The late Brij Lal to Our Editor on his former student ASHWIN RAJ,
25 March 2015:
'During all that time, he (Raj) kept on pontificating to others. In the end, he became an irritation and a source of embarrassment here (ANU) and had to pack up and return to Fiji.'
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BEATING AROUND THE BUSH
'He couldn't hack it as a junior lecturer and so joined the academic bureaucracy at USP. Before too long, he joined the chorus of coup supporters. He has no moral spine; he will change his tune to suit the occasion. Blaming others for his shortcomings is his modus operandi.
Keep up the fantastic work you are doing. You are indispensible to the struggle for democracy in Fiji.' Best Brij
BOOTED OUT OF AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
Thanks for all your support. I do not normally respond to attacks on me, but this is for you to use however you wish to put the record straight on him. Ashwin Raj says he walked away from ANU.
* The truth is that in four years, he had not written a single chapter of his thesis, not a single chapter. During all that time, he kept on pontificating to others. In the end, he became an irritation and a source of embarrassment here. He says that I wasn't competent enough to supervise him.
* Did he ever complain about this to anyone? Why couldn't he choose an alternative supervisor. My competence as a supervisor was honoured by the ANU with a 'Top Supervisor Award, 2010," not an inconsiderable achievement. Any one of my students can be contacted for confirmation.
* Not me, but Ashwin Raj did not have what it takes to complete a competent thesis.
* He says he was trained by Gyatri Spivak. What a load of nonsense. He did his MA at University of Hawaii, and took only one course from Spivak when she was visiting there. Raj is an incorrigable name-dropper.
* He couldn't hack it as a junior lecturer and so joined the academic bureaucracy at USP. Before too long, he joined the chorus of coup supporters. He has no moral spine; he will change his tune to suit the occasion. Blaming others for his shortcomings is his modus operandi.
Keep up the fantastic work you are doing. You are indispensible to the struggle for democracy in Fiji. Best Brij
ASHWIN RAJ to Fijileaks: March 2015
Ashwin Raj
Under international human rights law, a state cannot refuse entry of its own citizens but has every right to do so to foreign nationals in accordance with its Immigration laws. Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Director, Ashwin Raj, clarified that Professor Brij Lal held a Fijian passport which expired in June 1993. Professor Lal did not apply for renewal after the expiry of the Fijian passport and he held American (since 1993) and Australian passports since 1995. Records from the Department of Immigration show that he is a former Fiji citizen and did not apply for dual citizenship but continued to hold Australian and American passports. Dual citizenship for Fiji came into effect on 10 April 2009. According to the record, Professor Lal chose not to hold Fijian citizenship and therefore effectively forfeited certain rights that citizens of Fiji invariably enjoy as his entry into Fiji as a non-citizen is subject to Fiji’s immigration laws.
Fijileaks: We have no quarrel with Raj's statement but what right Sitiveni Qiliho had to torture the late Professor Brij Vilash Lal? We had privately expressed our disappointment to NFP leader Biman Prasad over his mass hysteria during the condolence service for Brij Lal. We argued that just because the late Lal had made great contribution to Indenture scholarship, it shouldn't be the ground for preferential treatment. The FOCUS should have been on banning order against Lal and his wife Padma. But Prasad turned it into election issue. We pointed out to Prasad that we found it odd that Brij Lal had even bought a property in Suva in 2010 and was planning to retire to Fiji when he was not yet a Fiji citizen. For academic reasons, we do understand why Brij Lal held on to his Australian citizenship. After all, Mara and Rabuka governments didn't want Indo-Fijians who fled to hold dual citizenship. Lal had not fled Fiji in 1987. Moreover, at the condolence service Prasad didn't question what right Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho had to take Brij Lal into custody, beat Lal up, and threaten him to leave Fiji the next day otherwise his body would have to be fetched from a mortuary. Prasad was aware of Lal's affidavit that we had revealed regarding the torture at Qiliho's hands. Once the late Brij Lal asked me if I knew my ancestral roots in India. I told him, "Bro, despite all your scholarship on indenture and the coolies, the answer is NO. I have no idea where they originated in British India, and I have no interest after two centuries to even bother, for India is some strange land. Like our family, thousands of Indo-Fijians can not trace their roots. Your books are too expensive, anyway. My surname is Lal. So was my father's surname. His father was Ram Bharos (Kabir Panth). His father was some pseudo brahmin Govind Maharaj, according to family tales, and the trail goes cold. That is why I have always implored Indo-Fijians to be Fijians. Fiji and not India must come first. Our links with India should be Curry, Sari and Diwali. I am as Fijian as any other person born in Fiji. We must, on the other hand, never forget our Girmit roots and our contribution to our BELOVED Fiji.'
RIP, late Professor Brij Vilash Lal. Our fight for 'FIji: The Way The World Should Be' will be restored
Fijileaks: We have no quarrel with Raj's statement but what right Sitiveni Qiliho had to torture the late Professor Brij Vilash Lal? We had privately expressed our disappointment to NFP leader Biman Prasad over his mass hysteria during the condolence service for Brij Lal. We argued that just because the late Lal had made great contribution to Indenture scholarship, it shouldn't be the ground for preferential treatment. The FOCUS should have been on banning order against Lal and his wife Padma. But Prasad turned it into election issue. We pointed out to Prasad that we found it odd that Brij Lal had even bought a property in Suva in 2010 and was planning to retire to Fiji when he was not yet a Fiji citizen. For academic reasons, we do understand why Brij Lal held on to his Australian citizenship. After all, Mara and Rabuka governments didn't want Indo-Fijians who fled to hold dual citizenship. Lal had not fled Fiji in 1987. Moreover, at the condolence service Prasad didn't question what right Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho had to take Brij Lal into custody, beat Lal up, and threaten him to leave Fiji the next day otherwise his body would have to be fetched from a mortuary. Prasad was aware of Lal's affidavit that we had revealed regarding the torture at Qiliho's hands. Once the late Brij Lal asked me if I knew my ancestral roots in India. I told him, "Bro, despite all your scholarship on indenture and the coolies, the answer is NO. I have no idea where they originated in British India, and I have no interest after two centuries to even bother, for India is some strange land. Like our family, thousands of Indo-Fijians can not trace their roots. Your books are too expensive, anyway. My surname is Lal. So was my father's surname. His father was Ram Bharos (Kabir Panth). His father was some pseudo brahmin Govind Maharaj, according to family tales, and the trail goes cold. That is why I have always implored Indo-Fijians to be Fijians. Fiji and not India must come first. Our links with India should be Curry, Sari and Diwali. I am as Fijian as any other person born in Fiji. We must, on the other hand, never forget our Girmit roots and our contribution to our BELOVED Fiji.'
RIP, late Professor Brij Vilash Lal. Our fight for 'FIji: The Way The World Should Be' will be restored
'We will visit India and see the sights but, in our hearts, we know we belong somewhere else': Professor Brij Lal
