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Written from archival research and observation, Tuimacilai is a biographical study of Ratu Sir Kamasese Mara, leading figure in the South Pacific whose background, character, role in the traditional as well as national life, political difficulties, achievements, and failures are obviously worthy of being put on record for their own sake quite apart from the fact that assessment of evidence has educative value.
Ratu Sir Kamisese's thoughtful and entertaining memoir of his personal and political life candidly outlines significant events in the development of Fiji, a plural society for which The Pacific Way holds a special and evocative meaning. The phrase inspired his 1970 partnership with the Indian opposition leader to produce a constitution whereby, in his own words, "people of different races, opinions and cultures can live and work together for the good of all, can differ without rancour, govern without malice, and accept responsibility as reasonable people intent on serving the interests of all." After leading Fiji through 17 years of multiracial harmony, he found it ironic that his defeat in ...
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To read this evocative book is to be thrust into a Fiji that has, for the moment, been snuffed out by military might: a Fiji of political parties, parliamentary politics, elections, manifestoes, campaigns, democractic defence of interests, party manoeuvres, and constitutional protection of rights and freedoms. It is a comprehensive and eloquent re-telling of the story of Fiji politics from independence in 1970 to 1999 through the perspective of Fiji's greatest living statesman, Jai Ram Reddy, by one of the world's most distinguished scholars of its history and politics.
This edition of select writings by Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna is the companion to the biography Ratu Sukuna: Soldier, Statesman, Man of Two Worlds, published in 1980, which Dr Scarr was invited to write by the Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna Biography Committee under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Fiji, Ratu Sukuna's nephew, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.
Politicians everywhere tend to attract cynicism and inspire disillusionment. They are supposed to epitomize the promise of democratic government and yet invariably find themselves cast as the enemy of every virtue that system seeks to uphold. In the Pacific, "politician" has become a byword for corruption, graft, and misconduct. This was not always the case—the independence generation is still remembered as strong leaders—but today's leaders are commonly associated with malaise and despair. Once heroes of self-determination, politicians are now the targets of donor attempts to institute "good governance," while Fiji's 2006 coup was partly justified on the grounds that they needed "cleani...
May 19, 2000. Fiji's democratically elected multiracial government is hijacked by a group of armed gunmen led by George Speight, and held hostage for fifty days. Suva, the capital, is torched and looted as Speight's supporters gather on the lawns of the parliamentary complex, dancing, cooking food, celebrating the purported abrogation of the constitution that brought the People's Coalition government to power. The country is plunged into darkness yet again, enduring the pain of three coups in a period of just thirteen years. The process of healing and reconciliation, symbolised by the enactment of a new Constitution, unanimously approved by Parliament and blessed by the powerful Great Counci...
Fiji, post-independence, has seen several governments, two military coups and, amidst sweeping social, economic and political changes, the presence of divisive identity politics in its journey towards a united, collective Fiji community. This republished edition of Confronting Fiji Futures takes in these landmark events and eventualities, and aims at a forward-looking assessment of the realities facing Fiji in the present and the future. It focuses on the period of the coups up to and including the 1999 general elections, when an explicitly multiethnic party won government in a surprise landslide result. This book is the result of a collaborative research project based at the Institute of So...
"In May 2006 Fiji held its tenth general election since independence in 1970. In a country with an unenviable history of electoral trauma, the mood was apprehensive - not least because of controversial public statements against the incumbent Qarase government being made by the commander of Fiji's military forces. Despite a record number of parties and candidates, the winners were the heavily church-backed SDL, the party of choice of the majority of indigenous Fijians; and the Fiji Labour Party, the party preferred by most Indo-Fijians. Although the result was ethnically polarized, for the first time in Fijian history the successful candidates came together to share power in a constitutionall...
‘What I have sought to do in my work is to give voiceless people a voice, place and purpose, the sense of dignity and inner strength that comes from never giving up no matter how difficult the circumstances. History belongs as much to the vanquished as to the victors.’ — Brij V. Lal ‘Professor Brij Lal is the finest historian of the Indian indentured experience and the Indian diaspora. His Girmitiyas is a classic.’ — Emeritus Professor Clem Seecharan, London Metropolitan University ‘Brij Lal is a highly respected, versatile and imaginative scholar who has made a lasting contribution to the historiography of the Pacific.’ — Dr Rod Alley, Victoria University of Wellington ‘...