Democracy fails to change criminals and crooks

(July 20, 2012) Opinion by Duran Angiki, Dayton, Ohio, USA

Democracy has its own weaknesses, but given time, it is the best system with the greatest potentials to provide an equitable and progressive society for all. Its strengths and potentials to address and provide amicable solutions to contentious issues, upholding basic human rights, equality, good governance and give hope for every citizen regardless of his or her social, cultural, economic and political status in society. These admirable qualities have helped to re-shape current developmental aspirations of our country. Again, the qualities of a functional democracy have been demonstrated by the Australian-led intervention force to the Solomons since June 2003, which re-establishes peace, security and harmony amongst warring ethnic Malaitans and Guales (Guadalcanalese) after three years of ethnic conflict.

Despite the pain of the past, the country has to plough ahead. Sadly some of our elected leaders and senior citizens have been behaving like headless chooks, which has indirectly invited opportunists and former militants into the political arena once again. At present, the worst case scenario is for the government to allow non-elected individuals, including the Malaita Ma’asina Forum (MMF), to dictate the rules of engagement and the processes of democracy in its efforts to rebuild the country from the aftermath of the ethnic conflicts and 2000 coup. Our leaders need to realise this piece of history and strive to prevent the country from returning back to a ‘Banana Republic”, where armed criminals and militants were running the show in Honiara, Auki and rural Guale, bullying, threatening and intimidating everyone.

Corruption, MMF Leadership and the Prime Minister

Since the election of the current Prime Minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo, the leadership of the Malaita Ma’asina Forum (MMF) has been making indirect and direct threats against the government over a number of issues. Additionally, MMF has also accused the Prime Minister of corruption and using his executive power to veto the publication of two audited reports that critical of his (Lilo’s) misappropriation of funds and foreign aid for the rebuilding of Gizo hospital and township infrastructure, following the 2007 tsunami, and also the multi-million dollars national schools computer project. Since last year, these reports have been quarantined by the government.

In the Solomon Star Online (July 17, 2012), MMF political rhetoric has been laced with threats, reaching an unprecedented level and culminated in an ultimatum to Prime Minister, Lilo, to either address the following issues or else.

“That GRML be prosecuted for breaching the Customs and Mines Act;
“That all exports of gold by GRML from April 2011 to this date be confiscated;
“That the chairman of the CBSI Board and the CBSI to make an immediate arrangement for the foreign exchange account offshore to be kept in the CBSI;

The statement also demanded the removal of both the Minister and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance for non-performance and misleading statements about the issue of gold export in April 2011, while immediately amending the NPF Act to allow for the following resolutions:

“Members (NPF) to have a full say about their own money, in other words they must be consulted, “Cease lending NPF funds to foreign companies and consider lending to members only; “NPF members must be given share benefits by the investors who borrowed funds from NPF; “Financial members are life time members up to their first nominee.”“We demand that you give us your harmonious decision and respond to these within the seven days.”

The media reported that the letter was signed by MMF president Charles Dausabea, Vice President Jessie Bobby, General Secretary William Gua Treasurer Daoga, assistant treasurer Dickson Waimora and Media officer Henry Daukalia.

While some of the above MMF concerns are shared by the broader Solomon Islands community, the manner and method in which the leaders of the group have adopted to deal with their grievances by threatening and intimidating the government and Prime Minister, Lilo, is unacceptable, deplorable and should be condemned by the public, the Malaita Provincial government and their national leaders at the highest and strongest term. Ethnic Malaitans’ national, provincial and church leaders cannot simply pretend and shy away from their responsibility to the rest of the country because their inaction and colluding with ex-MEF leaders in the past have come back to haunt them big time. The people of Solomon Islands are watching.

