But islanders hope he gets on with the job

Lisa Williams-Lahari
‘The situation is quite fluid’, often provides the descriptive cover diplomats need to duck behind when the going gets tough.

While arrests of two of his government colleagues during the Pacific Islands Forum meeting had Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare wondering if he would be handcuffed on arrival back in Honiara, his new Post-Forum silence once back home might be because he has to contemplate the impact of his comments on investor confidence in his country.

The forced departures of Patrick Cole and Shane Castles and the pre-emptive adieu by Solicitor-General Nathan Moshinsky also sparked fears that investor capital would begin leaking out of the economy.

In recent months, ‘fluid’ has been thrown out the door in the Solomon Islands with RAMSI and all things Australian taking a public ear-bashing from Prime Minister Sogavare.

Attendance at the 2006 Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting in Fiji only served to amplify rather than distract the nation’s leader from his anti-Australia tirade.

An almost daily round of government press releases replayed the same issues around different faces, quotes and themes.

Perceived political interference by the nation’s ex-Australian envoy in national affairs, the Australian-led nature of RAMSI, and accusations of boomerang aid from Australia were conveniently roped into one punching bag; helping the PM to distract public questions from other pertinent issues, such as whether the public purse can afford to pay huge salary increases for parliamentarians.

The question gained a deeper urgency with trends from a newly launched household income and expenditure survey revealing that Solomon Islanders are spending a large portion of what they earn on basic food items; especially on the basic staple, rice.

Even the top bracket of higher income public servants in the urban areas are hit by considerable rental fees.

That leaves preciously little across-the-board for savings, investment, or play—areas which would benefit the most from anyone with a few extra dollars.

Back in Nadi though, the pre-set agenda of the Pacific Islands Forum meeting was focused on the larger Pacific Plan issues.

But the annual retreat with its open agenda would have given the window needed by Sogavare and the ‘Grand Chief’ Sir Michael Somare to formalise their woes.

They lobbied the rest of the Forum into a decision to review RAMSI’s operations and pressure Australia into providing its exit strategy.

To its credit, RAMSI did note at its pre-Forum launch of its first annual report since 2003 that it would be working on such a strategy.

With their top man James Batley attending the Forum, damage control to the image of the regional mission to the Solomons was well in place.

Ironically, while he was rousing support from his Forum counterparts in Fiji, Sogavare has faced strong criticisms of his leadership, back in the Solomon Islands.

While he can blame Australian bullying for the fact that three Solomon Islanders have been arrested over the Moti affair, questions are being asked about why Solomon Islanders are being arrested over a man whom they only know about through his close links with their leader.

The Forum is likely to be well appraised and happy with the RAMSI initiative and the increasing involvement of their nationals in both the Pacific Police Force and as advisors or technical staff in key ministries.

But there are leaders aplenty who’ve had their own run-ins with the big Pacific brothers on similar issues to do with aid, perceived interference, and playing the sovereignty card, and would have been happy to push for a more Pacific flavour to the RAMSI presence in the Solomons.

Lately though, RAMSI’s profile back where it matters most has been providing Sogavare with enough material to keep his anti-Australia song playing.

While he was out of the country attending the Forum leaders meeting, one of his cabinet ministers responsible for immigration, Peter Shanel, was arrested in front of his children and later charged in connection with the arrest upon arrival into the Solomons of fugitive Attorney-General, Julian Moti.

A few days later, Honiara was on edge with the infamous door-kicking and ‘stuff your state secrets’ delivery by a young Australian PPF officer claiming a fax machine from the Prime Ministers office was used to talk to the PNG government.

Then security alerts were sent through the roof when a fire broke out at night after the fax machine incident, in the same block of buildings covering the Prime Minister’s compound.

The venue just happened to be a key office block where RAMSI’s economic reform officials are based.

Though it later turned out that the fire involved cigarette embers, a waste bin, and a couple of government employees on a drinking spree, the timing still leaves media pundits cynical.

At other levels too, RAMSI’s presence in a country in the throes of nation-rebuilding has brought with it revealing glimpses of a properly resourced elite of consultants and advisors who have brought their lifestyles and families along with their much-needed technical expertise.

In the office, where the reality is that competent local counterparts are in short supply, those they rub their privileged shoulders with are often still living in village cultures and lifestyles without the benefit of household water and toilet systems, electricity and paved roads with public or private transport.

The reality of X-vehicles (project vehicles, often new and imported 4WDs) syndrome also rubs less fortunate ministries the wrong way. Resource-rich projects in targeted ministries such as Finance and the Prime Minister’s departments; where many employees now enjoy their own email accounts, are showing up other offices struggling to raise the money needed to reconnect the phone lines because last month’s bill hadn’t been paid.

Sogavare’s song, therefore, does have some measure of popular support, even if using the blame-Australia line as a chorus is already being seen by many as a tiring tactic to divert attention from the issues he is less comfortable with.

Amongst them, there’s been a relative silence despite public pressure for more accountability and access to Taiwan-funded constituency money which goes directly to parliamentarians for developments in their electorates.

The poor performance of the constituency fund has shown that MPs are not necessarily the best managers of money in the public interest.

Local media managers say the focus on RAMSI-bashing can help to divert attention from the still common power and water outages.

But they predict Sogavare will soon calm down from running down RAMSI and get on with running the country. There is one man who might interfere with public perception of how well their leader can perform.

Despite the impression Sogavare gives that he’s being besieged by Australians in that role, no one has missed the inherent contradiction in his vetoing of local talent Primo Afeau as Attorney-General in favour of Fiji-born Australian Julian Moti.

Moti, who was overseas at the time his appointment was announced, was caught up in a subsequent drama with all the makings of a Hollywood movie.

Coincidentally or not, once his name hit the headlines over the attorney-general issue, Australia announced he was wanted at home, based on ‘new information’ over a 1997 case relating to sex with a minor.

The case, brought during Moti’s short legal stint in Vanuatu, was subsequently dropped, with another civil claim brought by the girl’s family settled out of court.

Rather than deal with those new questions, Moti changed his itinerary and tried to get back to the Solomons via Papua New Guinea, but he was arrested on arrival in Port Moresby.

What happened next is still creating history. From escaping while under arrest to being holed up in the Solomon Islands high commission, and later being the reason for two Solomons’ officials to leave Honiara for PNG and fly him back on a special charter, Moti’s relationship with the Prime Minister is leaving media pundits and observers puzzled over just how many more people will have to face arrest because of their leader’s wantok bonds with a man who has had next to no previous association with the government.

Under pressure as he is to defend their sovereignty in the face of a RAMSI invasion, Solomon Islanders are not the only ones wondering why their leader is willing to put it all on the line for a man who doesn’t even hold the same passport that they do.

All they can hope is that he will be worth the cost.