THE death of Sir Timoci Uluiburotu Tuivaga on December 30 last year ends a remarkable chapter in Fijian legal history. By the time of his passing, “Sir Tim” as he was affectionately known, had lived in well-deserved retirement for well over a decade. A whole generation of lawyers only know the public persona from his legal pronouncements and judgments.
Yet for over two decades, between 1978 and 2002, this modest, affable and unassuming man served as Chief Justice during some of the most tumultuous times of our history. It was a far cry from the legal studies successfully completed at the Inns of Court in England in the 1960s with a young family.
Cutting his teeth as a native magistrate, he went on to join the Office of the Director for Public Prosecutions where he served with such luminaries as Ghananand Mishra and Jai Ram Reddy. His legal acumen was readily appreciated and elevation to the bench followed where he joined both Judge Mishra and Sir Moti Tikaram, two colleagues who were also lifelong friends.
There was some controversy when the newly-knighted Sir Tim was appointed the first local Chief Justice in 1978. The then governor-general, Ratu Sir George Cakobau, preferred him over Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara’s nomination of Sir Ronald Kermode, and Opposition Leader Reddy’s choice of Judge Mishra. Sir Tim’s legal abilities, his collegiality, approachability and unimpeachable integrity soon put to bed any doubts about his claims to the position.
In 1987, with the unanimous support of the bench, Sir Tim defied the efforts of the then Royal Fiji Military Forces to stage the country’s first coup. It was ultimately doomed but Sir Tim demonstrated his unswerving commitment to and belief in the rule of law. It was that quality tempered by an intensely pragmatic turn of mind that prompted interim prime minister Mara to invite Sir Tim out of retirement to restore the Fijian judiciary in late 1987.
He spent the next decade and a half doing so and largely achieved that objective but for the vagaries of Fijian political complexities that were subject to the frailties of human whim and ulterior purposes. The regard and mutual esteem which Sir Tim enjoyed with senior contemporaries from Australia, New Zealand, the region and the Commonwealth ensured the availability of legal expertise at the highest levels of our courts.
As a former prosecutor with a keen forensic ability, Sir Tim was scrupulous in ensuring the criminal justice system functioned fairly and often decried what he felt was a tendency by the police to obtain convictions through confessions. He shook the traditional iTaukei establishment by reversing the Native Lands Commission decision to award the title of Ka Levu to Ratu Sakiusa Makutu in favour of his aunt, Bulou Eta Vosailagi. For Sir Tim it was a straightforward matter of the latter not being accorded natural justice.
Sir Tim’s last year in office was dogged by the reverberations of the Speight coup and the advice he allegedly gave then president, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. That consideration, and the perception that he was not fully engaged on the issue of gender equality, was to doom his candidacy for a seat on the International Criminal Court.
But it also demonstrated Sir Timoci’s greatest virtue, his graciousness and complete absence of malice or reproach at his detractors. It was that generosity of spirit and greatness of heart that endeared him to family and friends alike.
In retirement, Sir Tim basked in the love of his family and relished his role as patriarch to four generations. And his love of golf was legendary.
The end, when it came, could have been scripted by Sir Timoci himself, dying after playing the pastime which gave him so much pleasure in the company of his two closest mates — Isimeli Bainimara and Ilaisa Labaibure. A fitting end for one who illuminated the Fijian legal firmament and public life in general with gravitas and grace.
* Graham Leung is a former president of the Fiji Law Society. The views expressed are his and not of this newspaper.
