Political Controversies
In the same debate (26 August 2004) in which Ah Koy had prophesied curses on the country for failing to support Israel, he accused the Qarase government of responsibility for the death of former First Lady Ro Lady Lala Mara. He alleged that sources close to her family had told him she had suffered a fatal heart attack after hearing the distressing news that her son-in-law, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, was to be dismissed (under pressure from the government) as Chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs, "the last straw" after her husband's death three months earlier. His comments drew a strong rebuke from the Chairman of the Kadavu Provincial Council, which Ah Koy represents in the Senate. Ratu Joe Nawalowalo called his speech "gutter material" which "belittled" the close relationship Adi Lala had enjoyed with the province.
Partly because of his close relationship with former Prime Minister Rabuka, Ah Koy was accused by some of involvement in the Rabuka and Speight coups of 1987 and 2000. No firm evidence ever came to light, and on both occasions he took legal action against media responsible for broadcasting such allegations. The Auckland High Court in New Zealand ruled in Ah Koy's favour each time. The Auckland Star (which had printed the allegations of his complicity in the Rabuka coups) went into voluntary liquidation soon afterwards, while Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand were ordered by the court to apologise publicly to Ah Koy and his family.
In public and parliamentary speeches, Ah Koy has taken a strong stand against what he sees as the racist policies of the present government.
In a Senate debate on 1 March 2004, fellow-Senator Apisai Tora called Ah Koy a "Chinaman," a term generally considered a pejorative. Ah Koy strongly objected to the term, and Tora apologised three days later.
Read more about this topic: James Ah Koy
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“The people of Western Europe are facing this summer a series of tragic dilemmas. Of the hopes that dazzled the last twenty years that some political movement might tend to the betterment of the human lot, little remains above ground but the tattered slogans of the past.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)