Dad loved Fiji, fought for Fiji and was passionate about Fiji and even though he was in exile he dreamed of the day he would be able to return home.
This was the word from Yogi Lal, daughter of renowned academic and award-winning author Prof Brij Vilash Lal who died at his Brisbane, Australia, home on Christmas Day.
“Dad was a Fiji boy to the very end and his passing was very unexpected and just a shock to all of us,” she said, speaking to The Fiji Times from Brisbane, Australia.
Ms Lal said her late father had just completed a book on girmitya, which was expected to be published soon.
When asked what Prof Lal was like as a “dad”, she said he was “caring and passionate”.
“Dad has five grandchildren, and he had that same relationship with them that he had with my brother and I.
“He raised us to always speak the truth and to always stand for what is right, no matter what.”
Ms Lal said anyone wishing to send condolence messages was welcome to send them to brijvlal2021@gmail.com.
She said funeral arrangements were being discussed and announcements would be made once they were finalised.
After a media interview where he discussed the expulsion of the Australian and New Zealand high commissioners, Prof Lal was expelled from Fiji in November 2009.
While speaking in Parliament in March 2015, then Defence Minister Timoci Natuva announced that Prof Lal was prohibited indefinitely from returning to Fiji because his actions were “prejudicial to the peace, defence, public safety, public order and security of Government of Fiji”.
Prof Lal, in response, said the original decision was based on the false premise that he was opposed to Fiji’s return to democracy after the coup of 2006.
“That is a travesty of the truth and of the historical record. I did nothing of the sort. And it is ludicrous to assert that my wife and I are a threat to the security of Fiji,” he had said at the time.
Prof Lal was 69 years old and is survived by his wife, Dr Padma Lal, two children Yogi and Niraj, and five grandchildren Jayan, Maya, Ash, Ella and Miles.
