1. Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, was a Fijian politician who served as Chief Minister from 1967 to 1970, when Fiji gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and, apart from one brief interruption in 1987, as the first Prime Minister from 1970 to 1992.
Kamisese Mara subsequently served as president from 1993 to 2000.
Kamisese Kapaiwai Tuimacilai Uluilakeba Mara was born on 6 May 1920, in Sawana, Lomaloma, Vanuabalavu in the archipelago of Lau, the son of Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba III, Tui Nayau and head of the chiefly Vuanirewa clan of Tubou, Lakeba and Lusiana Qolikoro from the Fonolahi Family of the Yavusa Tonga clan in Sawana.
Kamisese Mara succeeded to the Tui Nayau title in 1969, following the death of his father in 1966.
Kamisese Mara was earlier installed as Tui Lau in 1963 following the traditional consultation process between the Yavusa Tonga in Sawana, Lomaloma and the Tui Nayau his father.
Ratu Kamisese Mara was first educated at Primary in Levuka than to Lau Provincial school before he left for his secondary education in an all boys boarding school in North of Tailevu, he later moved to Marist Brothers High School Suva and Sacred Heart College, Auckland.
Kamisese Mara then attended the University of Otago in New Zealand, where he studied medicine.
Kamisese Mara never finished his medical studies, because his great-uncle and mentor, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, seeking to groom him for future leadership of the nation, arranged for him to study history at Wadham College, Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Kamisese Mara was distressed to abandon his medical studies, but, dependent on Ratu Sukuna for financial support, followed his orders without question, and graduated with an MA in 1949.
Kamisese Mara's title, Ro, is hereditary and is held by Rewan chiefs; like her husband, Ro Lala was a chief in her own right, as the Roko Tui Dreketi of Burebasaga and Rewa.
Kamisese Mara was Minister for Transport and Tourism in 1999 and 2000, and served in the Fijian Senate from 2001 to 2006.
In 1959, Kamisese Mara was appointed to the Executive Council, and in 1963 was given responsibility as Leader of Government Business and Member for Natural Resources.
Kamisese Mara was named to the new position of Chief Minister.
Ethnic Fijians, including Kamisese Mara, wanted a communal franchise, with parliamentary seats reserved for the different ethnic groups, who would vote on separate electoral rolls.
Kamisese Mara considered that it was in Fiji's interests to avoid direct competition between political candidates from different ethnic groups, fearing that it would lead to social and political upheaval.
Kamisese Mara retained power in the first post-independence election of 1972.
Kamisese Mara tendered his resignation as Prime Minister, but the NFP splintered three days later in a leadership dispute, and a constitutional crisis developed.
Kamisese Mara was recalled to head an interim administration, with a view to restoring Fiji's international reputation and rebuilding the country's shattered economy.
Kamisese Mara refused to negotiate with the plotters, and decided instead to dismiss the kidnapped government and assume emergency powers himself.
Kamisese Mara was taken to his home island of Lakeba in the Lau Islands.
On 29 April 2001, Kamisese Mara publicly accused the police chief, Colonel Isikia Savua and former Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, of instigating the coup.
Kamisese Mara told the programme that within half an hour of Speight's forcible occupation of the Parliament, Rabuka had telephoned Government House to offer to form a government.
Kamisese Mara said that he was shocked to learn that the Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit of the Army had been involved in the coup.
Kamisese Mara alleged that they took George Speight to Parliament, and that their senior officers supplied them with weapons, blankets, and food.
Kamisese Mara declared that the Counter Revolutionary Warfare officers who joined Speight's coup had trained on a farm owned by Rabuka.
Whether Kamisese Mara's resignation was in fact forced has been the subject of a police investigation since 21 May 2003, when the Police Investigations Department confirmed that they had opened an investigation into the events surrounding his departure from office.
Commodore Bainimarama has defended his role in the incident saying it was "necessary" at the time, and that Kamisese Mara's resignation was, in fact, voluntary and that he had refused offers of reinstatement.
Kamisese Mara called for a thorough investigation into the abrogation of the Constitution, and for those who were legal advisers at the time to be answerable for their actions.
Kamisese Mara's government led the way in negotiating special preferential marketing agreements with nations importing Fijian sugar, through the Lome Convention.
Kamisese Mara helped to launch the Pacific Islands Producers' Association and the South Pacific Forum, both associations of Pacific nations, of which Fiji was a founder member.
Yet another significant Kamisese Mara achievement was his contribution to the negotiations that led to the signing of a new United Nations International Law of the Sea Convention in 1982.
Kamisese Mara supported visits to Fijian ports by nuclear-armed United States warships and submarines.
Kamisese Mara was a close ally of US President Ronald Reagan.
Kamisese Mara was a member of the Privy Council in London beginning in 1973.
Kamisese Mara was a Knight of the Most Venerable Order of St John, and became Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific at Suva, which was founded with the support of his government.
Kamisese Mara defended his role in the post-coup era of 1987 to 1992, arguing that he was doing the best he could in circumstances that he could not fully control, and that it had seemed better at the time to connive in the writing of a discriminatory constitution than to risk civil war at the hands of ethnic Fijian extremists.
Mahendra Chaudhry said that he did not believe that Kamisese Mara had been involved.
Kamisese Mara continued to influence politics in Fiji, where democracy was restored, through his membership of the Great Council of Chiefs, which not only advised the government but functioned as an electoral college to choose the President of the Republic, as well as 14 of the 32 members of the Senate; at the time of his death, he was the longest-serving member of the Council.
Kamisese Mara remained Chairman of the Lau Provincial Council, a position he had held concurrently with his national offices for many years.
Kamisese Mara suffered a stroke late in 2001 while visiting Port Vila, Vanuatu, with two of his longtime friends, businessmen Hari Punja and Joe Ruggiero.
Kamisese Mara died in Suva on 18 April 2004, from complications arising from the stroke.
Kamisese Mara praised him as a committed Christian who practised what he preached, and who did not differentiate between people but treated all men alike whatever their race or religion.
Kamisese Mara's family was displeased, his daughter Adi Ateca Ganilau told the Times, that the same government that was working to release from prison persons convicted of offences related to the coup which deposed him, was promoting an independent biography to be written by Australian academic Derrick Scarr, formerly of the Australian National University.
Kamisese Mara reiterated her previously stated opposition to the release of coup-perpetrators, saying that he father would not have stood for it if he were alive.
Kamisese Mara considered that co-operation in the writing of the biography would be a fitting tribute to Ratu Mara, whom he called a great man.
Kamisese Mara played 8 non-first-class matches for Fiji from 1954 to 1956, with his final match for Fiji coming against the West Indies in Fiji's famous 28 run win over them, a match in which he captained Fiji to victory.
Kamisese Mara was a member of the Achilles Club in London, the Defence Club in Suva, and the United Oxford and Cambridge Universities Club in the United Kingdom.
Kamisese Mara's character was described as a combination of the forthright and the diplomatic, the inflexible and the dexterous, the imperious and the tolerant.
Kamisese Mara was known as a strong, imposing personality, but with an ability to forgive his opponents.
Kamisese Mara was survived by his wife, Adi Lala, and by two sons and five daughters; one son predeceased him.