NATIONAL PARLIAMENT OF
DAILY HANSARD
EIGHTH PARLIAMENT - FIRST MEETING
The Speaker, Rt Hon Sir Peter
Kenilorea took the Chair at
Prayers.
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ATTENDANCE
At prayers, all were present with the exception of the
Minister for of Police & National Security, Home Affairs, Fisheries &
Marine Resources, Justice & Legal Affairs, Culture & Tourism,
Provincial Government & Constituency Development and Members for
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
2. Mr
BOYERS to the Minister for Finance:
Is it the Government’s policy to continue with the last government’s
policy on economic reform 2001-2005?
Hon ULUFA’ALU: Yes.
Mr Boyers: I have no further comments, Mr Speaker, and I
would like to thank the Minister for his very direct answer.
MOTIONS
(Motion of sine die continues and
concludes)
Mr MAGGA: Mr Speaker, I will be very, very brief in my contribution
to the sine die motion.
First of all, Mr Speaker, I would like to take this
opportunity to thank the chiefs, community leaders and the people of Temotu
Pele Constituency who have elected me to represent them in this honourable
Parliament. Mr Speaker, I would also like
to thank my campaign managers who have worked tirelessly during my campaign
ensuring that I win this election. To
all of you, I would like to say thank you very much indeed.
Mr Speaker, I would like to now congratulate you for
taking up the chairmanship of this Parliament. Your unopposed candidature for the post of Speaker
proves beyond reasonable doubt that you are indeed the most qualified man to govern
the proceedings of this Legislature.
Well done, Mr Speaker, thou good and faithful servant.
To the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, I want to thank him
for taking up the position of Deputy Speaker of this honourable House. Mr Speaker, with the wealth of experience the
Deputy has, I believe he will also control the proceedings of this Legislature
in a professional manner.
Mr Speaker,
Mr Speaker, I believe the downfall of this nation which
had precipitated the Prime Minister of Australia to describe
Mr Speaker, when my honourable
colleague who spoke yesterday, the Member for
Mr Huniehu: Point of
order, Mr Speaker. We would like Members
of Parliament who make accusations to prove those as evidences.
Mr Speaker: Thank you honourable Member for East Are
Are. He has a point but on the
allegations he must be ready to substantiate the allegations in Parliament.
Mr Magga: Mr Speaker, honourable Member for East Are
Are, I am still speaking you can interrupt me later on, outside may be. Also this particular group, I can declare in
this honourable House Mr Speaker, have offered the Member for
Mr Speaker, this is absolutely nothing but a roadway to
bribery. Mr Speaker, corruption and
bribery cannot be eliminated because they were often done in the dark, and
therefore it is very difficult to prove.
But Mr Speaker, for the last 16 years, successive governments was formed
through such corrupt practices. I am in total
agreement with the statement made by the Member for
Mr Speaker, I believe if we have that sort of law, anyone
who is a financial member of any registered party and wants to join another
party, the law will definitely state that he/she is disqualified from being a Member
of Parliament. I believe, Mr Speaker,
this is the only way we can put a stop to this moving from party to party. Such law must be embodied in our Constitution
because as I said this law will definitely bar Members of Parliament moving
from one party to another party.
Mr Speaker, please allow me to speak briefly on some
policies, which I see as inherited by successive governments over the years
since our independence.
I would like to make a brief comment on the conduct of
our foreign policy. Mr Speaker, is the
conduct of our foreign policy based on maintenance of peace and security in our
region or a policy based on being member of an international organisation? Because I believe, Mr Speaker, the conduct of
our foreign policy must indeed be based on national interest.
Mr
Speaker,
Mr Speaker, with the devaluation of our dollar at its
worst level, the only way that
Mr Speaker, on education, I am
calling on the government to ensure that placement of new students attending
universities and colleges abroad are shared equally between the nine
provinces. Mr Speaker, I am demanding a
fair deal from the Ministry of Education because
Mr Speaker, as the Government anticipates
formulating a bill to bring to the Parliament for the establishment of state
government in the country based on the federal system, the opportunity given to
our students for higher education must be shared equally between the provinces,
nor more nor less, Mr Speaker.
I want the Minister responsible for education
and the Minister responsible for foreign affairs will take note of the
statements I made in this honourable Chamber.
These are facts. We need to work
and serve the interest of our people.
Mr Speaker, before I resume my seat,
I want to give cautious remarks to the newly appointed Ministers. The Ministers of the Crown must do their work. They need to attend Cabinet meetings. This is not a very easy job. This is a mandate given to us by the people
hence we need to attend to our work effectively because this is the only way
out, Mr Speaker.
With these few remarks Mr Speaker, I
support the motion.
(applause)
Hon BOSETO: Mr Speaker, I
rise to make a brief contribution to this very important motion moved by the honorable
Prime Minister presented to us in this Chamber.
Mr Speaker, before I proceed let me
remind honorable Members attending this first meeting of the first session of
the Eight Parliament which concludes today the fact that there are only 50 of
us out of the 432 candidates who contested with us during our last general
elections, and won by only approximately 60,500 valid votes out of
approximately 194,000 valid votes. That
is, we won only by 30% votes and other candidates by 70% votes. This factor should make us more humble, more
patient and more self controlled, which are characteristics of our maturity and
respect of another’s dignity and God’s holy image within every one of us.
King David the head of
Mr Speaker, King David the head of
his government and the State of Israel in his time rediscovered God’s purpose
of creating us human beings. He
translated this divine revelation into three basic principles of his
government. These principles are:
1.
Human beings relationship
to God - we are next to God.
2.
Human beings
sovereignty - we are crowned with glory and honour.
3.
Human beings
place of appointment - we are appointed rulers over creation.
Mr Speaker, this nation has been rededicated to
God. This means that
Mr Speaker, we are not only parliamentarians but also
ambassadors of Christ who is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We are parliamentarian ambassadors.
Mr Speaker, one of the central ministries of Christ is
the ministry of reconciliation.
Mr Speaker, the events that expectedly overtaken us by
a shock on 18th and 19th May has raised many challenges
that our government, churches, families, private sectors are to give special
attention to, and address some of the root causes of the problems in order not
to be repeated again. I have identified
some of the root causes of the incident, apart from the question of changing
leadership.
First,
it is a growing symptom of a human inclination that naturally begins its growth
from our very early age if our family base home education does not provide
sufficient disciplined life. Mr Speaker,
this is a challenging area of concern that the government may perhaps consider
giving financial assistance to churches and groups to run marriage and family
life education to seriously address this challenge. A based-education program may aim at shaping
the lives of our children for the coming generations to respect and obey their
parental leadership.
Second, it is a growing sickness of our dependency on
others’ sweats or others’ handouts which breeds laziness and unproductivity, and
therefore, we continue to ask money from others without working hard for it, we
look for other stores and properties to steal from, we just wait for the next
shipment of logs to receive our shares for just a bit of money from royalties,
or we can turn into prostitutes by selling our bodies and satisfying our human
and self-gratification, and so and so forth.
Mr Speaker, perhaps one of the ways to seriously
address this, is for the government to consider checking every lius
(unemployed) or persons without any valid reason to be in
Mr Speaker, the Bible reaffirms this when it says in
short, “carry your own loads and bear one another’s burdens”. The troublemakers do not like to carry in
full their own loads but put more burdens to those who are already
overburdened.
The third point is the growing gap between the ‘haves’
and the ‘have not’s’ or between the minority rich growing richer and the
majority poor growing poorer. Mr
Speaker, in my view this is the reality of the context of our global market
economy which sustains the comfort of the minority rich devastating the natural
resources of the rural majority. One of
the ways of addressing this, is for the government of the day to open up all
tribal lands for development under the tribal authority of the landlords of the
land. We should recognize and empower landlords to set goals of sustainable
development that support the bottom-up local market economy where selected
foreign investors become permanent partners with economic trust boards of all
our tribal communities in a given constituency, locality or province.
The last point we must address in order not to repeat the
problem of looting, rioting and violence, is that our funding partners or
development partners must understand that our definition of community is
totally different from the capitalist understanding of community. I think it is based on developing money
community. To us, the term community is
rooted in sustained-community living, supported by multi-clusters of
genealogically aggregated-blood tie-relationship and therefore, money is not
everything. It is a community of
sharing, caring and feelings of compassion.
It is here that our micro-development projects must be to target
families, clans, sub-tribes and tribes.
I hope this government would consider more money aimed at family and
clan entities in our rural areas. We
must start from what they already have, and from where they have already been
sustainably surviving, even without actual cash in their hands.
Therefore, Mr Speaker, our ideology is communalism.
Mr Speaker, it has been and is a fact through many
generations that different dreamers of an ideal society or a utopian society
have developed different ideologies that carried a variety of labels. Some of these ideologies are labeled as
imperialism, socialism, communism, dictatorship, humanism, monarchy, democracy
and communal living or communalism.
Mr Speaker, it is an accepted reality now that our
small nation of
Mr Speaker, if any change for reforming of systems,
institutions, structures and curricula; for empowering the rural majority of
our people; for equal sharing of benefits from investments or equal
opportunities in education, for equal partners in decision-making between men
and women, for respecting every citizen’s dignity and sovereignty and for
diversity in unity, and for non-violent and productive society, then God’s
original purpose for creating us human beings must be recognized as the basic
and corner-foundation of God’s heavenly-colony in which we are all his
ambassadors.
Mr Speaker, the original purpose and plan of God to
conquer evil with good must be re-discovered by our people of
Mr Speaker, I come to believe that the name “
The name “Solomons” to me does not only represent the
riches in gold and silvers, nickel, cobalt and so forth, which are material
prosperity of our people of these islands, but I believe the name represents an
“hidden treasure” which Solomon himself as a human King, cannot give without
asking God to give it to him.
Mr Speaker, this “hidden treasure”, the wisdom of God,
according to Job of the Old Testament, only God knows its access to where it
can be found. Job concluded by saying
that “God alone knows the way, knows the place where wisdom is found. Because he sees the ends of the earth, sees
everything under the sky”.
God says to humans, to be wise, you must have reverence
for the Lord, to understand you must turn from evil? Jesus who is both the power and the wisdom
God of God has demonstrated to us his reverence and obedience to the will of
his Father and prays for our forgiveness of sins and offers us his pure blood
for cleansing and reconciling us, as his brothers and sisters.
Mr Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to
thank my good people of South Choiseul Constituency for putting me on their
seat on the floor of the National Parliament of Solomon Islands the third time. I encourage you all my good people to
continue to follow and practice the hard work as handed down to us from
generations to generations by our ancestors and forefathers and mothers,
because money is not everything for our long-term sustained community living.
Sir, I also invite our church leaders, heads of
tribes, community leaders, women organizations, youth leaders, and our
Provincial Assembly Members, our educated technical people to share your
visions, experiences, your lands and so on, so that we can plan and work
together for holistic, sustainable human development of our constituency and
for the whole of Lauru Island and for our nation, Solomon Islands.
Mr Speaker, I also take this opportunity, on behalf of
my people of
As responsible Christians of this country we have to
learn from what God wants us to do in this sort of situation. Ask God to bless those who persecute us – yes
ask him to bless not to curse. Be happy
with those who are happy, weep with those who weep. Have the same concern for everyone. Do not be proud but accept humble
duties. Do not think ourselves as
wise. If someone has done us wrong, do
not repay him with wrong. Try to do what
everyone considers to be good. Do
everything possible on our part to live in peace with everybody, do not let
evil defeat us instead let us conquer evil with good.
Mr Speaker, I also take this opportunity to
congratulate you, Sir, for your re-appointment un-opposed for the second term
as Speaker of the National Parliament.
May God continue to resource you with his heavenly wisdom and insight? Big thanks to the Clerk of the National
Parliament for her patience and faithfulness and for all the members of your
team working within the Parliament House.
On behalf of my people of South Choiseul Constituency,
I also thank the last administration headed by Honorable Sir Allan Kemakeza and
his group. His government came into
power when our nation was almost in anarchy.
With the cooperation of the Opposition, RAMSI was invited into our
country and it rescued us from our state of lawlessness and fear. Thank you Sir Honorable Kemakeza:
Sir, again on behalf of my people of South Choiseul
constituency, I thank our former care-taker Prime Minister, the Honorable MP
for Marovo for his humility, bravery by simply accepting the pressure of the situation
we were through and he democratically made his wise decision to resign. Your only eight days rule is a living witness
for your humility, wisdom and bravery to our children’s children in many
generations to come.
Special thanks to the Honorable Prime Minister of his
new challenging roles as the Prime Minister of our newly formed government for
our nation. I thank colleague ministers
and all of you honorable Members of this Honorable Chamber.
I thank the sustainable good work of RAMSI, the Police
Force, Chief Justice and his team in the Judiciary field of our government. A special word of thanks to his Excellency
the Governor General, Lady Waena and all his assistants.
A words of thanks to churches, church leaders,
directors and general managers of private sectors, women and youth
organizations and their leaders.
A word of thanks to captains and crews of ships,
medical doctors and nurses, teachers, pilots of our domestic and international
airlines, and thank you one and all.
Let me conclude by saying, you will succeed not by
military might or by your own powers, but by my Spirit says the Lord. May our Good Lord bless our beloved
Mr Speaker, I beg to support the motion.
Mr
First, Mr Speaker, I would like to take this
opportunity in thanking and to congratulate the Prime Minister and his Cabinet
of Ministers for being elected to form the next government and in taking on the
very challenging and demanding tasks ahead.
On the same note, Mr Speaker, I would like to
congratulate all 50 MPs of Parliament on their recent election victories, and I
wish my colleagues well.
Sir, I would like to also congratulate yourself for
being elected to the chair of Speaker unopposed, and also the Deputy Speaker
who was also elected unopposed technically.
Sir, election victories are sweet and election defeats
are bitter. These are unusual events and
which are not part of the Melanesian culture or our way of life. Elections, and the whole processes of
election is a foreign concept, and it will remain a foreign concept in
Sir, in Melanesia we have our own ways of appointing
or choosing leaders as opposed to the adopted way or concept of choosing
leaders, which we now called the General Elections. I will not dwell on the Melanesian concept
now, but elections being foreign in its entirety, its outcomes will not always
be easily accepted especially if one is on the losing end. And, in my view that is exactly what has
happened in our constituencies and now here on the floor of Parliament. But that is what is called democracy.
But Sir, does this Western Democracy fit in well with
our worthy cultures, our worthy traditions, our worthy values and our worthy ways
of life? And does the definition of
democracy, which is electing a government of the people, for the people and by
the people have any impact on the above mentioned values?
These are mere foods for thought for leaders, but as
can be seen on the floor of Parliament and by the manner in which Members of
Parliament have debated important matters, this House is surely divided.
Sir, yes, some will argue that we have a very healthy
and vibrant democracy, but may I ask democracy for whose interest and for whose
agenda?
To some of us Mr Speaker, Western democracy emphasizes
or reaffirms the ‘divide and rule’ concept, and this system further alienates
people from their cultures or their ways of life.
Mr Speaker, there are pressing issues needed to be
addressed by the combined efforts of all 50 Members of Parliament. Contrary to that notion, during the course of
debates, MPs have expressed hard feelings, and in my observation we are still
harboring very strong feelings of resentment, very strong feelings of anger and
very strong feelings of hatred. And,
because these humane impediments have over taken us, we simply cannot move on
or even to deliberate on the core and pressing issues facing our country
today. I believe we must stop playing
politics.
Sir, the events of the past (that is of 2000 and what had
happened last month) had taught us many things and many lessons. As leaders recently mandated by our people to
make good public policies, these events should prompt all of us to redirect the
destiny of this country. The people had
expressed their concerns and we, as national leaders must listen.