The threats of allowing MMF to dictate the government

It should be a great concern to the country and government that MMF, which is a body of non-elected leaders, is allowed to make threats and intimidate the government. Let’s not forget that these very individuals are former Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) commanders, supporters and sympathizers. Their brief stay in power following the June 2000 was littered with horror memories, so despite the failure of this government to deal with allegations of corruption and deliver on some of its promise, MMF and other critics of the government, should abide by the laws of the land, the processes of democracy and act responsibly.

While Solomon Islanders are equally concerned about the level of corruption by the current Lilo-led government, the country should stand united in condemning the use of non-elected individuals to bully governments to submit to their whip. It is a bad precedent that is going to compromise government decisions and actions. We should not forget that the language that is currently used by the MMF leadership is similar to the political rhetoric that the now disbanded Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) had employed in the lead up to the June 2000 coup.

Crooks and the Nori era that brought the country to its knees

Back then, the Nori-led MEF public relations machinery simply convinced law abiding citizens, especially ethnic Malaitan professionals in the police, executive and administration governments, the private sector, the news media and journalists, about the legitimacy of its agenda to bring justice to the flight of displaced ethnic Malaitans. Everybody was conned to believe that Nori was acted in good faith and in the best interests of ethnic Malaitans. Sadly and in reality people were blind-folded in supporting Nori and Kwaiga in their quest to become millionaires. They disguised themselves as advocators of restoring the pride of ethnic Malaitans, but in truth – they simply built themselves an empire.



Since 1998 until today (2012), the real victims of the ethnic conflict, especially ethnic Malaitan families and individuals who were chased out of Guale, and lost their livelihood, lifetime investments, houses, land and property are still struggling and waiting to benefit from the MEF’s Nori-Kwaiga’s justice crusade. The pain some of the victims have suffered during that time until today may never be compensated enough and it may take even generations to heal.

But sadly, the MEF former leaders – Nori, Kwaiga, Alex Bartlett and Jimmy Rasta Lusibaea, have all become overnight millionaires from the spoils, blood and sweat of ethnic Malaitans foot soldiers during the pre and post-coup era. They were the major beneficiaries of over $SUD50 million of compensation payouts, which were initially claimed on behalf of victims, but ended up in the bank accounts of the MEF leadership. Sadly this money was forcefully obtained from three successive governments and the Guadalcanal Province. Read on for detail.

The usual suspects are at it gain

Now in recent years, these usual suspects are on at it again – trying to unsettle the current government and Prime Minister, not through the normal channel and processes of democracy, but by using their culture of political intimidation, threats and bullying, to harass the government into submission. The people of Solomon Islands should be really concerned about this new development in Honiara because MMF’s recent threats are very similar to the ones that Nori’s MEF issued prior to the coup of June 2000.

During the height of the crisis and on daily basis, the MEF leadership under Nori, came out in the mainstream media in Solomon Islands and internationally, and issued a number of threats and promised an all-out war against Guale militants. He even told an academic conference at the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education (SICHE) in April 2000 that a coup is not a “possibility” but a “probability”. The above information is all available in my media coverage of the pre and post-coup in Solomon Islands in 1999 to 2001 and published by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Melbourne Age, Agence France Press (AFP), Fiji’s Daily Post and the USP Journalism Program website, Wansolwara Online.

New Era, Old Story – Politics of intimidation

Fast forward that era to this day and this very threat has re-ignited by the MMF leadership under Charles Dausabea, a former MEF commander and financier, and his colleagues, who are disguising themselves as concern citizens of the Solomons, but are the same force that staged the MEF coup in June 2000. In a sense, this is an act of treason. Using threats and intimidations to bully political leaders via the local mainstream news media is amounted to a direct contempt of the executive government and the legal institutions of the country.

The history of MEF and now MMF has not kind to the rest of the country. We can only hope that this new development is not going to research a climax where the likes of Dausabea, Gua, Baekalia, Nori and Kwaiga, are assisted by desperate politicians, to back their quest of overthrowing the current Prime Minister with the barrel of a gun. They are the worse people to lead the country at any given time. History speaks for itself.

