HIS EXCELLENCY RATU EPELI NAILATIKAU
CF, LVO, OBE (Mil), KStJ, CSM, MSD
President of the Republic of Fiji
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ADDRESS AT A RECEPTION IN GUAM IN HONOUR OF HIS EXCELLENCY RATU EPELI NAILATIKAU, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Governor of Guam, Mr Eddie Baza Calvo, and Mrs Calvo,
The Lieutenant Governor, Mr Ray Tenorio and Mrs Tenorio,
Members of the Government,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen

Ni Sa Bula vinaka, Good Evening and Buenas noches,

I bring you the warmest greetings of the Fijian people and the Fijian Government.

It is a great honour for me to be making this official visit to Guam - the first by a Fijian Head of State.

And it is an even greater pleasure to be among friends – new friends in many ways but with whom we already have much in common.

We are separated by a vast expanse of ocean and the transport links between us are indirect and expensive.

Yet we share that same ocean and also share a passionate belief in the need to protect and preserve the Pacific and its resources not only for ourselves but for future generations.
The Pacific is both our home and a principal source of food and we must treat it accordingly. There is much that we can do together to ensure that our use of the seas around us is responsible and sustainable. And where possible, we must do what we can to reverse the negative impacts of human activity, such as over-fishing and damage to our reefs.

We both look forward to the Third International Conference of Small Island Developing States in Samoa in September, where we in the Pacific will discuss our various challenges with those from other Small Islands Developing States around the world.

Hilary Clinton, the former American Secretary of State, once made the strategic observation that “The Pacific is big enough for all of us”.

But it is clearly not big enough for us to continue to reap its bounty while too many Pacific Islanders, and too many outsiders, abuse it. As islanders, we must stop using our ocean as a rubbish dump and we all must take personal responsibility to keep it clean.

Above all, I come with a message from the Fijian Government and the Fijian people that we seek to build a closer relationship with the Government and people of Guam.

We want to encourage more people-to-people contacts, for Fijians and Guamanians to get to know each other better and discuss possible areas of partnership and cooperation. We both have a thriving tourism sector and Fiji has a highly skilled tourism workforce available for opportunities elsewhere.

Fiji prizes our existing partnership in the Secretariat of the Pacific Community – the SPC - of which Guam is a member. At the Eighth Conference of the Pacific Community held in Fiji last November which we chaired, Guam was the Vice Chair and provided us all with its valued input and counsel.
We continue that partnership in a steering role towards the Ninth Conference in Niue next year. And we are leading a committee to establish a membership policy for the Pacific Community for consideration by the SPC’s Governing Council.

So Fiji and Guam are already working together to shape the post 2015 global agenda for developing countries, when Sustainable Development Goals replace the current Millennium Development Goals. And we want to strengthen that partnership in the interests of our citizens and all the Pacific peoples.

We are especially keen for Guam to join the new Pacific grouping that Fiji is forging with its neighbours – the Pacific Islands Development Forum, or PIDF, which had its inaugural meeting in Fiji last August.

The PIDF is open to all Pacific nations and territories. Where it differs from other regional forums is that its reach goes beyond Government to encompass the views of a much broader cross section of Pacific society. It has strengthened the voice of the grassroots by including representatives of civil society and business. And we look forward to that chorus being joined by the people of Guam.

It is all about forging a truly independent Pacific voice that fully articulates the concerns of all our people.

Governor Calvo, Ladies and Gentlemen, aside from seeking a closer engagement, I have also come to Guam to convey our own attempts at nation building. To explain the huge strides we have made and are making in Fiji to produce a nation that is fairer, more just and provides better opportunities for every Fijian.


By the end of September, we will hold the first genuinely democratic election in our history, of equal votes and of equal value instead of the weighted formula used in the past based on race and province.

We have a new constitution that establishes a common and equal citizenry, that guarantees a range of civil and political rights and that provides ordinary Fijians with an unprecedented array of social and economic rights, such as the right to education, housing, and clean water.

This year, we have achieved a landmark transforming breakthrough in being able to provide our young people with free primary and secondary schooling – plus a tertiary loans scheme - so that poverty is no longer a barrier to attaining any level of education.

Our national infrastructure - such as our roads and ports - is also being upgraded to encourage investment and create the jobs on which the ultimate fortunes of every Fijian depends.

And all over Fiji, rural and maritime communities are gradually and finally receiving basic services such as electricity and water that have been continually promised over the years but never delivered.

This social, economic and political revolution – coupled with the holdings of elections - will soon deliver a genuine democracy in Fiji that meets the highest international standards.

We are determined that our general election by the end of September will be free and fair and express the genuine will of the people.

Fiji is proud to have forged an independent foreign policy based on the fundamental premise of being friends to all and enemies to none.

To illustrate this we have five hundred and eight Republic of Fiji Military Forces personnel serving in the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan heights, Syria; three hundred and twenty eight in the Multi-National Force and Observers in Sinai; one hundred and ninety five in the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq; and fifteen in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.

In addition there are twenty in the United Nations mission in Darfur, Sudan; twenty three in the United Nations Mission in Liberia; and two in Ramsi, Solomon Islands. All these Fijians are deployed in those countries protecting vulnerable ordinary people.

We are also sending our civilian volunteers, including teachers and health workers, into our neighbours to boost their capacity and to improve the lives of their people. The Fiji Volunteer Services Scheme is already an outstanding success and we have plans to considerably boost this program in the coming months and years and to expand the capacity building to other professional fields.

I also want to repeat the message that I am carrying on my visits throughout the region: that we must all do more as Pacific people to take charge of our own affairs. We need a fundamental change in our psyche – in our mindset - and the way we see the world. We need to take ownership of our problems, to acknowledge our own roles and responsibilities instead of seeing them as someone else’s.

When someone once asked the great Singaporean statesman Lee Kuan Yew: “What are you going to do for me?”, he replied: “What are you going to do for yourself?” This carries a very important message for us all.

We need to stop looking for donors and start looking for development partners. And we need to stop asking those partners, “What are you doing for us?” but “What can you do to help us to help ourselves?”.

We need to abandon our tendency to seek handouts.

Governor Calvo, Ladies and Gentlemen. I close by thanking you all for the wonderful hospitality you have shown me and my delegation. I look forward very much to seeing more of Guam, of meeting more of your people and of strengthening the ties of friendship between our peoples.

Vinaka Vakalevu, Thank you and Si Yu’us ma’ase (see zu-oos ma’asi).