IN the long arc of Fiji’s post-independence history, few public figures have occupied as many vantage points as Winston Thompson.
A career civil servant, diplomat, senator, academic and corporate executive, his career spans the colonial transition, the turbulence of successive coups, and the country’s steady, if uneven, modernisation.
As a co-founder of Leadership Fiji, Mr Thompson reflected less on personal milestones than on a persistent national challenge, the need for a unifying vision that transcends Fiji’s social, political and ethnic divides.
A career shaped by transition
Born in Yasawa and educated across Fiji before pursuing agricultural studies in Trinidad and Tobago, Mr Thompson returned home in the early 1960s to a country on the cusp of independence. As an agricultural officer in Nadroga-Navosa, he was part of a broader state effort to prepare landowning communities for a more commercially oriented future.
“We were trying to develop agriculture among the landowners because independence was coming,” he recalled, a reminder that economic empowerment was seen as foundational to political stability.
That early exposure to nation-building would define his trajectory. Rising through the public service to become Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, he later transitioned across key institutions, including the Public Service Commission and postings at the United Nations in New York during a period of rapid technological change.
His tenure abroad coincided with the digital revolution’s infancy, a vantage point that would later inform his leadership as managing director of Telecom Fiji, where he oversaw liberalisation, the separation of postal and telecommunications services, and the introduction of mobile and internet connectivity.
Leadership forged in crisis
Yet it was not technological transformation alone that shaped Mr Thompson’s thinking on leadership. Like many of his generation, his worldview was indelibly marked by Fiji’s political upheavals, particularly the coups of 1987 and 2000.
From his office in Suva during the May 2000 crisis, he witnessed the breakdown of order firsthand, an experience that catalysed discussions among civic and business leaders about the country’s leadership deficit.
Out of that period emerged Leadership Fiji, inspired in part by international models such as Leadership Victoria. Its founding premise was simple but ambitious: to cultivate a cross-sectoral network of leaders equipped with a shared national vision.
A quarter-century on, Mr Thompson believes the organisation has contributed to building a “core” of leaders capable of bridging divisions but he is clear that the underlying challenge remains unresolved.
The unfinished project of unity
At the heart of Mr Thompson’s analysis is a recurring theme, Fiji’s diversity, while a strength, can also be a source of fragmentation without a unifying framework.
“We need some means of bringing people together so that they have a vision that is more inclusive and embracing of everyone in Fiji,” he says.
This emphasis on unity is not abstract.
Drawing comparisons with the United States, a country he observed closely during his diplomatic service, he warns that even long-established democracies are vulnerable to internal divisions.
For Fiji, the lesson is that cohesion cannot be taken for granted. It must be actively cultivated through institutions, leadership development and a shared sense of purpose that rises above political and communal lines.
This is where Leadership Fiji’s non-partisan ethos becomes critical.
In an increasingly polarised global environment, Mr Thompson argues that leadership development must remain open and inclusive, welcoming individuals “of any faith, any political persuasion” who are committed to the national interest.
Governance, accountability and reform
Mr Thompson’s reflections extend beyond leadership philosophy to the mechanics of governance.
His experience chairing a Commission of Inquiry into the Office of the Auditor-General revealed systemic weaknesses that continue to affect public accountability.
Contrary to public perception, he found that shortcomings in audit outcomes were often the result of delayed or incomplete reporting by government departments, rather than institutional failure within the Auditor-General’s office itself.
“It was not entirely their fault,” he noted, pointing to a cycle of mutual dependency in which oversight bodies cannot function effectively without timely cooperation from the entities they monitor.
Compounding the issue, he observed that the Auditor-General’s office lacked sufficient resources to carry out its mandate, highlighting a broader tension in Fiji’s governance framework between expectations of accountability and the capacity to deliver it.
Institutions in flux
Mr Thompson also offers measured reflections on institutional evolution, including Fiji’s shift from a bicameral to a unicameral parliamentary system. While he believes the former Senate once provided a useful check on legislative speed, he accepts that its removal reflects broader global trends in constitutional design.
Similarly, his tenure at the University of the South Pacific exposed governance challenges arising from leadership transitions and competing institutional visions, underscoring the fragility of regional institutions in the face of internal discord.
A pragmatic foreign policy
On the international stage, Mr Thompson maintains that Fiji’s long-standing foreign policy principle – “friend to all, enemy to none” – remains relevant amid intensifying geopolitical competition in the Pacific.
While acknowledging recent shifts, he characterises tensions in Fiji’s relationship with traditional partners such as the United States as temporary deviations rather than structural changes.
The underlying strategy, he suggests, is one of balance: maintaining constructive relations across competing powers while safeguarding national interests.
The leadership deficit at home
Despite his wide-ranging experience, Mr Thompson returns repeatedly to a more immediate concern: the everyday practice of leadership within Fiji’s public institutions.
For him, the issue is not only about high-level vision but also basic standards of professionalism and accountability.
“People have to turn up on time, respect the people that we serve,” he says, describing a culture within parts of the civil service where responsibilities are sometimes avoided rather than embraced.
This, he argues, is where the next generation of leaders must distinguish itself – not merely through policy innovation but through a renewed commitment to service.
Looking ahead
As Leadership Fiji marks 25 years, Mr Thompson’s reflections offer both a retrospective and a warning. Progress has been made in building networks of capable leaders, yet the deeper work of forging national unity remains unfinished.
In a country shaped by diversity and periodic instability, the challenge is not only to produce leaders, but to cultivate a shared vision strong enough to withstand the forces that, as he puts it, are “always pulling people apart”.
Mr Thompson believes therefore that the path forward is a foundational one, grounded within a collective commitment to the idea of Fiji as a single, inclusive nation, and the everyday discipline of leadership that such a vision demands.