Sir, it is unfortunate that some of us should want to
dwell as well as to capitalize on this political and national mayhem. To some of us, and especially the new once who
have been elected into Parliament into the 21st century, these kinds
of old fashioned rhetorics of ‘mud slinging’ and ‘character assassinating
personal politics’ is in my view out of date, and should not be entertained nor
tolerated on this floor of Parliament.
It is very sad and disappointing (and embarrassing) to
hear Members of Parliament pointing fingers at each other over the events of
2000 and the recent events. Yes, while
we all share the sadness for these losses, I encourage all of us to look beyond
the ashes and the damage, and ask ourselves, what can we do now or how can we
restore the situation?
Sir, all 50 Members of Parliament must share these
GAPs, and in order for us to address them we will obviously need good and very
good relevant government policies. Sir,
on this note, I wish to rebut the statement by my Honorable colleague the MP
for Rennell/Bellona suggesting that “good policies will not work in this country
except for a change in attitude no matter what or which government is in power”,
end of quote.
First, this statement is very misleading and is only
echoed by a person who is totally ignorant and is out of touch and who does not
even understand the real issues affecting our people and our country. It is, however, very unfortunate that such a
statement is expressed particularly by a person who has once represented our
country overseas, and who is truly insensitive to the situations enveloping our
country.
Sir, coming back to the issue of human attitude, attitudes
reflects how people respond to a given situation. Attitudes do not hang in the air, but they
are characters of people and reflect the kind and type of people we are living
with. Attitude is part of our Melanesian
culture and society, and part of human existence.
Sir, our people are behaving the way they behave today
because for the last 80 years and even up till today now, they have been
spectators in the very homeland and in every aspects of life. They are not part of anything and everything
that is happening around them. They are
not part of the system supposedly designed to address issues affecting them in
their daily living. They are left out in
the equation of humanity.
Sir, given this scenario, our people are feeling
empty, our people are feeling left out, our people are over powered by the
feeling of hopelessness, our people are feeling neglected, and their desires
and aspirations are not being fulfilled; they are made alienated.
Sir, there is a deep GAP in the lives of Solomon
Islanders that must be fulfilled before attitudes of people can change. We cannot just aspire or mere words by
leaders cannot change the attitudes of our people because we wanted them to
change. Some things must cause that
change to take place or happen. There
must be a catalyst for the change before that change can be effective or
expected.
Our people are not robots. Our people are not machines. They are human beings that have
feelings. They have one wants and they
have needs.
Mr Speaker, there is this gap of emptiness in our
people, there is this gap of hopelessness, there is this gap of being powerless,
there is this gap of being alienated, there is this gap of losing ownership, there
is this gap of losing control, there is this gap of being marginalized, there
is this gap of being a spectator and not being a player, there is this gap of
not being a participant in the economic socio arena, and there is that gap of
unemployment or having nothing to do, which in my view is biggest culprit in
this country.
Therefore, Mr Speaker, appropriate government polices
in addressing the above gaps is inevitably a prerequisite and is a MUST before
lasting solutions can be found. Not
foreign aid, not technical advisors, and not the boomerang aid.
People talked so much about corruption, people talked
so much about good governance, people talked so much about accountability, people
talked so much about transparency, people talked so much about Responsibility,
people talked about enhanced co-operation, people talked so much about effective
government machineries, people talked so much about institutional strengthening,
people talked so much about effective delivery of government services and people
talked about government surpluses amidst poor rural services, and the list goes
on, Mr Speaker.
Sir, why can’t we talk about good and effective
government polices to address the list of GAPs that is haunting over this
country, because that is where and how the attitudes of our people in this
country will and can change. Or are we
trying to make a living out of the miseries of our people and this country? We have to come out clear here.
Sir, attitudes cannot simply change and there must be
a catalyst for that change to take place.
There must be a strong political will to drive those changes with good
and right government policies.
Sir, all of us need to build good human relations
amongst ourselves (as national leaders) first before we can go out and address
the problems affecting this country. We
need to work together as a team. We need
to consult each other as leaders, because the problems we face and are facing
today are the same problems all of us would want to find solutions to.
On that understanding, Mr Speaker, I believe strongly
that all 50 Members of Parliament must first reconcile themselves to each other
before healing can take place in this nation.
Mr Speaker, we must be leaders united and one before
we can expect something supernatural to happen to this nation. Our people and our churches have prayed
enough, and it is now the turn for us leaders to come together and be
reconciled.
Mr Speaker, there are certain
parliamentarian things that I want to raise here but given the time and the
situation we have where other MPs would like to contribute I would be short.
In the past couple of days Mr
Speaker, we have literally seen MPs truly lamented and expressed their concerns
over the loses, and on behalf of my constituency, South New Georgia/Tetepari, I
also express our sadness to those who have lost their properties.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion I would like
to encourage the government to please recognize the potentials of our
people. The potentials of landowners and
the need for the chiefly system and customs to be recognized and our indigenous
people who are striving to make life and living. I want that to be recognized by this
government.
Mr Speaker, I also call on the government to recognize
the call by the National Council of Women that if there is going to be any
lasting impact, it has to be a shared responsibility.
Mr Speaker, people in the rural areas would want to
work and they are now asking us to empower them through the creation of
opportunities in the rural areas. They
want money to be poured into the rural areas so they can work instead of
roaming around in the streets and centers of our capital.
Finally, Mr Speaker, I would want to take this
opportunity to thank all my people in South New Georgia, Rendova and Tetepari who
have strongly supported me in my second term in Parliament. I will be visiting
them after this meeting of Parliament; in particular I would want to take this
opportunity to thank my ancestors and the long lost generation of Kolo Luka of
Tetepari. I would want to take this
opportunity too Mr Speaker, to thank all the Touo people and the
I would like, Mr Speaker, to take this opportunity to
thank the people of Saikile, and the people of Vurangare and Roviana, who have
truly put their trust and confidence in me.
Mr Speaker, to all MPs God’s blessing be upon us all and
God Bless Solomon
Thank you very much.
Hon SANGA: Point of
Order. Mr Speaker, this being the last
day of Parliament to sit, I notice that there are a number of MPs who would
like to speak on the motion, and so I would request from your chair if you can
make a ruling on timing so that it will allow MPs to have the opportunity to
speak their minds on the floor.
Mr Speaker: I might consider
that in the afternoon. This morning we will allow honourable Members to speak
as long as they have matters to share.
Mr KENGAVA: Mr Speaker,
on behalf of the people of North West Choiseul constituency I thank you for
giving me this opportunity to contribute to the motion of sine die moved by the
honourable Prime Minister, my MP Colleague for East Choiseul.
Sir, I would like to thank the honourable
Prime Minister in moving the sine die motion because it gives MPs the chance to
thank our people in our respective constituencies.
To my good people of North West
Choiseul, I am honoured to be given a second term to represent you in Parliament.
I thank the Chiefs, Community leaders,
Women, Youths and especially my voters for having confidence in my
leadership.
In the last two weeks of political
turmoil in
Mr Speaker, I may now turn briefly
to the political turmoil that is now overshadowing
Sir, the ethnic tension and coup of
year 2000 which brought down the SIAC Government, the civil disorder and forced
resignation of the duly elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands on April 2006,
to me Mr Speaker, clearly proves that our nation is still at stake. May I repeat that, Sir, it proves that our
nation of
Sir, in other words, our political,
economic and social advancement into the future is still not on firm ground,
and unless this Parliament does something this term we will always continue to be
in this situation where this country will remain at stake.
The presence and assistance of RAMSI
has given us that opportunity in the last two years to rebuild
Mr Speaker, it saddens me to note
that the government of the day can make itself as the Savior and promised to
bring necessary changes to rectify the situation. If people in
Sir, we are now questioning a lot,
what is the root cause of the ethnic tension of 1997 to 2000. Again we are now questioning ourselves - what
is the root cause or the root causes of the riot and the dissatisfaction
towards a duly democratically elected government of
Mr Speaker, the root causes are
hidden from all of us, in my belief, through political ploys and tactics thus
the people come to believe that someone or some group of people are secretly
hiding somewhere and we are yet to bring them to justice.
Mr Speaker, we are made to believe
that the big fish are still out there to catch.
In my simple understanding of the political situation we are
experiencing today, as I watched the development of politics in Solomon Islands
since independence in 1978, the root causes of the ethnic tension and the
recent civil unrest of April 2006 comes from nowhere else but from within the
walls of this National Parliament, and to some extent within the walls of very
various provincial assemblies in the country, in support of what my colleague
from Rennell/Bellona raised yesterday.
Mr Speaker, in simple words, the
root cause of the country’s political problem we are facing today since 1997
comes from elected politicians like us.
Check yourself today Mr Speaker, if you support the peoples’ rejection
of a duly elected Prime Minister on April 18th, if you support the
riots and the civil unrest that follows, if you agree that this side of the
House the Opposition is corrupt and therefore it should not govern this country,
then that is already a root cause to the political problems of this
nation.
Lest we forget there is no formula
for peace and prosperity but full responsibility rests on us the politicians,
the national leaders of this nation. For
we have the power to keep peace and unity in this country or to destroy this
nation as we have experienced.
Mr Speaker, having stated what I
believe to be the root causes of political problems in our nation during its 27
years, I shall now dwell on certain issues that either contribute or encourage
civil unrests and political disturbances.
First Mr Speaker, the big man –
leadership style typical of Melanesian countries. This is where leaders with power, money, and
wealth do influence people or groups of people and then corruption,
intimidation would be the two powerful means to control the people. And political propaganda is used in modern
times to have the masses thinking and believing in the same way.
Undoubtedly, Mr Speaker, in Melanesian politics, which
include
A second area worth noting Mr Speaker, and very very
crucial to the stability and quick formation of government in this nation, is
the election of Prime Minister in SI, which is open to political abuse and
political expediency. In the early years
or after independence, Solomon Islanders were not too political minded like
today. Thus the choosing of a Prime
Minister through election by elected MPs after a general election is
acceptable. Today the process needs to
be changed. We have just experienced the
vulnerability of a duly elected Prime Minister from dissatisfied politicians
and their supporters.
Our political process in choosing the Prime Minister
is out of date and must be changed in order to avoid political instability,
power vacuum and political infighting. This is very important in the light of
this Parliament that this must be addressed before the next general election in
2010.
A third area worth raising is that political parties
must be legally institutionalized as raised by other speakers on this
motion. To be part and partial of our
parliamentary system - in this way political parties which will have laws which
will guide, protect, support and nurture their existence. The crossing of independent members from one
party to another gives rise to delays in electing a prime minister, it allows
for vote buying and corruption to infiltrate in the parliamentary process.
As an example, Mr Speaker, it is a well known fact
that many Parliament Members of the past and today use the People’s Alliance
Party ticket to get into Parliament, and after arriving in
As the new Parliamentary Wing Leader of the People’s
Alliance Party, I would like to see the proposed Integrity Bill planned by the
last government, be pursued seriously this year, so as to stop this tendency by
people moving from party to party as also raised in this House by various
speakers. I am sure leaders of our
political parties in this chamber would support me on this stand.
Fourthly, Mr Speaker, is an area we sometimes tend to
overlook, but to me is a cause for concern as I watch it grow in this nation,
which I believe contributes to the cause of mistrust upon the government and upon
members of this parliament is the continuing influx or the coming into the
country of non government organizations, human rights groups and sectarian
religions in the last 10 years in the name of freedom of assembly and worship. This is seriously, in my opinion, contributing
to the division and reactionary thinking of our young people today.
Mr Speaker, Solomon Islands is only a nation of
400,000 plus people, the size of a small city in Australia, United States of
America or Europe yet we are being bombarded with various ideologists in
politics, new religions, human rights movements, good governance, so much so
that it transcends or goes right down to the villages and divides our small
population.
These new ideas, would no doubt, are in conflict also
with the existing status quo of our culture, languages, current political
parties, existing main religions, our education system, etc. Mr Speaker, we are very much are divided
nation in ideologies and this is where it would be very easy to use the masses
for political expediency.
I am of the opinion that the funding by development
partners of civil society groups, although intended for a good cause which
campaign for good governance has now back fired on this nation. A society that is divided by various
ideologies, I am sure is open to political strife and abuse by power seeking
politicians, money greedy businesses, criminals and no doubt foreign powers.
Mr Speaker, it is very important therefore that we the
politicians need to change our attitudes, the way we think about Solomon
Islands, the way we think about politics, the way we think about how to bring
up Solomon Islands to be one of the best countries in the South Pacific, we
need to change that and therefore we need to uproot corruption out of our
attitude, the big man syndrome and the power struggle. It is time that some control must be made to harmonize
the various ideologies and practices carried out by the numerous non government
organizations in the country today. If
not, we only blame ourselves if we do not legislate to harmonize
I am sure, Mr Speaker, in support of other speakers
who have talked on this motion, a bipartisan committee is needed to be set up
by the government to revise and look at the laws of this nation in order to
prevent further civil strife, further political disturbances, etc.
Mr Speaker, now I will turn to certain areas in
relation to the honorable Prime Minister’s statement on the floor of this Parliament.
Mr Speaker, there are certain areas
that I would like to touch that would have implication on the statement raised
on the floor of this Parliament by the honourable Prime Minister. First, the much awaited Draft Federal
Constitution needs to be passed in this House in the life of this Parliament. The passing of the new federal constitution
should pave the way for provinces to choose and become a state or a territory
of the new federal
Mr Speaker, I am stressing this because the silent
majority in the nation, I am sure and definitely sure, did not support the
pressure put on the Prime Minister elect on 18th April to resign nor
support the destruction of business houses in
The first time the silent majority
suffered was during the period of the ethnic tension from 1998 to 2000. The
Mr Speaker, for the sake of unity
and respect the federal constitution alluded to by the Prime Minister, and I am
very positive about it, needs to be dealt with urgently starting this
year.
The Green Paper passed in Parliament
last year needs to be brought up again and dealt with immediately. The Minister of Provincial Government being the
wise man from the East, I pray he will not fiddle around with the state
government issue this time.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, the financial
institutions of this country, in my opinion, are not supportive of indigenous
resource owners when it comes to access for loans. The matter is, how can local farmers,
fishermen, plantation owners be trusted by our bankers or financial
institutions in order to have access to loans etc? Otherwise people will go for money schemes
like the Charity Fund, sell out of forestry resources etc for one simple reason,
Mr Speaker, and it is because people need money to make a living.
Thirdly, Mr Speaker, a very
important area which I am also confident the new government will take action is
that the advocator of the new roadmap and the bottom up-approach is now the
Minister of Finance. The mammon he was
afraid of, Mr Speaker. I wish to remind
the Minister of two components of the new roadmap, which he often stressed in
the last Parliament for the government to start working on them.
First is the strengthening of the 50
constituencies so that each constituency will have its own office and business
centre manned by officers paid from the government’s budget. Each constituency is accorded with $1 million
to develop the constituency. However, Mr
Speaker, it saddens me yesterday to learn from the honourable Minister that he
sounded a different tune again when he contradicted this plan he often spoke so
much about in last Parliament and then he stressed the non importance of
constituencies again.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, the honourable
Minister also moved a motion in the last Parliament during its dying days to
remove the RCDF from the control of Members of Parliament. I do not know whether I should be happy or
worried now because the mover now has the power to take away the RCDF control
from MPs.
Mr Speaker, the two matters raised will definitely
have a great impact on the lives of the people of all constituencies of
I want to point out here Mr Speaker,
that 50 constituency offices, 50 public servants will need a bigger budget for
the Department of Provincial Government.
