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Tuesday, 4 September 2012

MP Seth history of dishonesty and Corruption

No one can change the cultural and social values of a person that rooted in the kastom of a family, community, tribe, clan and island. Unfortunately for many of us, including our Member of Parliament, Seth Gukuna, we will never change the habits, tendency, behaviour, attitude and mindset that we inherit from our family and community. For a while, a number of us from the Rennell and Bellona community have been trying to reason with MP Seth over his ‘attitude” of approaching public discussions as a way of personally attacking individuals and concerned voters, who are normally wishing to engage in intelligent discussions about good leadership and future direction of our province. Sadly in most cases, our MP has turned every debate into bouts of personal attacks and character assassination.

Now Seth, don’t be dismayed to know that I’m now willing to take on you, your cronies, and some of my relatives, who were supporting you in the last election. I will spare no bounds, personal or not, in my writing. I will expose you, your wife, children and your personal mistresses, and hope you will never regret provoking me by digging into my parent. There will be no topic spare in this forum and I am now asking you to start getting used to it.  Hope those relatives of mine, whom you have claimed to be your supporters and feeders of your character assassination attacks, would become millionaires by feeding you with dirty laundry about my past and upbringing. Get used to it now.

In recent weeks, Seth has once again demonstrated his attitude of bullying, which simply reflects very badly on him and his inept to comprehend the broader social, political, economic and cultural implications of his actions. Despite his rambling about non-issues, Seth has neither denied nor confirmed most of the principal allegations against him (see previous articles). Interestingly, Seth has only confirmed what many of us have already knew, his blatant corruption and using of “public funds” (government project funds, CDF, Millennium, solar panel) as gifts and rewards for his relatives, family members and friends, who were voted for him during the 2006 and 2010 national elections.

Seth has not shied away from revealing it, but failed to provide any answer about his set up in Choiseul, allegations of misappropriation of public funds and projects, but provided a clumsy denial of him becoming a millionaire since turning politician. He simply claimed that the money he was using was his salary, plus his gratuity, assuming that it was paid to him following his sacking as Head of Trade Mission to Taiwan in 2005.  Seth – your gratuity and salary are too small to feed your extravaganza life style, multiple marital affairs and children, paying rents and food to multiple women, weekly hotel bills for your mistresses and financing two elections (names withheld for the time being).

In several articles by MP Seth, he made no qualms about the issues of conflict-of-interests in awarding government grants of over $400,000 to his in-law, relatives, friends and his daughter, who is attending college at Avondale Adventist College, Australia. What Seth reveals in his article is mind boggling, yet he has boasted about it. For him to boast about using public funds for his daughter’s education, and Moreno guest house, which owns by his brother in-law, Saul Tepai, is just shocking.

His recent revelation of representing William Kaunga and Nicolas Taika – a friend and a relative - secure funding from the government - on the basis of being voted for him, is beyond comprehension. So what will future leaders do in this situation? In fact this case of nepotism and cronyism on the basis of relatives, family members and friends, goes to show that Seth has no leadership and professional ethics, and also have no idea about the broader long term implications that his action would have on the people of Rennell and Bellona. To confirm this “factual” observation and cases, please read Jerry Tengemoana, Don Temoana and MP Seth’s explanations in conjunction with the “Island Sun” articles, my articles and the Solomon Star recent article respectively. The “facts” are there for all to see, which makes their explanations redundant and riddle with half-truth – a direct joke and insult to the intelligence of our people.

Seth revelation in a recent reply to one of my articles that he would only help people who were voted for him during the past election (2010) is a shocking admission by an MP, who had made corruption his daily bread and as a result, it numbed his senses of direction and responsibility.  Sadly, he also plied on the ignorance of our people, who are living in rural areas and unable to understand the system of governance and democracy. In a way, Seth has used his “elected” position to threaten and bully our people to vote for him as a way of obtaining projects, receiving funding, scholarships and CDF from the government.

This is a blatant abuse of power and yet he is not ashamed of it. Instead, he warned me that those relatives of mind who were not voted for him in the last national election are not going to get any help from him to have access to government services and project funding. Sadly only my mother’s side of the family in West Bellona was not supporting Seth. Let just be clear with this issue Seth, government funds are not your late father or family inheritance. For you (Seth) to boast about it only shows how out-off touch, ignorant and intellectually retarded you are about democracy, leadership, ethics, good governance, accountability and the principles of handling tax payers’ money.

