We Say - Part 4 of 4
We Say - Part 4 of 4
Will Vanuatu's authorities at last move against other politicians who, like Sope, were labelled by the Ombudsman's Office as being so corrupt that they should never be allowed to hold office again?
The conviction and jailing for three years in July on a fraud charge of the former Vanuatu prime minister, Barak Sope, is the most hopeful news to emerge from the country for a long time. It demonstrates that Vanuatu's elected leaders are not completely above the law.
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For years many of the country's cabinet ministers, some prime ministers and many others holders of important public offices, have been blatant in filling their pockets with public money. Despite being exposed in detail by the Vanuatu Ombudsman's Office, one of the country's blessings, hardly any have been prosecuted and certainly no major politician.
Sope, with a long record of particularly outrageous corruption, was convicted for signing false letters of guarantee for amounts totalling US$23 million in 2000 and 2001 when he was Prime Minister. He was in cahoots with an Asian swindler who foisted a lump of rock, which he claimed to be the world's largest ruby, on the government as a kind of security.
The lump of rock was, of course, just that. In sentencing, Judge Roger Coventry said that because of Sope's record in politics he would serve only three years, instead of the five or more he could be sentenced. We beg to disagree with the judge. The book should have been thrown at Sope, who over the years has been absolutely flagrant in exploiting his political position for his own gain.
He should have been given the longest sentence possible as a reward for contempt with which he has regarded the law.
Will Vanuatu's authorities at last move against other politicians who, like Sope, were labelled by the Ombudsman's Office as being so corrupt that they should never be allowed to hold office again? The weakness, so apparent in Vanuatu until now, shown in dealing with corrupt politicians has been deplorable. It has draped the country with a cartoon image that has contributed to the lack of national development since the arrival of independence in 1980. But Vanuatu is not the only Pacific Islands country in which politicians are able to easily avoid retribution for their sins.
The record in the Solomon Islands is just as outrageous. Papua New Guinea has sent some leaders to jail, but others, some being of very senior ranks, remain seemingly immune from the law. Do the authorities in Fiji really mean to identify and try the people who behind the scenes used George Speight as their booby in May 2000? Not if they can avoid doing so.
