In memory of Professor Brij V Lal
IT is almost a year since my husband Brij passed away. There is not a day that passes that I do not think about him, and know many in Fiji, too, have felt pain at Brij’s unexpected departure.
Our family has been so touched by the kind, and generous tributes, and messages of condolence we received, not just in the days and weeks immediately after Brij’s passing, but throughout this last year, from Fiji, Australia, New Zealand and the broader global Indian diasporic community.
For your messages of love and support, I want to say, on behalf of the family dhanyavaad, vinaka vakalevu, thank you. They helped us cope with the loss.
The messages underscored the warmth and depth of Brij’s relationships, and the breadth of his professional work. Beyond an academic legacy, in the academic fields of Fiji and Pacific history and politics, and research on Girmitiyas and Indian Diaspora, many people also mentioned Brij’s generosity in assisting and supporting young emerging and mid-career scholars.
Many talked about how much they miss reaching out to him for advice, for suggestions and review comments, or even just for a chat via phone or text messages.
Copies of your kind messages and tributes alongside recordings of the funeral service and various memorials held throughout the world will be kept at the National Library Of Australia, as part of Brij’s wider collection of unpublished work and other grey literature.
Complete sets of Brij’s books can also be found at the National Library of Australia, the USP Library and the ANU’s Pacific Library, where the family have donated copies of his books to complete their collections.
One consistent thread in the reflections about Brij is not just about his extensive writings, and pursuit of excellence, but also his insistence on truth, integrity, and lifelong passion for democracy. Brij stood against the first 1987 coup and all subsequent coups. Some may recall his words, “a coup is a coup”.
“There is no good coup’ just like ‘there is no good rape”.
Brij believed coups at the barrel of a gun “do not solve problems, they compound them”, that coups and military actions destroy democracies, instilling fears of reprisal and intimidation to the point where people self-censor.
Coup culture
Brij had an abhorrence for Fiji’s “coup culture”, and increasing autocratic rule in Fiji. Brij was an outspoken public critic of the current regime’s dismantling of institutional independence, violation of civil liberties, corruption and general rule by a few.
Brij remained steadfast in his principled stance for democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech to his dying days. Even when he (and I) paid the price of being expelled from Fiji in 2009 by the current government for speaking the truth.
It is a source of sadness for us that even in Brij’s death the regime continues to be fearful of Brij’s vision, refuses our family’s request to return Brij’s ashes back home to Fiji and to rest him in peace in the land of his birth and the focus of his life’s work.
Our family continues to wait for even an acknowledgement of multiple requests sent directly to the Ministry of Immigration, and through the Fiji consulate in Australia. I hope to live to take him home.
Despite this treatment, Brij would remind us not to lose hope, that returning a country to democratic rule is not impossible. He often referred to what happened after the 1987 coup and how Mr Rabuka, the current leader of the People’s Alliance Party, but then a coup maker and Prime Minister, and the late Mr Jai Ram Reddy, the then leader of National Federation Party, worked to “right the wrong”.
Brij often fondly spoke of how he, and the late Mr Tomasi Vakatora, a proud nationalist, with the late Sir Paul Reeves, worked together to produce a Constitution Review Report that forged a new path for Fiji based on respect, core principles of human rights, principles of democracy and rule of law. The 1997 Constitution was universally accepted by the Fiji Parliament, giving hope for a new dawn for Fiji as we entered the new millennium.
Brij also always believed in the verdict of the ballot box, even when the parties led by the then PM Rabuka and the late Jai Ram Reddy lost during the 1999 election and Mahendra Chaudhry’s government was sworn in.
Unfortunately, since then Fiji has seen two other coups, the last one being led by then Commodore Frank Bainimarama in 2006, and the abrogation of the unanimously endorsed 1997 Constitution by him after becoming Prime Minister Bainimarama.
Democratic rights
Yes, the Bainimarama Government did come to power following a general election in 2018. But Brij argued it is anything but “democratic”. Under the current government, Fiji has begun to gradually descend into a state of autocratic rule, with key decisions being made by one or two persons without the usual democratic parliamentary decision-making process and weakening of many public institutions.
Today, people do not have basic democratic rights and freedom of speech. Fiji is now seen as a place where anyone who dares to protest, stand up, question the Government’s decision, or call for accountability and good governance, is threatened or intimidated into self-censorship out of fear.
A sad example for me personally is the University of South Pacific, where students appear to be frightened to protest against the Fiji Government’s refusal to pay $85 million in outstanding contributions to the running of USP. This is so unlike university students in so many parts of the world today, or even what USP students, including Brij and I, did in the early 1970s.
We stood up and protested many issues such as for a Nuclear Free Pacific, or against the treatment of a Marxist university professor. We did not give a second thought to what USP’s administration or Ratu Mara’s then government would have done to us for speaking out.
Today the culture of silence seems to be all pervasive. I can say something about it based on my own first-hand experience.
A distant relative of a member of the extended family, in a chance meeting in Brisbane said, “I did attend Brij’s memorial at the Jai Narayan College. I deliberately came late and went and sat at the very back of the hall. I also wore a cap to hide my face, as I was fearful of being seen at Brij’s memorial and later to be pulled up by the regime for an explanation.”
Another of Brij’s extended family members was called into his manager’s office for questioning after attending Brij’s memorial in Suva and a few weeks later was moved from his then position in government. Such stories are not isolated incidents.
Brij would have been deeply saddened by these incidents and numerous examples of those to dare to contradict the current regime being attacked in public and ridiculed or hauled into the court system usually over unsubstantiated allegations. One of the most recent examples of this was Professor Biman Prasad, the leader of NFP, whose charges were later withdrawn at the direction of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
If Brij were around, he would have urged each of us to stand up, protest, speak up, or write and be counted. He would have reminded that Fiji is once again at a crossroads