And if the RCDF is taken away from Members of Parliament’s control then
consider increasing Members’ salaries or provide discretionary funds for MPs in
order to meet school fees and other needs of our people in the constituencies.
I shall now turn to provincial
matters, Mr Speaker, which is worth raising in this Chamber at this very
important motion.
Mr Speaker, as the Opposition
spokesman for the Department of Provincial Government and Constituency Development,
I would like to raise issues that the Department must work very hard to bring
about in order for the new government for change to live up to the people’s
expectation.
First there are various provincial
projects in the 2006 development budget that need the Department’s initiative,
in my opinion, to get them started this year.
For example, the
Mr Speaker, all provincial accounts
should be audited so that reports are tabled in this Parliament for
transparency and accountability. Whilst
we talk about corruption at the national level, I am also aware that corruption
is truly ripe and growing in the provinces too.
I urge the Department of Provincial Government to seriously get into
business and rectify this concern. Some
provinces, in my opinion, definitely need to be suspended.
Thirdly, Mr Speaker, there is need
for the Department to send its officers to make quarterly or bi-annual visits
to the provinces. The Government must
assess the Provincial Governments and whether they are delivering services and
development to the people thus warranting the increase in services grants etc. Otherwise public officers will be sitting
there, and I know for sure in my province, of public officers are becoming very
successful businessmen this time, and politicians also becoming landowners in
the province.
Mr Speaker, lastly but not the least
is the urgent need to act upon a motion moved by the current Member for
Parliament for North West Choiseul, passed in Parliament in July 2005 for the
national government to address the Bougainville Crisis Compensation Claim by
the people of my Constituency.
Mr Speaker, the above matters will
definitely keep the veteran Minister of Provincial Government very busy in his
First 100 Days in office, and I can only offer him my full support.
Mr Speaker, before I conclude, I
would now like to touch on certain matters in my constituency of North West
Choiseul.
Sir, first and foremost I would like
to thank you all the people of my constituency for entrusting me the mandate to
represent you in Parliament the second time.
I would like to thank the people of the constituency for being law
abiding citizens, those of you in
To the good people of the
constituency, I would like to sound a political concern that during my
campaign, one thing I felt and noticed was the intensity of dirty politics, if
I may say that, Mr Speaker, false accusations and evidence of corruptive
practices have been used by certain candidates and their supporters during the
campaign period. My concern and fear is
that it resembles the kind of politics we have just experienced here in
To the good people of
Mr Speaker, before concluding, I
would like to say that there were many good suggestions that would be said on
this floor of Parliament, and I do hope that the government humbly takes on
board good points raised by the Opposition if bipartisan approach on certain
national issues are raised by me at this time of debate and other speakers on
the floor of this Parliament in this small nation, should be pursued by the
government.
Before I resume my seat, Mr Speaker,
I would like to congratulate the honourable Prime Minister on his election to
the Prime Ministership. Congratulations
to the Government Bench and to your good self honourable Speaker and the Deputy
Speaker. Sirs, both of you were elected
unopposed, which is a sign of trust we in this House have upon your leadership.
To the Clerk and her staff, I wish
you success this term for it will be a very busy one, I presume. I would like to congratulate this side of the
House too, Mr Speaker, the Opposition side, especially the Honorable Member fro
Marovo, in showing to this nation the strength of humility when he resigned as
Prime Minister on
On behalf of the people of North
West Choiseul, I too Mr Speaker, would like to extend our sympathy to the
Chinese Community and many Solomon Islanders who have lost their jobs due to
the burning down of Chinatown and other business houses.
My people are peace loving people,
Mr Speaker, and I strongly suggest to the government to make a formal
government apology and reconciliation with the Chinese Community and its
Association.
Finally, Mr Speaker, this Parliament
House belongs to the people of
Mr RIUMANA: Mr Speaker,
thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the motion of Sine
Die.
Mr Speaker, I was mandated by my people
from Hograno/Katova/Kia/Havulei Constituency to discharge my constitutional
responsibility in this honorable Chamber.
First and foremost, Mr Speaker, let
us give praise, glory and honour to the Almighty Creator for His blessing,
guidance, direction in whatever we do as we are called by the democratic
process to shape the future destiny of our country, Solomon Islands.
Mr Speaker, I also thank my people,
chiefs, elders, clergies, my good campaign managers and hard working campaign
team, youths, Mothers Union leaders for the trust and confidence they have in
me and especially for giving me the responsibility to lead and represent them
as their Member of Parliament. I
therefore, on their behalf congratulate the Prime Minister, the MP for
I further extend my people’s
congratulation to the MP for Savo/Russells for the post of Deputy Speaker of
Parliament. To my two other colleagues
from
Mr Speaker, the recent rioting, looting
and subsequent burning of the
Mr Speaker, I also on behalf of my
people sincerely extend words of apology to the innocent victims of the
political crisis, especially the Chinese Community.
The recent unlawful assembly,
rioting and looting has been branded by some of our colleagues on the other
side of the House as the Peoples Power or the Peoples Right in Action, which to
me is the most absurd reposition because some of you in the government
encouraged and incited it. Is this the
people’s power, Mr Speaker? Is this what
we called the peoples power? What is
people’s power and what is people’s right Mr Speaker? Do they have the absolute right to behave the
way they did? Do they have the absolute
right to burn down
Mr Speaker, in a civilised society
people’s power and people’s right should be and must be at all times adherence
to all applicable laws of the land.
There are avenues, conditions and criteria in government mechanism that
caters or provides for all our grievances to be channelled through and make
them aware rather than behaving in uncivilized or militant society. We as national leaders, Mr Speaker, should be
leading our people in harmony, advocating national unity and not inciting a
violent crowd or making statements or comments that would cause division,
hatred and fear amongst our people.
The statement made by some of our leaders outside of
Parliament after the election of the former Prime Minister, the MP for Marovo
as recorded and relayed by the SIBC were uncalled for and very provocative in
manner. Furthermore, I was bemused by
the statement and protest by the other side of the House on the election day of
the Deputy Speaker to Parliament. It was
unbelievable coming from some of our prominent and highly respected leaders
making sarcastic comments, if I may use that word, Mr Speaker, such as a drop
of Solomon Islands blood in this honourable House, who himself claimed to be
holy. Mr Speaker, such a statement is
very discriminative, very racist and can make separation or division amongst
our peace, loving citizens.
The protest by that side of the
House was very childish and does not speak well of us leaders. We claim ourselves to be Christian leaders,
we claim our country to be a Christian nation, are we compromising our
Christian values with our political agendas?
Mr Speaker, we were mandated by our
people to discharge constitutional responsibilities on their behalf in this
Chamber. The protest is none other but a
protest against our constitutional mandated to us by our people.
Mr Speaker, allow me to reiterate my
concern on the appointment of two MPs currently charged with committing crime
related to rioting, looting now in custody to be Ministers of the Crown, is a
total disgrace to this nation and a mockery to the judiciary system as stated
by other colleagues. In the past,
Ministers of the Crown immediately resign from their ministerial portfolios
when charged with offences. In this
case, the Ministers have been charged and held in custody before being
appointed as Ministers of the Crown. Is
this the message we tell and proclaim to the nation and the International
Community who have trust and confidence on the government, Mr Speaker? Is the Government being manipulated and
remote controlled? As a government we
ought to serve the interest of the nation first and foremost, especially the
silent majority in the rural areas.
Mr Speaker, we all know the fact
that about 80% of our populations are rural dwellers who depend very much on
agriculture for survival and source of income.
In the absence of economic activity, for them to equally participate in
nation building, our rural populations are currently the victims of the
government. I therefore acknowledge the policy on decentralization of economic
activities highlighted especially by the Prime Minister. Sir, the 80% of our population must equally
contribute in economical activities if this nation is to realize tangible
economic benefits.
Sir, at the outset, the environment
conducive for economical activities exist in urban centres and more especially
Mr Speaker, the foregone social
unrest was the product of that trend of unbalanced economical activities we
have pursued over the years. To reverse
the trend and change this unbalanced economical activities, all economical
activities must be equitably distributed to the rural areas based on their
geographical potentials.
Mr Speaker, to develop the rural sectors, we need
development partners. We need our
traditional donors to assist and support us in terms of finance and technology
as catalysts to boosting rural development.
It is regrettable that some of the traditional donors, particularly our
neighbors
Sir, the Republic of
Mr Speaker, so much has been said in
the media about Communist China and the
Sir, we have established a cordial and working relationship
with
Mr Speaker,
Finally, Mr Speaker, may I bring to the
attention of the government of the day and this honorable House the cries and
wishes of my people in my constituency and
Mr Speaker, Isabel is one of the
main provinces in
The British formula on the
distribution of government services based on population undermines geographical
potentials. It undermines and kills the
source of the golden egg. I therefore
appeal to the Government of the day to reconsider the distribution formula of
government services to be based on geographical potentials. On that notion, road infrastructure has long
been an overdue need of the people in my province, and the government must
seriously consider this. I therefore
appeal to my two other colleagues to pursue this matter in this honorable House
for the future of our province and our people.
Mr Speaker, before I take my seat I
would like to thank each and everyone of us in this honorable House for the
contribution and vision we have shared in this Sine Die motion moved by the
Prime Minister. Let us work together as
a team and in good spirit for the goodness of our country.
Sir, I support the motion and may
God bless
Mr PACHA: Thank you, Mr
Speaker, for allowing me this opportunity to speak briefly to this motion of
sine die.
As this sitting of Parliament draws to a close, Mr
Speaker, I want first of all to thank the people of
I wish also, Mr Speaker, to publicly convey my
congratulations to our new Prime Minister, the Member for
Sir, I call all Christians in our country
to join me in praying often for our Prime Minister and indeed for all the Members
of this chamber. May each of us here
learn well what it means to exercise servant leadership on behalf of the people
of the
This task of leadership, Mr Speaker,
is immense in these difficult days. How
can a person be wise enough to judge the full motives of the other leaders of
this House, let alone those of the countries around us? How can a man see all the ramifications of
each decision and appointment? Can a
person foresee all the economic outcomes of each policy to be enacted? The task, Mr Speaker, is, as I have said,
enormous, and the only safe course is to follow the principles Christ taught as
a servant leader, and to depend daily on God the Father to give us the wisdom
to know what is right, and to have the courage to do it.
Mr Speaker, I have long admired and
been challenged by the motto of
Sir, we do not
need leaders who are greedy, profane, double-dealing, controlled by liquor or
who live riotously. No! Instead our
leaders should be those who live lives of integrity, who speak honestly, and
uphold truth and support justice. We
need men and women who lead the country toward the long term good that God
desires of us. We need leaders who are
wise enough to listen to good advices, learned hard experience in other places. We need leaders who do not just look for
short term benefits for tomorrow.
Instead, we need a leader who values long term benefits over short term
gain that is followed by disaster. The
Mr Speaker, we in this chamber need
to be men of integrity who care for the nation as a whole. We need to care for the constituencies that
elected us. Yes, and we also need to
recognize that our leadership extends beyond those small boundaries of
geography and time. In addition, to care
for the people of our wards, we must also care for the needs of our respective
islands, our joint national concerns, and the needs of future citizens of
Mr Speaker, this Parliament has only
begun its leadership task and I urge us all that when we next reconvene to
adopt this stance of caring for the common good. We, Members of Parliament need to learn to
set aside our agendas of seeking personal advancement from the common
purse. Instead we must care for the
common of the nation as a whole. We are
not elected to accrue houses and vehicles and personal favors for our own
greedy desires. No! We have been elected by the people of our
constituencies to help them live their lives in pace, enjoying the benefits of
their own work, and having a fair chance to contribute to the development of
the country.
Mr Speaker, I am sorry to report
that this is not the case right now in
In addition to these, Mr Speaker, it
is incumbent upon us leaders to take the lead in supporting truth and justice,
and to bring reconciliation and healing to our troubled nation. Without the underlying structure of truth,
justice, and reconciliation, any advances made in the area of social services
will be quickly washed away in ongoing strife.
This was made readily apparent again here in
I appeal therefore, Mr Speaker, to
the government to take the lead in establishing the framework which will bring
the truth to light, establish justice, and provide a mechanism for reconciling
injured parties. This is a need in my
constituency of
Mr Speaker, my people of
On a personal level, we must each
learn to live our lives in accordance with that message. As we do this individually, I believe God
will also move amongst us cooperatively as a whole nation.
To rebuild our nation we must return
to the message of the Bible. And I want
to repeat that again Mr Speaker, to rebuild a nation we must return to the
message of the Bible. Therefore, I
appeal to everyone to remember our Creator and to continually live our lives as
leaders in His service, dedicated to pleasing Him and serving him
Mr Speaker, thank you very much and I resume my seat.
Mr M. KEMAKEZA: Thank you Mr
Speaker, for allowing the MP for Ngella constituency to briefly contribute to
this very important motion moved by the Honorable Prime Minister on Tuesday 9th
May 2006.
Sir, before I proceed I would like to take this
privilege to thank the chiefs, the paramount chiefs, the tribal chiefs, the Churches,
especially the Diocese of Central Solomon, the good Clergies, Pastors and
Ministers of other ecumenical churches in Tulagi Township, the lay people and respective
people within the Ngella constituency, also the farmers and fishermen, my
campaign managers who supported us, I wish to thank them for voting me into
this Honorable House.
Sir, I also wish to thank the former MP for Ngella Constituency
and those who have contested
Sir, I also wish to thank the 49 Members of Parliament
who have been duly elected into this Honorable House, to respective supporters
and those who have also contested against us in the respective
constituencies.
Mr Speaker, I must also thank all those who have been
involved during the elections, the election managers, the electoral office, and
the provincial officers who have taken part in making the election a success.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to thank the Churches for
their prayers, which was shown in the results brought to us. I am sure what we have seen in this Honorable
House is the clear result of all the prayers of our good Christian people in
Mr Speaker, to the outgoing Government of the National
Coalition Partnership, I also wish to thank the MP for Savo/Russells and his Government
for the work they have done during their term, and also those who have been
able to pull together during their time in office.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to thank the Honorable MP for
Marovo, who has been in office especially for a short period of time, which I
believe all other speakers had eloquently covered the reasons and also what has
caused the change we are now seeing in this House. I wish to thank him for the great humiliation
he has been able to uphold and respect on behalf of his people as well as for
the sake of this nation.
Mr Speaker, in the formation of the new government as the
Grand Coalition, I wish to thank personally the Honorable Member for North East
Choiseul, as the newly elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, and to his
good Cabinet. I believe what has
happened (and I do not wish to repeat again what my Honorable colleagues have
said) is the wishes of what we are in this Honorable House.
To you my colleague Ministers on the other side of the
House, I believe as the MP for Temotu Pele has said, you would be able to carry
out the expectation of your policies especially in the upcoming months and
years. It is much sad to note here that
two provinces are not represented in your government, but I believe you would
be able to help in whatever ways possible, especially for the three
constituencies.
Mr Speaker, as much have been already been said by my
colleagues on this side of the House, I do not wish to continue on to say what
they have said to us. The civil unrest
that occurred on the 18th April, I believe this is not only caused
by the other side of the House but it shows how especially all of us as 50 Members
of Parliament.
Sir, it is very important to note that if we blame the
other side of the House we need to establish what actually the root cause is. If it is because of the democratic process as
duly being in the system, then I believe that is the answer that has been given
especially for the re-election of a new government.
I am sure we will not be able to bring back what has
happened and on behalf of my people of Ngella Constituency I do also sympathize
with the Chinese Community who lost not only their properties, but also good
contributors to the economy of
Mr Speaker, I also wish to congratulate you for your
re-election as the Speaker of the National Parliament and the MP for
Savo/Russells for his election as the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament.
