By EDDIE OSIFELO

PRIME Minister Manasseh Sogavare says it is time for the country to move forward and forget the past like the ethnic conflict years.

Speaking on the motion of sine die yesterday, Sogavare said the tension has tested the unity of this country and hopes this is now water under the bridge.

He said as a country, we must accept the reality and move on with the agenda to develop our country with support of our development partners.

“If we cannot accept the reality and move on, then something is really wrong with us.

“The only sensible explanation would be other people’s agenda are behind the stubborn attitudes manifested,” he said.

Sogavare blamed two former Prime Ministers, Gordon Darcy Lilo and Dr Derek Sikua, who lost in the recent by election, campaigned on a platform of pulling down the government to reverse the decision.

He was referring the switch from Peoples Republic of China (Taiwan) to Peoples Republic of China (PRC).

He said they did not campaign to become Members of Parliament but to become Prime Ministers.

“We brought down the Prime Minister two times. We will go in and down him for the third time.

“If you look at the reasons to down the government, I don’t want to go through it are fake. It is water under the bridge and we are moving on,” he said.

Sogavare said it does not speak well on people who are supposed to be statesmen.

He said it also reflects their true colours of drivers behind the political instability during their time in Parliament.

“People speak correctly. The country does not need people like that.

“We climb too high too soon or counting the eggs before hatch. Or the higher you go, the lower you fall. This is very painful,” he said.

Furthermore, Sogavare thanked former Prime Ministers who are alive that normally called him on phone to discuss issues.

He said it is a small club and not all will have the privilege of securing the trust of colleague MPs to become Prime Ministers.

Moreover, Sogavare said those MPs that aspire to be the Prime Minister one day, your turn will come.

He said the secret is to allow the system to choose you and not to go around and tell anybody to become the leader of the country.

However, Sogavare said there is need to amend the Political Parties system to promote parties and not independent candidates.

BY JENNIFER KUSAPA

POLICE Commissioner Mostyn Mangau says as the festive season is approaching police will be supporting the Maritime in the safe-boat operation.

He said the operation is to make sure that vessels and boat owners abide by the Marine regulations to avoid over-loading and risking the passenger’s lives.

Mangau said boat and vessel owners must comply as the safety of passengers is very important.

“For banana boats always watch the weather before travelling, always listen out for weather warning as during festive season through the New year we always have unstable weather patterns,” Mangau said.

He said boat drivers must not get alcohol before travelling to avoid accidents, because there were experiences in the past that when skippers were drunk safety of passengers were at risk.

Mangau said any breach of the marine regulation by the vessel or boat owners, responsible authority will be there to deal with them.

Therefore, Mangau call on the general public who are intending to travel home during the festive season to always abide by the marine regulations in placed, as safety always in one’s hand.

“Vessels only allowed to carry allowed number of passengers and should not be overloaded,” Mangau said.

CIVIL society organisations (CSO) in the Solomon Islands are utterly disappointed with the Cabinet’s decision to suspend Facebook in the country.

A statement from the Development Services Exchange (DSE) yesterday said at a time when the Solomons has confirmed cases of covid-19 and updates are shared through the facebook platform, the government’s move to shut it down is clearly an attack on human rights – the rights of people to express their concerns on issues affecting citizens of this country.

“It is indeed a sad time for the people of Solomon Islands,” says DSE, the central body for CSOs of the country.

DSE understands Government is putting a temporary ban on the social media platform after Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and Communication and Civil Aviation Minister Peter Shanel Agovaka told Cabinet the forum had been grossly abused by the people, claiming that character assassination, defamation of character are issues of concerns.

However, DSE also understands the government itself also uses Facebook widely to disseminate information on public health during the covid-19 pandemic.

DSE has recognised facebook to be a people’s go-to platform to gather information, updates and share knowledge on national crisis.

As the national CSO/NGO umbrella body in the Solomon Islands with a constituency of 65 members, the platform is used to amplify DSE’s and member CSOs’ work on the ground and for sharing information.

Solomon Islands will now join China, Iran, and North Korea as outlawing Facebook. Other countries have temporarily blocked it, including the island nation of Nauru which prohibited Facebook in 2015 but unblocked access in 2018.

DSE expresses concerns that this move will have a huge impact on the work of civil society organisations who continue to inform and update the populace given the different sectors they represent which include health, environment and conservation, climate change, advocacy on development issues, youth and women, faith based organisations, media, human rights advocates, child protection, social welfare, etc.

“Facebook has been an advocacy and lobbying platform for our members.

“Community visitations, monitoring and feedbacks from the people on the grounds especially our provincial NGOs/CBOS, before, during and after any natural disasters, will no longer be shared on Facebook if the ban is going to eventuate.

“The Solomon Islands is home to about 685,000 people. While the archipelago stretches across a vast area of ocean, Facebook has played a bigger role during Covid-19.

“DSE on behalf of its members is reiterating calls by the private sector, Transparency SI, young people and the public for the government to reconsider its decision to temporarily ban face-book.

Banning facebook is not the solution, penalising the law breakers for defamation of characters and character assassination as claimed by the government should be the immediate action and the law enforcers should be put to work to ensure such bad practices are dealt with accordingly.”

DSE also calls on the government to be responsible in putting resources for a mass awareness on how to use social media responsibly if it is serious about the impacts social media platforms like facebook is or will be having on the country.

–DSE PRESS