Recently, a chance meeting with old friend Bessie Ali in downtown Melbourne jogged me into remembering the incredible life-long contributions of one of Fiji’s now forgotten sons, her husband the late Dr Ahmed Ali, who taught me at Marist Bothers High School and I later became his junior colleague at USP. Dr Ahmed Ali was in many ways a trailblazer for me and several others at USP like Yadhu Nand Singh, the late Dr Ropate Qalo and Professor Vijay Naidu. Dr Ahmed’s trajectory in life was very similar to mine, and not just because we were both Toorak Indo-Fijians who departed from the norm by marrying Chinese partners. I have known Bessie Ali (formerly Bessie Ben of Nabua), the much respected retired principal of Yat Sen Secondary School where my wife (Joan Yee) had been chairperson of the Chinese Education Society. Mrs Bessie is an incredible woman achiever in her own right with a remarkable career. Dr Ahmed and I were both USP academics who passionately believed in service to community, who tried to serve in Parliament when given the opportunity, and who were both sympathetic to indigenous Fijian aspirations, without losing sight of the legitimate interests of the Indo-Fijian community. Dr Ahmed chose a slightly different path when it came to constitutionality. Like me, he was a Toorak boy – like Jim Ah Koy, Sakiasi Waqanivavalagi, Lionel Yee and so many others prominent in Fiji later on. As did I, Dr Ahmed attended Marist schools, he later taught at Marist High (like me briefly), taught at USP (like me), published enormously on the indentured Fiji Indians (myself only a little) and British colonialism in Fiji (mine was more global on British monetary imperialism globally). Dr Ahmed went into USP administration for a while (as did I), and he taught courses at the RFMF (as did I). But, as far as most Indo-Fijians supporting the National Federation Party and later the Fiji Labour Party were concerned, Dr Ahmed went into politics on the “wrong” side. Dr Ahmed actively supported indigenous Fijian governments even if they depended on coups. He became a minister under the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara (Fiji’s first Prime Minister for 17 years) and then later Sitiveni Rabuka and the late Laisenia Qarase. Dr Ahmed has been today virtually forgotten by the larger Indo-Fijian community, I suspect for being allied to the minority Muslim community and strengthening its political representation in Parliament through his calls for special seats. This was also where Ahmed’s views departed from some of us “lefties” at USP with our “class analysis” believing in supporting primarily the interests of labour, as for instance actively opposing the Alliance Government’s unilateral wage freeze in 1984 and supporting the trade union movement (although Ahmed was also sympathetic to unions).
Dr Ahmed’s academic publications
When I started teaching at USP in 1974, Ahmed had already become a well-established lecturer in the History Department, having obtained his PhD from the Australian National University writing on the early indentured Indian experience in Fiji. He published numerous pioneering studies sympathetic to the Indo-Fijian experience in Fiji, both indenture and post-indenture:
Books:
1971: The Indenture Experience in Fiji (Suva).
1979: (With A Mamak): Race Class and Rebellion in the South Pacific. Allen & Unwin, Sydney and London.
1980: Plantation to Politics: Studies on Fiji Indians.
With Professor Ron G Crocombe, Ahmed published
1982: Politics in Melanesia
1983: Politics in Polynesia
1983: Politics in Micronesia
1983: Foreign Forces in Pacific Politics
Monographs:
1976: Society in Transition: Fiji Indians 1879 – 1930.
1977: Fiji from Colony to Independence 1874 to 1970.
1982: (with HM Gunasekera) Decentralisation in Fiji (written for UN Centre for Regional Development, Nagoya, Japan). He published dozens of academic articles in the Pacific and the wider academic world, too many to list here. In the pipeline when he passed away:
Muslims in Fiji: 1870-1988.
General Elections in Fiji: 1972-1987
Fiji’s Constitutional Crises 1987. But his life story is a fascinating reminder of our predecessors who helped to shape our lives at USP and in Fiji politics.
Ahmed at Marist
I had the great fortune to be taught at Marist Brothers’ High School not just by great Marist Brothers (like Brothers Anthony and Clement) but also a fantastic group of lay teachers: Francis Hong Tiy, Yadhu Nand Singh, Paul Ellis and Ahmed Ali. They were all recent graduates of NZ universities, where we followed them after secondary school. Receiving a Fiji Government scholarship, Dr Ahmed completed his BA from Auckland University and the Teachers’ College Diploma before teaching at Marist where I was one of his students in mathematics which was not Ahmed’s speciality, but the Marist Brothers could not find a specialist mathematics teacher. I remember once getting on the wrong side of Dr Ahmed. My dhobi (laundryman) father used to come to pick me up straight after school to help him on the laundry delivery run, carrying heavy bundles of clothes up the long driveways of rich Europeans like Len Usher (Fiji Times Editor in the colonial era). Standing by the open door of the classroom where I was also sitting, Dr Ahmed saw my father’s van come up the Marist driveway and casually asked me: “Is that your van Wadan Lal?” I replied equally casually to great laughter in the class: “No Sir, it is my father’s”. Ahmed was definitely not pleased and gave me 500 lines to be delivered the next day “I will not be smart”. By this time we also knew that Ahmed Ali was going out with Bessie Ben, the sister of one of our classmates, George Ben. So there used to be great merriment in the class when Ahmed Ali used to come to our mathematics class and find a prominent equation written on the black board:
A2 + B2 = ???
