Politics
Taxing Times in the Solomons
Can PM Kemakeza get out of the mess?
The murder of New Zealand's deputy ambassador, a 25 percent currency devaluation, then revaluation, and a few more murders and attempted murders are the latest stresses additional to taxing times in the Solomon Islands. Bridget Nicols, 50, was stabbed to death with one blow on March 17, in the compound of her supposedly well-guarded house in Honiara.
She had arrived as deputy New Zealand High Commissioner in February. Ironically, she was working on suggestions for New Zealand for restoring law and order in the Solomon Islands, where during 1989-1991 she worked as a volunteer legal adviser at Gizo, in the Western Solomons.
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There was no apparent motive for the killing. New Zealand detectives were dispatched to assist with inquiries. There were hints that the murder might be a random act attributable to a passing local, but possibly could involve another expatriate known to Nicols.
She was the second New Zealander to die violently in Honiara this year. On February 9, construction supervisor, Kevin O'Brien, was stabbed to death after admonishing a building worker for poor work. His wife, a Solomon Islander, said police knew the identity and location of the Malaita Islander killer, but seemed reluctant to make an arrest.
The devaluation of the weak Solomon Islands currency came on March 27 as a shock even to cabinet ministers. It provoked a prompt attack on the government in the way of an opposition no-confidence motion.
Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Independent Group in the coalition government, Snyder Rini, stormed out of Parliament to demonstrate his displeasure. The devaluation, described by the Central Bank as "inevitable", was expected to increase the cost of living by 33 percent.
Then Finance minister, Michael Maina said there was no choice. The slide of foreign reserves by S$12 million a month threatened to soon exhaust the reserves, he said. These had fallen to only a month of import costs.
Anxious to protect his own position, Kemakeza sacked Maina who, he said, had failed to consult the cabinet about the devaluation.
Maina said he hadn't because it was too sensitive a matter; anyway he had consulted Kemakeza and Central Bank governor, Rick Hou.
Businessman Laurie Chan replaced Maina as finance minister and it wasn't long before he, with the Central Bank disapproving, revalued the shaky currency by 25 percent.
The affair prompted a no-confidence motion being tabled in parliament by Opposition Leader, Patteson Oti, who said it had the support of 21 MPs, including Maina. But the motion flopped. It wasn't even voted on. A smart piece of footwork by Kemakeza saw to that, with a thwarted Oti claiming some of his erstwhile supporters had been "pressured" to go the other way. In and around Honiara, the capital, residents continue to live in the shadow of violence, with killings met by counter killings.
The killing in Western Province of two Malaitans said to have threatened local people brought payback attacks by Malaitans on Westerners living near Honiara. Two Guadalcanal part time policemen were killed earlier in the year. At Gizo, in January, Bougainville Revolutionary Army militants raided the local police station demanding the return of weapons already sent to Honiara.
In February, the Minister for Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment, a 27-year-old militant, sent men to threaten Solomon Star publisher, John Lamani and his staff, and extorted S$5000 from them as "compensation" for "embarrassment" caused by a Star report of an incident in which he drunkenly assaulted a taxi driver.
Kemakeza reportedly admitted that he was powerless to discipline politicians he was dependent on for staying in power.
Two years of fighting in and around Honiara, which ended formally with an October 2000 peace pact, was over objections by Guadalcanal Islanders to the dominating presence in Honiara and parts of Guadalcanal of migrants from Malaita, an island about 100 kilometres east of Guadalcanal.
The Malaitans whose own island has the country's largest population, but with land and other resource limitations, have established themselves in far smaller numbers in some other parts of the country.
In March, a government taskforce issued a report that proposes that authorities should be empowered to control internal or inter-state migration by barring settlements in other states without observing their legal requirements.
An immigrant would have to abide by the traditional norms and practices of the locality he moved to. However, individuals - Solomon Islanders and foreigners - would retain freedom to move around within Solomon Islands and work anywhere.
The Kemakeza Government admitted in March that it was unable to implement the disarmament programme it claimed it would complete within its first 100 days in office. Hundreds of guns used by Guadalcanal and Malaita militants for fighting each other are still kept by them in rejection of an already extended arms amnesty.