Our people should be aware that MMF is not a civil society group that acted in the best interests of the country, let alone of the people of Guadalcanal. It is a group of self-serving individuals, who are using the name “Malaita” to bully politicians and critics, who are opposing their agenda. Their agenda is obvious –self-serving. The good people and law abiding citizens of Malaitan should not fall into the trap once again.

The culture of politics in Malaita, which is clearly adopted by MMF, is based on bully, threat, and intimidation of opponents as the basis of maximising political, economic, cultural and social benefits from those who succumbed to their whip. We can fully explore this issue via researching the history of Malaita conflict resolution, but a number past and recent cases have also proven this point.

The Malaita case against Rennell and Bellona

The case of Rennell and Bellona people, in short Renbel, versus ethnic Malaitans in 1989. An ethnic row started following an allegation from an unknown ethnic Malaitan that someone from Renbel had written a letter, swearing and cursing ethnic Malaitan leaders. Despite the lack of evidence after a Police investigation, Malaitan elected leaders then, Sir Peter Kenilorea, who had relinquished the post of prime ministership in a motion of no confidence against his government a few months earlier, along with his ethnic colleague parliamentarians, the late Francis Saemala, John Maetia, Alfred Maetia, Andrew Nori and some of their traditional leaders, all united in demanding a compensation of $200,000. To force the issue, ethnic Malaitan criminals took to the streets of Honiara and rioted, setting up roadblocks at Matanikau bridge, the central market, harassing road users and cursing people of Rennell and Bellona with some of the worse unprovoked swearing words ever imagine.

The riot escalated on the third day, following a decision by the then Program Director of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC), an ethnic Malaitan, Johnson Honimae, to live broadcast the rioting in East Honiara on the first day, which sparked a huge influx of ethnic Malaitan residents and plantation workers into Honiara from the Levers Plantations, Fox Wood Settlement and CDC plantations in North East, and Mamara and Doma plantations in North West Central Guadalcanal, and other ethnic Malaitan settlements around and outskirt of the national capital, Honiara.

For three days, ethnic Malaitan criminals’ rioted and looted shops, businesses and also beaten up a number of innocent Renbel people in the streets of Honiara. They incurred a damaged bill to the then national government and Honiara city council worth millions of dollars. The rioting ended following the then Prime Minister, the late Solomon Mamaloni, defused the situation by paying compensation of $200,000 to Malaita Province. No one really knows who were the beneficiaries’ of the money, which was demanded on the basis that according to Malaita custom (culture and tradition) if someone abuses another and the victim decides to attack him or her with an alafolo (axe), only an act of compensation (payment of tafuli’ae – traditional money) would spare the life of the person and brings peace and reconciliation.  

Under duress, the late Mamaloni paid the money out of the Central government annual grant to Central Province, which Rebel was part of it back then. It forfeited any service grant from Central Province to Rennell and Bellona in two years and sparking the move by Central Province to part way with the two Polynesian outlying islands of the country. The most interesting aspect of this riot was ethnic Malaitan leaders were allegedly using the Renbel case, the smallest ethnic minority group in the country with a population then of over 3,000 – compared with the Malaitan population of more than 120,000, as a convenient scapegoat in trying to unseat the then government of Prime Minister, late Mamaloni. They were not successful, but enforcing the Malaita politics of bullying, threat and intimidation into the national spotlight.

The new culture of compensation and the case of Malaita against Temotu

The other case of interest was of Malaita against Temotu in 1999. In a similar manner, ethnic Malaitan criminals allegedly accused a market vendor from Temotu Province (people from the Eastern islands of the Solomons) at Kukum of swearing at them. It sparked a minor physical confrontation between the people involved, but few days later, it escalated to a huge-stand-off between ethnic Malaitans, propped up by some of their parliamentarians and traditional leaders, against Temotuans. Criminals took advantage of the case and threatened and demanded that Temotu Province and people should pay compensation of about S200, 000 or else. Although the allegation was unfounded following a police investigation, Malaitan political leaders and their criminal elements insisted that the compensation must be paid.

