Restore People-Centered Leadership
Savenaca Narube is the leader of Unity Fiji. He was the former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji and Permanent Secretary for Finance.
This election must be fought on leadership. Everything flows from leadership. We appreciate the importance of leadership at all levels of society whether its family, village, or province.
National leadership requires a different set of skills. National leaders must have the foresight and vision to deliver peace and happiness to this nation.
They must have the financial skills and economic experience to lighten the load of our everyday lives. They must have the wisdom and sensitivity to build up this nation to be strong and united. In summary, national leaders must serve the people not the other way around. To be able to serve, they must be humble and listen to the people. Over time, our leaders should become statesmen that history will honour and respect.
In this election, the nation must choose a leader which we believe has the best credentials to bring us peace and happiness.
I believe this is only possible through a leader that can unite Fiji in our cultural diversity. We have missed this people-centered national leadership for a very long time. It is time to restore this leadership in this election.
I believe that the names of political parties do not matter. It is the people in the party, especially the leader that matters. If the party wins the elections, it is the leader, not the party, that will lead us to our destination of the way the world should be.
Fiji is a beautiful country. We are enriched with multiple cultures. We get along with one another reasonably well.
We have our challenges in our small size, limited natural endowments and narrow economic base. But I strongly feel that we can overcome these problems with good leadership.
I believe that our man-made problems, that we have faced, have stemmed from political leaders that have imposed their own political ideologies on the people. Fiji is suffering from their legacies. I have calculated that the cost of the three coups (yes, the 2006 change of government was a coup) is a massive $10 billion.
We are still paying this huge price and our children will continue to do so for a very long time. These coups have only brought heartaches and sorrow to our beautiful country.
I shudder to learn of the recent altercations by our Prime Minister with the Leader of the Opposition. Unfortunately, this is not the first incidence of its kind. Whatever is the provocation, we must not tolerate this type of behaviour from our national leader. We all know that a government that imposes its will on the people does not last. We have seen this repeated many times in history. President Mugabe of Zimbabwe was a good example. Ultimately, the people cannot tolerate the dictatorial type of leadership any longer and they will vote for change. We have a golden opportunity to do this in Fiji later this year.
A wise doctor told me recently that change in political leadership happens irrelevant of how well the country is doing. After a while, people want something new with fresh minds and ideas. He reminded me that we must learn from the Americans who limit the term of their President to eight years.
Having barged in through the back door, this Government has dictated to us for 12 years, so using the American rule of eight years, change is long overdue in Fiji. The recent change in government in Malaysia for the first time in its history is another important lesson for us. Look at the big mess that they discovered after the elections! The former Prime Minister is being prosecuted for corruption and he is not the only national leader to face prosecution worldwide.
As we have seen from around the world, corruption tends to be rife when there is concentration of power and a government that serves for too long.
The world has shown us that former military leaders do not make good national leaders.
An example was former President Chavez of Venezuela which has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Yet the late General Chavez, with his populist and wasteful expenditures, had brought this rich country to its knees.
Its citizens now must cross the border to neighbouring countries to buy essential food items. Through responsible decisions, national leaders must build a Fiji that we can proudly leave behind to our children and grandchildren. This must be our collective legacy. Fiji must learn from these real examples around the world. We are a tiny dot in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean.
Despite our challenges, I believe that we can look forward to a bright future if we elect the right leader to take us forward. We have this chance in this election.
We must choose our leader wisely. Each of us have only one vote. I ask that we use this wisely. Please register and vote in this election. The country needs your vote. (The views and opinions expressed in the article are those of Savenaca Narube and not of the Fiji Sun.)
As we have seen from around the world, corruption tends to be rife when there is concentration of power and a government that serves for too long. The world has shown us that former military leaders do not make good national leaders.