Mr Speaker, I do not want to talk on what has already
been said by my other colleagues, but I just want to see all of us, 50 Members
of Parliament to work together for the common good of every one of us.
Sir, I do not believe in what we always say in here
quoting a lot of parables, a lot of quotations and I also do not believe on how
we throw stones and mud at each other. It
is very important that those who elected us to be in this House also have to be
mandated in seeing the value of our work as well as how we can be able in
looking after our respective constituencies.
I think that is the most important thing I see that the Honorable Prime
Minister and his good Cabinet must look at carefully.
Like my colleague MP for Rennell/Bellona has said, we
can say whatever we would like to say in this House, but if we cannot change
the attitudes, our respect and trust, how can we be able to carry out all these
the good things we say.
I believe if there is coordination and also respect amongst
the 50 Members of Parliament, whether you come from which ever provinces,
whether you come from the three constituencies in the
All the line ups are there already, Mr Speaker,
therefore what we want to see is work to be done. We do not come in here to talk about all sorts
of speeches. What is that for? Sir, I do not think that is what we come in
here for.
Mr Speaker, my people of Ngella constituency would
like to see some of the projects in the development budget carried out. Like my colleague for North West Choiseul had
highlighted, the projects must be implemented by my good Minister of Provincial
Government and the Minister of Infrastructure to ensure they are carried out so
that we can be seen as working.
I want both sides of the House to put aside politics. The government is now in place and so let it
start to work and all of us as well. I
think that is the best thing to do. If
we continue on with this numbers game, I don’t think the Honorable 50 Members
of Parliament especially the 22 newly elected Members of Parliament including
the Member for Ngella constituency will get anywhere.
Let us serve our constituency first before we serve
ourselves and talk about corruption. I
don’t think talking about corruption will be of any good to anyone of us here. Corruption is a word that is already being
said and so how can you go on explaining it?
Who would you convince in this House Mr Speaker? No! Enough
is enough and so let us sit down and do the work.
Mr Speaker, as I have said I do not wish to repeat
myself nor would I want to undertake another character assassination, but I
only want my people to see what I would be doing for them in the next four
years, otherwise I will not be able to come back to this Honorable House after
the four years.
Mr Speaker, I wish to thank the Clerk and her staff
who have been able to serve us. My
apologies if we have been bothering them. I also thank all of us 50 Members of
Parliament and our families. I know 21 of
you would be staying back here, but the 29 of us or less I wish you a safe
journey home and continue to look after our people in our respective
constituencies.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me the time, and I
support the motion.
Hon SIKUA: Mr Speaker,
thank you for giving me this opportunity to make a contribution to the sine die
motion moved by the honorable Prime Minister.
Mr Speaker, allow me first to
sincerely thank all the registered voters and all my good people, chiefs,
church leaders and community leaders in the North East Guadalcanal Constituency
which comprises the Paripao and East Tathiboko Wards for having the trust and
confidence in me by voting me into this honorable House as their new Member Parliament. I would like to thank them also for their
support and prayers, particularly my Campaign Managers and Agents. I hope I will be a worthy representative in
this National Parliament in the next four years.
I would also like to extend my
thanks to the other nine candidates that stood with me in my constituency in
the recent National General Elections, particularly the former MP, Mr Stephen
Paeni. I hope that now that the game is
over that we can all continue to work closely together in the next four years
for the betterment of our constituency and people in all spheres of
development.
To you Mr Speaker, please accept my
hearty congratulations on your re-election as Speaker of this Parliament. Your re-election is a testimony of the good
work you have put into the overall development of our National Parliament so
far, as well as in the future under the auspices of the National Parliament
Project. I wish you every success in
guiding this very important project to its full and final completion,
particularly the component that has to do with the development of Parliament
offices for the effective performance of Members of Parliament.
Of course, Mr Speaker, you will be
very ably assisted in all these tasks by the Deputy Speaker, the honorable Member
for Savo/Russells, Sir Allan Kemakeza.
Belated as it may seem, please accept my sincere congratulations for
winning the election of the Deputy Speaker position, and I hope you can forgive
me for not voting for you.
In the same vein, Mr Speaker, I
would also like to thank the Member for Savo/Russells, Hon Sir Allan Kemakeza
for his able leadership as Prime Minister in the last National Coalition
Partnership Government.
Mr Speaker, my sincere thanks also
goes to the MP for Marovo, Hon Snyder Rini for his leadership as Deputy PM and
Minister for Education and Human Resources Development in the previous
government. I greatly enjoyed the three
years I worked with him as Permanent Secretary and hope that we can continue to
work together in this area. As to the
events of the last month, I admire your understanding and respect for the
position I hold in wanting to remain with this camp.
Mr Speaker, I join all other MPs also
in congratulating all the 49 MPs on successfully being elected or re-elected,
and I look forward to working together with you all in the next four years.
Mr Speaker, I also take this
opportunity to thank all public officers, private sector employers and
employees, and all our good people for their patience and understanding during
these trying times.
Mr Speaker, the events of the recent
past should draw our attention as parliamentarians in trying to understand what
we see as our deep rooted problems - our deep sickness of soul. In other words, what we as Parliament Members
see as our fundamental problem, which has caused our country to continually
experience deep trouble in the past 27 years or so and does not seem to ever go
away.
Mr Speaker, for me, the destruction,
burning and looting of property which happened in
I believe, Mr Speaker, that national
development strategies since independence have been fatally flawed because they
have failed to openly recognize and effectively respond to this fact. We are all aware that throughout
Mr Speaker, this precept has long
been known but little heeded. The
Guadalcanal insurgency of six years ago, as well as the very sad events that
happened on Tuesday and Wednesday, 18th and 19th April
2006, are painful reminders of its importance.
Mr Speaker, that is why I, on behalf
of the people of North East Guadalcanal and Guadalcanal Province as a whole
fully support the government’s move to vigorously pursue the current draft
Federal Constitution and to adopt it as soon as possible. I firmly believe that the new federal system
of government is a principal strategy to address the inherent deficiencies of
the present government system and its supporting economic development strategies
that had been largely responsible for creating the environment of ethnic hatred
and intolerance.
However, Mr Speaker, I would like to
request that Members of Parliament must first be given another opportunity to
immediately conduct awareness on the proposed Federal Constitution in their respective
constituencies. This is because this has
not been done by most former MPs, especially around
Mr Speaker, I support the
government’s plan to enhance and introduce targeted and focused growth
strategies for the rural economy, and in particular a reorientation of economic
policies to empower resources owners to be meaningful long-term participants in
the economy. Mr Speaker, the implementation of the bottom-up approach in
development coupled with a reorganization of the budget to meaningfully address
rural development auger well for balanced development throughout the
country. Indeed, the people of Paripao
and East Tasiboko in the North East Guadalcanal Constituency urge the government
to continue to promote, encourage and undertake development initiatives in all
parts of Solomon Islands so that the pressure on our land, forests and other
resources is kept at a minimum.
Mr Speaker, on behalf of my people I
welcome the new policy to instill greater transparency in the administration of
the ROC assistance in Solomon Islands by removing the discretionary portion of
the assistance from the control of the Prime Minister. This move should be
accompanied by commensurate increases to the RCDF to levels that will make a
greater impact on rural development.
Mr Speaker, on RAMSI, it is important to state that
the presence and the role of RAMSI in the overall peace process is vital and
critical. It is important for people of
Mr Speaker, my people in North East
Guadalcanal take the position that the tenure of RAMSI in Solomon Islands
should be measured by the task of restoring and maintaining stability and
economic growth, enabling Solomon Islanders to embark on the peace process to
achieve full stability, peace, harmony and prosperity. Time should not be an issue in this regard
but stability, peace, social harmony and economic growth are the really issues.
Mr Speaker, even when peace,
stability and harmony are fully achieved in Solomon Islands, my people are of
the view that RAMSI should still continue to have a presence in the country for
as long as possible.
Mr Speaker, the Guadalcanal Leaders
Summit held at the Balasuna Christian Outreach Centre in February 2005, was the
first after the ethnic tension, and participants themselves are still not
reconciled to this day. However, the
leaders were definite that they want peace and realized that peace can only be
attained after compensation has been paid and peace reconciliations and
rehabilitation being carried out. This is the custom and traditional norm of
settlement of disputes, conflicts and wars on
Mr Speaker, through the summit, the
leaders made it clear that they longed for peace. In terms of the bona fide demands of the
Mr Speaker, as the Minister for Education and Human
Resources Development, I wish to comment on education seeing that most of my
colleagues on both sides of the House have made comments on education issues
affecting their constituents.
Firstly, I must commend the former government for
putting in place good and sound policies in the Education Sector. I support and concur with the Member for
Savo/Russells that the policies in the education sector are sound and that they
should be implemented as soon as possible.
As you aware, Mr Speaker, the Education Sector
Investment and Reform Program (ESIRP) was officially launched in June 2004, and
2005 was the first full year of operation of this historic and vital program. The two key features of this agreement, apart
from the commitment of up to about SBD360 million from our donor partners, were
the confirmation of the Ministry’s leadership of the reform process and the
commitment by SI Government (SIG) to allocate a minimum of 22% of the
discretionary National Budget to education on an annual basis.
I am pleased to say that these two
understandings are a reality and the 2006 budget allocation was 27%, far above
the minimum of 22% and well above the regional average. This is a positive indication of SIG’s
commitment to education as a priority sector for improvement and reform.
Mr Speaker, the partnership with the
EU and NZAID has made a significant start to addressing the qualitative and
quantitative damage sustained during the period of the ethnic tension and its
aftermath. However, implementation of the
ESIRP during 2005 has revealed four significant long term challenges which must
be addressed.
Mr Speaker, challenge number one is
that of low access and equity. The
education system is characterized by an overall low enrolment of pupils.
Further, disparities in access to schooling still exist by location, by gender,
by urban/rural factors and by income group.
That is why in terms of income the government will seriously be
considering a paper to reduce the school fees, especially in secondary
education. The MP for Central Kwara’ae
was talking about totally getting rid of school fees at the secondary level,
but I believe that this will not be supported by the budget or our donor
partners until both the rural and urban economies significantly improve and
recover, and a consequent rise in tax revenue and disposable household income
happens. This is something that we want
to do as of 2007 to look at reducing the school fees at secondary level.
Mr Speaker, the second challenge in education is the
inadequate quality and relevance. We
have a problem with low quality and relevance in general education which leads
to poor academic performance of schools and pupils.
Mr Speaker, I acknowledge the third challenger we have
in education is that of low internal efficiency, and we hope that this can be
fixed in the not too distant future.
Mr Speaker, the fourth challenge is limited
institutional capacity and we are hoping that the Public Service can recruit
people to man the vacant positions in the Ministry as soon as possible.
Sir, we designed a program to address these challenges
in education and we hope the issues I have raised in education will be addressed
in the period 2007 to 2009, which is our next plan period.
Mr Speaker, I would also like to mention that some
colleagues of this House talked about the issue of scholarship in education,
and I wish to alert Members of the fact that scholarships for 2007 are now open
and will close at the end of this month. I hope that for in-service training people can
put in their applications because at the end of this month any new applications
will not be accepted.
Sir, I would also would like to assure our good
teachers in the provinces and throughout the country that work on their new
scheme of service and the Teaching Service Hand Book has been completed and I
hope to take a paper to Cabinet to approve the new scheme of, for which
provisions have already been catered for in the budget as soon as the
Parliament Meeting is over. I want to
assure our good teachers that we will move quickly into looking at the new
scheme of service and having it approved by Cabinet as soon as possible.
Lastly but not the least Mr Speaker,
I would like to humbly and sincerely appeal to all our good people in
Guadalcanal Province to take good care and help look after all company property
and any major development assets and infrastructure installations, especially
in the Guadalcanal Plains and Gold Ridge.
If we are serious about attaining state government status for
Mr Speaker, in this regard I would also
like to call on my other colleague Members from Guadalcanal Province that we
have to work together to bring about the kind of changes and the things our
people are looking for. I humbly appeal
to all of us regardless of which side of the House you are on to stand united
as one on all issues affecting our people.
Mr Speaker, thank you for this
opportunity to contribute to the motion.
May God bless SI and with these remarks, I resume my seat.
Mr Speaker: Before I give
the floor to the honorable MP for
Hon SOPAGHE: Mr Speaker,
thank you for allowing me to contribute briefly to the sine die motion moved by
the honorable Prime Minister.
Firstly, Mr Speaker, I join all the
other Members to thank the ruling government of the day led by the honorable
Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare and other political leaders in his
government.
Mr Speaker, I would like to inform
the government that you are there for the people and not for your own political
ambition. Mr Speaker, I call on all Members
to work together for our people and nation and contribute towards the advancement
of our country.
Mr Speaker, on behalf of my people
of North Guadalcanal Constituency, I convey on this floor of Parliament our
sincere regret, sorrow and apologies to the Chinese Community, families,
businesses, families of employees and other businesses that were burned down,
damaged or vandalized during the incident on 18th April 2006.
Mr Speaker, I do believe that our
new Government of the day will always put our people first. The Government must develop strategic
policies to address matters of interest to our rural people.
Mr Speaker, I also would like to thank my good people
in North Guadalcanal Constituency, the chiefs, church leaders, youths, women,
and my supporters for lending me their support to be their chosen leader in the
next four years.
Mr Speaker, North Guadalcanal
Constituency and Central Guadalcanal Constituency have some of the major
developments in the country.
Mr Speaker, I would like to ask the
government of the day especially the Minister of Police to increase its
manpower in Tetere Police Station, to enable them patrol the two major
developments in the constituency.
Mr Speaker, I am looking forward to
working together with the government of the day and overseas partners to
address major issues affecting my people in
Mr Speaker, what kind of
Mr Speaker, we must believe on a new
breed of people coming out of our country who will have the ability to rebuild
our ruined city and communities. The
poor state of our nation’s existence is produced by an unplanned and corrupt
past, which is pushing us towards an unwanted future. Hence a national reformation is the complete
change that makes us as a political entity called
Mr Speaker, these are values,
beliefs, principles, virtues, mentalities and cultures. They are the internal laws and truths that
make a deep rooted change of a nation’s destiny possible.
Mr Speaker, it is important that a
new concerned generation of reformers arise in our nation with the genuine
interest of rebuilding
Mr Speaker, for the past 28 years,
we have been ruled by the same set of people that fought for independence. Sir,
without a post-independence map to chart the course of our destiny as a nation
to the present day, politicians are singing the song of reformation but dancing
to the tune of desolation. Mr Speaker, a
genuine set of reformers must and will rise in every sector of our society.
Sir, these include the Police Force,
the government ministries, technology fields, the education sector, our social
life and most essentially the churches.
Mr Speaker, we must arise with a
genuine desire to see things change in our nation and make the nation see our
Mr Speaker, with these comments I
support the motion.
(applause)
Mr
Mr Speaker, also at this juncture I
must thank the last government for taking us through the hard period. I thank the leadership of the MP for
Savo/Russells for taking us through those trying times.
Mr Speaker, also at this juncture I
wish to go along with the other colleagues to thank the churches for their
valuable support through their prayers during this period of election and also the
period of lobbying for the election of our Prime Minister.
Mr Speaker, I must also thank
yourself and the Deputy Speaker for being elected once again as Speaker of the
National Parliament. Also Mr Speaker, I
join other colleagues, and do not hesitate on behalf of my people of North West
Guadalcanal, to condemn in the highest terms what actually happened on Black
Tuesday.
What happened on Black Tuesday is a clear indication
of disrespect of democracy in our country.
