PM heads to Taiwan to explain

Alfred Sasako
Prime Minister Dr Derek Sikua heads to Taipei, Taiwan, next month in a visit that could make or break relations between Solomon Islands and Taiwan.
One of the main issues he will confront is the likely “please explain” note from Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou. It relates to a recent trip to mainland China by one of Dr Sikua’s senior ministers.
While there, he will also discuss issues that should be on the agenda of the Taiwan-Pacific Allies Summit to be held in Honiara later this year.
Sikua’s senior minister’s February trip to Beijing was meant to be a top secret. And it was, until it hit a snag in Papua New Guinea.
Commerce and Industries Minister, Francis Billy Hilly, accompanied by senior forestry officials, was forced to return to Honiara after he was told in Port Moresby that Beijing had denied them entry visas.
Senior officials said the delegation was to have held “official discussions” on the sale of round logs to mainland China.
The aborted trip by Hilly, a former prime minister, wasn’t the first. In 2001, former foreign minister Danny Philip was removed from office after he ended up in Hong Kong instead of Taipei where he was expected to have officially opened the Solomon Islands embassy in Taipei.
Philip’s adventure created a flurry of diplomatic activities between Taipei and Honiara, including a demand by the then Taiwan government for an explanation.
That incident brought the diplomatic relations between the two countries to near breaking point. Staff at the Taiwan embassy in Honiara were told to pack up and be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.
Only a decision by then Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, to travel to Taipei to apologise for the misadventure averted further action by Taipei.
Senior government officials in Honiara later explained the reason for Philip’s travel to Hong Kong. Taiwan was told that its foreign minister was not available to meet Philip.
Taiwan’s Ambassador to Solomon Islands, George Chan, said he was unaware of Minister Hilly’s trip until the delegation arrived back in Honiara.
The trip, he said, was organised by a Chinese businessman in Australia.
The top Taiwan diplomat was said to have been angry that Prime Minister Sikua did not even have the courtesy to inform him of the impending trip when they met earlier that week.
Ambassador Chan reportedly told close confidantes later: “This [the denial of entry visas by Beijing] showed that diplomatic truce is working between China and Taiwan and should serve as a wake-up call for the Solomons.”
Covertly flirting: The ambassador’s comments reflect Taipei’s sensitivity when its Pacific allies are caught as it is in this case, covertly flirting with Beijing. Solomon Islands is one of five Pacific islands nations that have diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
At the same time, Chan’s comments are seen as a veiled warning that the tide has turned and that Taiwan and mainland China will, sooner or later, be reunited.
No one, he seems to be saying, is going to stop it. That Beijing had turned down a request for an entry visa for a government minister of a country China has been trying to win over from Taipei is unheard of in recent times.
Hilly is the head of the National Party which had signed an MOU with the ruling Communist Party in China. This alone should have made things a lot easier for the minister to travel to Beijing. But it didn’t.
Because of the MOU, Hilly has consistently refused to travel to Taipei to sign an agreement for a seasonal workers scheme the two countries had negotiated.
(Only four short years ago when this writer was on a visit to China at the invitation of the Beijing-based Chinese Institute of International Affairs, he was given audiences with high ranking senior officials of the Chinese government, including the Chinese Foreign Minister as well as with the Vice Chairman of the ruling Communist Party. This writer was a Member of Parliament at the time and was the official spokesperson for foreign affairs. Obtaining entry visas for the week-long visit which took in Beijing, Shanghai and Guadong provinces were very easy.)
Beijing’s refusal to grant entry vias to a ministerial delegation appears to indicate that the pendulum has swung and that reunification is a lot closer than many realised.
Observers say when that happens, Honiara will be the biggest loser as on reunification, Taiwan would no longer continue its aid programme to Solomon Islands.
Solomon Islands and Taiwan entered into diplomatic relations in 1983. In the last 26 years, Taiwan has learnt that the motive for the relations on the part of Solomon Islands appears to be more on money rather than value, trust and friendship based on respect.
Despite this weakness, successive governments in Taipei made sure there’s plenty of this lubricant [money] available, to keep the diplomatic wheel turning.
From Taipei, the money flowed freely—no strings attached—to the merriment of past and present politicians in the Hapi Isles.
In the last 10 years, for example, Solomon Islands received cash grants estimated to be well over US$100 million [SB$818 million in today’s exchange rate], in addition to project funding which included the country’s National Referral Hospital in Honiara.
In the same period, Solomon Islands obtained only one single soft loan of US$25 million [around SB$204 million in today’s exchange rate].
The funds were used to settle claims for properties destroyed or damaged during the civil uprising on Guadalcanal five years ago.
It is being repaid with Taiwan aid money at an annual interest rate of 3.2 percent.
Taiwan’s next major project, which Taipei has greed to undertake, is phase II of the Solomon Islands National Parliament building. The first phase was funded by the United States of America. Taiwan’s commitment to this project is said to be more than SB$30 million [US$3.7 million].
In recent times, the relationship has come under considerable strain, again it seems, over money.
On the Solomon Islands side, Honiara believes it isn’t getting enough from Taipei. It wants more.
Foreign Minister, William Haomae, said in Honiara recently that “Taiwan’s aid funding to Solomon Islands has not changed in 10 years”.
“It is now due for review,” he said.
Quietly, officials in Honiara said Minister Hilly’s aborted trip was, in reality, intended to scout out the mood in Beijing to see whether, in the event Solomon Islands relations with Taiwan is broken off, Honiara would get more in terms of untied aid from mainland China.
As the two Chinas move closer and closer together, any chance for Solomon Islands to strike a deal with Beijing is getting more and more remote.
Taiwan has been under huge international pressure in recent years to demand transparency and accountability by politicians for its aid money. It appears to have relented somewhat.
Earlier this year, for example, it demanded that the Solomon Islands government accounts for its aid money in 2007 and 2008 before any new funds for 2009 were released.
In that two-year period, some SB$100 million [US$12.22 million] of Taiwanese taxpayers’ money were shared equally by the 50 Members of Parliament to develop their constituencies.
Cat and mouse game: This is a lion’s share of the grant money and accounts for more than 60 percent of Taiwan’s US$10 million annual grant. Until recently, there were no requirements on the part of the government to account for the use of the money.
But Taiwan’s decision to withhold funding until the 2007 and 2008 grants were accounted for appeared short-lived.
On the first day when Parliament met in March, Taiwan Ambassador Chan, customarily delivered a cheque for SB$20 million to Parliament, again to be shared equally by all 50 MPs.
The SB$400,000 apiece, is for the infamous Rural Constituency Development Fund [RCDF].
Politicians will also receive from Taiwan grants totalling SB$30 million from Taipei’s Special Micro Project and the Millennium Fund, schemes Taiwan introduced in 2006.
It now seems that Prime Minister Sikua has a lot to answer when he fronts up before President Ma next month. As for who will come out the winner in the cat-and-mouse game between Honiara and Taipei, only time will tell.
In the continuing tight financial squeeze being experienced the world over, winning in this game is not everything. It is the only thing.
And as the lyrics of that song goes: “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game”.