Fred was about to tee off on the first hole when a second golfer (George) approached and asked if he could join him. Fred said that he usually played alone, but agreed to the twosome. They were even after the first two holes.
Dr Anouk Ride* presents a picture of a very fragile democracy where most people' s allegiance is to their clan, island and church. The concept of a Solomon Island nation takes a second or lower place.
Solomon Islanders are set to vote on 17 April in an election that has significance within and beyond the country’s borders. It is the first chance for them to vote on policy directions that the coalition led by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has taken and may change or consolidate his power.
Since Sogavare was elected by his parliamentary peers in April 2019, Solomon Islanders have lived through several shocks. First there were riots in April 2019, precursors to a much larger riot in November 2021. Both incidents related to grievances about the ruling political coalition and perceived foreign control of government decisions and the economy.
There was a switch in bilateral relations from Taiwan to China in September 2019, a decision announced before a parliamentary inquiry concluded or provincial governments had their say. The omission contributed to tensions between the prime minister’s office and the Malaitan provincial government, especially its former premier, Daniel Suidani. Those tensions resulted in Suidani’s removal from office in a vote of confidence in February, allegedly after money was offered to members of the provincial assembly to take him down.
Then there was Covid-19, which prompted a 28-month state of emergency. Sogavare’s emergency powers included rights to decide who could enter the country. He could also ban events, restrict inter-island travel and suspend access to media outlets. A decision to ban Facebook was ultimately not implemented but pointed to an anti-democratic trend. With even much-needed doctors and nurses sacked over strike plans or a critical social media post, rising centralisation of power and restrictions on free speech became clear. Criticism of the coalition has become more muted or is kept private.
Governance has become less transparent. No auditor general’s annual report on the state of government finances has been published in the past five years. The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force has released no annual report since 2018. Allegations of corruption, including alleged bribery of High Court officials, are unresolved.
Foreign money, meanwhile, has helped consolidate the ruling coalition’s power. Constituency development funds—discretionary money given to members of parliament— have a long history in Solomon Islands, but in 2021 the money, now coming from China, was for the first time allocated not to all MPs but only to members of the coalition. Aid funds from other countries tended to be directed into preparations for the South Pacific Games of late 2023. Click here to read in full.
* Anouk Ride is a research fellow at the Australian National University and an adjunct research fellow at Solomon Islands National University.
The article opens: "Salesi Temo is cantankerous, erratic, capricious, imperious, self-important, sexist, patriarchal and behaves like a schoolyard bully. He shares these characteristics with a tiny minority of crusty judges in other jurisdictions of the common law that Fiji also inherited from the British. But he is unique in one particular aspect. The Acting Chief Justice is an outlaw – someone who presides over the administration of the rule of law in Fiji yet continues to debase it with his violations of the Constitution, the supreme law.
"Temo’s defiance of the law with his advice to the President to illegally appoint a fellow judge, Alipate Qetaki, and the Acting DPP, John Rabuku, have been canvassed at length in these columns. He appointed them when the Constitution specifically prohibits them from holding those offices because they have been found guilty of professional misconduct.
They are:
1. Activate contempt of court action against her;
2. Refer her to the police for allegedly disobeying a lawful order;
3. Recommend to the President that she be removed from the bench;
4. Ask her to resign.
So .... in addition to hounding Bainimarama on a dubious charge, he is now hounding someone who was trying to uphold the law and do justice. God bless Fiji! Civil liberties may have improved under the new government but justice and upholding the law certainly has not.
-- ACW
This posting proposes that the NFP is uniquely positioned to restore much-needed government credibility and create a better atmophere for national unity by improving relations with Fiji First.
It can do so because it has the option to leave the coalition and bring down the government, and because all of its five members are people of high repute and capability.
Deputy PM Leader and Minister of Finance, Strategic Planning, National Developments, and Statistics Professor Biman Prasad is a distinguished former academic. He was Professor of Economics and Dean of the faculty of Business and Economics at the University of the South Pacific.Party President and Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration, former Lieutenant Colonel and Chief of Staff of the Royal Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) Pio Tikoduadua was a Fiji First member who left the party because of his doubts about some of its practices.Minister of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations former broadcaster and public relations consultant Lenora Qereqeretubua is the Deputy Speaker of the House and Assistant Minister for Housing, Local Government and Foreign Affairs.Former Labour Party MP Agni Deo Singh served as general secretary of the Fiji Teachers Union (FTU) from 1999 to 2006, and again from 2007 to 2022. As FTU secretary, he campaigned against the racist education policies of the Laisenia Qarase-led government.Finally, Assistant Minister of Women and Children and Assistant Minister of Poverty Alleviation Sashi Kiran is the Founder and former Chief Executive of FRIEND, the Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprises and Development, a rural-orientated NGO that works on poverty alleviation through socio-economic and health empowerment programmes.