However, through a counter demand by Temotu leaders for Malaita Province to pay compensation for allegedly swearing and cursing Temotuans, both parties finally agreed to pay each other $200, 000. Again, ethnic Malaitan leaders were allegedly using the case to overthrow the then prime minister, the late Bart Ulufa’alu, which was struggling to survive over his government alleged failure to deal with the flight of displaced ethnic Malaitans during the early part of the ethnic conflict in the country. Detail in the third example.

The Malaita case against Guale

The third and most recent case is the one between Guadalcanal militants against ethnic Malaitan settlers on Guadalcanal rural areas that ended up in Honiara in 1998 – 2003. The ethnic conflict started when poorly armed militants from South West and North West Guadalcanal began harassing and telling ethnic Malaitan settlers in the rural areas of the island to leave. This followed what Guadalcanal militants claimed as ethnic Malaitan settlers consistent lacked of respect to their women, culture and illegal occupation and expansion of settlements on customary land in North West Guadalcanal Island.

Initially, the armed militants went around the rural areas of West Guadalcanal, especially ethnic Malaitan settlements and communities and warned them to leave. The threats led to a number of evacuations of settlements in West Guadalcanal by the Solomon Islands Police Force (SIPF) responsive unit. But following the evacuation and the pro-ethnic Malaitan owned and managed news media coverage of the criminal activities of armed Guadalcanal militants, the situation turned for the worse.

The murder case that fuelled ethnic cleansing

As militants continue with their daily harassing of settlers, a woman from South Guadalcanal was found dead and dumped at a valley between Tasahe and Ngossi ridges, behind Rove, West Honiara. The location was a well-known place for drinkers, which followed a path down to the current Bishop Epalle Secondary and Primary School, near Rove police residential quarters. The raped and murder of the Guadalcanal woman, who was happened to be a relative of the militants’ group leader, Harold Keke, was met with vengeance.

The situation was further exacerbated by the police force, which is predominant ethnic Malaitans’ control, to arrest any person in connection with the murder. It simply played into the hands of Guale militants, who simply escalated their criminal activities and began to spread to North East of Guadalcanal. Militants began ethnic cleansing of Malaitans in the rural areas of Guale. The situation caused the displacement of over 20,000 ethnic Malaitans and killing of over 60 innocent people.

Pre ethnic conflict and MEF agenda

The criminal activities of the group also led to a political crisis for the then government of Prime Minister, late Bart Ulufa’alu. The government position was complicated by the fact that the then Prime Minister, lat Ulufa’alu was an ethnic Malaita, his Deputy, the late Sir Baddley Devesi, was from Guale, while the Prime Minister’s Assisting Minister of State, Alfred Sasako, was also an ethnic Malaita. For months, the government appeared to be clueless in dealing with criminal activities in the rural areas of Guale and also unable to get the predominantly ethnic Malaitans police, public service, the private sector and the media on its side due to their anger and sympathy to displaced victims.

The above case simply gave extra ammunition to the then Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Manasseh Sogavare, in his quest to topple the government. The case set the tone of the political debate in the mainstream media, which was pro-ethnic Malaitans biased in their coverage of the conflict over the next 24 months. In the meantime, Andrew Nori, a lawyer and former Finance Minister and failed politician, joined Sogavare in a media blitz that simply took the winds out of the government. They strategically suffocated the government of any meaningful argument about its failure to provide a road map and an amicable solution to the suffering of displaced ethnic Malaitans. Over time and in late 1999, ethnic Malaitans in various parts of Honiara began taking to the streets of Honiara, the national capital, to demonstrate and show support for their fellow islanders.

