Kenneth Low

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kenneth Low
Kenneth Low

Kenneth Mang-Kwong Low is a Fijian businessman and political leader of Chinese descent. He unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary election of 1999 as a candidate for the General Voters Party GVP for the Western Central (General Electors) Communal Constituency. He also lost the Fiji national elections in 2001 for the Suva City (General Electors) Communal Constituency, where he was the candidate of the United Fiji Party (SDL), but was appointed to the Senate (Fiji) as one of nine nominees of the Fijian Prime Minister (in government), and became Vice-President of the Senate on 28 February 2005, following the appointment of the previous Vice-President, Dr Ahmed Ali (politician) to a Government Cabinet position.

Low was borned in Chongqing, China at the end of the second world war and came to Fiji at the age of 10, achieved the highest position in the Parliament of Fiji as vice president of the senate for a non Fiji-born Chinese. He was a third generation Fiji-Chinese with his grandfather Low Fong arriving in Fiji in 1908. Low's father was a school teacher and an artist in traditional chinese ink painting.

Low, who is also the President of the Chinese Business Association in Fiji, has joined much of the Fiji-born Chinese community in calling for a crackdown on illegal immigration from mainland China, which he says is detrimental to the local-born Chinese and their reputation. He alleged on 8 November 2005 that corrupt immigration officials in Fiji were granting Fijian citizenship and visas to illegal Chinese immigrants, for financial and sexual favours, and called for a full inquiry into what was going on.

Low retired from the Senate in June 2006.