MP Gukuna might be boasting about his upper hand as an “elected” leader, in denying government-funding to his non-voters, especially my relatives, but his leadership style, attitude and blatant corrupt practices are simply part of his history. People will seat back in 40 years down the track and laugh about Seth absolute ignorance. I bet political scholars of our two islands in the future will be analysing his various articles with amazement about his sense of leadership, direction, lack of leadership quality, reasoning ability, decision making, professional and cultural ethics. Leadership in our society is not something that you are educated to become one. Leaders are groomed to inherit leadership position, not only to shoulder the expectations and aspirations of a people, but the future of a generation. Now, I don’t think that Seth and his cronies have ever had a clue about some of these issues.
 
On another matter and for the record, Seth should not fume about my decision not to use language befitting of addressing leaders in the Rennell and Bellona community. Seth and other people in our community would remember well that during my first article to S/Star about his unprecedented way of personally attacking his critics such as Hendry Teho, Evan Tuhangenga and Dugan Tekatoha, I did caution him of his cultural obligation to our people and the unwritten rules and protocols in how our leaders should communicate with people in our community.  Seth made a mockery of my observation, claiming that I was out-of-touch with modern democracy and media freedom. From then on, I decided to adopt the language of democracy and media freedom. In this instance, I’m using the culture of democracy that spells no bounds and spares no protection for public figures and democratically elected leaders.

In addition to this, I would like to correct a number of misleading statements by our PM, Gukuna, especially his claim that I’m making a lot of noises now because of my new found degree ad educaton. Pity really because this is the “attitude” of our MP. He has often threw in few lines of mockery and sarcastic against his opponents if he is cornered. But in this case, I wish to put him in his right cage.  Our MP is absolutely wrong to claim that my being outspoken about Renbel issue is based on my new found education. I know that this is a sarcastic dig on my personal life. But the truth is this – during the early 1990s, when Seth was working as a public servant and later as a senior manager with Shell Company, I was fighting corruption cases in the mainstream media in Solomon Islands. During that time, I was working as one of the first local journalists to take on corrupt politicians and the logging industry.

I was a journalist when Seth was sacked by the Shell Company now known as South Pacific Shell for stealing funds (fraud) to feed his alleged casino habit. Seth became wasted following his sacking. During that time, he used to hang out at my second eldest sister’s former residential area at GG Provincial Headquarter, where unemployed women and men around the area, were playing cards (play loka) for days on.

At one stage, Samuel Topue and his brother, Tino Topue, had a fight with Seth over a few dollars’ bet, which they had alleged the Seth was trying to crook them. As a result, the two brothers abused him and threaten to bash him. Following hearing the story, I went and told my sister to stop the card game. I was offended and obligated to take the action because of my sympathy to Seth, then one of our first educated people in town. During his years of unemployment, Seth was among frequent visitors of the Casino. Again, while he was wasted, I was fighting corruption cases against crook politicians in the media.

In the mid-1990s, when Seth became a tutor at University of the South Pacific (USP) Honiara Centre, where he had obtained a scholarship from the SIG (funded by an overseas donor) to study at USP for his MBA, I was still a journalist. We both attended USP Fiji and during his two years postgraduate at USP, I was also an undergraduate USP student and Chairman of the University’s Students Public Relations Committee, Manager of the Radio Station (Radio Pacifica) and Editorial Advisor to our Journalism student newspaper, The Voice, and also the USP Journalism Program newspaper, Wansolwara, while working a part-time sub-editor and business reporter for Fiji’s Daily Post, Suva.

Back then, we were good mates and heavily involved in the USP SDA Students Association. While he was our Sabbath School Superintendent, I became the Social Leader, organising our social get-to-gather on weekly basis. In most weekends, we hanged out together at my cousin’s house, then a student, Nolan Teika, who had also contested the last election against him.  Back then, I was still a journalist when Seth’s good mate at the USP MBA program, the late Fred Fono, completed his program and returned to the Solomon Islands and subsequently became a Member of Parliament.

