We are gathered here to say our final goodbyes to a person who deeply cared about Fiji, its people and its future well-being.
For those of us who believe in the National Federation Party, and the principles it espouses to make Fiji a better nation, this is one of its saddest times.
We have lost a leader and a statesman whose vision and wisdom set the course of not just our party, but for all people of Fiji.
Justice Jai Ram Reddy was a man who deeply influenced many of our lives.
And that is certainly true of me.
Mr Reddy has had a deep and lasting influence on my adult life.
In the early 1980s, I was a young student at USP and Mr Reddy was the Leader of the Opposition.
He was then in his 40s.
He was youthful, energetic and thoughtful – already a man of a different quality from those around him.
For young people with an interest in politics, Mr Reddy was clearly a man to follow.
He was a natural leader.
In an era of ethnic politics, Mr Reddy was already looking for political partnerships with indigenous Fijian parties – and so was born the NFP-Western United Front coalition in the 1982 election.
It fought, and came close to winning, that election.
I and many of my friends were drawn into NFP’s 1982 election campaign.
This was our first direct experience with politics.
And it was undoubtedly Mr Reddy, and the exciting new direction in which our party was moving, who drew us there.
Many have spoken of Mr Reddy’s legendary oratory, in both English and Hindi.
This, too, I remember.
During the 1987 elections we would go to political meetings just to hear him speak.
His passion as a speaker was magnetic.
But his words were also wise.
He spoke not to entertain or to bluster with false promises.
He spoke to advise and persuade on principle.
Mr Reddy already had a vision and destination for politics and leadership in Fiji.
Looking back, and at some of the events that followed, I am honestly not sure that enough of us understood it, or were willing to understand it.
As many of us in this room will know, 1987 changed everything.
And again, it was Mr Reddy, in a 1989 political meeting, who spoke to us.
He demanded that, instead of lining up outside foreign embassies for their visas, that young people stay and fight for democracy, fight for human rights and for the rights of those who could not leave.
Mr Reddy was 25 years older than me.
Ours could therefore never be a relationship of equals.
It was a relationship, from my side, of deep personal respect.
Time spent with Mr Reddy was always inspiring and insightful.
Trusting Rabuka
It is easy to forget that these were deeply challenging times.
We were faced with the divisive, unfair 1990 Constitution.
But Mr Reddy was working quietly, through dialogue with Mr Rabuka, to overcome it.
But few of us at that time believed it could be done.
I recall meeting Mr Reddy in 1996.
He told me that he and Mr Rabuka had a good understanding, that they trusted each other.
He told me that he knew that they would succeed.
Mr Reddy trusted Mr Rabuka.
I trusted Mr Reddy.
And that was good enough for me.
History tells us that they succeeded.
Mr Reddy and Mr Rabuka worked together to produce the 1997 Constitution.
And let us pause for a minute and consider the enormity of this achievement.
Mr Rabuka was Prime Minister.
He led a government elected under a Constitution that suited him.
In pure racial terms, it favoured the indigenous community.
Why should he accept a new system of government that might be fairer but could (and did) bring about his political downfall?
And yet, Mr Rabuka and Mr Reddy succeeded.
In 1997, the House of Representatives and the Senate voted unanimously to bring the new Constitution into force based largely on the Report by Sir Paul Reeves, Dr Brij Lal and Mr Tomasi Vakatora, sadly now all departed but not forgotten.
There was no military Decree.
There was no imposition by force.
There were no hidden secret advisers or devious agenda.
Instead there was national dialogue.
The Reeves Commission travelled the country.
It listened to the people.
It recorded their views and produced a report.
And two national leaders persuaded their followers that this was the best way forward.
Through dialogue and a growing relationship of trust, two leaders worked together to persuade the people’s representatives to vote – united, together – to bring better government to our country.
This was the power of democratic leadership in action.
The people were not bullied or patronised.
They were not threatened.
They were not dictated to.
The people of Fiji were persuaded.
Then we headed to the 1999 elections.
I was one of NFP’s candidates because Mr Reddy invited me to stand and I could not say no to him.
We know then what happened in the 1999 elections.
Despite the unanimous democratic vote in Parliament for that Constitution, the people rejected its proponents.
For Mr Reddy, principles and ethics came first, before shortsighted political gain.
History reminds us that Mr Reddy paid the price.
Others who opposed him successfully placed political expediency before principles and fairness.
We also know that Mr Rabuka and his SVT also paid the price.
History and perspective
Mr Reddy believed in sacrificing for the common good of all our people and for the peace, progress and advancement of our nation.
Indeed, he made huge financial sacrifices to pursue a sense of true nationhood.
History gives us perspective.
And we know now that the 1999 election result was not the critical achievement of that period.
The 1997 Constitution was the achievement.
National reconciliation was the achievement.
Bringing our people together was the achievement.
I was to have many more encounters with Mr Reddy after his return from Arusha, where he served as a judge of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, making a name not only for himself but for
Fiji as a whole.
But one such encounter, in 2013, was life-changing.
I met Mr Reddy at the NFP headquarters in Suva where he asked me to assume the leadership of the NFP.
I cannot say what Mr Reddy saw in me.
Perhaps he also saw in me a common understanding that politics is not a pastime.
It is not a hobby.
It is a calling.
It is a duty.
Once again, I could not say no to Mr Reddy.
How could I say no to a man who had sacrificed so much, almost his entire life, who had left a private life, who had left the successful profession he loved, to assume the burdens of national leadership?
And let us not forget the true mark of leadership.
At the darkest time, at the lowest ebb after 1987, Mr Reddy did not leave.
He did not quit.
He stood his ground and fought.
He fought for equality, he fought for justice and fairness, he fought for democracy.
And together with Mr Rabuka, they succeeded in achieving a milestone.
Mr Reddy fought using his unique, outstanding gifts – his wisdom and intellect, his vision, his power to reason and his power to persuade.
He had the power to forgive without forgetting.
He had the power to understand that if Fiji was to have a brighter future, it could not stay tethered to an unhappy past.
This is the enduring mark of this great man.
This is the legacy Mr Reddy has left us.
And this is why he will never be forgotten.
I say to you and to all of us, that Mr Jai Ram Reddy’s life is a beacon for us to meet the great challenges of bringing back to Fiji those dear things that he fought for – democracy, rule of law, decency and respect for one another.
His vision for Fiji lives on Mr Reddy would have been pleased to know that his vision of the major ethnic groups in Fiji respecting and working together with one another also lives on today.
Together with Mr Rabuka, I provide this assurance that his vision will soon become a reality.
We understand the personal and deep sense of loss that Mr Reddy’s family must feel.
But they must take comfort that the name of Jai Ram Reddy will live on in the annals of Fiji’s history as one of its greatest, most respected and principled leaders and one of the finest statesmen of Fiji.
May Justice Jai Ram Reddy’s soul have eternal peace.
Good bye Mr. Reddy.
Good bye sir.
• Prof BIMAN PRASAD is the leader of the National Federation Party. This article is adapted from his eulogy delivered at Justice Jai Ram Reddy’s funeral in Auckland, New Zealand, yesterday.
