Hard decisions must be made which might not be popular or even arouse fear, but are in the long term in the common interest of all people in Fiji.

Those were the words of Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama as he spoke on leadership issues at a workshop for Interim Ministers and Permanent Secretaries in Nasova this morning.

Bainimarama said as the interim government seeks to move the country forward through the People’s Charter, there is a realization amongst the ordinary people that Fiji needs leadership that is selfless, inclusive and broad-minded and that cares for the interest of all communities.

He said in our recent history, we failed to elect leadership to provide good governance and ensure wise and effective use of our resources as we have tended to produce selfish, short-sighted leaders mainly interested in providing for themselves and their followers and in defending institutions and practices that served their power base.

Commodore Bainimarama said we have had many short-sighted, parochial and outright racist leaders and many have not provided good examples to inspire our young people.

According to the Interim PM, we have produced the kind of leaders who wrongly believe that leadership is merely proving to the indigenous Fijians that they have the most nationalist programmes, and then pushing these, irrespective of whether they are sound, socially just and economically beneficial.

He stressed that we must learn from our recent experiences that narrow, ethnicist leadership is divisive and wastes resources on pandering to people’s emotions.

Bainimarama said Fiji needs leaders with moral courage who are also modest, truthful and honest and to have moral courage means leaders who are not afraid to make tough decisions when they know it is the right thing to do.

He said related to this is the willingness to have dialogue and debate to persuade people to support decisions that are in the national interest, and where there has been conflict, leaders must be willing to pursue justice, reconciliation and healing and be able to do this in a selfless manner.