Ieremia Tabai

Who is Ieremia Tabai?

Ieremia Tienang Tabai was born on 16 December 1949 on Nonouti, one of the southern Gilbert Islands. As an eleven-year-old he began attending King George V High School on Tarawa before a New Zealand government scholarship sent him to St Andrew's College in Christchurch and then to Victoria University of Wellington, where he earned a degree in commerce. After a year working in Kiribati's Ministry of Finance, he entered politics, winning election to the House of Assembly of the Gilbert Islands in 1974 and quickly becoming leader of the opposition. In 1978 he defeated the incumbent, Naboua Ratieta, to become chief minister, putting him in charge of negotiating independence from Britain, and when Kiribati became a sovereign nation on 12 July 1979 he became its first President (Beretitenti) at only twenty-nine years old, one of the youngest heads of government in the Commonwealth at the time. He served three terms, until 1991, steering an economically fragile, geographically scattered new nation through its earliest years of self-government and championing financial independence from foreign aid. After leaving the presidency he served as Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum from 1992 to 1998, and later founded Kiribati's first independently owned newspaper, Newstar, along with a radio station, before returning to elected politics in Kiribati's parliament.

Sources: Ieremia Tabai, Wikipedia (biography, education, political career) · RNZ Pacific, "Sir Ieremia Tabai — Berititente from 1979" (Kiribati at 40 collection) · Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, historical records of Forum Secretaries General