Seth on the other hand remained at USP to repeat few of his courses, which he had failed in an earlier semester. At the completion of his MBA program and returned home, the late Fred Fono (as a minister) provided an opportunity for Seth to join the public service as a Policy Advisor with the Prime Minister’s Office. Back then, I was writing stories about corrupt politicians, who were exploiting the government left, right and centre. And as a result, the Ministry of Education sent a delegation to Fiji and requested the New Zealand High Commission Office in Fiji, which was my sponsor, to terminate my scholarship. The NZH later ruled against it and instead invited me, along with other NZ sponsored students, to a dinner at his residence, where he personally thanked me for being outspoken about corruption in the country.

Once again, I was there as a journalist back in Solomon Islands, when the late Fred Fono, a government minister, and Seth’s good friend, and late Lucian Kii, then Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, used their Malaitan connection in cabinet and the public service, to push Seth case to become the first Head of the Solomon Islands Trade Mission to Taiwan, despite his lack of diplomatic training.  Again, I was there as a journalist when Seth was eventually appointed and became the first Head of the Solomon Islands Trade Mission to Taiwan, where he did a fantastic job in negotiating the multi-million dollar loan that the post-coup government of Manasseh Sogavare, secured to pay compensation to the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) during the ethnic conflict.

I was there as a journalist when the then government of Prime Minister Alan Kemakeza took office from Sogavare. It was the beginning of Seth brief struggle to remain in the position because of a number of ethnic Malaitans and Western politicians and senior advisors were not happy with his performance. I was still there as a journalist when you were sacked as Head of the Solomon Islands Trade Mission to Taiwan, following a drink-and-drive car accident, which almost landed Seth in jail. He was only lucky due to his diplomatic legal immunity status, which protected him from being prosecuted. But the case gave ammunition to his doubters to simply kick him out of the post.

I was there as a journalist, when you returned home to the Solomon Islands when your brother in-law then Premier of Rennell and Bellona Province, Mathew Taupongi Giusanga, personally appointed you as his Policy Advisor. In your role, Giusanga and yourself with the knowledge of the executive government and senior administrators, Provincial Secretary, Richard Maui, and Deputy Provincial Secretary, Ruben Ngiumoana, hatched a deal that led to the scam of siphoning $2m from the government transport grant to Renbel diverted to Seth personal company bank account to purchase the now beached MV Renbel. Your role in the elaborate scam of the $2 million dollars is still a subject of a High Court case in the Solomon Islands.

I’m still here as a journalist since you become a politician in 2006 until today, observing your leadership ‘attitude” and your never changing tendency of under table dealings. Unfortunately, you’ve learned nothing-new about your past mistakes, a problem that have dogged your enter professional and now political career. Seth, if I were to trust and choose between you and your cronies and my sources, I would trust my sources in our community, and the public service. Your background is so dirty that no intelligent person in his or her rightful mind would ever trust you.

Obviously with the benefit of high sight, the only reason that you are serving a second term in parliament is because you did not play by the rules – a skill that you have undoubtedly learned from the Asians, while working in Taiwan. Unfortunately, your opponents in the 2010 national elections were unwilling to take on you due to reasons only known to them. But what I do know is this – your runner-up was not in a position to launch a petition against you because most of the people who were implicated in the vote-buying scam were all related to him.

I released over the past couple of years of observing your leadership that no one could ever change your attitude and hereditary tendencies as a person. In this context, I guess there is no point of trying to reason with someone who hasn’t grasps what are petty issues, serious issues, village issues, provincial issues, national issues and global issues in the governance of our people. Our MP’s reasoning ability has demonstrated a total lack of it.

For quite a while, I’ve been observing Seth understanding of our culture, tradition and reasoning ability, people skills, level of interaction with people of different views, through his writing, and found him to be very shallow and an absolute joke. Unfortunately for the people of Rennell and Bellona, especially my own blood relatives, many of them are descendants of proud and virtuous traditional leaders of Bellona; we are publically humiliated by a person who has no pride in his grandparents and parents leadership achievements and status, and whose only pride is to use his Western education to exploit the ignorance of our people. Through his own admission, Seth has plied on people’s lack of understanding of their democratic rights and economic vulnerability. As long as I’m here, I will always defend the interests and rights of Bellona people, an island where I have relatives in every village from the East right through to the West part of the island.

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