Larry Thomas' eloquent film on squatters in Fiji has echoes around the Pacific as urban squatting proliferates unchecked.

Shailendra Singh

Jacket of the DVD on Fiji squatters.

In some important circles, the attitudes towards Fiji’s 100,000-plus squatters are many and varied. For example, the level of understanding and sympathy in the statements of a former government minister last year was breathtaking.

Adi Asenaca Caucau likened squatters to “thieves because they lived illegally on someone else’s land”. Caucau, who was the State Minister for Housing at the time, said that police should make “every effort to round up and remove squatters”.

Caucau is quoted at length because her comments reeked of not only her skepticism regarding the status of squatters, but also of her government’s embarrassment and frustration when it came to dealing with the issue.

Judging from Caucau’s comments, the Qarase government, which inherited what was a worsening problem, appeared to have reached a state of denial.  It also lacked ideas.

Its proposed squatter patrol to prevent people from settling in unauthorised areas was seen as a band-aid solution. Neither did it inspire confidence when its assistant minister for squatter settlement became embroiled in a shouting match with a squatter family—an episode seen live on Fiji Television.

Given all the hostility and negativity displayed towards squatters, and the paucity of ideas on how to effectively deal with what is fast becoming a major social problem, a recently-released video documentary on the subject is timely, to say the least.

Commissioned by the Suva-based Citizens Constitutional Forum with support from the Ecumenical Centre for Education, Research and Advocacy, Struggling for a better Living: Squatters in Fiji, was directed by playwright and filmmaker Larry Thomas.

Film director Larry Thomas. Pic: Dev Nadkarni

Thomas, the coordinator of the Regional Media Centre at Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Suva, has a string of notable movies to his name. This latest documentary is yet another one of his outstanding achievements.

In technical terms, the video is professionally done with good graphics, clear sound, audible voices and eye-catching footage.

Characteristically, Thomas lets his subjects tell their stories. The result is a stirring account of not just the despair and daily struggles that are part and parcel of life in squatter settlements, but also of the resilience of the residents.

The documentary brings a semblance of balance to the squatter issue given that the voices of the squatters were drowned out by the elite and influential sources to which the news media are impulsively drawn to.

The figures revealed in the documentary are grim:
•    Around 12.5 per cent of Fiji’s population now live as squatters
•    There are over 182 settlements around the country
•    Around 80 settlements are in the Western Division, 27 in the Central and Eastern Divisions and 30 in the Northern Division
•    The greater Suva area has the highest concentration of squatters, with the squatter population having doubled between 1999-2005
•    A large portion of the increase is due to the expiry of 5661 land leases, affecting 28,300 households

It is one thing to read the data and quite another thing to see in moving colour the people who make up the statistics and hear from them about their daily struggles.

Thomas and his team visited camps around Suva, Labasa and Ba. Their cameras do a superb job in bringing into full view the appalling conditions in these settlements.

Flimsy tin shacks, fetid creeks, old tires, rotting drums, abandoned boats and scrawny dogs make up the dismal and gloomy landscape.

By showing the camps in all their nakedness, the documentary casts grave doubts on the incredulous claims made in a government report in 2005 that 60 per cent of Fiji’s squatters could afford their own homes.

While there would be a couple of enterprising people in every camp pretending to be poor, it is apparent that only the very desperate would want to live in those conditions and bring up children there.

“When I first moved here, I felt ashamed,” said one elderly man. “For us Fijians, we are not used to living like this.”

One telling scene in the documentary has an elderly woman bent over an open fire, inhaling the smoke as she prepares a meal for her and her husband.

The number of old people slogging away in these settlements is testimony of the failure of the state and of society to provide for its aged population.

The documentary also underlines the failure of successive governments to plan ahead. It was well known that thousands of cane leases would be expiring, leaving thousands of families destitute. But little was done in preparation for this.

A strong feature about this film is the varied use of interviews. We meet pundit Vikash Sharma of Tauvegavega, Ba, who regrets that he has no chair to give to his interviewer.

Old and wizened, and with no one to take care of him and his wife, he seems resigned to the fact that they will spend the rest of their lives in the camp.  

Then we have Timaima Kotobalavu of Jittu Estate, a squatter settlement near Suva. She is a seventh form student who has seen her peers degenerate into a life of crime and drugs.

She is not only keen to avoid a similar fate, but hopes that she will be a leader one day so that she can assist the unfortunate.

From the testimonies of the characters, it is clear that one of the root causes of the problem is low wages.

Says Peter Matayawa of Jittu Estate: “Many of us still face difficulty in making ends meet. Though we work, there is a huge gap between what we earn and the cost of living. And the rent demanded these days is just impossible.”

To this day, government funding falls well short of the  $5 million per year needed for the next 10 years to accommodate existing squatters and to make provision for new resettlement sub-divisions.

The state’s commitment in terms of devoting funds to the cause can perhaps be gauged from the $US270, 000 it was able to conjure up for Prince Charles’ 2005 visit, and another $US1.5 million spent on an international conference in the same year.

Only this week, prominent hotelier Radike Qereqeretabua questioned the wisdom of spending $30 million on a new complex for the Great Council of Chiefs given the many pressing needs facing the country.

The former director of housing and squatter settlement, Dharam Raj, warns that leases will continue to expire for the next 20 years, and that rural to urban migration will continue. He predicts that situation will worsen unless appropriate policies are put in place.

While Thomas has made a powerful movie to stir our conscience, the reality is that our squatters are here to stay for a long while yet.

Shailendra Singh is the Divisional head of Journalism at the University of the South Pacific. The views expressed in this article are that of his, and not necessarily of his employer.