23/08/2026
To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Required
Happy Prophet Muhammad’s Day Fiji!
Someone recently asked whether being a Minister makes you richer or poorer.
For me, the answer is simple: financially poorer, but richer in the privilege of being able to serve.
Public office comes with many responsibilities that people may not always see. Every week there are community fundraisers, church and Vanua obligations, funerals, weddings, school needs, sporting teams, youth groups and families simply needing a helping hand.
Sometimes it is opening a soli. Sometimes it is buying a fundraising table, sponsoring jerseys, boots or sporting equipment, contributing prize money, helping with school fees or medical expenses, paying for passports or boat freight, assisting with solar lights or crossings, providing building materials, grocery packs, brush cutters, boats and engines, or helping make a home safer for a person living with a disability. Or even as simple as ‘I’m hungry kere lunch money”. And the list goes on.
It adds up, often between $5,000 and $10,000 in a month, but I don’t say this for praise or sympathy. I share it simply because there is a perception that holding public office is about what you receive.
For many of us, it is also very much about what you are able to give.
Like everyone else, we still have mortgages, bills and responsibilities to our children and grandchildren. But when you are blessed with the ability to help, it is difficult to turn away from someone genuinely in need.
Most of this assistance is never publicised, and I prefer it that way unless those receiving it choose to share it themselves.
So when our salaries increased, it simply meant there was a little more capacity to help. And when our pay was reduced by 20 percent, naturally there is less to work with, not only for ourselves, but also for the many people and causes we willingly support.
Still, we do what we can, when we can, and when the next pay comes, there is usually another community, another family, another team or another worthy cause waiting.
To whom much is given, much is required.
And I remain grateful for the privilege to give and to serve.