It is also a clear indication of certain people in our country and
leaders, not all on the other side of the House, who do not respect the
democratic process we set ourselves to follow on the floor of Parliament in the
election of Prime Minister. This means
defeat does not go down well with certain leaders within Parliament, and yet we
continue to preach here that this is a Christian country and we are Christian
people. Mr Speaker, it would appear to
me there are citizens of this country who value destruction as a permissible
force to express their feelings.
Mr Speaker, the public or our
people, as one of my colleague Member rightly mentioned do not understand what
their rights are. Certain Members of
this Parliament, when half of us in this House were held hostage inside this building,
went outside of the Parliament preaching and telling the public to do whatever
they want to do because it is their right.
What time have we leaders gone out and preached to our
people what their rights are. Where is
the boundary or the limitation of that right extend to Mr Speaker? When such statements were publicly announced
to the people when their feelings are not right, the result of that is what
took place on Black Tuesday. We need to
explain to our people and the public what their rights are because sometimes
their feelings can be more than what they know about their democratic
rights.
What I noted on that day, Mr Speaker, was caused by
simply how we leaders make statements that were misinterpreted by our people,
which resulted in what has happened.
Mr Speaker, it would also appear to
me that to mobilize a mob to destroy is very much easy than to mobilise a mob
to voluntarily construct a public infrastructure. I say this because the amount of people who
combined their efforts to destroy this city could have cooperated in a similar
style to clean up the city too.
Mr Speaker, I represent a people who
have gone through the same traumatic disturbances during the height of the
civil uprising six years ago. Their
ordeal will remain a historical landmark in this country. Their ordeal has also paved a new frontier of
leadership mentality in our country based on respect and on good and fair
governance.
The historical landmark, Mr Speaker,
was harvested during the very able leadership of none other than the current
Minister of Finance. That is why a lot
of us have fears at this time. May be
with the very good leadership of my good friend, the Prime Minister he would
try to deviate the mentality of those kinds of leaders when things like that
are happening in our country.
Sir, if I could recall the events of
that time, the bona fide demands of the
Mr Speaker, on July 2000 it would
seem to me that the simple civilian people I represent do not have their
constitutional rights to be protected by the government. All that was left in
their simple communities were ashes and foundations.
At this juncture Mr Speaker, I am
very hopeful that the government through the leadership of my good friend and
brother, the honorable Prime Minister will revisit and try to address the bona
fide demands of the
Mr Speaker, perhaps as a sideline
issue, I just want to comment on the defensiveness of certain leaders and our
government. Please do not be defensive
on the issue of the appointment of our two colleagues who are now in custody. Whilst it maybe legally right, and for the
purpose of solidarity, it would seem obvious that the choice was made may be on
political grounds. We must look at this
carefully and make our judgment on a moral consensus.
Mr Speaker, this is also setting a
risky precedence, which may allow inmates who have not been convicted to even
consider contesting the national and provincial elections. It is possible, in my view, even for inmates
who are not convicted to do that. I
think if some of us had known that is possible we can apply for them to come
out of prison and vote for us because their constitutional rights are still
there. In my layman’s point of view, that
is setting a very wrong precedence.
Mr Speaker, may I urge the law
enforcement authorities, I know we are not supposed to interfere with the judiciary,
but this is an appeal to the law enforcement authorities to consider the
circumstances of the honourable Members seriously, and work on their respective
cases quickly so that if they are not proven guilty they may come out and participate
actively in their roles in governing.
Mr Speaker, perhaps the nearness of
the constituency that is the North West Guadalcanal to the National Capital
sometimes makes us not concerned about our constituency very much. But may I appeal to certain departments,
especially the health department, planning and other departments to please look
at the funding to ensure they are fairly distributed to our constituencies.
As I have alluded to, Mr Speaker, I
do hope that with the able leadership of my good friend, the Prime Minister, he
will be able to recognise North West Guadalcanal as the constituency which is
happy to host the National Government and therefore deserves recognition for
the role.
Finally Mr Speaker, I would just like
to point out a few reminders to certain departments and ministries. The first department I would like to remind
and to call on is the Minister for Infrastructure to revisit the tender process
undertaken in December last year, which was awarded to a contractor to maintain
the roads in North West Guadalcanal.
That contractor was a candidate too at that time, and so I call on the
Minister to investigate how the money was spent because there has been no
maintenance happening to the road.
Mr Speaker, if you go down to the
roads in North West Guadalcanal, even four wheel drive vehicles cannot drive
through some of the ditches there. So I
call on the Minister to investigate the tender to find out why it was not
implemented properly. I believe funds
are still available because the contractor won the tender for about $550,000
and the reserve cost is about $2 million. If the remaining portion of that allocation is
still in the department, please assign a new contractor to maintain the roads
in North West Guadalcanal.
The second one is education and I
join my other colleagues just to caution my good friend, the Minister for
Education to please revisit the process and the procedures as to how selections
are made during the past years. I
believe it is unfair as other honourable colleagues have rightly stated. We need a fair and just selection process so
that all our provinces are fairly represented in the granting of scholarships.
I also appeal to the Minister for
Provincial Government to quickly look into the federal system and to immediately
bring the draft bill to Parliament for the federal system that a vast majority
of people, not only in
Mr Speaker, on land issues I have every
confidence on the new Minister as he is very well versed with the land tenure
system in
Also on land issue, Mr Speaker, I
think leaders of respective constituencies must talk to our people. The biggest
setback in development is also because of land, Mr Speaker. Why? I
think our people do not go down well with what land usage is and what is
important with developments on land. We
must talk to our people so that they understand these issues and allow their
land in the provinces to be developed in order for development to spread out in
the provinces rather than concentrate on one particular area.
The last Minister I would like to
appeal to and give some reminders to, is the Minister for Department of Peace
and Reconciliation. As other colleagues
have already rightly mentioned, without reconciliation many of our plans will
have setbacks. As a member of the Guadalcanal
Peace and Rehabilitation Committee we have already completed the peace and
rehabilitation report, and it would be submitted very shortly to the department
concern. I urge the responsible to bring the report to Cabinet immediately and quick
implementation of the recommendations contained in the report. That is very important, Mr Speaker.
Finally Mr Speaker, I must thank the
Clerk and her officers for taking care of us during this very short meeting of
Parliament.
With these few remarks, Mr Speaker,
I support the motion.
Sitting suspended for lunch break
Parliament resumes
Mr ABANA: Thank you Mr
Speaker, for allowing me the floor to contribute briefly to the motion. At the outset Mr Speaker, I wish to thank
Almighty God for His grace through which He has called us to the task of
leadership.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to thank my
good people of Fataleka for entrusting me to represent them in Parliament. I appeal to my good people to continue to support
me in their prayers so that by the grace of God I can serve them and the nation
worthily. Mr Speaker, I wish to register
my thanks to other leaders who have gone before us in serving this nation in
this honourable House.
Mr Speaker, I wish to congratulate
all of us for the success we had in our respective elections - all honorable Members
of Parliament, yourself Mr Speaker, the former Prime Minister - the MP for
Marovo and the current Prime Minister.
Prime Minister, congratulations!
It is true we have been placed in
these various leadership positions by the people. The people we must serve. It is even truer that we have been called by
God into leadership. We ought to reflect
on this so that our minds can be clear that our best endeavours at providing
leadership will indeed be motivated by service, and that we remain conscious at
all times that we have a God who is our loving Father, and who promised to help
us and who will one day call us to account for all our motives, decisions and
actions.
Mr Speaker, no society or nation can
move forward without good leadership. We
can have all the natural resources there can be, but without good leadership,
our society and nation will continue to struggle with the same issues and
problems.
What marks out a good leadership, Mr
Speaker? I want to say that what marks
any leadership as good and foremost is integrity. As you know, Mr Speaker, integrity is in the
heart but can be seen in how a leader conducts himself in his private and
public life.
Mr Speaker, the notion that a leader’s
private life is his own and he can do whatever he pleases with it and that it
is separate from his public life, is a fallacy.
This fallacy has ensured that integrity has been in short supply in
leadership at various levels in our nation,
We, in this House do not have any
excuses. We have lived through the civil
conflict and have come through the events in the recent weeks, and it can be
said that both violent situations were responses to perceptions of leadership.
Leadership matters, Mr Speakers, for
people take leadership very seriously.
We, more than anyone else, ought to take leadership extremely
serious. We cannot continue on with
business as usual. We must wake up to
the complex challenges facing us leaders and the obvious rising expectations of
our people to be better leaders. It is
not enough to deny corruption and demand that our people find proof and go to
court. Our people can see when something
is not right in leadership, and they have the responsibility of calling leaders
to account.
Mr Speaker, we are their servants
and not their lords. We must get this
right. When we assume lordship over our
people the result is arrogance that does not welcome questions or criticisms
and an egotistical drive that drives us to pursue status and high office
without any real substantive interest to serve.
Mr Speaker, there has been a
noticeable absence of unity in national leadership at the time when the nation was
going through the crisis. Mr Speaker, during
the civil conflict, the division in Parliament was so projected that leaders
could not pretend to provide any real leadership example to the people.
Mr Speaker, the recent crisis seems
to have had the same effect on the House.
It is my hope that in this situation of crisis Parliament rises as one,
putting aside its differences but find consensus and a common purpose so that
we can give our people a clear sense of direction and hope for the future.
Mr Speaker, I am calling on both
sides of the House to come together, to dialogue over differences and offer
forgiveness to each other for issues over the recent past that threatens to
hang over this honourable House as a black cloud.
Mr Speaker, how can we as leaders be
calling for meaningful reconciliation in our society when at our level we
cannot even find and offer forgiveness to one another? Sir, the kind of leadership that operates on
the principle ‘do as I say, not as I do’ is not only outdated but is a serious
obstacle to the future progress of our beloved nation.
Mr Speaker, I am calling on your
good office to assist Members in facilitating meaningful and serious dialogue
that will lead to meaningful reconciliation between leaders. Mr Speaker, it is essential that Members of
Parliament build and maintain mutual respect for each other. Sir, without mutual respect, mudslinging will
be always obvious on the floor of Parliament.
Are we ever going to grow up and offer mature and
responsible leadership to this nation? Mr
Speaker, if we answer to the affirmative then we have to show more humility
towards one another in this House. Put
aside the ego and pride that has almost single-handedly driven politics in this
country since independence, and enter into an honest and sincere journey together
in leadership.
At this point, Mr Speaker, I wish to
express my sympathy to the Chinese Community and the employees who lost
property and livelihoods in the recent riots.
It can never be right to condone crime, whatever the justification. However, as national leaders we must look
deeply into the events to see the issues of injustice that led to the siege in
violence.
Also, Mr Speaker, as national
leaders we are accountable for what happened.
If we simply brush aside the events as the work of criminals then we run
the risk of not accepting our failures as leaders that may have contributed to
the frustration of the people and to the extent fail to learn from them.
Mr Speaker, it is abundantly clear
that the lobbying process is a grave weakness in our political process. Ups and downs and the multiple jumps of MPs between
camps, the involvement of certain business interest in the lobbying process,
contribute to a great deal towards the people’s frustration on leadership.
Mr Speaker, the people are not blind
nor are they deaf. They knew what was
going on during the lobbying process. There
must be substantive reform of this process to shut out business and vested
interest from hijacking leadership. When
business interest book large number of hotel rooms for MPs, pay for meals and
give money, Mr Speaker, what is this?
Some even chartered planes. We
come to accept this as normal but we must reject this as inappropriate.
Mr Speaker, the lobbying process was
never about public policy, but mostly about numbers, personality, business
interest and a lot more like as we go on the way.
Mr Speaker, surely leadership is
more serious than this. The people certainly
think it ought to be more serious. If we
do not clean up this process our country is in for more political instability.
Mr Speaker, we must also proactively
and deliberately encourage political party by appropriate reforms so that there
can be more discipline in Parliament.
Sir, political parties will mitigate against regionalism that is
protruding its head in national leadership.
We are a nation of rich diversity
and this should give us the basis for a strong country. Regionalism tends to accentuate the
differences leading to a weaker nation.
Mr Speaker, before I take my seat, I
would like to thank the previous government of the MP for Savo/Russells for its
work for the country. I would also like
to thank RAMSI for the significant work it has done for this country and
continues to do so. RAMSI deserves our
undue divided support. RAMSI is a human endeavor
and so it has weaknesses. Let us
approach these weaknesses with sincere hearts with the common objective of
getting RAMSI to serve
Mr Speaker, let us give greater
meaning to RAMSI partnership where there can be healthy debates but a common
consensus about the overall objective. Let
us commit ourselves to work together to eliminate any suspicion and mistrust.
With these few remarks, Mr Speaker,
I support the motion.
Mr KOLI: Mr Speaker, I
rise to contribute briefly to the sine die motion moved by the honourable Prime
Minister.
Sir, I would like to thank him for
moving this motion and highlighting some of the government’s policy statements
and program of action.
Mr Speaker, I for one can only see
the program of action implemented when there is no rivalry in leadership. I could see that when leaders are power
hungry, government could not be stable.
Mr Speaker, we leaders painted a wrong
picture in our leadership. The ethnic tension and the fall of the Rini
Government was a clear manifestation of leaders hungry for power and wrong
decision making. We are harvesting the
seeds of our own making.
Mr Speaker, the federal government
has been a long time wish of the people of
Mr Speaker, the Buala Communiqué by
Provincial Premiers, the Balasuna Guadalcanal Leaders Summit with Resolutions,
the Guadalcanal Bona Fide demands, land issues which the previous government
had chosen, a Commission of Inquiry to deal with land issues in and around
Honiara, are some of the issues that need to be addressed by the government of
the day.
Mr Speaker, the decentralization of
development as was highlighted by the honourable Prime Minister is a must. Could each of the nine provinces create an
economic zone themselves? These industrialized
zones would be the spring box for economic development of each of the nine
provinces. This in my view would alleviate
high concentration of urban drift to one particular province if developments
are concentrated in one province. Each
of the provinces would create more job opportunities and employment. Participation in development will then be
equally shared in harnessing our land and sea resources.
Mr Speaker, I too and my people of
East Guadalcanal Constituency join with other honourable colleagues in conveying
our sincere heartfelt sympathy to the Chinese Community for losing their
businesses and properties. The looting
and burning of your business premises by the mobs were done by people with
hidden agendas.
Mr Speaker, some of us Members of
Parliament have been branded corrupt leaders, and the action of these looters
by the instigators against the Asian business people was because you assisted those
of us on this side of the House with finances.
I for one deny all these corrupt assistances. The Republic of China (
Mr Speaker, I now touch on tourism
promotion in this country. Sir, on the
Vaka Tepe cultural event in Gizo and the Yacht Race from
The recent looting and burning of
Chinese business houses will only encourage overseas travel advisors to advise
their citizens not to travel to
Mr Speaker, the Marau Sound and
Lauvi Lagoon are two beautiful natural scenery sites for tourism development in
my constituency. I urge the Minister and
the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to also inject some funding allocations to
my constituency for tourism development.
Mr Speaker, may I thank church
leaders, chiefs, youth, women and men of my constituency for their trust and
confidence in me for electing me this third term as their Member of Parliament.
I thank the other contestants for the
manner we would like to lead our people.
My good people let us work together, sweat to benefit as nothing is
free.
Mr Speaker, I too would like to
thank and congratulate the Prime Minister for taking up this high office. Sir, I would also like to extend my
congratulation to the Speaker of Parliament and the Deputy Speaker for winning
their elections.
