organisation and many people did not understand what we did. the bank was in this impressive new 16 storey building - still the tallest in fiji. siwa made a lot of efforts to explain the role of the bank. i listened to many of his speeches. i recall when he explained why the country needed foreign reserves to a meeting of ymca members. he explained the process of how the commercial banks use fiji dollars to buy foreign reserves from the reserve bank and how the foreign currency eventually ended up with the importer ’ s bank account abroad. i was deeply impressed by how he could simplify a complicated and complex process for the ordinary person to understand. at the end of his talk a young man asked, “ is keeping enough foreign reserves a difficult thing to do? ” siwa replied, “ well, you see my hair, they were all black last year, now they are rapidly turning grey. ” if you can see me now siwa, my hair is not only grey they have turned all white in the last six months. siwa was a firm believer in getting the views of everyone. he established forums that are still active today. he established the macroeconomic policy committee to help government formulate policies and make forecasts. this committee is extremely busy right now revising the prediction for the economy in light of the floods and the global economic meltdown. given what is happening around us, we will do extremely well to achieve the 2. 4 percent growth that was released in november last year. i hope that the reserve bank will not be blamed for this economic scenario. we live in challenging times. the world economy is buckling from the fall outs from the financial crisis. fiji will not be immune from this global recession. our economy was already under some stress. while siwa may not have faced the same situation as the governor of the reserve bank, i have often wondered what siwa would advise us to get us through these unprecedented difficult times. for one thing, siwa was clear with his thoughts and eloquent in outlining them particularly to non - economists like politicians. siwa was also a stickler for economic stability. i am sure that he would emphasise to us today that while we have a host of economic problems we must deal with the stability first before we can solve the others. this would be a wise counsel. we will do well to heed it. without stability you do not have a foundation for growth. siwa always liked a lively intellectual debate. he

but also in the region and beyond. reserve bank of fiji today i thought of sharing some of my personal experiences with siwa. i first met siwa at the central monetary authority in dominion house in late 1980 when he took over from mr. tomkins as general manager after his return from the imf. he was the first local at the position. so naturally there was a lot of interest on how a local was going to perform in one of the last key national positions to be localized in fiji. very quickly, siwa dispelled any concerns on his ability to lead the central monetary authority. siwa became the first governor of the reserve bank of fiji when the transition occurred in 1984. we honor siwa for his humility, caring and down to earth qualities. but in my assessment, underneath all that was a firm and strong leader. for us that worked under him, we came face to face with his strong leadership qualities in our work. while he mixed easily amongst us, he applied the rules very strictly. i remember the strike that i led when i was a trade union representative at the bank in 1983. at the end of the two week strike, while the union did not get all that we wanted, everyone acknowledged that the resolution was a fair one and was made possible by siwa ’ s compassion and goodwill to the workers. during this rather difficult negotiation and tension, siwa was very calm as he always was in any kind of situation. i could clearly witness the clarity of his thinking and his strong belief in fairness and consistency. siwa was our boss and also our father. i recall one day when he called me into his office. i had applied for a loan for my first car, a small honda civic. you know, siwa adopted a slow drawl when he told people off. when you heard that drawl you knew you were in trouble. in that telling off voice he said “ savenaca, why are you buying a car when you don ’ t have a house. you should buy a house first when you are still young. ” this signified the caring personality that siwa had for everyone. he was strict but ever concerned about our welfare! by the way i got the loan but with the condition that i buy a house within five years which i did. siwa rose in the public limelight as the governor of the reserve bank, a position that he held for 7 years. at that time, the reserve bank was a new