The fact that all five NFP MPs are cabinet ministers clearly shows their capabilities are recognized by PM Sitiveni Rabuka and senior People's Alliance members. They have the power to change many things for the better if they choose to use it.
This is what I think they should do:
■ First, Biman must clear the accusations of personal tax evasion so there is absolutely no doubt that the accusations are false.
■ Then NFP should exercise pressure to stop the hounding of Voqere Bainimarama. It serves no good purpose and creates division when national unity is needed. Further, Bainimarama's three year suspension from Parliament for questioning the President and Parliament on the illegal appointment of judges should be rescinded.
■ Salesi Temo should not be confirmed as the new Chief Justice. His biases are only too obvious. The successful appointee should be decided after wide consultations which include the Fiji Law Society.
■ The illegal appointments of John Rabuka as Acting Director of Public Prosecutions and Alipate Qetalu as a judge should be reversed, and Christopher Pryde restored as Director of Public Prosecutions. The charge that he was seen talking to Fiji First's Ayaz Sayed- Khaiyum at a cocktail party and is therefore biased towards Fiji First is the most ludicrous thing I've heard for a long time.■ Prosecuting lawyer Losalini Tabuakoro should be dimissed. Her behaviour at the Bainmarama hearding when she didn't get the jail sentencing she wanted from Magistrate Seini Puamau is unacceptable. As Graham Davis in Grubsheet says, it is a "breathing example of the folly of getting rid of professional senior lawyers with judgment to prosecute cases on behalf of the state and replacing them simply on the basis of ethnicity."
■ Lynda Tabuya should be demoted (see pn923) and Sashi Kiran appointed Minister of Women and Children, and Minister of Poverty Alleviation with adequate resources and support to perform well in these roles.
■ More generally, NFP should push more strongly for what Pio wanted in the 2018 elections:
"We want a Fiji where everyone works together for a brighter future. We will march forward in unison and harmony as a mighty collective force to once again restore power to all of you. Because it is you who have shaped our policies. It is you we have listened to. And we want you to proudly take ownership of the government and its policies.
Simply put, NFP will be a government of Team Fiji that make up our multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious nation.
First, we must all be economically secure. That is why we want a fair living wage for our workers and our farmers. Our economy depends on them. Next, we have to get rid of the climate of fear that covers our country. People must be free to speak up so that they can contribute their ideas.
Then we need to begin the massive task of rebuilding. Because education will decide our future, we need an education system – including university education - that works. We must have a good health system. And we must ensure that every family has that most important thing – a good home.
These are our priorities. They are not the only things we will do. You can read more about our plans in this manifesto...
God Bless Fiji."
Disclaimer. Biman Prasad is a former USP colleague who proposed my appointment as an Emeritus Professor. Sashi Kiran and I circumnavigated Viti Levu and Vanua Levu together while I was engaged on a consultancy. Sashi was also later one of my Development Studies students. I don't think my assocation with Biman and Sashi has distorted my judgment. If anything, it has improved it. -- ACW
Sitiveni Qilohi & Voqere Bainimarama |
In October last year Magistrate Seini Puamau found former PM Voqere Bainimarama not guilty of breaking the law with regards to the accusation that he had stopped a police investigation about the University of the South Pacific in 2020. Former police chief Sitiveni Qilohi was also charged.
Salesi Temo |
Seini Puamua |
Puamau could not reverse the Acting Chief Justice's verdict of guilty but in sentencing them on Thursday she ruled that Bainimarama was given "an absolute discharge," the lowest possible sentence, and the conviction was not to be registered. In other words, she came as close as legally possible to her original ruling of not guilty. Qiliho was given a $1500 fine without conviction.
Predictably, her ruling has been challenged and the case will be heard again on Wednesday, an unheard of short time after a ruling -- leaving effectively one working day, Tuesday, to prepare. Compare this with the case against dismissed former chief prosecutor Christopher Pryde who has been waiting for over a year for his appeal to be heard!
Government and its compliant judiciary are determined to "get" Bainimarama one way or another. And if these court cases are unsuccessful it is rumoured they have another 30 strategies up their sleeves.
