Background and Career
Raj was first elected to represent the Ra Open Constituency in the House of Representatives as an independent candidate at the 1999 general election. He was appointed Minister for Multi-Ethnic Affairs in the interim Cabinet that was formed in the wake of the Fiji coup of 2000, and retained his seat as a candidate of the newly formed United Fiji Party (SDL) in the election held to restore democracy in September 2001. Raj generated outrage among his fellow Indo-Fijians in his Maiden speech (the speech typically made by a newly elected parliamentarian in Commonwealth countries). He said that Fiji had been given to the Fijian people by God and that they, not Indo-Fijians or others, were therefore entitled to govern the country. Many saw him as grovelling before the strongly pro-ethnic Fijian Qarase. On his trip to India in 2004, however, Raj said that he was proud of his Indian heritage. He lovingly collected some Indian soil and bottled some water from the Ganges River to bring back to Fiji, as a gift for his aged parents.
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| Name | Raj, George Shiu |
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