A man ahead of his time
Karam Chand Ramrakha March 18 1933 – April 17 2021
KARAM CHAND RAMRAKHA, prominent lawyer and a contemporary of leading political lights, Siddiq Koya and Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, died at Sydney’s Mater hospital on April 17, following a long illness.
Mr Ramrakha was among the last remaining stalwarts of the National Federation Party from Fiji’s early post-independence era.
Erudite and eccentric, he was an engaging raconteur whom I affectionately knew, by turns, as Uncle or KC. He was 88 when he passed on, mind still as sharp, like cut glass, a firm twinkle in his eye and spirits as buoyant as ever, right to the very end.
KC was born March 18 1933 in Nabouwalu in Bua to Odin Ramrakha, a senior public servant in the colonial judiciary and his wife — Mohandai.
He had led a peripatetic life during childhood with Odin moving the family several times, including to remote outposts where he remembered having to walk six miles to and from school. He then completed what was then known as the Cambridge Certificate — with record passes — at Marist Brothers in Suva.
In the 1950s, the British governed the iTaukei natives with a system of rules and regulations not far removed from apartheid. Fijians had to obtain passes if they wanted a drink at the local pub. No Fijian or Indian could join the exclusive Royal Suva Yacht Club or indeed, other British establishments like the Defence Club.
Schools were racially segregated and ordinary Fijians could not move freely around the country unless they had documentation. The colonial masters maintained an iron-clad grip on the hearts, minds and pockets of their genuflecting citizens.
Across the Pacific, Australia’s White Australia policy was firmly entrenched so most people in Fiji would send their children to New Zealand to study. But Odin, ever the smooth operator, knew a Mrs Iris Hunt of a leading travel agency in town called Hunts Travel and arranged with her to obtain visas for his boys to study in Australia.
In 1950, KC and his older twin brothers left to study in Sydney.
After completing his law degree at Sydney University, KC was admitted, at the age of 22, to the New South Wales bar. Odin wanted him to get a job in a law firm back in Fiji but no one was willing to hire someone who looked so young. Odin slipped into a depression over his son’s apparent lack of prospects and suggested opening an office in Labasa. His son had other ideas.
KC opened his law firm in Robertson Rd Suva which, at the time, had a total of 35 lawyers.
He had no intention of entering politics until the revered AD Patel, the undisputed NFP leader, inducted him into the fold. At the 1966 election for the Legislative Council, KC stood as the NFP’s candidate, easily defeating two other candidates. He soon forged a reputation as a masterful debator and was made Opposition Whip in the Legislative Council.
As a parliamentary tactician, he was without peer, according to Queenslandbased academic, Professor Brij Lal.
“He was a multitalented man of restless, brilliant intellect, very quick on his feet,” says Prof. Lal.
In 1969, a dispute erupted between the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) and sugarcane farmers who essentially argued that the accounting procedures by CSR lacked transparency and that they were getting a bad deal. KC supported AD Patel who represented the farmers in the arbitration proceedings presided over by England’s pre-eminent judge, Lord Alfred Denning.
The case was resolved with Denning ruling in favour of the farmers and in the process praising Patel for his marshalling of the facts and brilliant presentation.
KC was a member of the constitutional negotiating team that held talks in London in 1969.
What may surprise many is the fact that it was KC alone who had mooted the idea of giving the iTaukei chiefs the power of veto over legislation in the Upper House.
In a discussion with Prof. Lal, KC conveyed his intention to reassure the iTaukei that they had nothing to fear from independence.
“KC said the Indians had no intention of transgressing on, or appropriating iTaukei rights. I’ve seen the actual draft in his handwriting,” Prof. Lal says.
“That proposal was his handiwork.” When AD Patel died suddenly in October 1969, the leadership mantle was passed to another lawyer — Siddiq Koya – to the surprise of most within and probably outside the party. Relations between KC and Siddiq Koya deteriorated by the time of the 1977 general election, an event that produced a pyrrhic victory for the NFP and was to set the course of the remainder of KC’s life.
Despite the NFP securing a win at the 1977 polls, in-fighting and the splitting of the party into various factions created a constitutional crisis, that forced the-then Governor-General, Ratu Sir George Cakobau to intervene and reappoint the Alliance Party as caretaker government. Before Sitiveni Rabuka stormed into the pages of history, this episode has gone down in some quarters as Fiji’s first coup d’etat. The NFP spent the following years trying to clean up the augean stables from the turbulence that changed the course of Fiji’s history – and collective psyche – and set the tone of politics in the years to come.
In 1981, KC packed his bags and left for Sydney with his wife Usha and four children.
In suburban Putney, he set up a legal practice where his cases took him back to Fiji on a regular basis. He reconnected with lawyers he had worked with and was on close terms with the scions of high society, among them, billionaire Richard Pratt and his wife Jeanne. KC and his wife attended the weddings of all the Pratt children and vice versa.
A prolific writer, during the 1987 coup, he wrote extensively for the Sydney Morning Herald and other publications on the litany of Fiji’s crises. As the man who had written vast tracts of the 1970 constitution, he was more uniquely placed than most to offer first-hand insight into Fiji’s history after independence.
In sport, KC has also been a gold medallist player-coach of the Fiji Table Tennis team at the South Pacific Games.
In publishing, he was the force behind the Pacific Review publication in its later years and wrote most of the articles. He was also president of the Fiji Teachers Union around the time of independence.
In the twilight of his life, KC found a new passion – oil painting and the large cache of works – mainly landscapes, are a testament to his eye for detail and his power for interpretation.
In the last few years of his life, he was receiving regular dialysis treatment at Sydney’s Mater Clinic and in his final moments, was surrounded by his beloved Usha, and family.
Karam Chand Ramrakha is survived by his widow Usha, their four children Kirath Kirith, Sandhya, Sushil and Aman, six grandchildren Navin, Nikhil, Priyanka, Odin, Ravi and Rahul and two great-grandchildren Elora and Owen.
RIP 18 March 1933 – 17 April 2021