Holding on to power by just one parliamentary seat the unsteady government coalition of People's Alliance, National Federation Party and the ultra-nationalist i'Taukei SODELPA must discredit and decapitate Bainimarama's First First party, the largest single party in parliament, if it is to win the next election, likely in December 2026.
But there is another reason. Government needs to deflect public attention away from troubles within its own ranks.
It is worth noting that the Fiji Law Society opposed his appointment.
Temo subsequently appointed John Rabuka as Acting Director of Public Prosecutions and Alipate Qetelu as a judge. Both men had been found guilty of professional misconduct by the Independent Legal Services Commission and were therefore not eligible for appointment.
Graham Davis of Grubsheet has advanced another possible reason for the appointment of acting Chief Justice Salesi Temo. Government hopes he can find ways around the 2013 Constitution, passed by the previous Bainimarama government, which cannot be changed without a two-thirds majority in parliament and a two-thirds majority in a referendum. Neither is even a remote possibility.
In these unsettled times one wonders what would happen if Bainimarama is sent to jail. A large public protest and even military intervension are not off the cards.
One final word. Magistrate Seini Korosaya Puamau is an incredibly courageous woman. Few others would have taken the stance she has in present day Fijij. I hope the rumour she has resigned is untrue.
-- ACW
Extracts from the 2013 Constitution
117. Director of Public Prosecutions
2. The Director of Public Prosecutions must be a person who is qualified to be
appointed as a Judge.
105. Qualification for appointment
1. The making of appointments to a judicial office is governed by the principle that
judicial officers should be of the highest competence and integrity.
2. A person is not qualified for appointment as a Judge unless he or she- • Eligibility for supreme court judges
a. holds, or has held a high judicial office in Fiji or in another country
prescribed by law; or
b. has had not less than 15 years post-admission practice as a legal
practitioner in Fiji or in another country prescribed by law, and has not
been found guilty of any disciplinary proceeding involving legal
practitioners whether in Fiji or abroad, including any proceeding by the
Independent Legal Services Commission or any proceeding under the law
governing legal practitioners, barristers and solicitors prior to the
establishment of the Independent Legal Services Commission.
SIIN: SOLOMON ISLANDS THESIS CATALOGUE:
| Thu, Mar 21, 7:58 PM (19 hours ago) | |||
|
Dear colleagues
The Solomon Islands Theses Catalogue, collated by me and published earlier this month by the Solomon Islands National University is now available at SINU Library and online via the UQ e-Space (see below), There are 1,213 entries, although the 512 digital copies of theses (15.5 gigs) that I managed to find are not easily available as there are copyright restrictions. But the digitasl files are available at SINU Library, and eventually at other sites such as the SI National Library and Museum.
The sum of the polls, however, (see table) shows government to be in a relatively secure position, and the Opposition to be in deep water.
Lydia and Sitiveni. |
Government is made up of a coalition of three parties, the largely i'Taukei (ethnic Fijian)-supported People's Alliance (PAP), the National Federation Party (NFP) supported by many Indo-Fijians, and a rump taukei-nationalist SODELPA party.
At the last 2022 election PAP and the FPF party needed the three SODELPA MPs to form the government and for a while it looked the three were not unaminous about joining the Coalition. There was one dissenting MP, probably Aseri Radrodro who has been very much in the news lately, mainly because of his sordid affair, "brutal sex and sharing drugs, with Lynda Tabuya while on an official government visit to Sydney. Aseli's wife was a few rooms down the hotel corridor while the two entangled.
Lynda, a former Hibiscus Queen, now 52, divorced with six children, is the Deputy Leader of the Coalition and Minister of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation. Aseli was Minister of Education until he was sacked a few days ago for "disobedience"on a matter unrelated to his dalliance by PM Sitiveni Rabuka.
SODELPA insists he be reinstated and Rabuka says he may be reinstated "sometime." Whether this will satisfy SODELPA is as yet unknown. They could accept it or shift their support to Fiji First bringing down the government. The Fiji Government looks very fragile.
Another incident adding to the fragility is the dismisal of Assistant Deputy of Public Prosecutions British-born and long Fiji resident Elizabeth Rice by the acting Director of Public Prosecutions, illegally appointed John Rakuka, because she is "white". He is supported by Attorney-General Siromi Turaga, who want an i'Taukei as Assistant DPP.
