Career
After working as a teacher and civil service administrator, Iloilo later became a member of the House of Representatives. He subsequently served as a Senator in the 1990s, and was President of the Senate prior to his becoming Vice-President of Fiji on 18 January 1999. He was in this position under President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara in 1999 and 2000, when Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry's government was overthrown by Fijian nationalists led by George Speight in the Fiji coup of 2000. He was sworn in as President on 13 July 2000, but legal experts consider that he was constitutionally the President as of 29 May, the date on which Ratu Mara had been removed from office by the military, and to which his resignation in December that year had been backdated. Iloilo refused to intervene directly in the disputes among politicians, but quietly reached out to disaffected factions, including the Indo-Fijian community. In 2001, he persuaded the military to allow a return to democracy.
Read more about this topic: Josefa Iloilo
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“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
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