This essay will critically discuss the speech made by the former President of Tanzania Julius Nyerere in his speech at the Conference of the Commonwealth of Universities in Canada on 17th August 1998. It will also compare to its practical relation to the present Fijian governing leadership.
The former President is seemingly a replica to late Fijian pre colonial leader Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna who has similar special quality of being selfless and visionary towards the welfare of its people. Both leaders have the concern for the welfare of their people and the effect of the future globalization to them. They both accept that our social structure are to be customs made accordingly to the environment they lived rather than adopting to the culture or a democratic process from other places.
This was clearly articulated in Rt Sukuna’s speech to the legislative council in February 1944,
In over 30years now spent in the public administration I have learned one lesson which I am sure is more important than anything else, and it is this: that a sound and live system of local government based on whatever is inherent and customary among the people to whom it is applied is the essential basis of any social progress of any kind. (Scarr, 1980, p11)
This premise was later supported by Julius Nyerere speech at the Conference of the Commonwealth of Universities in Canada on 17th August 1998, For democracy to work properly, we argue, it must shape its mechanisms to suit the culture, the condition and current circumstances and also the nature and purposes of a nation and its people (USP DG101, 2015)
Both leaders are to the extent did not own a descent house nor accumulate wealth for their pleasure.
The analysis will highlight several issues that raised by Nyerere that are related to the current Fijian situation and how it has transformed the community at large. The speech commended on the transformation leadership
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