Ratu Sir Josefa Lalabalavu Vanayaliyali Sukuna changed education in Fiji to the efficient institution that we are now and it was one of his first and foremost focal points growing up as a young man.
This was stated by award-winning political sociologist and global interdisciplinary scholar Doctor Steven Ratuva while elaborating on the life of Fiji’s greatest statesman Ratu Sukuna at the University of the South Pacific.
Dr. Ratuva says Ratu Sukuna was able to break through the barrier back in the day when a non-colonised person or an iTaukei was not allowed to have an education.
He went on to pursue further education at Oxford University.
He says Ratu Sukuna was also a reformist given the way he saw Fiji moving and also was a man of empathy.
He adds Ratu Sukuna was perceived particularly by critics as somebody whose ideas inspired the nationalistic ideas which led to some issues in the past like the 1987 and 2000 coups.
Dr. Ratuva says some of the ideas that Ratu Sukuna came up with were misconceived by some people back in the day.
Dr. Ratuva says observing some of the public holidays this year, Ratu Sukuna Day being one of them, is a symbolic gesture of diversity and unity in our country.
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