Epeli Nailatikau
Ratu Epeli Nailatikau (born 1941) is a Fijian politician. Since 2001 he has served as Speaker of the House of Representatives - the lower and more powerful chamber of the Fijian Parliament.
A career soldier, Nailatikau trained in New Zealand. In 1966, he served on secondment in the 1st Battalion of the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment and was posted to Sarawak, Malaysia, during Indonesia's "Konfrontasi" against Malaysia. He proved to be a popular and highly respected officer. When he returned to Fiji, he rose steadily through the ranks. By 1987, he held the rank of Brigadier-General, and was the Army Chief of Staff. While visiting Australia, he was deposed from this position, however, when the third-ranked officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka staged a military putsch and seized power. Ever resilient, Nailatikau retired from the Army and decided to pursue a new career in the diplomatic service. First as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (a post equivalent to that of ambassador in Commonwealth countries), and later as Fiji's ambassador-at-large to the South Pacific, he served with distinction.
In the aftermath of the failure of the Fiji coup of 2000, a coup which Nailatikau strongly opposed, he was nominated for the position of Prime Minister, to help rebuild Fiji's shattered institutions. He withdrew his nomination, however, in favour of Laisenia Qarase, who was considered more of a consensus candidate, but became Deputy Prime Minister in the interim Cabinet. In 2001, after democracy had been restored in a general election, he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, a position he continues to hold to this day.
As a hereditary chief, Epeli Nailatikau has the title of Ratu. He is the second son of Ratu Edward Cakobau, who commanded the Fijian Battalion in World War II. He is also a great-great-grandson of Seru Epenisa Cakobau, the first monarch to rule over a unified Fijian kingdom after conquering all the tribes of Fiji and uniting them under his leadership, and who ceded the Fiji Islands to the United Kingdom in 1874. In 1981, he married Adi Koila Mara, the second daughter of modern Fiji's founding father, Prime Minister and President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Koila is also a politician in her own right; like her husband, she has served as a Member of Parliament, Cabinet minister, and, most recently, Senator. They have two children: a son, Kamisese (named after Adi Koila's father), and a daughter, Litia.