National Federation Party Leader, Professor Biman Prasad says the sudden and shocking death of Professor Brij Lal at the age of 69 should create a moment for all Fiji citizens to pause and reflect, even while they are distracted by many personal challenges brought on by the pandemic and other deep national problems.
Professor Lal passed away in Brisbane yesterday morning.
He and his wife, Doctor, Padma Lal were expelled from Fiji in 2009.
Prasad says Lal was a giant on the international academic stage, but for the last 12 years of his life, he was banned from returning to the place of his birth for championing democracy.
The NFP Leader says some of Fiji’s most outstanding people with international reputations are sporting figures, business people or international diplomats but among historians and scholars, Professor Lal stood tall around the world.
National Federation Party Leader, Professor Biman Prasad [image: file]
Prasad says from a poor farming family in Tabia, Vanua Levu, Professor Lal rose to be an emeritus professor of Pacific and Asian History at the Australian National University, one of the world’s highest-ranked places of learning.
Prasad adds Lal was an acknowledged expert on the Indian diaspora around the world and was recognised as the pre-eminent historian on the history of Indenture and Girmitiya.
He says Professor Lal will be remembered as one of the architects of the 1997 Fiji Constitution.
The National Federation Party will be organising a condolence gathering to remember Professor Lal.
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