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Ratu Sir Josefa Lalabalavu Vana'ali'ali Sukuna a Great

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Ratu Sir Josefa Lalabalavu Vana'ali'ali Sukuna a Great RATU SIR JOSEFA LALABALAVU VANA’ALI’ALI SUKUNA A GREAT LEADER AND STATESMAN “If other communities are poor, we too remain poor. If they prosper, we also prosper”1 BY JIOJI KOTOBALAVUi INTRODUCTION Today, 30th May, marks the anniversary of the death in 1958 of Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna. Following Fiji’s independence in 1970, this date was observed as a public holiday to commemorate his immense pioneering contribution to land management reform in Fiji. Sadly, this public remembrance was abolished by the current government. So, in this article, let me explain why he is widely respected and admired as an outstanding leader and statesman of great vision. As a public administrator, he brought together two parallel and concurrent strands of development imperatives in our history, namely, consolidating the security of all native lands to their customary owners, and simultaneously enabling the on-leasing of surplus native land to all citizens of Fiji. He did this through the Native Land Trust Ordinance which the British colonial government brought before the Legislative Council in 1940. Through this ground-breaking legislation, he laid the framework for the management of native Fijian land for the benefit of all Fijians. BOUNDARY SURVEYS Ratu Sukuna carried out field surveys throughout Fiji to demarcate the boundaries of native customary land owned by every Mataqali. This is something unique to Fiji. As a direct outcome of his work, today every Mataqali knows exactly the boundaries of its customary land. In other Pacific Island countries, and especially in Melanesia, boundaries of tribally-owned lands have not been surveyed and demarcated. Consequently, land-ownership disputes are a major underlying cause of violent inter-tribal conflicts in these countries. ADDRESSING WIDER NEED FOR LAND As demand for agricultural and residential land in Fiji rapidly increased from the late 1920s and onward, Ratu Sukuna led the initiative by the British colonial government to facilitate the on- leasing of native land surplus to the needs of the Mataqali owners to other citizens in Fiji. He first ensured that sufficient native land was ‘’reserved’’ for the subsistence needs of the owning 1 Ratu Sukuna, in his address to the Great Council of Chiefs in 1936, seeking their support for his draft legislation to institutionalize the on-leasing of surplus native land to all citizens in Fiji in need of land 1 Mataqali and then sponsored the passage in 1940 by the Legislative Council of the Native Land Trust Ordinance. This legislation is the forerunner of today’s iTaukei Land Trust Act. It provided the necessary legal and institutional framework for the management of native lands, including the on-leasing of those not reserved for the landowning Mataqali. What was so exceptional about Ratu Sukuna’s role in the enactment of this historic legislation was his diplomatic skill and tact in winning over the critical support of the Great Council of Chiefs. Without their support passage of the legislation would not have been possible. THE NATIVE LAND TRUST ORDINANCE The Native Land Trust Ordinance was enacted by the Legislative Council in February 1940 with the full support and endorsement of the Great Council of Chiefs, acting on behalf of all indigenous Fijian customary land and resource owners. Its fundamental purpose was to establish a clear, streamlined and integrated administrative system for the management of native land. Control of all native land would henceforth be vested in a board of trustees, the Native Land Trust Board, presided over personally by the Governor, the resident head of the British colonial administration in Fiji. All native land is to be administered by the Board for the benefit of the native owners. The Board has power to set aside and proclaim native reserves, that is, areas of native land for the use of all iTaukei. These areas would be demarcated and kept for re-allocation in the event a Mataqali, for some reasons, needed additional land for its members. But the Board was also conferred with full powers to grant to any Fiji citizen in need of land, under certain conditions, leases or licences over native land not included in the native reserves. The native owners would benefit from the lease rent or licence fee income; the tenants would secure land for their farms, their houses, and their businesses; and Fiji as a whole would gain from the increased economic activities and the social security provided. CHALLENGES FOR RATU SUKUNA It was clear to Ratu Sukuna that there was an imperative need for an integrated native land management system with a two-pronged approach. Ensuring the best interests of every Mataqali, including their land maintenance needs, would continue to be the first consideration. At the same time, however, surplus land or