Wilisoni Malani
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Ratu Wilisoni Tuiketei Malani OBE, OSTJ, JP (1920 - 14 June 2005) was a Fijian chief, medical doctor, and politician. He held the chiefly title of Turaga na Gonesau, or Paramount Chief of the Nakorotubu district in the Province of Ra in the western part of Viti Levu. The "Gonesau" means the "blessed child" as Ratu Malani's grandancestor was the youngest son of one of Fiji's high chief, Rokomautu from Verata, who gave his blessing "sau" because he was his youngest and last child.
The surname "Malani" was given to Ratu Malani's father by Lau chief Roko Malani as a token of appreciation and in remembrance for the Nakorotubu warriors in sailing to Lau and subduing an uprising in Kedekede, Lakeba, Lau in the 1700s in what is commonly known as the Vuakaloa Campaign or Blackboar Campaign.
A cousin of the late Prime Minister and President, Kamisese Mara, Ratu Malani after the passing away of his father Roko Malani in Ra was raised in Tubou, Lau by his uncle, Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba, Ratu Mara's father, who financed his education at Fiji's premier boarding school, Queen Victoria School, where he was the head boy in 1940, and the Central Medical School, which is now the Fiji School of Medicine. It was assumed that Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba's decision to adhere to Ratu Sukuna's request for Ratu Mara to abandon his sixth year medicine study at the University of Otago in New Zealand and to study leadership and politics at the Oxford University was because he had a replacement for a medical doctor in Ratu Malani. He practiced medicine for many years, mainly in rural centres, and was a pioneer in the fight to eradicate malaria and filiarisis in Fiji and the Solomon Islands. He retired in 1994 to take up a new career in politics.
Ratu Malani became the oldest parliamentarian in Fiji's history at the age of 74 to win a seat in the election of 1994 when he was elected to the Fiji House of Representatives from the constituency covering the Ra Province. He retired from politics at the age of 79 and did not seek reelection during the 1999 general election. He died in Suva on 14 June 2005 at the age of 85.
Ratu Malani's suggestion during the Bau Great Council of Chiefs meeting in 1982 for young Fijian chiefs to be identified and sent for further education and leadership training to Oxford University and Yale University was never adopted by Ratu Mara's Alliance Party government because of its multiracial policy.
Ratu Malani furthered the education of his own children, with two graduating as medical doctors from New Zealand's University of Otago, two in business and commerce respectively from Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington (also in New Zealand), and two from the University of the South Pacific in Suva.
