present for Fiji’s president

Miilion-dollar birthday present for Fiji’s president

By Sophie Hildebrand

What do Fiji’s prime minister and the

President’s daughter

have in common with an accountant, a hotelier, an airline chairman, two senators, a prominent entrepreneur, the head of the public service commission, a PR man and a lawyer? The short answer

is FJ$ I million.

The long one is they are all trustees of a somewhat unusual trust fund which hopes to promote multiracialism by raising and spending one million dollars.

The fund, named after and in honour of Fiji’s president Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara,

was launched last month to coiincide with his birthday.

Mara has been an influential figure in Fiji for over 40 years, playing a central part in attainment of the country’s independence from Britain in 1970, and was its first prime minister. It was a position he was to hold for 22 years.

He first put forward the philosophy of “the Pacific Way”, which is founded on the practice of mutual tolerance, understanding, respect and

goodwill.

Called the Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara Friendship Foundation, the fund aims to promote Mara’s “multi-cultural ideals and beliefs”.

Its preamble states: “While Ratu Sir Kamisese expresses strong pride in his own identity as an ethnic Fijian, he is passionate in his view that ‘without harmony among the races, there is no hope for the Fiji Islands’.”

Indeed, the trustees themselves span the races in Fiji, and the list reads like a who’s who of the country.

The chairman is the country’s Labour prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, who was part of the ill-fated Labour Coalition

that ousted Mara from power after the national elections in 1987.

Other members include close friends of Mara, the chairman of both Air Pacific and the Fiji Sugar Commission, Gerald Barrack, and highly successful businessman, Mahendra Patel.

Mara’s daughter, Adi Ateca Ganilau, represents the family in the trustees’ list.

She is married to the former commander of the Fiji Military Forces, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, who is now a parliamentarian.

Two lawyers make up the line-up: Senator Mohammed Afzal Khan and Hemendra Nagin.

There is one banker, Senator Laisenia Qarase, who was head of the Fiji

Development Bank for many years, and is now managing director of Merchant Bank.

Sakeasi Waqanivavalagi, who is the chairman of the Public Service Commission, is also a trustee of the fund, as is the managing director of the hugely successful Fijian Hotel, Radike

Qereqeretabua.

The trustee who handled publicity arrangements, Matt Wilson, owns a public relations firm in Suva. In fact, it was he who broached the idea with Mara last year.

And the final trustee is

PricewaterhouseCoopers partner, Jenny Seeto, who brings vast accounting and financial experience to the group, and, naturally enough, was nominated to explain the accountability provisions of the fund.

Seeto’s first statement was to deny that the Foundation was simply a “tax dodge” as insinuated by a few people at the launch.

Because the Foundation is to be largely funded by 150 per cent tax-deductible donations from the business sector, there was much cynicism before the launch.

Indeed, she said, there were several organisations in Fiji through which donations were 150 per cent tax deductible, including tourism industry marketer, the Fiji Visitors Bureau, and the country’s Olympic Games body.

Patel, who was ribbed about how much of his wealth he would pass on to the cause, said it was in the interest of

businesspeople to promote multiracialism because it ensured stability in the nation, and helped prop investor confidence.

He said if the country was torn apart by ethnic violence and intolerance, many businesses would not profit.

How the funds would be distributed was also a top query at the launch, with Wilson stating that those details were yet to be worked out.

It is understood that the trustees would accept nominations from anyone in Fiji, and would then go about deciding whether or not the nominated individual or organisation was fulfilling the

ideals of the Foundation.

The criteria is that the recipients “have excelled and distinguished themselves in

promoting friendship, harmony, tolerance,

peace, respect, goodwill and understanding among the people of the Republic of the Fiji Islands and the Island nations of the South Pacific”.

It remains to be seen whether the peace-brokering work that former Fiji prime minister and 1987 coup d’etat leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, is doing in the Solomons will qualify for the award. ■

Ratu Mara and Mahendra Chaudhry during happier days