The sad images and ethnic Malaitan response

With the sad images of the 20,000 displaced ethnic Malaitan settlers, taking temporary accommodation in makeshift tents and other forms of accommodation at Rove Police Headquarters rugby ground, the Multi-purpose Hall, King George IV School and the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education (SICHE), it became a humiliating issue for ethnic Malaitans in general. In trying to restore the lost pride of Malaitans, as the dominant force in the country, Nori joined the fray and announced in 1999 that he was offering his free legal service to displace ethnic Malaitans via a committee to pursue and seek justice for the people. Months later, Nori also announced his leadership of an armed ethnic Malaitans militia group, the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF). Few days later, the government subsequently decreed and declared that MEF was an illegal and outlaw group.

With a coup plan in his hands, Nori successfully convinced the government to lift the ban and promised to negotiate with the prime minister an amicable solution to the flight of his clients – a deal that he did not honour. Additionally, Nori also blitzed the media with indirect and direct threats, intimidation and bullying of the government. In the end, Nori won the public debate, legitimising MEF and the fight for the heart and minds of ethnic Malaitans. He successfully strategized a coup with the silent support of ethnic Malaitans senior political leaders, statesmen and high ranking bureaucrats and police officers.

Malaitan leaders endorse the coup plan

This support was demonstrated by a secret meeting between Nori and his trusted commanders and senior ethnic Malaitan statesmen and leaders at a location in Honiara, where they endorsed Nori plan to stage a coup. The next day, 5 June 2000, Nori executed the coup plan with his men raiding the police and prison service armouries at Rove Police Headquarters and arrested the then Prime Minister and placed him under house-arrest. Nori and his commanders also instructed the former Prime Minister, late Ulufa’alu, to resign and call for an immediate meeting of parliament to elect a new Prime Minister. In the meantime, Nori also announced the formation of a Solomon Islands Nation Security Council, which was headed by Sir Peter Kenilorea as the Chairman. Some of the members included the late Francis Saemala, Ronald Fugui, who was then the Mayor of Honiara City Council, Nelson Ne’e, then Administration Manager of the Solomon Islands Electricity Authority (SIEA) and many more. Now the rest is history.

Nori’s preferred candidate for the Prime Minister’s job then was the Leader of Opposition, Manasseh Sogavare, which was a foregone conclusion. Sogavare was duly elected as PM as dictated by the MEF leadership. During MEF’s tenure via Sogavare, as the post-coup Prime Minister from June 2000 to October 2001, the national economy simply collapsed, and corruption became the norm and not the exception. The government, under Sogavare’s leadership became Nori’s puppet. Sogavare’s first act as PM was to pay $6 million compensation to the MEF leadership, the start of similar multi-million dollars payouts to Nori. He also claimed and paid by the government via the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, almost $1million for his legal services to the MEF. Most of the multi-million dollar payments to Nori were based on the MEF claimed that Guale militants were swearing at Malaitans during the crisis, but on the same token, the government failed to return the same favour to innocent ethnic Guales, who were also abused and swore at by ethnic Malaitans.

Compensation payments that only benefited Nori and crew

Prior to the coup, the Australian government also contributed $20 million directly to the Malaita Provincial government for the rehabilitation and facilitation of displaced ethnic Malaitan to re-settle back on Malaita: a scheme that never eventuated and no one has ever accountable for how the money was spent. While public servants were gone without pays for months and government services grounded due to lack of funds, the MEF-led Sogavare government successfully secured, through its Taiwan trade mission, a loan of $40 million to pay compensation for the victims of the conflict.

The major beneficiaries of the loan included Nori ($20 million for sundry payments), Bartlet ($400,000 for damaged property in Tamboko, West Guale.), Sogavare and Snyder Rini (then Minister of Finance - $14 million gone missing under their tenure), Sir Peter Kenilorea (more than $100,000 for touring allowances), the late David Oeta – then Premier of Malaita Province ($100, 000 multiple payments for touring and workshops), Sir Alan Kemakeza ($150,000 for damaged property on Savo Island) and the list goes on.

