the rural areas and those in the urban areas, and a lot of young people are caught up in the urbanisation drift.

“They come in and they are not well equipped to survive in the city, so they end up in the streets.

“We have financial problems, and there’s a need for family planning because we need to plan our children, that you need money and resources for their upbringing.

“There’s also disintegration in the family.

“At a meeting in Tonga, about nine countries agreed that we need to improve the family structure, and we need to have open dialogue between parents and children.

“Parents must also be knowledgeable in areas like reproductive health, HIV and relationship issues because sometimes parents and children are not usually on the same wave length when it comes to giving the correct information.

“On education, there’s a need for non-formal education to be given the same recognition as formal education.
 
Leaders of tomorrow

“And there needs to be more extra-curricula activities for young people to engage in.

“Whether it’s sports, whether it’s voluntary work, young people need to be active.”

As president of the Pacific Youth Council, strengthening the work of the council is a priority. Communication amongst council affiliates is also a challenge it will need to overcome.

“There’s also a need in the Pacific to establish proper national youth councils.

“We’ll also try to be more active in regional gatherings.

“We had that opportunity to address the Pacific Islands Forum leaders and we do have a role to play with regard to the Pacific Plan.

“The youth component of the Pacific Plan includes the coordination of all youth organisations and programmes in the region, and secondly, the need for a regional youth volunteer scheme.

“This has been endorsed and involves posting our young people around the region for internships for one to two years which will be a good opportunity for them to learn in countries like Tonga, Samoa, Tokelau and vice-versa, and get our young people exposed to the Pacific.”

But why should adults listen to inexperienced and yet to mature younger people?

“I don’t believe any particular group of people should operate independently.

“For example, adults cannot operate independently of young people where they can go ahead making decisions on behalf of the nation including youth.

“I think there should be a partnership at all times because young people need to be taught the way of the adults, they need to be taught about the decision-making process, what sort of attitude we need to have in order to be part of the policy-making process.

“We always say our young people are leaders of tomorrow. That is so true, but the challenge is what sort of leaders will they become.

“No doubt our young people will be sitting in parliament. But it’s not just sitting in parliament, we want people of integrity, we want people that will rid the country of corruption, we want people who have vision.

“By adults listening to young people, they may see the weakness they have and take steps in working on those weaknesses because one day when we take up those decision-making roles, we will be well equipped to make sound decisions for the nation.

“Because when you become a leader, you’re just not thinking about yourself, you’re thinking of many other people and that’s a huge responsibility.”

With her enthusiasm, incisive perception and exceptional mind, the sky will be the limit for this young Lau lass. Jacqueline Sekoula Koroivulaono is Islands Business’ first ever Pacific’s Young Person of the Year because of the potential she exhibits and the hope she exudes.