Obituary: Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara

By MARY-LOUISE O'CALLAGHAN

Often described as the father of modern Fiji, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, Fiji's Prime Minister for more than 20 years, ultimately failed in his attempt to build a bridge from the ancient traditions of Fijian leadership to a modern multiracial democracy.

Fiji, however, is still better for his efforts, particularly during the first two decades of independence when the traditional chief and Oxford scholar strove to tread the delicate line between the aspirations of his own indigenous people and the legitimate expectations of Fiji's other communities, among them the ethnic Indians who at one point made up more than half the population.

The years of stability, nationhood and growth achieved under Ratu Mara were neither accidental nor just an evolutionary phase in the growth of the nation, says Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji's first Indian Prime Minister, who was deposed and held hostage in the 2000 coup that also saw the end of Ratu Mara's 30-year official career.

"I believe those years of stability were the direct result of the political ethos of the man: his belief in the principle of multiracialism, his respect for the rule of law and for the norms of good governance."

Born into the very Polynesian-influenced Eastern Fiji province of Lau on May 6, 1920, Ratu Mara inherited his chiefly titles, among them Tui Nayau, upon the death of his father in 1966.

As the son of the paramount chief of Lau he was groomed from childhood, with the rest of his family, in the responsibilities of leadership.

But he was also educated by the Marist Brothers in New Zealand, before studying medicine at Otago University from 1942 to 1945.

He was distressed when his uncle and mentor, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, ordered him to move to Oxford, but he obeyed and graduated from there in 1949 with an MA.

As a Fijian Catholic he was also part of a minority set outside the predominantly Methodist indigenous community. His Catholicism may go some way in explaining his early commitment to multiracialism and embracing Western democratic systems.

But it was Ratu Mara's innate leadership which saw him guide not only his young country, but also steer the other newly independent states in forming their own organisation, now known as the Pacific Islands Forum. Mr Chaudhry, speaking during one of a series of lectures last year at the University of the South Pacific on Ratu Mara's legacy, wholeheartedly endorsed Mara's role as father of the nation.

"He has shaped and moulded the socio-economic fabric of our nation,' said Mr Chaudhry, once a trenchant critic.

"In a public career spanning some four decades he has left a formidable legacy of nation-building difficult for any successor to emulate."

As each coup battered the nation and deepened the distrust between the races, many critics of Ratu Mara have, with hindsight, expressed a nostalgic appreciation for his autocratic leadership.

It had at least kept tensions between Fiji's various tribes, races and communities at a level which enabled the country to function and prosper economically, outstripping all but the resource-rich Papua New Guinea in wealth.

Describing Fiji as a nation now fragmented by racial bigotry and misguided nationalism, Mr Chaudhry said there were important lessons to be gleaned from the stewardship of Ratu Mara.

Fiji's 1970 Independence Constitution, which Ratu Mara, as Chief Minister, struck as a compromise with Indian leaders to clear the way for the handover from the British, gave full weight to his understanding for a need to keep all the nation's groups represented, giving equal political status to the two major ethnic groups while acknowledging the importance of the minority communities.

At the same time the significance of indigenous interest was ensured through veto powers vested in the Council of Chiefs' nominees in the Senate on all matters relating to the entrenched interests of the Fijian and Rotuman people.

Under these arrangements Ratu Mara was able to achieve substantial national growth, while his policies of racial integration, understanding and tolerance earned him the respect and confidence of all of Fiji's communities.

Important steps were also taken towards nation-building with the adoption of policies which encouraged racially integrated schools, a programme of localisation based on the 50/50 formula, and the acknowledgment of Fiji's multireligious society through the declaration of public holidays for the observance of a special day for all major faiths.

A Public Order Act, enacted to safeguard the interests of all ethnic communities, reinforced his commitment to multiracialism.

The political and economic stability that flowed from this provided the perfect base for the development of what was to become Fiji's major foreign exchange earner: tourism.

Similar growth took place in the development of resources.

Sugar, an important commodity even in the colonial era, took on a new dimension under the Mara Government, production doubling from 250,000 tonnes at the time of independence to 502,000 in 1986.

