by One of Fiji's richest politicians has come up with a new translation of the Bible just so he can expunge a single word that he says has cursed Fijians for 175 years. Jim Ah Koy, who has politically survived all four of Fiji's coups, plans to give a new Bible to 475,000 Fijians, free of the word "kalougata". The original translators in 1836 believed the word in the then unwritten Bauan language (now the national language of Fiji) meant a blessing from God.
Ah Koy argues "kalou" means a spirit god, and that "gata" means snake. Put together it means "blessed is the snake god" - a reference to the pre-Christian gods that Fijians believed came in the form of giant snakes.
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Ah Koy said the word's appearance in the Bible had cursed Fiji, leading to the "rapid deterioration of things relative to iTaukei [indigenous]". Burning the old Bibles would solve Fiji's problems.
"Now, there is going to be an explosion of good things for all Fijians in the world," Ah Koy said.
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"I want to eradicate this word ‘kalougata' from the lips of every Fijian."
On his website (nftbible.com) Ah Koy says the word is "unacceptable and unwarranted". The snake, he says, is the enemy of God - the Serpent, the Devil. To expect God's blessing while we call him something other than what he has called himself is hardly blessing God. In fact, it renders hollow our petitions for his blessing."
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Of Chinese-Fijian origin, Ah Koy was a long serving member of Parliament and finance minister under the first coup leader, Sitiveni Rabuka. He later sponsored a young George Speight to a Seventh Day Adventist University in the United States. Speight overthrew the government in 2000.
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He was recently Fiji's ambassador to China.
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Ah Koy is not alone with biblical obsessions. As Fiji holds public hearings into its fourth constitution, a number of submitters, including Rabuka, are demanding Fiji be declared a Christian state.
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