Mr Speaker, there is a
reconciliation package being prepared by the reconciliation task force for
Mr Speaker, the role of women in
this country must not be forgotten. Could the National Council of Women in
consultation with the Provincial Council of Women build a mutual understanding to
enhance women in development? I urge the
Ministry of Youth, Women and Sports to support women in development in anyway
possible in line with their aims and objectives.
Mr Speaker, let us support the women
in a practicable and tangible manner. Many
women’s clubs in the rural areas are now being isolated because of no support
from those in authority and so are no longer functioning.
Sir, I would like to thank the
Soroptimist International for funding women centres in the provinces. Some centres are still yet to be built.
Mr Speaker, with these few remarks,
I support the motion.
Mr RINI: Thank you Mr
Speaker, for allowing me to speak. I
will be very, very brief.
First of all Mr Speaker, on behalf
of my constituency, the people of Marovo I would like to congratulate you for
your election. Your unopposed election shows
clearly that all of us, the 50 Members of Parliament have confidence in you
leading us in our discussions in this Parliament. Secondly I would also like to thank the
Deputy Speaker for his election. I am
sure with the experiences of both of you in the National Parliament and also
national issues would guide us through in our debate in this Parliament.
Mr Speaker, from the outset, let me
say that my government when it came to power was truly disturbed by violence
that erupted and led to the burning down to ashes of the
Mr Speaker, I must make it
categorically clear that these unchristian acts led to loss of properties worth
millions of dollars of our innocent citizens of this country. Mr Speaker, these undesirable acts will have
a lasting negative impact, that is to say the very least.
Mr Speaker, revenue collection for
the second quarter of this year will be reduced. Service delivery will be affected and
investor confidence will also be badly tarnished.
All peace loving Christians in this
country Mr Speaker, you would agree with me in saying that these adverse
effects are the making of evil forces. I
am also convinced, Mr Speaker, that the people of
Mr Speaker, despite these drawbacks
I am confident that
Mr Speaker, I come from a very, very humble
constituency, and for the last 40 years my constituency has been assisting this
country economically until now, and we will be still assisting this country for
the next 40 or even 100 years.
Mr Speaker, I am very, very confident as I have said
that this country will recover and I am also confident that where there is a
will, there is a way. With this
assurance, Mr Speaker I wish the incoming Prime Minister and his Cabinet bon
voyage to the world of the unknown.
Mr Speaker, we are all leaders, all 50 Members of this
Parliament, and so let us treat each other as national leaders. Let us not throw stones at each other, but
let us work together for the betterment of this country.
Sir, let us debate national issues, and let us not
throw mud at each other, because these are not what our people voted us into Parliament
for. We are supposed to discuss national
issues. We are not to talk about
personal things, but we must talk about the national issues on how we can drive
this country forward to prosperity.
Mr Speaker, I am sad indeed to hear us leaders
accusing each other of this word ‘corruption’ on this floor of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, as I always said, we have laws here in
Sir, this Parliament is the parliament of people. We should only talk about national issues in
here, issues that will develop this country and issues that will help our
nation. This is not the place to talk
about corruption. What will happen if
you talk about corruption in this House?
Nothing. If you are really
serious about corruption, then take it to the Police. If you have evidence, take it to the Police
and let the Police do their work to investigate the allegations.
Mr Speaker, I would also like to take this opportunity
to thank my good chiefs and the people of Marovo constituency for their trust
and confidence in re-electing me to be their representative in the next four
years. I also would like to thank them
for their continuous support and prayers during my high and low times.
Mr Speaker, to the public and citizenship of
Mr Speaker, if in one way or another my decisions or
my actions have offended anyone or if for any reasons I have wronged someone
then I beg you forgive me and let us reconcile and work together as a team to
rebuild our nation Solomon Islands.
Mr Speaker, one thing is certain that I became the
Prime Minister with a clean heart, and I am also glad to hand over the rulership
of this nation to the incoming Prime Minister also with a clean and humble
heart.
Mr Speaker, let me remind all of us of the wisdom of
the Late President John F Kennedy, who was rescued on our shores. He said, and I quote: “Ask
not what the country can do for you, but what you can do for the country”. End
of quote. Mr Speaker, with his
determination and strong commitment
Finally, Mr Speaker, allow me to say my concluding
remarks. To the public in
With these remarks, Sir, I support the motion.
Mr HAOMAE: Mr Speaker, I
have a drop of
Mr Speaker, I also subscribe to the universal truth
that no man is an island. And if no man
is, how can a nation be. The air we breathe
is not ours alone, the sea that washes the shores of the odd 1,000 islands of
the Happy Isles also washes the shores of other countries. Like the common clay of our swollen bodies we
are one.
It is on this high plane of coexistence and tolerance,
Mr Speaker, that I beg your indulgence to extend on behalf of the chiefs and
good people of Small Malaita constituency our sympathy to the Chinese community
and those who lost their properties at
Sir, I will be very brief in debating the motion and I
will stick to the principle of the motion.
I shall not go astray because the government would in the end present
the Speech from the Throne outlining the policy of the government and its
implementation. There and then I shall
debate the policies of the government.
In the meantime, Sir, allow me to take this
opportunity to confer sincere congratulations to each and every Member of
Parliament elected to this honourable House on
Sir, I would also like to take further advantage of
this opportunity to sincerely congratulate the honourable Member for
I would be remiss, Mr Speaker, if I do not take this
opportunity to congratulate you on your election as the Speaker. I am confident that you will be able, as
usual, to discharge the responsibilities of that high office. I also wish to congratulate my colleague the
Member for Savo/Russells for his election to the post of Deputy Speaker.
Sir, on the floor of Parliament I take leave to beg
your indulgence to record sincere gratitude to the chiefs and my good people of
Small Malaita Constituency for reposing their trust and confidence in me by
electing me to represent them in the National Parliament, the highest depository
of the will of land. I wish to reassure
them as their servant and not their leader.
I shall not do anything to dishonour their sacred trust and
confidence.
In passing I wish to register thanks to the ten
candidates who also contested the Small Malaita Constituency during the last
election. As well, I wish to thank the
former Member for Small Malaita for keeping the seat warm during the last four
years.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to thank the MP for Marovo for
his short term as Prime Minister of this country. It is a universal inhere principle that
leaders be given time and space to prove themselves through performance. This principle of natural justice is so
strong that it is quantified in stature in many democratic countries,
Nonetheless, Mr Speaker, I wish to thank the MP for
Marovo for his confidence by appointing me to the important portfolio of Police
and National Security during that short time and at the time when the capital
was in crisis. I was appointed to that
same portfolio, Mr Speaker in 2001 when this country was at its knees by the
present Prime Minister, and so I also wish to thank him for that
opportunity.
Mr Speaker, I have consulted my personal computer and
this is what the personal computer saw.
The present National Parliament consists of 50 Members, of those 50
Members 25 have been re-elected to Parliament and 25, among them the MP for
Small Malaita who is now on the floor of Parliament, have been newly elected to
Parliament. We are therefore at our
crossroads. We do not know where the
direction of the country according to the results of the election. Hence we land ourselves in a situation where the
Parliament is abnormal and hence the situation that everybody is now referring
to, Mr Speaker.
Also, Mr Speaker, the personal computer saw that this
Parliament has been used as a pulpit for preaching. Also, this Parliament has been used as a
lecture room when the Member for Aoke/Langa Langa also used this floor of
Parliament as a pulpit. I also press the
other key of the computer and it shows something like this, but is full of
error and look for a Chapter in the Scripture to cover him up.
Mr Speaker, there is nothing wrong in dedicating this
nation to God. In fact we should do
so. There is nothing wrong with all of
us as sinners and fall short of the Glory of God. In fact when the Lord was on earth He came for
the sinners but He despised the hypocrites. A lot of things being said in this Parliament
are by a lot of bunch of hypocrites.
Sir I ask all 50 Members of Parliament to practice
what they preach and you must lead by example.
Otherwise you say one thing in here and throw tons and tons of sugar at us
new Members of Parliament but instead you do something different. Or it is the same as Abarai’s pig that goes
around changing color but it is the same pig. When it goes around its colour is white and so
people think Abarai has a different pig.
When it goes around another time the pig is in red color and so people
think it is a new pig. And then the same
pig goes around again and changes its color to part white and black spots and
so people think it is a different pig but it is the same pig that only changes
its colour. I hope the MP for Aoke/Langa
Langa does not change himself into different colours like Abarai’s pig.
Hon Ulufa’alu (interjected):
I have never changed colour.
Mr Haomae: The MP for
Aoke/Langa Langa has already made his contribution and he should not disturb
the MP for Small Malaita Constituency because I represent the hereditary high chiefs
of the people of Small Malaita Constituency.
Let us not be hypocrites because that is what Jesus
despises in the Bible. He ate with
sinners. He came into this world for
sinners and He ensures that they repent but He really hates the hypocrites. And there are lots of hypocrisy in this
Parliament. I give you my word, Mr
Speaker, and you hear that from the Member of Parliament for Small Malata
Constituency. There are lots of
hypocrites inside this House. Therefore,
we should not use this room to preach.
If you want to preach go outside or go to the Church or the chapels to
preach. Do you want to make the priests,
pastors and bishops redundant? If you
want to do your preaching please go to the right place, but not in this
Parliament. As I have already said, full
in error and look for passages in Scripture to hide behind.
Mr Speaker, this Parliament, when I look at my
personal computer, is used to throw mud and stones at each other. I did not come here for that. I am talking to everyone of us that we have
been elected, the government side especially, because you will run our country,
let us not throw stones and mud at each other.
Our people elected us to this National Legislature – a very dignified
House so that we run the country properly.
As I have already alluded to Mr Speaker, do not use this
place to lecture us because if you lecture too much you will become
inconsistent. For instance, the MP for
Aoke/Langa Langa said that this is the seventh Parliament but it is not the seventh
but the eighth Parliament. He also said that
MPs on the Opposition side should not raise matters of policy as this is not the
time to discuss policy matter. But that inconsistency
because they raised statements of policy and that is why some MPs on this side also
raised those matters. If you had not
raised it we would not have raised it too but we would have restricted
ourselves only to thank you and your office, the Clerk and all the staff of the
Parliament Office. When the MP for
Aoke/Langa Langa said that young leaders like us, the new ones should learn
from the old ones, I am not to sure what am I going to learn from that one because
it was wrong and not right.
Mr Speaker, my personal computer also shows at this
Parliament has been used to rubbish the images of previous governments - the
most immediate one, the Member of Parliament for Savo/Russells, the Member of
Parliament for Marovo inclusive.
Mr Speaker, as Mark Anthony said in Roman times “I
have not come to praise Caesar but to bury him. The evil that men do live after them, but the
good are buried with their bones”. Why
do you want to bury the good things that previous governments have done? Why Mr Speaker? (This is inherent death in human
mentality). Why, Mr Speaker?
I am very humbled by the contribution of the new
Member of Parliament for Gao/Bugotu. He
thanked previous MPs of Gao/Bugotu constituency and the previous
government. The new MP for Gao/Bugotu, the
Minister for Justice is a man of justice, and he must be commended by the MP
for Small Malaita for doing that. Why Mr
Speaker? Because
I am poising questions, I am not answering them. Because in parliamentary democracy those on
the Opposition side cannot answer questions, only the government side can
answer questions. And so we are just
here to ask questions.
Mr Speaker, my
personal computer also shows…..
Hon Sanga: Point of
order. I have personally timed the speaker,
and he has gone beyond 10 minutes. My time
now is
Mr Speaker: In
terms of time allocation, the Speaker does not have any specific power except
for purposes of the budget deliberation and of course adjournment motions which
are under Order 11 and 63. If Parliament
wants to allocate time for this particular debate then obviously a motion
should be moved so that time could be specifically allocated in relation to our
debate of the sine die motion. We can do
it properly that way but the Speaker does not have power himself to allocate
time. Would the Prime Minister wish to
consider that aspect of time allocation for us?
Hon Sogavare: Mr Speaker, I
really do not mind. If we only have
today and we still have speakers to speak to the motion then I can suspend
Standing Orders so that we can go beyond
Mr Speaker: We cannot go
on tomorrow because there is no motion to move the day but of course as the
Prime Minister has said we can go on after
Mr Haomae: Thank you, Mr
Speaker, and I respect the concern by my Honorable colleague MP for
Anyway, I was saying that my personal computer shows
that three words are used quite often in this Parliament. In fact they have been overused. The first one is the word change. The second is the word corrupt, and the third
one is the word sovereignty.
Mr Speaker, allow me time and I promise you that I
will not talk for two or three hours, to just say a few words on each of these
words. First is the word change and its
definition and its interpretation by each and every Member of Parliament or by
the public. My own interpretation of the
word change is not necessarily restricted to change of leadership.
If a government or a leader is pursuing policies that
are conducive to uplifting the standard of living of the people of this nation,
then that is change. It is not
necessarily the leadership because we have to go further into the actual
interpretation of the word change and we have to adopt a philosophy and ask the
fundamental question, what sort of life do we want to build for our
people? This is the question that must
be asked by all leaders at all levels of this country - by leaders of the national government, leaders
of the province, area council, community leaders, church leaders, village
leaders and chiefs. This is the
fundamental question that must be asked - what sort of life do we want to build
for our people? Having asked that
question you can then talk about change.
Most of the comments I have heard in Parliament and by
the other side are not along that line. They just want to change leadership but they
do not want to improve the standard of living of the people of the
country. Because if that is the objective,
the ultimate objective of good governance, which the last government has been
doing, why do you want to change it? Or
do you change it by chance, Mr Speaker? I
will explore more on this situation in the next sitting of Parliament.
I now come to the next one, the second one –
corruption. And I must tell you, Mr
Speaker, that since I came into this Parliament before and this time nobody can
lobby me. I am someone who cannot be
lobbied. I follow and go by my
assessment of the national interest because I am pro Small Malaita and pro
Mr Speaker, we have 87 vernacular languages in
But what I see in the codified and
accepted practices in custom of these 87 languages belonging to 87 groupings in
our country is obligation, which they tend to change. Therefore,
Mr Speaker, if we are not careful corruption will be legalized and so we must
ensure we do not go into that direction.
For me since nobody can lobby me and so I do not know the meaning of
that word.
During the lobbying last time, all
avenues in the paraphernalia of the politics game have been engaged and
applied. I was watching at that time. We must put this right. What sort of corruption are we talking
about?
As the MP for Marovo has said if it is truly happening
then there are institutions within the government system that we can refer
these things to such as the Leadership Code Commission.
Let me come to sovereignty – there are
a number of schools of thought regarding sovereignty. One interpretation is the one advanced by the
MP for Aoke/Langa Langa. When he was on
this side of the House I heard him advanced the extrapolation side of it and
now he is restricting it. That is why I
said Abarai’s pig has changed color. But
in the final analysis sovereignty applies so that it is advances the national
interest of the country. If a particular
policy advances the national interest of the country then we can extrapolate
the definition of sovereignty accordingly.
In this regard, Mr Speaker, I want
to comment on the foreign policy of the country. If we adopt a turbulent foreign policy in the
country, we also have to understand and utilize the boundaries, parameters and
scope of that particular foreign policy and the limitation of that policy.
As I have said at the outset, no man
is an island and if no man is how can a nation be. If we are not careful the situation is not going
to be right for us. On matters of policy,
I wish to caution my friend, the honourable Prime Minister. He is my friend, and I was his Deputy Prime
Minister during his time. I thank him
for appointing me as his Minister for Police and National Security when this
country was at its knees.
I would like to take this
opportunity to thank the Commissioner of Police and the ranks and file of the
Police Force for the work they have done during the national election. I am doing this because the Minister of
Police is still somewhere else. I do not
want to takeover his responsibility but as MP for Small Malaita I want to thank
the Commissioner of Police for the ranks and file as well as the Commissioner
for the good work they have done during the national election and also during
the events that have just happened recently.
