Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama is greatly saddened that we have seen a recent escalation of religious vilification in Fiji.

While delivering the Prime Minister’s speech at the public forum/talanoa session on desecration of temples in Fiji at the Shree Gopal Sadhu Hanumaan Gadhi Mandir in Nakasi last night, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed‑Khaiyum said unfortunately, religious vilification is even more widespread than the attacks on temples.

The Prime Minister says many people know this as they are on social media, they have Facebook and they have seen it for themselves.

He says some people are trying to turn fellow Fijians against each other on the basis of Hindu against Muslim, one Christian denomination against another, iTaukei against Indo-Fijian, North Indian against South Indian, Arya Samaj against Sanatan Dharam Sabha, this province against that province and this confederacy against another.

In the statement, Bainimarama stressed that none of that is right and none of it is acceptable.

He says we need to move away from that backwards way of thinking otherwise we will never progress as a country.

Bainimarama says we have seen so much progress because we have put our faith in stability and unity.

He adds that as fellow Fijians we need to love each other.

The Prime Minister thanked the Methodist Church President, the National President of the Shree Sanatan Dharm and the National President of the Fiji Muslim League for condemning intolerance in Fijian society, and he says their support and their commitment to a unified Fiji has made the silence of others all the more deafening.

Bainimarama says he knows that opposition politicians, political parties and their supporters are keeping quiet when people speak in divisive ways.

He stresses that they should be openly condemning such behaviours however he says they like to divide people because they see their political fortunes in a divided Fiji.

The Prime Minister says people who think this way, people who remain silent in the face of division, will take us back to the days of 1987 and the days of 2000 where race and religion was used to only bring some people power and, in the process, many people left Fiji, many people were discriminated against and we lagged behind in development.

Bainimarama says when the water stops running through your tap, the lights go out or your child needs a surgery, you do not care who the CEO or the engineer from Water Authority or FEA is and you will not care if the surgeon is the same religion as you.

He says you will not care about the persons’ race, religion, or where they come from in Fiji as all you want to know is whether or not they can do the job.

The Prime Minister says all you want is clean water in the tap and the lights to be on.

Bainimarama says the government is focussed on merit where people can do the most good for Fiji, regardless of religion, regardless of ethnicity, or location, or any of the differences that make up our society.

There have been four temple break in cases.

The Vishnu Bhavan Temple in Sasawira, Nausori, Tirath Dham Temple in Votualevu, Nadi and a temple in Waila, Nausori late last month.