land not included in the demarcated reserves was to be availed under controlled leasing and licensing arrangements for use by all Fiji citizens. In order to fully comprehend and appreciate the magnitude of the challenges that Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna was confronted with as the senior-most adviser to the British colonial administration on native affairs, and as a paramount chief and the senior-most adviser to the Great Council of 2 Chiefs, the highest representative council of all indigenous Fijians, we need to look into what was happening in Fiji at the time. For this, we have to start with the Deed of Cession of 10th October, 1874. In that historical event, Ratu Seru Cakobau and other high chiefs ceded over to the British Crown, totally and unreservedly, the sovereignty over all lands and territories in Fiji. But in return, the British Crown, or Great Britain, reciprocated by giving the Fijian chiefs two assurances for which, even today, we should always be grateful. First, Fijian possession of their tribal lands according to their custom and usage would remain with them in accordance with the English common law doctrine of native or aboriginal title. Second, Britain expressly recognized the position and authority of the high chiefs over their people, to be exercised in accordance with the laws of the British colony. In addition to these assurances, there was another fortuitous factor for the iTaukei Fijians. Britain’s first resident Governor, Sir Arthur Gordon, came to Fiji with clear instructions from the British Secretary of State for the Colonies to devise a system of land administration “with the view of disturbing as little as possible existing tenures”. (Peter France, The Charter of the Land, 1969, p. 110) Sir Arthur Gordon himself came imbued with a deep sense of mission to protect the “Fijian race” from “…the corrupting influences of the planter community”. (Peter France, p. 107) Sir Arthur Gordon’s priority was to establish the institutional structure and the enabling regulations for native administration and welfare of the indigenous Fijians, and to get the chiefs to agree on a common and standardized system of customary tenure for all native land. With his encouragement, the Great Council of Chiefs met in Bua in December 1879. This was their fourth meeting to try and reach agreement on the land issue. They finally succeeded. This was their momentous agreement: • That there shall be one custom for all native lands in Fiji, • That the “true and real ownership” of all native lands would vest in the Mataqali alone, • That it was neither possible nor lawful for any Mataqali to alienate their land, • That all men shall be registered in their Mataqali together with their lands, • That the register should be approved by tikina and provincial councils, and • That the register shall be proof “for all time” as to the status and proof of the lands of each Mataqali in each province. (Peter France, p. 113) To appreciate the significance of this agreement, consider this. First, in the population census of 1881, it was recorded that the Fijians had a population of 114,748 or 90.0 per cent of Fiji’s total population of 127,486. The Indians numbered 588, or 0.5 per cent. The rest were Europeans 3 and part Europeans. (Fiji Bureau of Statistics 2012, p.3) Second, the alienation of tribal lands was not uncommon in the period preceding Cession. This was as a result of inter-tribal wars and through chiefly gifts and exchanges. However, what was causing great concern was the increased loss of native land through the uncontrolled and unregulated land buying activities of European traders and planters. Many of the chiefs themselves were selling their communal land even without informing those of their tribes occupying the land. (Peter France p. 121) So, one can see that the challenge at the time was essentially to bring about uniformity and consistency in customary land tenure and to protect native land from the unscrupulous activities of land-hungry European planters and traders, and from the chiefs themselves from easily succumbing to underhand dealings by these newcomers to Fiji. The colonial administration itself had taken the first protective step by stopping all sales of native land and a Land Claims Commission was established to review all earlier land sales. Most important of all, the Native Lands Ordinance of 1892 codified iTaukei ownership of their customary land as part of the laws of the colony by declaring under section 2 that: “The tenure of the lands belonging to the native Fijians as derived from their ancestors and evidenced by tradition and usage shall be the legal tenure thereof.”2 SOCIAL CHANGES AND INCREASED DEMAND FOR LAND Now, we fast-forward in time to the 1930s to see the revolutionary changes in the social, economic and political situation that confronted and challenged the British colonial administration. Firstly, there was a dramatic change in Fiji’s population dynamics.
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