Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum in Parliament today highlighted a policy from the 1970s that was based on supporting people based on their ethnicity.

Sayed-Khaiyum was contributing to a motion by National Federation Party Leader Professor Biman Prasad which was defeated after it was put to a vote.

The motion by Prasad was for the Standing Committee on Social Affairs to undertake an inquiry into the causes of poverty and report back to Parliament.

Sayed-Khaiyum highlighted the shocking incident whereby, in 2012, the Prime Minister found out that the National Disaster Management Office was not in a position to rebuild homes of those living outside village boundaries.

“When we were at Knolly Street at NDMO there was a particular cyclone and the Prime Minister said we need to help these fix up their homes. The people at NDMO look up to him and say sorry we can’t do that. The PM look up to them and ask why? Cause there has been a government policy since the 1970’s we only rebuild homes of people who live in villages and we don’t build homes of people living outside the village boundaries.”

The Minister adds this was the kind of policy that was done based on ethnicity.

He says that this system was later changed by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama when they came into government.

The Minister for Economy reiterated that poverty does not recognize ethnicity, religion or race.