A Political History of the Subject: Brij V. Lal on Leadership

ABSTRACTBrij V. Lal was the most prolific writer on post-colonial politics in Fiji. Many of these writings concerned political leaders and the nature of political leadership. Biographies of A.D. Patel and Jai Ram Reddy stand out, but Lal's other writings on politics nevertheless foregrounded people, and the way their personalities shaped, and were shaped by, the times in which they lived. In this article I consider how this biographer’s sensibility implicitly invokes a theory of political leadership and re-read Lal’s contribution to the study of politics in Fiji from this standpoint. I argue that his ‘political history of the subject’ offers both a justification for, and approach to, studying leadership in a person-centred way.Key words: Brij V. LalFijileadershipbiographyPacific history Notes1 Barbara Kellerman and Scott W. Webster, ‘The Recent Literature on Public Leadership Reviewed and Considered’, Leadership Quarterly 12, no. 4 (2001): 490.2 Lal in Jack Corbett, ‘Curtain Call’ [interview with Brij V. Lal], Bearing Witness: Essays in Honour of Brij V. Lal. ed. Doug Munro and Jack Corbett (Canberra: ANU Press, 2017), 57.3 Brij V. Lal, Broken Waves: A History of the Fiji Islands in the Twentieth Century (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1992), xvii.4 Another is that the study of political leadership is nowhere near as global in its coverage as it should be.5 Jack Corbett, ‘Meetings with the Three Lals: That’s Brij Lal, Professor Lal and Brij V. Lal’, in Munro and Corbett, Bearing Witness, 289.6 Brij V. Lal, ‘End of a Phase of History: Writing the Life of a Reluctant Fiji Politician’, in Political Life Writing in the Pacific: Reflections on Practice, ed. Jack Corbett and Brij V. Lal (Canberra: ANU Press, 2015), 71.7 E.g., John Boswell, Jack Corbett, and R.A.W. Rhodes, The Art and Craft of Comparison (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019); Jack Corbett, ‘Where do Leaders come From? A Leader-Centred Approach’, Developmental Leadership Program Foundational Paper, 1 Sept. 2019, https://www.dlprog.org/publications/foundational-papers/where-do-leaders-come-from (accessed 29 Sept. 2023).8 Chris Gregory, ‘History as Concealed Autobiography? Brij Lal’s Historical Dictionary of Fiji’, Journal of Pacific History (hereinafter JPH) 52, no. 1 (2017): 109.9 Brij V. Lal, A Vision for Change: A.D. Patel and the Politics of Fiji (Canberra: National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University, 1997). Lal provides the background to the dramatis personae in his Historical Dictionary of Fiji (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2105), where his biographer’s sensibility is on display. Also useful is an earlier dictionary of Fiji biography: Stewart Firth and Daryl Tarte, eds, 20th Century Fiji: People who Shaped this Nation (Suva: USP Solutions, 2001).10 Published in Pacific Studies 18, no. 1 (1994): 31–77. Sitiveni Rabuka (b. 1948) was the public face of the coup in 1987. He subsequently served as prime minister (1992–9) and again from December 2022 after a period as leader of the opposition.11 Published in JPH 37, no. 1 (2002): 87–101. George Speight (b. 1957) instigated the 2000 coup on the pretext of safeguarding ethnic Fijian interests; he is now serving a life sentence of imprisonment for treason.12 Published in JPH 49, no. 4 (2014): 457–68. Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama (b. 1954) was commander of Fiji’s armed forces when he deposed the Qarase government in 2006. He was prime minister of Fiji between 2007 until 2022 when his FijiFirst Party suffered electoral defeat.13 See e.g., Brij V. Lal, ‘The Voice of the People: Ethnic Identity and Nation Building in Fiji’, New Pacific Review 1, no. 1 (1999): 127–14.14 Ratu Sir Kamasese Mara (1920–2004) was leader of the Alliance Party and successively chief minister of Fiji (1967–70) and prime minister (1970–92) of Fiji. He later served as vice-president and president from 1993 until George Speight’s coup in 2000.15 Brij V. Lal, ‘Chiefs and Indians: Elections and Politics in Contemporary Fiji’, Contemporary Pacific 5, no. 2 (1999): 283.16 E.g., Jim Bulpitt, ‘Historical Politics: Macro, In-time, Governing Regime Analysis’, in Contemporary Political Studies, ed. Joni Lovenduski and Jeffrey Stanyer, vol. 2 (Belfast: Political Studies Association, 1995), 510–20; David M. Craig, ‘“High Politics” and the “New Political History”’, Historical Journal 53, no. 2 (2010): 453–75.17 James Walter, ‘Political Leadership’, in Government and Politics in Australia, ed. Alan Fenna, Jane Robbins, and John Summer (Sydney: Pearson Australia, 2014), 242–58.18 Brij V. Lal, Girmitiyas: The Origins of the Fiji Indians (Canberra: Journal of Pacific History, 1983).19 For discussion, see Robert Elgie, Studying Political Leadership: Foundations and Contending Accounts (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).20 Cited in Lal, A Vision for Change, vii.21 Lal considered Jai Ram Reddy (1937–2022) ‘the most significant Indo-Fijian leader of postcolonial Fiji’. Brij V. Lal, In the Eye of the Storm: Jai Ram Reddy and the Politics of Postcolonial Fiji (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2010), xiii. An eminent jurist, after leaving politics he became a member of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the early 2000s.22 Laisenia Qarase (1941–2020), a former banker, was prime minister of Fiji (2000–6) until deposed by Bainimarama in the 2006 coup.23 Lal, ‘In George Speight’s Shadow’, 90.24 Lal, A Vision for Change, xvi.25 Lal, In the Eye of the Storm, xiv–xv.26 Ibid., xv.27 Ibid.28 Elgie, Studying Political Leadership.29 Ibid., xxi.30 Lal, ‘End of a Phase in History’, 63.31 Gregory, ‘History as Concealed Autobiography’, 110.32 Lal, In the Eye of the Storm, xv.33 Lal, ‘End of a Phase in History’, 68.34 Lal in Corbett, ‘Curtain Call’, 61; Lal, Broken Waves, xvii; Lal, In the Eye of the Storm, xvi.35 Lal, A Vision for Change, xvii.36 Lal, In the Eye of the Storm, xvii.37 Ibid., xvii.38 Brij V. Lal, ‘Madness in May: George Speight and the Unmaking of Modern Fiji’, in Fiji before the Storm: Elections and the Politics of Development, ed. Brij V. Lal (Canberra: Asia Pacific Press, 2000), 180.39 Ibid., 181.40 Brij V. Lal, ‘“Anxiety, Uncertainty, and Fear in our Land”: Fiji’s Road to Military Coup, 2006’, Round Table 96, no. 389 (2007): 135–53.41 See, e.g., Brij V. Lal, ‘Chiefs and Indians: Elections and Politics in Contemporary Fiji’, Contemporary Pacific 5, no. 2 (1993): 275–301, compared with Rabuka’s ‘moderating influence’ in Lal, ‘The Sun Set at Noon Today’, in Coups: Reflections on the Political Crisis in Fiji, ed. Brij V. Lal and Michael Pretes (Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2001), 9.42 Brij V. Lal, A Time Bomb Lies Buried: Fiji’s Road to Independence, 1960–1970 (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2008), 13.43 E.K. Fisk, The Political Economy of Independent Fiji (Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1970).44 Brij V. Lal, ‘Where has all the Music Gone?: Reflections on the Fortieth Anniversary of Fiji’s Independence’, Contemporary Pacific 23, no. 2 (2011): 412–36.45 Brij V. Lal, Islands of Turmoil: Elections and Politics in Fiji (Canberra: ANU E Press, 2006), ix.46 Ibid., x.47 Lal, Broken Waves, xvi.48 Rusiate Nayacakalau, Leadership in Fiji (Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, 1975), 135, cited in Lal, Broken Waves, 333, see also 182.49 Lal, Islands of Turmoil, xii; cf. Lal, ‘Madness in May’, 176.50 Brij V. Lal, ‘Of Ruptures and Recuperations: Fiji’s Fifty Years of Independence’, JPH 56, no.2 (2021): 197.51 Nayacakalau, Leadership in Fiji, 111.52 Lal in Corbett, ‘Curtain Call’, 57.53 Brij V. Lal, ‘“Chiefs and Thieves and Other People Besides”: The Making of George Speight’s Coup’ JPH 35, no. 3 (2000): 282; Lal, “‘Anxiety, Uncertainty, and Fear in Our Land”’, 138.54 Lal, In the Eye of the Storm, 186, n. 13.55 Deryck Scarr, Ratu Sukuna: Soldier, Statesman, Man of Two Worlds (London: Macmillan Education, 1980); Deryck Scarr, Tuimacilai: A Life of Ratu Sir Kaimasese Mara (Adelaide: Crawford House, 2008). Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna (1888–1958) was the pre-eminent political figure of his generation, speaker of the colonial-era legislative council, and held key administrative posts in the colonial government.56 Brij V. Lal, ‘Tuimacilai: A Review Essay’, Pacific Currents: The eJournal of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies nos 1.2 and 2.1 (2010), http://intersections.anu.edu.au/pacificurrents/lal_review.htm; and the response by Deryck Scarr, ‘Where Did All The Flowers Go?: A Rejoinder to Lal’s Tirade against Tuimacilai and its Ever-Mischievous Author’, Pacific Currents: The eJournal of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Pacific Studies nos 1.2 and 2.1 (2010), http://intersections.anu.edu.au/pacificurrents/scarr.htm.57 Lal, Broken Waves, xvi.58 Ibid., xvii.