Ieremia Tabai

Ieremia Tienang Tabai GCMG AO
Tabai in 2009
1st President of Kiribati
In office 12 July 1979 – 10 December 1982
Vice President	Teatao Teannaki
Preceded by	Himself (as Chief Minister) Reginald James Wallace (as Governor)
Succeeded by	Rota Onorio (acting)
In office 18 February 1983 – 4 July 1991
Vice President	Teatao Teannaki
Preceded by	Rota Onorio (acting)
Succeeded by	Teatao Teannaki
Personal details
Born	1950 (age 73–74) Nonouti, Gilbert and Ellice Islands (now Kiribati)
Political party	National Progressive Party Boutokaan te Koaua Kamanoan Kiribati Party
Spouse	Meleangi Kalofia
Children	1
Residence	Tarawa Palace Razidans
Alma mater	Victoria University of Wellington

Ieremia Tienang Tabai GCMG AO (modern spelling: Tabwai; born 1950) is an I-Kiribati politician who served as the first president of Kiribati from 1979 to 1991. He previously served in the equivalent role, chief minister, under the colonial government from 1978 to 1979. Tabai returned to the House of Assembly in 1998 and represents Nonouti as of the 2020 election.

After attending university in New Zealand, Tabai took a job in the Ministry of Finance for a year before deciding to enter politics. He was elected to the House of Assembly in 1974 and became leader of the opposition. Tabai defeated the incumbent Naboua Ratieta to become chief minister in the 1978 election, effectively putting him in charge of independence negotiations, and he became president of Kiribati upon independence in 1979. He was re-elected as president in 1982. His term ended abruptly after he tied an unsuccessful bill to a motion of no confidence, but he retained his presidency in the resulting 1983 election. In the early years of his presidency, Tabai made national self-sufficiency central to his agenda.

Tabai signed a fishing agreement with the Soviet Union in 1985, triggering both domestic and international protest. He ran for re-election in 1987, but opposition member Harry Tong filed a legal challenge, saying that Tabai's elections in 1978, 1982, and 1983 meant that Tabai was term-limited. It was determined that the 1978 election was for a colonial position and it did not count against his term limit. Tabai then won re-election. He was term-limited in 1991, so he successfully campaigned for his vice-president Teatao Teannaki to be the next president.

Tabai became secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum in 1992, holding the office until 1998. He then returned to parliamentary politics. Tabai founded two media outlets over the next few years: the Newstar newspaper, which was the country's first independently-owned outlet, and a radio station. As an assemblyman, he has opposed Kiribati's relations with China and spoken in favour of smaller family sizes to limit the effects of overpopulation and climate change.