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of more than usual importance, for during the formative period of the
nation it provides the broad framework for the development of mutual
relations among the various communal groups and, more important, it
indicates the thinking and attitudes of the majority community or the indigenous
community (who believe that they have an inherent right to
political paramountcy) towards the other communities and towards the
fundamental problems of communalism and nation-building. The Constitution
also indicates whether the ruling community has faith in the eventual
economic and political integration of the various communities and the
creation of a united new nation where, in the words of Prime Minister Lee
Kuan Yew of Singapore, "people, regardless of their race, religion and
different cultural backgrounds, should get a just share of the good things of
life as citizens of equal worth" or that it believes in the involuntary assimilation
or absorption of the minority or immigrant communities and seeks to
establish the paramountcy of the majority or indigenous community through
constitutional and political means. The present article examines this problem
as it is manifesting itself in Fiji.