I was the Minister for Police and National Security at
the time when the Police Force fell down.
There was no decision by the government backed by the people. We only used our skills, knowledge,
intelligence and wisdom to navigate through troubled waters during that time.
Mr Speaker, I have a short stint as
Minister for National Security at another time when
Mr Speaker, as I have said I do not
want to take up a lot of your time otherwise some people would make a point of
order on me. I want to thank you, Mr Speaker,
the Clerk, the staff of Parliament for looking after the Members of Parliament
during this very hard and trying time.
As I have already said at the outset,
the Speech from the Throne which the Government is going to write is still
coming as the government has not put in place its strategic plans and mechanisms
and so I will wait until those are in place and Parliament resumes next time
before we can debate them. I promise
that I will be brief and I promise that I will stick to the motion and so I thank
you, Mr Speaker, and I take my seat.
(applause)
Hon FONO: Mr Speaker,
thank you for allowing the floor to the MP for Central Kwara’ae, the Leader of
the Opposition group in the House.
Mr Speaker, from the outset I must
acknowledge God’s sovereignty over this nation and also over my life. During the recent past, as a Christian nation we
acknowledged that God is still on the Throne and He remembers His very own
people.
Mr Speaker, I also wish to
congratulate the Honourable Prime Minister for forming the government after the
situation that we have gone through. Mr Speaker, I also would like to
acknowledge the MP for Marovo for his humility in giving room for a change in
government although there have been a lot of questions raised on the events leading
up to his resignation.
Mr Speaker, I also, on behalf of my
constituency, congratulate you for being re-elected unopposed to the post of
Speaker. This, as other colleagues have
said, is a reflection of your commitment and confidence that we Members of the
House placed on you to become the Speaker of the House for the second term. I also congratulate the election of the
Deputy Speaker, the MP for Savo/Russells to the esteemed office as Deputy
Speaker of the House.
I would also like to congratulate
each and every one of us, the 49 MPs for winning our seats to this honourable
House. I believe God has appointed us to be part of this House to lead this
nation in these difficult times.
Lest I forget, Mr Speaker, I take this
opportunity to thank my good people of Central Kwara’ae, 20,000 in population
similar to other provinces like Temotu, Makira, and Isabel but with only one MP
representing them in this House. What an
injustice? However, Mr Speaker, I would
like to thank them for having confidence in me for voting me back for the third
term. I hope this is not the last term because
interestingly since 1997 there were seven candidates challenging me for the
post, in 2001 there were five candidates and in 2006 the number of candidates dropped
down to one - the only constituency with two candidates. Hopefully by next term in 2010 may be I will
stand unopposed because it is going down the ladder.
(hear, hear)
Mr Speaker, at this juncture I would
also like to call on my good people to put aside their difference in feelings
and opinions after the election results. I call on my good people; most of whom are
Christians and therefore should exercise love and forgiveness to one
another. Although I and my family have
been humiliated through words they have expressed, I forgive them because the
words of our Master said, ‘love your enemies, and do good to them that hate
you’. I believe some of us Christians
who always stand for the truth have been accused of stealing, corruption and
all these.
During my campaign I always quote Mathew
Mr Speaker, on the question raised
by the Prime Minister as to why people behaved the way they did on the 18th
and 19th of April 2006, on Monday when I contributed to his
statement I did not answer that question. But now allow me to give some answers as to
why people behaved that way.
The events of the Black Tuesday, as
we now call it, on 18th of April 2006 has set a very bad precedence
for the nation where we see the so-called people’s power revolting and forcing
Parliament to meet and allow a vote of no confidence. I think people’s power has been expressed
during the general elections, and not so much during the election of the Prime
Minister. The power to elect the Prime
Minister rests entirely upon MPs that people elect. If people would also want to participate in
the election of the Prime Minister then the constitution needs to be
changed. That is why I said a bad precedence
has been set. What would happen next time if the Parliament votes for another
Prime Minister and the people do not accept it?
Are they going to exercise another people’s power and throw away a
democratically elected prime minister?
No, Mr Speaker. I think we should
come to our senses and realize that a democratically elected Prime Minister is
the wish of the Parliament.
Mr Speaker, I am raising this concern
because it has a lot of implications in the election of future prime ministers
if we are to go by what happened on
Coming back to the question as to
why people behaved that way, a symposium of how people react, firstly there are
some political parties that campaign in their strategies and manifestos on the
need for a change in government because of corruption - ‘the previous government is corrupt’. That has been the talk on the streets and
even by the Winds of Change. The organization
is a good organization but how it reaches out to people advocating change of
government and change of leadership is not right.
Mr Speaker, any change should depend on individual
constituencies. People should realize
that MPs retaining their seats through the election process shows that their
people have confidence in them because may be they serve their people properly
or may be they achieve development projects that their people have actually seen,
may be they were transparent in how they administer public funds such as the
RCDF or may be people have confidence in their leaders on their contribution in
this House and that is why they have been re-elected. Therefore, for such an organization as the Winds
of Change to generalize that there is a need for a change of government or
there is a need for change in the Member of Parliament is not fair. It is not fair and I deplore it.
The donors that funded that organization should
realize that although they provided support to civic organizations like the
Winds of Change, their agenda is not in the best interest of our nation.
Mr Speaker, there were also some
political parties that campaigned against the Chinese business people in the
country. I am surprised, Mr
Speaker. This is a multi-racial society
whether we like it or not. No country in
the world is without any multi racial component in its citizens. I have not seen any country in the world
where only its indigenous people exist in it and no outside people come in and
gain citizenship. It is provided for
under law, Mr Speaker. And so for
political parties or individual MPs to campaign against expelling Chinese from
our nation is promoting racism and is not fair.
That kind of campaign is sort of changing people’s
perception that they now need a government that would chase away Chinese
citizens. I am surprised because if we
look at Hansard records, my good colleague, the MP for Aoke/Langa Langa has
already predicted last year that there is going to be another ethnic tension
here in
Mr Speaker, I raised on Monday too
that there is a perception that there must be a change of government so that it
addresses the lost property issue, the second phase of the lost property
payments that were not paid in the past.
That is why when this side of the House took the government there was
already the perception that if the same government continues, it will not
address the second phase payment. No
wonder the reaction we have seen on the 18thApril. Those are issues that contributed to how
people behaved that way on that particular day.
And then again, as I have also
stated on Monday, is the rehabilitation payment to former militants. That is why I was asking my good friend, the
Prime Minister to make it clear in his statement whether payments would be made
or not so as not to create false hope and false promises to our people.
The other contributing factor, Mr Speaker,
is the Family Charity Fund issue where it was alleged that the government we
were a part of in the last four years has stolen their money -the Charity Fund
where a person only pays $200 and he/she is expected to receive $1.2 million.
Mr Speaker, where in the world is such a scheme
established? I have also traveled the
world over but I have never seen any such scheme. This has changed the mentality of our people to
quick money scheme.
It was claimed that the government led by the MP for
Savo Russells has used their money in the bank for other purposes. They claimed the government misused their
money and so they need a change of government so that it pays $1.2 million to each
of its members. This is a fact, Mr
Speaker, I was told, and so we hope the new government will honour it. But categorically, Mr Speaker, in our right
mind nothing like that exists in the world where someone puts in $200 or $300
and he/she is paid $1.2 million in return. The MP for Savo Russells was implicated in
this and that is why the continuation of the last government was not welcomed
because of the claim that the last government misused their money. That is a fallacy. That is not true, Mr Speaker.
We know very well the Governor of
the Central Bank denying any such money coming in through our financial system
for members of the Family Charity Fund. That
is one of the reasons because people are still hoping that their money will be
paid to them and so they want a change of government.
Mr Speaker, the seventh point is the
anti RAMSI campaign by individual MPs especially here in
Mr Speaker, the eighth point is
corruption issue. I am surprised when
some people in the streets told me that the government I joined members in my
camp received $20,000 each. My
goodness! Who in the world would give free
money to people? Mr Speaker, that was
propagated by even some members on the government side now.
Mr Speaker, I overheard on the telephone two MPs on
the eve of the 18th April talking amongst themselves saying that the
Mr Speaker, I am very surprised that dignified MPs were
involved in such a conversation making allegations. No wonder this side of the House was blamed as
being corrupt. But do you know, Mr
Speaker, that when you point fingers like this at others, how many come fingers
point back at you? There are three or
four. That is not fair, Mr Speaker.
To be honest Mr Speaker, I thought
they were confused about the payment authorized by the Prime Minister for the
constituencies that was provided for under the budget. Mr Speaker, not only government MPs received this
payment but Members of Parliament on the Opposition side also received it last
year. The MP for South New Georgia,
Rendova/Tetepari took $882,000 for water supply. I have the list with me, Mr Speaker, on the recipients. Boat building in Langa Langa received $1
million with three trances already disbursed.
Mr Speaker, I can tell the nation that this funding is not only for
government MPs but almost all Members of Parliament benefited from it. Even the MP for Central Kwara’ae received funding
for cattle rehabilitation.
You know what, Mr Speaker, we are
now supplying beef here in
You see, Mr Speaker, and the list goes on.
What we are doing is confusing and misinforming the
pubic about corruption. My goodness!
Mr Speaker, the MP for North New
Georgia and the MP for Gizo/Kolombangara- the Minister for Planning also received
assistance worth $300,000 through this funding.
Is that what you want to hear? Even
the MP for Ranonga/Simbo received assistance for rural education enhancement worth
$200,000.
Mr Speaker, I am reading this list in
order to make it clear to the public that the assistance given by the ROC was
not only for Members of Parliament on the government side last year but it was
also for MPs on the Opposition side. This
funding is transparent because it was provided for in the budget and was then
funded.
Do you know what, Mr Speaker, these payments were not
done through Members of Parliaments’ accounts.
Payment was paid through the line ministries. Like in my case, any agriculture project for
my constituency was paid through the Ministry of Agriculture. All I need to do was submit invoices and then
the Ministry of Agriculture through the Treasury Division of the Ministry of
Finance raised the payments.
Mr Speaker, the confusion over the
$10 million funding was being used to accuse the current opposition grouping in
Parliament as being corrupt. That is the
misinformation you were telling the public.
Surprisingly enough, Mr Speaker, some members in the government side now
are propagating this misinformation. Mr Speaker;
I am really surprised because leaders should tell nothing but the truth.
Mr Speaker, I now come back to the
Prime Minister’s statement that government is placing emphasis on indigenous
business development. Before that can be
done, Mr Speaker, I want the government to look seriously at changing the
definition of the word ‘Solomon Islander’ in the Constitution. Right now, the word ‘Solomon Islander’ also
reflects naturalized citizens as Solomon Islanders. And therefore when these naturalized citizens
are involved in business they have the same rights as indigenous people too.
If you want more emphasis on indigenous business
people then we need to change the definition.
There must be two definitions; one an indigenous Solomon Islander and
another one ‘naturalized citizen’ and that will pave the way for racism. The
definition of indigenous business must be changed in the Constitution.
I also raised in the media my idea of redeveloping the
Mr Speaker, my idea is to repossess the
Mr Speaker, as a candidate for the Prime Minister’s
post about two weeks ago, I also raised the need for reconciliation. It is very important for
Sir, at the same time there is need for the truth and
reconciliation commission to be established so that the public can give information
relating to not only the events that started the ethnic tension in year 2000 but
even this Black Tuesday as it was referred to where there were a lot of
information floating around. There is
need for people need to come forward to give evidence and information relating
to how this situation was started.
Mr Speaker, I also raised in the media that the opposition
group in the House would certainly be giving constructive opposition to the
government making sure the government governs this nation within the bounds of
the constitution and our legal frameworks, also upholding good governance,
accountability and transparency. We will
certainly do those. We will allow the
government to implement its goals and aspirations as highlighted in the Prime
Minister’s statement delivered to the House on Monday.
In concluding, Mr Speaker, I would like on behalf of
my good people of Central Kwara’ae express to his Excellency, the Governor
General his family and staff for the splendid work they have been doing during
the recent events we have gone through.
I thank them for their wisdom in making decisions.
Also, Mr Speaker, your good self and staff for the way
you conducted the meeting in the past weeks. To all our Christian Churches, I thank you for
your prayers and commitment during the difficult times we have gone through. It is important that you continue to pray for
this nation as we seek the Lord’s will, on how we will govern this nation. This
is why when I referred to the two Prime Ministers of 1997 and the current one
re-dedicating the nation to God, it is very good. But there is more to that, Mr Speaker. I think we need to rededicate our personal
lives to God as well, and not only the nation. This is very important so that God can give us
wisdom to govern this nation. Thank you
all
Mr Speaker, I also thank the private sector for its
commitment in continuing to build this nation. As we know private sector or our business
houses are the engine of growth for this nation. I would like to thank all business houses. At this juncture also, Mr Speaker, I would
like to send my sympathy message to the Chinese communities that are affected by
the recent events here in
Mr Speaker, I would also like to thank the Public Service
for its continued support and commitment and dedication in making sure services
are continued to be delivered - Teachers, the Police and all other public
sector unions for their support.
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank the Royal Solomon
Islands Police (RSIP) for their commitment during the turbulent weeks that we came
through. It is very, very sad to we see our Police not fully equipped during the
riot. I call on the government to re-look
at the Rapid Response Unit we used to have in the past. This Unit was trained to address such
situations. I think over the years that
Rapid Response Unit was no longer existed.
So the government unfortunately the Minister of Police is not here, but whoever
takes that inisterial post must re look at re establishing the rapid response
unit as a unit within the Police Force for addressing these types of problems we
are facing.
Like in the past we used to have riots but there were
no burning down of properties, but how police address the recent event Mr Speaker,
is seen as weakness. They were not armed;
they were not fully equipped even with buttons or shields. This is something
for the government to consider. At the
same time Mr Speaker, I would like to thank RAMSI Special Co-ordinator, and the
other officers of RAMSI for their continued commitment to the government and
people of
Also Mr Speaker, the provincial premiers of the
provincial governments, I’d also like to thank them for their understanding in
the situation. I think we all know that
whatever happens here in
Mr Speaker, I wish to thank the development partners very
much for their understanding of our situation.
I had an opportunity working with them in the last government and I
thank them a lot for their understanding. It is my hope that the current government
would also have that similar understanding and push our development partners to
work alongside our priorities.
I would also like to raise at this point in time the
need for an aid policy. The government
needs to come up with a proper aid policy that development partners could work
alongside so that it becomes a priority document of the government.
Lastly, but not the least, to my good people of
Central Kwara’ae, after the meeting I shall come over to Auki to re-convene my
constituency congress so that we plan ahead for the next four years. Without the Congress, Mr Speaker, I would not
have strong support to become their leader.
Mr Speaker, thank you so much for the opportunity to contribute
and I support the motion moved by the Honorable Prime Minister.
Hon Sogavare: Point of
order. Mr Speaker, due to the fact that quite a number of MPs still want to
speak to the sine die motion, and so I beg to move the following amendment to the
motion currently in debate.
Mr Speaker, the motion will now read ‘that at the
adjournment of Parliament on
The motion is agreed to
Mr SPEAKER: Before
the Minister for National Planning speaks, I suppose it is nice, whilst it is
fresh in our minds to make clarification in relation to Solomon Islander in
terms of citizenship and naturalized citizenship. Solomon Islander is defined in the Lands and
Titles CAP 113 to mean a person born in
Hon DARCY: Mr Speaker,
thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the debate of this
very important motion, the motion of sine die moved by the Honorable Prime
Minister.