The Nori law that provides him with legal immunity

In the process, two successive executive governments had paid out multi- million dollars to Nori and his armed militia under the pretext of compensation to MEF and people of Malaita. They also intimidated politicians to pass a law in parliament, which provided them with immunity from future legal prosecution over their role in taking over the police armoury, staging of the coup, rape, torture, murder, extortion of private and government funds and property, and many other horrendous criminal activities against the state and many innocent people of the country, especially innocent people of Guadalcanal.

Sadly, over the past 13 years, since the beginning of the ethnic conflict, no one has ever taken responsibility or jailed for crimes against humanity and the state, which brings us to the current case of the MMF leadership. On first value, MMF appears to be a civil society group, but probe a bit deeper into their backgrounds and surprisingly they are the very people, who had started the MEF coup and trashing of the Solomon Islands constitution, laws, democratic institutions and systems of governance, economy, politics, human rights, people's future aspirations, society and public trust on government institutions since 1998.

RAMSI saves the Solomons

The whole mess was left to the Australian-led intervention Regional Assistant Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), to sort out. Since the arrival of RAMSI, it provides an uncomfortable calm in the country, especially Honiara. Sadly the peace and stability that is currently experienced won’t last if MMF, which is a clone of the former Malaita Eagle Force (MEF), minus Andrew Nori and Lesley Kwaiga, who are now working as legal consultants with the current government, are allowed to carry out its activities without close scrutiny from the media, government and the public.

In hind sight, while Malaitan victims of the ethnic conflict could take a little comfort from the life-time jailing of the Guadalcanal’s militants commander, Harold Keke, for the killing of their relatives during the conflict, the same cannot be said about the Guales experience. The former leaders of MEF, in the likes of Dausabea, Kwaiga, Nori, Gua, Saeni, Lusibaea, Bartlett and so on, who had played a critical role in ordering the killing of innocent Guales, extortion of property, robbing the government of multi-million dollars eccetra, are still roaming freely in the country and overseas. Interestingly, some of them are now joining the MMF and unashamedly telling the government, the media and people of Solomon Islands about things and issues that they were unable to do during the ethnic conflict era – being able to be reasonable, accountable, transparent and law-abiding.

Blatant looting of govt funds that started by the MEF leadership

We are now living in a country, where corruption is so rampant and becoming the norm, and not the exception – a situation that the country is now going through due to the role of the MEF leadership, who had blatantly robbed the country of money, future and dignity. While no one supports the current Prime Minister’s alleged under-table dealings, corruption cases and deliberate ignoring of good governance practices over the past ten years as a parliamentarian and minister of four consecutive governments since 2001, it is equally unacceptable that MMF has resorted to intimidating the Prime Minister.

The culture of bullying is unacceptable and against the spirit of corporation in the multi-ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and island communities of the Solomons. Besides, the MMF hierarchies should be reminded that Solomon Islands is made up of nine different provinces, 113 language groups with multi-ethnic, cultural and island community. Our diverse cultural communities are not subscribed to the idea of one ethnic group intimidating leaders of another. The politics of bullying and intimidation of one’s opponent is not hereditary in other islands of the country, except Malaita. We are also different from Western countries, where the state is the legal custodian of land and mineral resources. It is on this basis that many Solomon Islanders are silently supporting the idea of State government – not on economic rational, but purely on the basis of their desire to prevent ethnic Malaitan ex-criminals from bullying their way around and telling them what to do with their resources.

It is important that the majority of the country, who makes up the other provinces speak up and remind corrupt politicians and criminal leaders that Solomon Islands is different. Over 98 per cent of the country’s land, reefs and mineral resources are customary owned. It is insulting to the resource owners and elected leaders of the country that former criminals are pushing their own agenda at the expense of the nation. We need peace and stability, not corrupt politicians and ex-criminals with personal agenda. Our next stop should be the creation of the Federated States of the Solomons. That would be an achievement.