Political Leaders

"One (path) is confrontation and the politics of exclusion. The other is the path of cooperation and trust. We either embrace the concept of multiracialism or we go down the path of racial vilification and alienation."

"There are daily acts of violence to the general public and in all levels of government we have witnessed corrupt practices of bribery, extortion, misuse of public funds, abuse of office and all the pervasive singling out of one race. But in reality, to use it as an excuse so that a select few will benefit in wealth and position."

"We must learn that all religions proclaim the unity of divinity and preach the cultivation of universal love without regards to caste, creed, country or colour."

"Temples have been desecrated, places of worship are destroyed, all in the prejudice view that one religion is the true one and others are not."

"How often have we seen the bigotry of the religious fanaticisms and intolerance that have occurred in Fiji?"

"To share responsibility with the people of the province should be, in my view, the proudest bequest of a chief to his people."

"In any case paramount traditional heads of provinces should, in my view, welcome the fact that their people who have had education and experience can relieve them as in the traditional line of delegation from the many functions the chiefs are required to do now, particularly if they are public servants or have not had the background of education and service as their people."

"The decision by the Rewa Provincial Council to leave the chairperson's position of the council vacant until the Government has changed the constitution to enable the paramount chief of the province to take the position seems strange in this day and age."

"(Silence) denies the existence of HIV/AIDS, and prevents discussion of the human rights violations fuelling the pandemic, and constrains the mobilisation of resources and partnerships required to expand the prevention and care (of HIV/AIDS)."

"If this is neglected, any effort at development will fail, because factions will emerge with their own form of protest that would drive underground anyone seeking help. This will endanger whatever development has taken place."

"We must move with speed to mobilise all sectors of society in a stepped-up drive against HIV/AIDS, accelerating the pace to halt the virus before the Pacific's window of opportunity slams shut."

"We cannot afford to ignore HIV/AIDS. We can only ignore this battle at the cost of being regarded by future generations of Pacific Islanders as lacking the will, the foresight, the understanding to tackle this issue, which threatens our very future."

"I am making a very personal commitment myself. This is a war I am not accustomed to but it is a global war and we are in a global army, fighting against a global enemy - HIV/AIDS."

"No nation would refuse to fight an invading army because some expert argued it would be cheaper to invest in defenses against future invasions. It is not a matter of prioritising lives now over lives tomorrow."

"To all the families out there without their fathers they must remember that our eternal Father in heaven will be there for us at all times and we should celebrate because of that."

"The danger … is that unscrupulous politicians have continued to preach their racially divided visions for Fiji."

"Touted as a legislation that will promote unity, it has done exactly the opposite. It has divided this country, apparently and sadly along racial lines. (on the government's controversial Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill, which Ganilau opposes)."

"We should not allow ourselves, individually or our ethnic communities to become easy tools for politics of race that will continue to segregate us mentally and emotionally."

"What I would like to see is a greater degree of interaction that will lead to a much better cross-cultural understanding than what we have in Fiji today."

"We pay lip service to multiracialism but we fail to put it into practice because we continue to see most things and ourselves from our own ethnic perspective. So long as the personal attitude persists, we will not see us one people of Fiji and our future will not be secure."

"As a people, we have not been able to chart a clear map toward a common destiny. We will not be able to do this if our leaders continue to promote sectional and separate development."

"As a country, we have not started to see how much we can achieve as a nation and we will not have any idea of our strength if we continue to deny ourselves the opportunity to come together as one people. We have not been able to pool the resources and talent of our people and exploit them for our common good. It will continue to evade us if we continue to stress our ethnicity and group differences."

"We need to marshal and direct our energy toward building this nation into a peaceful, prosperous and proud bequest to our children."

"I would like to offer for the unity of our people, the adoption of multiracialism as the core ideal in searching for a clear way ahead. We need to get out of our comfort zones, our ethnic boxes and truly embrace multiracialism."

"Government seems unaware that the more race-based measures it tries to put in place the faster that time bomb burns to detonation point."

"For too long we have kept ourselves in our ethnic boxes and continue to see ourselves as either indigenous Fijians, Indo-Fijians, Europeans, part-Europeans, Chinese, Pacific Islanders, or others. For as long as that wall remains we will continue to view one another with suspicion and distrust. This is the fear that is fueled by political manouvering to keep us divided while for some to remain in power."

"It does not say much about the credibility of the Prime Minister for him to be saying publicly that the Christian churches support the bill after these deliberate acts of deception. (In response to Mataca's claim that Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase had misled a delegation of church leaders as to the true contents of the government's Reconciliation and Unity Bill, which Mataca and Ganilau both oppose)."

"This is what the National Alliance stands for: To respect all people, regardless of ethnicity, gender and religion, to uphold godly principles and moral values and to respect the rule of law."

"I believe we must not fight fire with fire, we will be burnt. The only way in which we can stop these extremist elements from destroying the nation is by ensuring that they are not given an opportunity to be in a position of controlling the destiny of the nation."

"There are those people who are acting irresponsibly … and spreading their gospel of fear and hate and not doing anything to help the ordinary people put bread on their table for their families."