The way for such expansion had been paved by the Denning Award, which for the first time in decades met growers' demands for an equitable share of sugar proceeds.

Ratu Mara's Government also negotiated the Sugar Protocol agreement of the Lome Convention with the entry of Britain into the European Market. Not only did the agreement give Fiji a guaranteed price, this price was at least 2 1/2 to three times higher than the world market price for sugar.

Sadly this era of prosperity did not end with Ratu Mara's death late on Sunday night in a Suva hospital, rather it began to come to a dramatic close in 1987 when a western Fijian, Timoci Bavadra, won office in democratic elections.

As leader of the Fiji Labour Party, Dr Bavadra's victory had come on the back of a campaign and coalition targeting urban working-class Fijians' concerns as well as Indian cane farmers'.

The upset profoundly shocked Ratu Mara and his Alliance Party who by then had ruled for the 17 years since independence; servicing their multiracial ideals with a profitable collusion between wealthy Indian businessmen and a number of the chiefly elite.

The tone of respectful reverence which had been adopted by the local media towards successive Mara Governments all contributed to this monopoly, or at least the sense of it, as Ratu Mara rarely deigned to provide an interview or hold a press conference to explain or defend his Governments' actions.

This absence of any intense scrutiny of the business of government, combined with Mara's naturally autocratic demeanour, gave his leadership an air of invincibility which meant the ground shift of Fiji politics, when it came, was all the more shocking.

Much has been written about whether Ratu Mara was involved in the coup of May 14 that year by a young Army lieutenant-colonel, Sitiveni Rabuka, which unseated Dr Bavadra and undid Fiji's political and economic stability.

Although Ratu Mara quickly agreed to take up the role of head of an interim council on the night of the coup, he always vigorously denied that he was a protagonist.

Mr Rabuka claimed in his biography that his actions were carried out at Ratu Mara's behest, but there can be no doubt that his second coup a few months later was very much his own.

While committed in the name of indigenous Fijian rights, it was aimed squarely at the traditional Fijian chiefly elite who had through Ratu Mara's prime ministership kept a tight control on the country's leadership and wealth.

Mr Rabuka's subsequent victory at the polls in 1992 and outmanoeuvring of the old-guard led to his becoming Prime Minister, legitimising through elections the power he had first sought through the coups of 1987.

Although Ratu Mara was to assume the presidency the same year, he was never again able to exert his chiefly calm upon his nation in the same way.

In June 2000 when George Speight held most of the Chaudhry Government hostage at Parliament House for 56 days, including one of Ratu Mara's daughters, Adi Koila Mara Nailatikau, the elder statesman suffered the indignity of being asked to step aside by some of his senior military and police officers, including one of his own sons-in-law.

Martial law was declared and the constitution suspended, actions directly against Ratu Mara's wishes, who said: "If the constitution goes, I go." both actions were later reversed after being ruled invalid by the Fiji courts - but Ratu Mara's chiefly leadership in the service of democratic ideals could not be restored: he issued a resignation backdated to May 2000.

Retreating from the capital and public life, Ratu Mara suffered a stroke the following year from which he never fully recovered.

He is survived by his wife, Adi Lady Lala Mara, a paramount chief who outranked him, three daughters and two sons and a country that is struggling to find its way towards greater racial harmony and democratic leadership without him.

Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara

* Born 6 May, 1920, on Vanuabalavu in the Lau Islands, between Tonga and Fiji.

* Educated at Suva, Auckland and then at Otago University and Oxford University.

* A local government worker, he entered politics in 1953.

* After founding the indigenous Fijian Alliance party, he became Chief Minister in 1967.

* 1969, knighted by the Queen and installed as Lau's paramount chief, Tui Nayau.

* 1970, became Fiji's first independent Prime Minister.

* 1971, helped found the then South Pacific Forum.

* 1987, defeated by Timoci Bavadra who was toppled by the first Rabuka coup.

* Ratu Mara served as Rabuka's interim Prime Minister until 1992.

* 1993-2000, President until soon after the Speight coup.