Ms Rice is taking the matter to court for wrongful dismissal. What makes this situation even more serious is that Ms Rice was about to prosecute Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum for misconduct and her replacement is far less likely to win the case which would be a victory for Fiji First and yet another display of the Coalition government's instability.
How long this can go on is unclear but at this stage the signs are that the Coalition could well lose the next election.
Note: The sex and drug story has been poorly reported by the Fiji media but has been well covered in social media's Victor Lal's Fijileaks and Graham Davis's Grubsheet. Check them out if you want the nitty-gritty.
Earlier signs of instability. https://bowergroupasia.com/fijis-political-situation-remains-fragile-almost-six-months-into-new-government/
-ACW
Fijian language and culture: from Ronald Getty: Fijian-English Dictionary, 2009.
From his introduction (my emphases) :Fijian conversation is very sensitive as to who is talking to whom. Relationships of regions, tribes, clans, extended families and nuclear families are all relevant but usually invisible to outsiders. There are privileges, courtesies and taboos that depend on those relationships. Some people may not speak with certain others, brothers and sisters for example or in some cases, children and a parent. Virtually everyone is related to everyone in some way that determines the conditions of mutual speech. Formal Fijian speech has an overload of verbiage with protocol and politesse. It may border on a mannered preciosity that can be quite boring.
Still today, though, Fijian patterns of thinking and feeling are very different from anything foreigners might expect. Fijian culture and social interconnections are difficult if not impossible for an outsider to penetrate. Fijian openness is never as open as it would seem. Questioning a Fijian on any sensitive issue is rather like peeling an onion. Layers are removed but nothing much is revealed at the inside.
Fijians usually pretend their thoughts and feelings are congruent with those of a stranger or a foreigner. They avoid disclosing potential discord of their different motivation, different social aims, very different manners and private behaviour. And some can be masters at hiding their self-interest. The Fijian smile presents a disarming front. The smile serves to charm, disarm, and put the visitor at ease. Sometimes it is a mask for dissimulation and manipulation. More often perhaps, it may be genuine, especially in the case of children.
A Fijian individual living in a traditional Fijian context exists within a social system that is much more structured than a European usually experiences. Within Fiji, the system leaves little room for an individual to act independently of the group. At the same time, for the individual, that system can be helpful and supportive emotionally. Emphasis is on human relationships, extended family, and clan, and to a lesser extent, the tribe and territory, and quite importantly, their church with their own Fijian versions of Christianity. But these social involvements and committments can be preoccupations that limit an individual’s development as an individual and dissipate the personal resources. Social demands can exact enormous amounts of time, effort, energy, even money, food and other consumables.
Commoners have been restrained by their elders and by their chiefs who with very few exceptions, have little education, and all too often, are marked by self-interest. Young people are discouraged from expressing opinions or openly asserting themselves as individuals. Still now, Fijians hardly dare “talk up” directly. Many men, especially, have been very considerably repressed. From early childhood all Fijians are taught severely not to ask questions and not to speak their minds. It is understandable that Fijians might become secretive about their own feelings and thoughts. They have had so little personal privacy.
It is not easy to understand Fijians and the common fallacy of foreigners is to think they do.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/01/21/john-campbell-i-saw-peace-joy-and-10000-people-uniting-to-say-no/
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/01/20/be-maori-kiingi-tuuheitia-gives-closing-speech-at-national-hui/
https://thestandard.org.nz/which-side-are-you-on-2/
The Tino Rangatiratanga flag, also known as the national Māori flag, is used to represent the Māori people of New Zealand. In 2009, the Tino Rangatiratanga flag was selected as the national Māori flag after a nationwide consultation. It was first revealed on Waitangi Day in 1990. Wikipedia |
Note: In signing the Treaty of Waitangi, Māori chiefs ceded kāwanatanga (sovereignty) to the Crown but not rangatiratanga.
Elizabeth Kerekere, Golriz Gharahman and Kiri Allan (Design: Archi Banal) |
Elizabeth Kerekere, Golriz Gharahman and Kiri Allan have all left politics in dramatic fashion in the past 12 months.
If your workplace isn’t designed for you to succeed, you won’t. And parliament is no friend to women or people of colour.
There are some jobs that only particular people can do, or at least do well. It takes a certain patience and temperament to be a good teacher. You can’t be a surgeon with nervous jitters. And unfortunately for those with poor eyesight, flying planes is out of the picture. But in a capitalist world it’s understood that everyone who can, should work, and therefore everyone should be equally able to do most jobs.
But that’s just not true.
East Asia Forum, ANU - 17 Jan 2024