Ieremia Tabai

Ieremia Tienang Tabai GCMG AO (born December 16, 1950 in Nonouti , Gilbert and Ellica Islands ) is a politician from Kiribati who was not only the first and two-time President of Kiribati , but also General Secretary of the Pacific Islands Forum for several years .

Life

Born in what is now Kiribati, Tabai studied after attending the King George V School on Tarawa from 1969 to 1972 at St. Andrews College in Christchurch , New Zealand , and graduated in 1972 with a degree in Commerce (Bachelor of Commerce) from Victoria University of Wellington . After his return, he had been a senior assistant accountant in the public sector for two years since 1973 .

He began his political career in 1974 with the election of a member in the meeting house maneaba ni Maungatabu ( House of Assembly ) of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, a time for the United Kingdom belonging protectorate , and represented in this the constituency Nonouti .

He later became a kind of leader of the opposition in a political system that was shaped more by loose coalitions of like-minded politicians than by formal political parties . During this time he was a staunch critic of the centralist tendencies of the government of Chief Minister Naboua Ratieta . In particular, he denounced its lavish plans for an expensive army and the growing westernization of the government and its lifestyles .

He extolled the virtues of the traditional culture of the Gilbert Islands , became the spokesman of the complaints of village copra - farmers and criticized the government spending on the main atoll of Tarawa at the expense of the outer islands and atolls.

In March 1978 he became Chief Minister himself as the successor to Ratieta. In the ensuing period, prior to gaining sovereignty from the United Kingdom, he proved a shrewd negotiator in negotiating a financial deal with Britain. On the other hand, he resisted the demand that Banaba , the former Ocean Island, should be separated from Kiribati, although the island was completely destroyed due to the years of phosphate mining . After lengthy protests, part of the original population, who had meanwhile been moved to Rabi , a Fiji island 2,500 kilometers away , was able to return to the island in 1979.

He headed the Kiribati delegation to the Constitutional Conference in London in 1978. In 1979 he was appointed Company of the Order of St. Michael and St. George (CMG) by Queen Elizabeth II .

After Kiribati gained independence, he became the first president on July 12, 1979 and initially held this office until December 10, 1982. Also in 1982, he was honored by Queen Elizabeth II as the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George ( GCMG) excellent. On February 18, 1983, Tabai was again President of Kiribati and held this office until the end of the three constitutionally permitted terms on July 4, 1991 from.

He then became Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum in January 1992 and held this position for six years until January 1998.

In 1999 he was fined for trying to start an independent broadcaster . A year later he founded the daily Kiribati Newstar and has been its editor ever since . He is also still a member of parliament.

Ieremia is married to Meleangi Kalofia from Tuvalu and has three children.

Fonts

• Ieremia Tabai: Preparing the Takeover. In: Politics in Kiribati. Kiribati Extension Center, Tarawa / Institute of Pacific Studies of University of the South Pacific 1980. ( Politics in the Pacific. 2), pp. 23-28.

Web links

• Biography (rulers.org)
• Biography (thecommonwealth.org)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Short biography in: Politics in Kiribati. 1980, p. 65.