"When we leave out people on the grounds of ethnicity we limit our options. As such, we become poorer because we are not making optimum use of our human resources, thereby depriving us of the returns and full benefit of our capabilities."

"(on the Indian presence in his country): "Let us not ignore the fact that there is another community settled here in our midst. I refer to the Indians. They have increased more rapidly than we. They have become producers on our soil. They are continuously striving to better themselves. Although they are a different race, yet we are each a unit in the British Empire. They have shouldered many burdens that have helped Fiji onward. We have derived much money from them by way of rents. A large proportion of our prosperity is derived from their labour.""

"(on the perceived need for cautious political development): "We are the High Chiefs of these islands. We are the leaders of the people. On us is the duty of pointing out to them the right course. Bear this in mind. We have to lead on two points- hold back those who advocate radical changes (for which we are not sufficiently educated) and enliven the laggards before their ignorance destroys us"."

"Eda tamata ni vala ia eda bese taka na veivala."

"This is the kind of leader we should try to emulate because he was true to himself and rose to the occasion when faced with daunting challenges always proving to the nation that they could depend on him."

"Ratu Sukuna was a godsend, not just to Fijians but also to others."

"Today we stand on the threshold of violence, disunity and hatred and ongoing for peace, non violence, unity and love. Alas! How I long to behold my Ratu Sukuna, a statesman, philosopher and guide to help us traverse the turbulent ocean of life."

"A great and noble man … whose foresight and vision still impacts on our future."

"Eda na sega ni kilai na i Taukei kevaka ena sega mada ni dave e liu na noda dra."

"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past."

"When this country here was first being founded there were 13 colonies. The whites were colonized. They were fed up with this taxation without representation, so some of them stood up and said “Liberty or death.” Though I went to a white school over here in Mason, Michigan, the white man made the mistake of letting me read his history books. He made the mistake of teaching me that Patrick Henry was a patriot, and George Washington -- wasn’t nothing nonviolent about old Pat or George Washington. “Liberty or death” was what brought about the freedom of whites in this country from the English. They didn't care about the odds. Why they faced the wrath of the entire British Empire. And in those days they used to say that the British Empire was so vast and so powerful when the sun would never set on them. This is how big it was, yet these 13 little, scrawny states, tired of taxation without representation, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded, told that big British Empire “Liberty or death.” And here you have 22 million Afro-American black people today catching more hell than Patrick Henry ever saw. And I'm here to tell you, in case you don't know it, that you got a new generation of black people in this country who don't care anything whatsoever about odds. They don't want to hear you old Uncle Tom handkerchief heads talking about the odds. No. This is a new generation. If they're gonna draft these young black men and send them over to Korea or South Vietnam to face 800 million Chinese — if you're not afraid of those odds, you shouldn't be afraid of these odds."

"As the 18th century progressed toward revolution in the Virginia Commonwealth, the language of freedom and individual rights had appealing religious meanings for the audiences of Samuel Davies and appealing political meanings for the audiences of Patrick Henry."

"Samuel Davies was one of the most influential of all 18th century Virginians, in that his legal preaching gave increasing credibility to Presbyterians throughout all of central Virginia. He was an impassioned orator, often addressing outdoor congregations that numbered hundreds of souls. Patrick Henry's mother regularly brought her young son to Hanover County's Polegreen Meetinghouse to hear Davis' sermons. Nearly all of Henry's biographers mention Samuel Davies as a prominent influence on this young man's oratorical development, which was something which Henry also admitted shortly before his death, crediting this preacher with "teaching me what an orator should be.""

"Patrick Henry was an inveterate and voracious engrosser of land lying beyond the deadline set by the British State [i.e., the Royal Proclamation of 1763 which prohibited English colonists from settling west of the Appalachian Mountains]; later he was heavily involved in the affairs of one of the notorious Yazoo companies, operating in Georgia. He seems to have been most unscrupulous. His company's holdings in Georgia, amounting to more than ten million acres, were to be paid for in Georgia scrip, which was much depreciated. Henry bought up all these certificates that he could get his hands on, at ten cents on the dollar, and made a great profit on them by their rise in value when Hamilton put through his measure for having the central government assume the debts they represented. Undoubtedly it was this trait of unrestrained avarice which earned him the dislike of Mr. Jefferson, who said, rather contemptuously, that he was "insatiable in money.""

"While new American leaders such as George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Benjamin Franklin studied the Haudenosaunee government, they also engaged in land speculation over territory held by these peoples, and Mohawk lands were ceded through force, coercion, and deceit until fewer than 14,600 acres remained in New York State."

"One of his neighbors going to see him found him reading the Bible. Holding it up in his hand, he said: "This book is worth all the books that ever were printed, and it has been my misfortune that I have never found time to read it with the proper attention and feeling till lately. I trust in the mercy of Heaven that it is not yet too late.""

"We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists."

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."

"There is an insidious campaign of false propaganda being waged today, to the effect that our country is not a Christian country but a religious one—that it was not founded on Christianity but on freedom of religion. It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by "religionists", but by Christians—not on religion, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here."

"That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other."