Bainimarama'scurrent govern-ment took on a gigantic task to reunify the country and reinvig-orate its economy. In my view it has done exceptionally well against many obstacles.

So sitting there in front of the television on the morning of August I felt proud to be a Fijian. The constitution of Fiji now describes all Fiji Citizens as Fijians and not indo Fijian or ethnic Fijian as was the case until 2013.

I happened to be in Fiji on Monday 22 August when the Fiji Rugby team returned from Rio. The day was declared a public holiday by Mr Bainimarama, a sport nutlike Bob Hawke who in 1983 famously declared a public holiday after Australia's win in America's Cup.

The roads were lined up with people screaming and waving the Fijian flag. Fiji is still cele-brating. For Fiji to win gold in an Olympic event was a miracle. It was competing against the world where the rich countries are able to pay ludicrous amounts of monies to players, coaches and technicians with the sole aim of winning gold.

Fiji has always been good at Rugby especially the Sevens code. But the rest of the world has caught up. But one profes-sional coach has outdone all oth-ers in the past two years. A mod-est former Sevens player frorn Great Britain called Ben Ryan. As a player who played against the Fijians he admired their raw tal-ent and passion for the garne. Instead of changing them he mo-tivated them and concentrated on fitness and discipline. Fiji has won the 7 series for the past two years. The series is played all over the world. Everyone goes to these games to watch the style and arrogance of the Fiji team. Other teams fear them because they cannot predict what each player is likely to do when he is in possession of the ball.

So this is my little thank you to the Fijian team and to Ben Ryan. Because of you the "rest of the world will now take notice of the little dot on the world rnap" as the Fijian Prime Minister de-clared after the win.

(Harish Prasad is a lawyer practis-ing in Parramatta since 1988)