LAUTOKA – Members of the public in Fiji polled in a random survey in Lautoka City were not happy with and rejected the final pool of 23 flag designs released by the government’s National Flag Committee on Tuesday.

The designs, according to a government statement, were meant to represent Fiji’s culture, tradition and values.

“None of it is appealing,” said Niko Vuli after browsing through the top 23 designs posted on the flag committee’s website.

Another Lautoka resident Aporosa Tivarua said the symbols on each design were not completely representative of Fiji.

“I still don’t see any particular symbolic representation of Fiji,” he said.

“The tagimoucia flower is unique in Fiji but only to Taveuni. Not the whole country.

“As for the canoe and the sun, that is not unique to Fiji. That is a symbol of the Pacific region.”

Also opposed to the new designs was Vijay Chand, who said the current flag was better than all of the designs.

“It stood out. There was a lot more colour and even people overseas liked our flag,” he said. “All these designs are dull.”

Ilisapeci Vonosese and Katalaini Marama shared the view that the designs were neither good nor great.

On the other hand, Dinesh Chand thought flag number 47 was a good choice.

“It has good colours and I think it’s better than the other designs,” he said.

There has been concern also that the design options offered appear to be the result of the flag committee blending design ideas sent it.

“From the coconut wireless, I am told that really good flags were submitted but never made it to the top for reasons best known to the committee,” a critic posted online.

“There is something going on here. The public outcry is amazing. I have never seen such a clear opposition to the change

The Youth Assembly of Fiji (YAF) has called for a national referendum on issues relating to the new national flag, describing the new designs as “uninteresting”.

YAF president Veresa Ceguadrau says the members stood in solidarity, calling on stakeholders to acknowledge a need for more consultation.

Ceguadrau said the use of creative methods in designing flags was a distraction from real issues that young people faced.

“Youth leaders will appreciate if the funding used to change the Fiji flag can be utilised for other pressing youth concerns, like employment creation, affordable student loan regimes, youthful small business entrepreneur programmes and sports grants.”