“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, vesting every individual with equal rights, was directly opposed to the hierarchical social structure of indigenous Fijian society. Chiefs were at the apex by virtue of their birth and rank. The rest of the people had a communal functional role in this hierarchy.”

— Laisenia Qarase

Excerpts from an address to the Commonwealth Workshop in Nadi, 29 August 2005

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Laisenia Qarase 57

Prime Minister of Fiji 1941

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Context: Men must have rights before they can have equal rights. Each man has a right to use the world because he is here and wants to use the world. The equality of this right is merely a limitation arising from the presence of others with like rights. Society, in other words, does not grant, and cannot equitably withhold from any individual, the right to the use of land. That right exists before society and independently of society, belonging at birth to each individual, and ceasing only with his death. Society itself has no original right to the use of land. What right it has with regard to the use of land is simply that which is derived from and is necessary to the determination of the rights of the individuals who compose it. That is to say, the function of society with regard to the use of land only begins where individual rights clash, and is to secure equality between these clashing rights of individuals.

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“For our country, it is vitally important, as a factor for long-standing stability, that we always maintain a careful balance between the rights of individuals and communities, the special interests of indigenous people, including their right of ownership to their natural resources must also be protected.”

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“They (the indigenous Fijian people) believe they (their demands for political power) are just and reasonable, given our history, racial division, present-day majority of Fijians, their ownership of the land and their indigenous identity.”

Laisenia Qarase (1941) Prime Minister of Fiji

Excerpts from a parliamentary speech, 3 June 2005

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Laisenia Qarase 57

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