Mr Speaker, in so doing, I also at the outset would
like to say that I am very pleased indeed to be part of this Eighth Session of
Parliament after the recent election. First
of all, I would like to congratulate you for your re-election unopposed of
course as a Speaker of Parliament for the tenure of this House. Sir, your re-election is a clear manifestation
of the confidence and trust bestowed on you by Honorable Members of Parliament
on behalf of people of
On the same token, Sir, I would also like to
congratulate the Honorable MP, my good friend the MP for Savo/Russells and a
former Prime Minister for his election as the Deputy Speaker of the House. Even through I have my own reservations as to
the constitutionality of why you accepted his nomination, I will leave that to
be sorted out in the right process. I am
highly optimistic, Mr Speaker, that in taking up that new responsibility, the
Deputy Speaker will, of course, bring with him an ended bonus to the House with
his years of political experience and leadership behind him.
Likewise, Mr Speaker, to all Honorable colleagues,
both returning and new, may, I also congratulate them for successfully winning the
recent elections.
I feel also, Mr Speaker, that it is my duty to
register my gratitude to the people of Gizo/Kolombangara constituency, in thanking
them for placing their overwhelming trust and confidence in me as their elected
representative as demonstrated by the biggest ever winning margin in the recent
elections.
Sir, I wish to assure my good people that I shall do
nothing more than to do my utmost best to ensure that our constituency actively
plays its part in the overall development process of
Sir, moving on to real issues, I wish to state here
that the events of the most recent past involving the destruction and looting
of certain areas of Honiara business districts is most regrettable. In saying so, I wish to extend on behalf of
the people of Gizo/Kolombangara constituency my deep sympathy over loses incurred
by predominantly the Chinese Community and those Solomon Islanders who also
incurred loses one way or another.
Sir, with the hard lessons and the
painful experiences of personal and business losses aside, I believe we must
now allow reparation efforts to begin.
We must try to forget the past and move on with the process of
rebuilding this country. By moving on it
is important that we build on the improvements that we have right now - the
improvements that our previous government has achieved with assistance from
RAMSI, and we must start to redirect our policies so that we can lead us to
take charge of our destiny and our country.
Mr Speaker, I wish to state here the
fact that RAMSI must stay. In so far as
RAMSI is concern as stated by the honourable Prime Minister in his statement,
RAMSI is a non issue and I do not think we should come to this House and try to
justify ourselves about what RAMSI is in our own debates in this House.
We have seen the positive impact of
RAMSI and RAMSI’s presence in our country, as a matter of policy and as long as
SI and the SI Government take charge of our duty, we will continue to work to
reap our good benefits out of our partnership with RAMSI. I believe we should work closely in
partnership with RAMSI.
Mr Speaker, we have indeed witnessed
a saddest chapter in the history of our parliamentary democracy when we saw the
MP for Marovo served as Prime Minister of this country for a mere week. I want to say that even though that will
remain as history in this country, I think the good thing is that the
honourable MP for Marovo has in fact set a good history for this country, and
that is choosing between democracy and public peace. I think the MP for Marovo will remain in the
political history of this country as choosing public peace as the right thing
and the right decision especially given the time this country was facing over
the past few weeks. I wish to
congratulate the MP for Marovo for taking that decision and showing to the
whole people of
Mr Speaker, in reflecting onl those events, I wish to
say that it has put to test the rigidity and the robustness of our Constitution. Sir, history would tell us that if what has
transpired has done us justice or otherwise regardless of whatever, we must
again appeal to our honourable Members to forget what has happened and let us
move forward.
Mr Speaker, there are some in this House that have
raised issues about maintaining the sovereignty of this country. They are concerned about the approach of “hands
off”. Mr Speaker, I think the real issue
we must understand is that as a sovereign country our Constitution allows the
Prime Minister and the Cabinet to run this country.
The reaction that we have seen over the past few weeks,
in which we have asked our friends to understand, is let the country to be run
by the legitimate government duly elected by our people. The Constitution is very clear on this.
I am pleased to see that we have now started to direct
our friends, our neighbours, our neighbouring countries to see that, and to use
the appropriate processes under the Vienna Convention to channel their concerns
and criticisms about what is happening in the country through the appropriate
channel. I am pleased to say here that,
that improvement has started to begin and I hope it will continue.
On the issue of the motion of no confidence, Mr
Speaker, I would like to say that we have undertaken the application of that
motion of no confidence in this House within the bounds of our Constitution. In my view, the motion of no confidence moved
some two weeks ago was constitutional and justified given the
circumstances. Because it has to be and since
it is the only avenue available to us under the Constitution to ensure that the
kind of concern leaders are faced with can be resolved through this House. There is no other way but to have that motion.
We have been able to show that in a very
very respectable and robust way in this House.
I wish to urge all our Members especially those in the
Opposition side to respect what has happened.
The motion was properly constituted, it was properly processed through
this House and it has brought us the kind of resolve that we have now seen and
that we have once again enjoyed.
Sir, I have also seen during this week a kind of
debate and presentation made by some of our Members in this House, which really
saddens me, as it does not speak well of us as leaders. There are some who made presentations in this
House that are full of personal vendetta, especially against former public
servants who are now Members of Parliament.
We think we can use them as an excuse to justify our own arguments and
to justify our own debates in this House.
Mr Speaker, that sort of attitude must stop because
they are now Members of Parliament. The more we start to get ourselves engage
in that kind of a debate, can amount to abuse of our own privilege in this
House, and it could amount to us using them in a very abusive way. We must stop and focus our time and energy
into forward looking rather than subjecting ourselves to that kind of debate in
this House.
Sir, I think what is real for us right now is to
redirect this country forward, which is really the intention of this
government. We must start to redirect
our policies, we must start to look forward and make changes.
I shared some of the sentiments that a lot of our Members
have stated in here especially seeing Members of Parliament being held hostage
in this house for more than six hours.
But, Sir, equally so is the demand for change. If you look at our people in the rural areas
for the last 27 years, they have been held hostage as well with very little
assistance given to our people. I think
that is the real issue we should be directing our attention to, and that is to
address why our people in the rural areas for the last 27 years have been held
hostage - no development delivered to them.
I think that is the real issue we should be focusing our attention to. If the people have spoken to us and we have
not changed, people have different ways and how people speak to us is what they
have demonstrated to us.
Sir, I think it is now time for us
to move on and I would like to urge all Members in whatever capacity you are,
to participate to assist the government in planning this country for the next
years. We have to move on, we have to
plan for our future now.
I want to assure this House that I will be calling on
all sides of this House to be heavily engaged in the process of formulating a
new national plan for this country, which we are starting to work on, and I am
expecting that by November this year we should be able to bring it to this
House so that we can once again deliberate on that plan.
With those remarks Mr Speaker, I
want to say that this country is ours, it is time now for us to move on, and it
is now time for us to start re-developing this country. We must aim with all the best of our time and
energy to put the interest of this country as we take stock of whatever we have
seen in the past and move on.
With those remarks, Mr Speaker, I
resume my seat and I support the motion.
Hon ROGOSOMANI: Mr Speaker,
thank you for allowing the floor of this honourable House for the first time in
this First Meeting of the Eighth Parliamentary Session to briefly contribute to
the sine die motion moved by the Prime Minister.
Let me take this opportunity to
congratulate you, Sir, and this honourable House for seeing it fit that you retain
that honorable sit to ably oversee the business of Parliament. It is my joy and privilege as the new Member
of Parliament for the Lau/Mbaelelea constituency to thank you most sincerely
for your contribution to this nation as a public servant, the first Prime
Minister of Solomon Islands, and a Member of Parliament, Mr Speaker. You are a real statesman and it is my strong
belief that once more you will rise to the occasion and direct the affairs of
this House for another fruitful term of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, let me now on behalf of
myself and my family thank the people and government of
Mr Speaker, I take this opportunity
to officially thank the chiefs, church leaders, community leaders, young
people, mothers, children and people of the Lau/Mbaelelea constituency for
having confidence in me by electing me as their new leader. Your votes
demonstrate your confidence and trust in my leadership for the next four years
and also into the future. I am confident of serving you my good people to the
best of my ability as long as I remain your Member of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, I also take this
opportunity to thank those who have been candidates for the Lau/Mbaelelea constituency
since the Legislative Assembly, Independence and post independence, especially
those who have been Members of Parliament for the Lau/Mbalelea seat in Parliament. Despite difficulties faced it has been a time
of learning and growth, not as it would have been expected by the people of the
Lau/Mbaelelea but at least at no time has this seat left empty for any reason.
Mr Speaker, may I remind all MPs and
all those who are in leadership capacity that God requires us to lead our
people in a way and manner that not only brings about security, prosperity and
progress but also glorifies God in our nation.
I have decided to take my stand and
be where I am today, not because I condone violence but because I have certain
principles in life that rules my life as an individual. It comes as a real surprise to me that money
or the promise of huge money was actually promised me to support a particular
group which wanted to form the government. As an example I was waken up to my surprise in
the morning of the 4th of May 2006 to see a note that was given to
me and my colleague Member for East Kwaio requesting us to join other Ministers
especially the candidate for prime ministership and offered a portfolio. This note was given to the security of the IBS.
The note said if we go over or to vote
for their candidate of Prime Minister, the Security would be given $10,000.00.
Trust me, it says and this was signed and the phone number is here. This to me is clearly wrong and unethical and
totally against my belief in my freedom to decide on behalf of the people I
represent in Parliament.
What guarantee do I have that future decisions will be
made on principle rather than on cash handouts from those who could not care
what happens to this nation? I therefore
decide that I would rather suffer for righteousness shake.
Mr Speaker, it can be very difficult to prove
corruption in a court of law, but the manifestation of corruption are rampant
in this nation. If it were not so, we
would not have received a lecture on corruption by the Foreign Affairs Minister
of Australia. Why would
Mr Speaker, governance is not a about power, prestige and
arrogance. Governance in a democracy is
about listening to the voice of our people and doing all we can as leaders to
lead our people to joy, peace, progress and prosperity. Governance in a democracy is government of
the people by the people and for the people.
Mr Speaker, it is now time for
Mr Speaker, because of the faulty foundation in which
we wish to progress our nation, it would seem to me that we have not only
started on the wrong foot but have managed to shoot that foot as well. Mr Speaker, I sincerely hope we will quickly
correct the situation and redirect the course of our nation for the betterment
of our people. Apparently that was the
reason why we are elected to Parliament.
Mr Speaker,
before I resume my seat let me now congratulate all Members of Parliament for
being elected to this highest decision making institution on the land. I sincerely hope we will not disappoint our
voters and citizens of
Thank you, and I resume my seat.
Topic
of Adjournment
“That
the Parliament endorses the establishment and enactment of an Act of Parliament
to provide political stability for the country”
(a
technical fault occurred – part of the
speech was not recorded)
Mr Huniehu: “We have easily developed strong socio and
economic values on the basis of our cultural heritage with our vast economic
wealth. But to do this requires strong
political will.” End of quote.
This is where I think that rather
than mourning about what has happened, Mr Speaker, the provisions of the
Constitution, the 1978 Independence Order was inadequate to address the need of
political stability.
Mr Speaker, this Constitution and other subsidiary
legislations have been ignored for the last 27 years, hence what we have been
experiencing is basically the failure of this Parliament to address in a critical
way the need to have political stability in this country.
As I have said, Mr Speaker, you can make
plans, you can have the best plans for the Ministry of Education as emphasized
by the Minister this morning. Very good
plans Mr Speaker. Whatever we do Mr
Speaker, whatever we plan in a country in which the practice is democracy such
as
This country is made up of 80
languages with many different islands, cultures in a vast expanse of
ocean. The need for us to work together
is very critical. All these uprisings
have been because of the way we are geographically made up in this
country. It is only law that will bind
us together, and this is why I am urging my Prime Minister to do something very
serious.
What have I done in my years in Parliament to address
this Mr Speaker? Yes, I have been very
vocal on this issue in all meetings of Parliament. At all stage, Mr Speaker, we have requested
funds from the Republic of China to establish an integrity bill in the year
2000. We received the funds but it was
diverted to pay for public servants; salaries.
I think we can take up this project again.
As Chairman of the Bills and
Legislation Committee, Mr Speaker, I have tabled a plan to start reviewing
issues of this nature but because the Parliament’s Standing Committees were
under resourced we were unable to do it.
This is the begging subject of this adjournment topic. I know all of us have covered this subject
issue in our debates but the purpose of re-emphasizing this motion again at
this very point in time is for the Prime Minister to once again reassure this
Parliament that within the next three months or so, an integrity bill or an act
to create political stability in this country should be tabled in the next
sitting of Parliament. It is very
important I should not over emphasise this.
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, many
previous Members of Parliament share the same views as I do and many Members who
were party to the signing of this Constitution in
I would rather think that the party that
wins the majority in the election should be the party that the Governor General
should appoint or should call upon to form the government. This is to eliminate the process of lobbying
for the position of prime minister.
The Leader of the Opposition said it
very clearly this morning that people have already expressed their majestic
voices in the ballot boxes during the general elections. The people should be voting along party
policies, and this is what we should be promoting. We should get people to vote along party
policies, leadership qualities and what each political party is to offer if it
wins the elections. We have to
revolutionise the political process. At
the moment, as it is well known throughout the country each member campaigns on
his/her credibility and credentials. If
he has inadequate credibility and credentials, Mr Speaker, he/she does not
win. What is happening more now in our
constituencies throughout
Mr Speaker, if political parties
have no financial resources then it is up to the government to provide
financial capital to help them. I want
to recommend to the government to provide funding for political parties otherwise
we will continue to rely on our friends.
This is what is causing problem.
I said in my remarks, when can we ever learn?
Mr Speaker, I am very genuine in
moving this as a subject of adjournment, and I believe this is the message of
the hour. We have been very critical of
each other but I hope this message will unify all of us as one Parliament. I hope this message of getting properly
established political parties will be redeeming our people in
My good friend, the Minister for Education can also
include in his syllabus in our arrangements to provide political education in
the classrooms and the older people in constituencies. This must be part of our total responsibility
of uniting our people together, and educating them with the real issues that
matters in general elections.
With those few remarks, Mr Speaker,
I thank you once again for allowing me to move this as a matter of adjournment as
this is a matter of public concern. I
hope that the honourable Prime Minister will again reassure this Parliament of
the serious and urgent need to do this.
Mr Speaker, this matter is not only important but it is also urgent. Thank
you very much.
Hon SOGAVARE: Mr Speaker, I
would like to thank the Member for East Are Are for the motion. As he said, it is a very important issue and
I think there is nothing more that I can say that will really emphasise the
importance of the concerns he has raised.
This is a matter that has been around for quite a while. I think many Houses have been victims of
political instability and so he was talking about real issues.
I think he has raised it in the
appropriate time because the government has just been established and as you
know the group is made up of five political factions, and in fact some
political parties will be seriously taking up these issues in their manifestos.
The chief of the group is hard at
work putting together the policy of the party and it is one of the issues that
we are taking very, very seriously and if there is a need to have a legislation
to be implemented then that is the way to go.
As you would also know, Mr Speaker,
the issue is also being addressed in the federal constitution. There is some section in the new federal
constitution that looks at addressing the organisation arrangements of
political parties. I think that is
another venue that we may need to look at if there is a need to amend or
incorporate that marking in the Constitution before we address the organic laws
then that is the way to be done. Of
course, we need to get the views of the expertise who will advise the
government as on how to go about it.
Mr Speaker, this is a very important
matter brought to the attention of the government, and I would like to assure
the House that the government that I have the opportunity and the honor of
leading will address it with all seriousness.
(applause)
The House adjourned at