But Dr Ahmed also loved sports and was one of the coaches for our school athletics, soccer and cricket teams. Not only was I good academically, but I loved sport even more and was on the Marist soccer and cricket first elevens, played rugby and was the Fiji 1500 meters intermediate champ one year. But with the Marist Brothers having their cultural biases when it came to giving awards, I found out later that it was the lay teachers at MBHS led by Ahmed Ali, Francis Hong Tiy and Yadhu Nand Singh who insisted to the Marist Brothers that on merit I had to be awarded what I have always considered my most valuable achievement at MBHS – the Sportsman of the Year Trophy. I remember that when I took the trophy home my father tossed aside that trophy sternly telling me “it won’t feed your stomach, son”. As I wrote somewhere once, golfer Vijay Singh and rugby great Lote Tuqiri were not around then. During the breaks from my Otago University studies, I once came home and with another Marist high-flyer Ashok Vanmali, became a relieving teacher alongside Ahmed Ali, Francis Hong Tiy and Yadhu Nand Singh. We used to have great weekend parties in which Ahmed did not hang back – he was not a practising Muslim then. Often, late at night Ashok Vanmali and I used to deliver Ahmed to the front door of his home in Rewa St, knock on his door, and rush off before Bessie came out to find Ahmed somewhat worse for wear.
Early struggles at USP
With expatriates and some Pacific Islanders really dominating the USP management, Dr Ahmed struggled to be promoted despite his substantial academic output. He taught courses in Pacific history, government and politics, imperialism and nationalism, legal and extra-legal processes in history, and many short-term courses for public servants from all over the Pacific who came to the Institute of Social and Administrative Studies for its short courses. Dr Ahmed supervised many Masters and PhD theses. But by 1975 Dr Ahmed had become Head of History and eventually was promoted to became Reader (Associate Professor) in History. I believe that he was far better qualified and more published than expatriates who had been easily promoted to be full Professors. Dr Ahmed was then a great role model for the four “young Turks” coming up at USP (Yadhu Nand Singh, Wadan Narsey, Rajesh Chandra and Ropate Qalo) who were struggling then to obtain training and promotions for regional staff. Dr Ahmed was especially a mentor for a young Vijay Naidu who he pushed to become Dean of Preliminary Studies. Dr Ahmed also did his stints in USP management, becoming Head of the School of Social and Economic Development (SSED – the largest School then), Director of Dean of Academic Affairs and even Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor. Dr Ahmed served on the USP Senate and USP Council. He served on any number of boards such as being the Commissioner of the Fiji Broadcasting Commission, and any number of editorial boards of academic journals.
I have little doubt that Dr Ahmed could easily have had a comfortable life had he wanted to be the first regional Vice Chancellor of USP. But he followed his heart and ventured forth to serve the Ratu Mara Government, in any number of ways.
Ahmed’s foray into politics
With his considerable knowledge of Fiji’s politics, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara (also a Marist old boy) pulled Dr Ahmed to serve as General Secretary of the Alliance Party where he was inevitably pulled into the Indian Alliance arm then dominated by Muslim politicians. In 1982, Dr Ahmed was elected into the Fiji Parliament from a cross-voting constituency (Lau etc.) with a vast majority of indigenous Fijian voters. He was appointed Minister for Education with the responsibilities including education, youth affairs, culture and sport. In 1986 he was appointed Minister for Information, responsible for the Fiji Broadcasting Station as well as the introduction of TV into Fiji. Dr Ahmed implemented a wide range of consultancies and studies helping Government and the wider Fiji society and economy and community development in the widest of senses. He reviewed Housing Authority policy, industrial disputes in the sugar industry, Fiji’s social welfare and development policy, tripartite system of industrial relations in Fiji, modernisation and trade unions, labour relations in small business enterprises, poverty in the South Pacific, health and social development in the South Pacific; and the general elections in the Solomon Islands. In April 1987 he was re-elected to Parliament but now in the Opposition following the SVT’s defeat. Then following the 1987 Rabuka coup, he served in the inter-party discussions to restore parliamentary government. Dr Ahmed became Minister without Portfolio in the Interim Military Government. From November 1988 to May 1990, he was CEO of Fiji Broadcasting Commission. In September 2001 he was appointed Prime Minister Qarase’s nominee to the Senate for five years. In December 2004, he was appointed as Minister for Information, Communications and Media Relations. It goes without saying that in Parliament he crossed swords with all the Opposition parliamentarians and he was known for his sharp and acidic commentaries, which did not of course endear him to the Indo-Fijian community in general.
A true son of Fiji
Dr Ahmed was a dedicated academic, a historian, a teacher at all levels of society, and a contributor to good governance in Fiji at the highest levels. While not politically representing the bulk of the Indo-Fijians who have supported other political parties like NFP and FLP, Dr Ahmed engaged in the highest forms of multi-racial co-operation to help build Fiji in very much the same way that Professor Biman Prasad (Leader of the National Federation Party) with his five MPs is currently doing in the Coalition Government of Sitiveni Rabuka. I never knew Dr Ahmed Ali to be corrupt in any way or to enrich himself from the public purse. He did not emigrate to earn higher salaries in Australian and NZ universities which would have welcomed him given his calibre and Pacific experience, just as they did Professor Brij Lal. Dr Ahmed lived in a humble home in Brown St not too far from the Colonial War Memorial Hospital. Neither he nor Bessie Ali bothered to accumulate wealth.
Dr Ahmed died in 2005 in Sydney receiving treatment for liver disease complications developed after a ministerial visit to India. Through the kind assistance of Fiji businessman Mark Halabe, Dr Ahmed was buried at Lakemba in Sydney. A poetic coincidence, Lakeba is an island in the constituency in which Ahmed was first elected to the Fiji Parliament. Dr Ahmed was a true Indo-Fijian citizen who loved Fiji and all his life he assisted in the development effort at all levels of community even if he was not attached to constitutionality. It is no exaggeration to say that he was a true son of Fiji, an icon for the young.
- Professor WADAN NARSEY is an independent economist and writer and also a former Professor of Economics at the University of the South Pacific. The views expressed in this article are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.
