Politics
More Problems for the Solomons
No more moeny for elections. Churches speak out. Unions protest and threaten to strike.
There are conflicting ideas about the status of Harold Keke. His view of himself is that he¹s a heroic lone fighter for justice, taking on the entire Solomon Islands state to free Guadalcanal Islanders from oppression by the government and people from other islands.
"Until our demands are met, I and my loyalists will not stop fighting," he wrote in a letter to the Solomon Star.
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It was brought by a church pastor from Keke's hideout somewhere in the soggy jungle of the unroaded and little developed Weathercoast side of Guadalcanal.
Some people say he's the leader of a band of 200 rebels.
Other Solomon Islanders told Pacific Magazine that Keke should be treated as nothing more than a bandit masquerading as a folk hero and probably followed by no more than 15 like-minded thugs.
Whatever his status Keke is a thorn in the side of the Solomon Islands peace process, which as a commander of the anti-Malaitan Isatabu Freedom Movement he rejected by refusing a peace agreement. This was signed last year between other Isatabu Freedom Movement leaders and the Malaita Eagle Force to end nearly two years of fighting between them over the presence of thousands of Malaitan settlers in Guadalcanal.
Reports that he and his men were harassing villagers prompted the police to despatch patrols to try to catch him.
So far, the Solomon Star reported, these have resulted in the death of at least three people - two civilians and one special constable - with up to 40 houses reportedly burned down or damaged and villagers hiding in the bush to avoid being hit by fire from a police patrol boat.
Keke, safe in the cover of thick bush, hasn't said what his demands are.
But he is presumed to mean the original demands of the Guadalcanal Province on the national government relating to land and employment and the question of the number of Malaitans living in Honiara, the capital, where they have most of the jobs and businesses.
Guadalcanal is where the country¹s capital and most jobs and businesses are.
With the economy still in tatters, with export industries halted, the treasury scraping around for the government¹s basic daily cash needs, the government of prime minister Manasseh Sogavare argued that the four-year life of parliament, due to expire later this year, should be extended to five years by an amendment to the constitution.
Parliament is due to be dissolved on August 28. The constitution requires elections to be held within four months of that date.
The government claimed there is not enough time left for preparations for a national election and, although donor countries have offered to supply money, it hasn't the cash to pay for the cost of holding one.
This proposed delay was attacked by some churches and other public concerns organisations as being merely a ruse to give politicians another year of parliamentary and ministerial salaries because of problems from two years of ethnic conflict.
Australia, Britain and the Commonwealth Secretariat were other critics.
Sogavare told the churches to keep out of politics and spoke of ³certain non government organisations' becoming "very dangerous" when funded by overseas organisations that may have "hidden agendas."
But eventually he bowed to the growing pressure and withdrew the extension motion. In April and May, the government was faced with sit-down protests by unpaid members of the Solomon Islands Public Employees Union.
The Solomon Islands Nurses Association issued a notice of strike action over pay delays.
Hotels and motels said they would have to eject government employees and Members of Parliament they were accommodating but not getting paid for.
