DEAR EDITOR, please allow me a space in your column to express the Wainoni Solidarity movements group’s view with regards to the proposed prospecting.

It was very sad and annoying to learn that a foreign company “SOLFISH” was recently granted a prospecting licence to carry out its destructive development in the two wards stated above.

The move behind this company was initiated by certain selfish leaders in the constituency who claimed to have visionary plans to develop and raise the standard of our living.

From the information obtained from a close friend and a senior officer from the company had disclosed the names of the individuals who were directly involved in this secret move.

In our humble view these people will never ever satisfied and succeed in their lives.

Honestly speaking, this was a great concern to us the real original land owners.

Bypassing the Kahua Association is a great concern because the Kahua people believed that this is the only Association mandated and registered to advocate for conservation and the livelihood of the present and future generation.

In addition to these concerns, awareness was carried out in West and East Wainoni respectively by the most illiterate persons whom I know, do not even know what a primary school is.

I was a keen listener in one of their presentations and it was sad to learn that they had promised huge payments totalling up to millions of dollars to the land owning tribes.

The simple question I would like to pause is: Aren’t you out of context of awareness? What we were expecting to hear was the environmental impacts that prospecting will bring in our environment.

We thought that the Ministry of Environment and Conservation or the NGO’s have the qualified manpower to carry out the work you were bribed to do on behalf of this destructive company.

The approaches taken by the selfish individuals who had spearheaded this prospecting disastrous development only show how greedy they are by trying to get rich out of the resources owned by the people whom they labelled in the social media as living below the poverty line.

For transparency purposes, this group of concerned individuals will send a copy of the names of those middle man behind the prospecting development to the print media to show our nation who they are and how played by our once respected leaders has reminded me of the phrase I quote “Do not enjoy the privilege at the expense of others.”

To the self-appointed land trustees who put down your signatures in support of prospecting should be ashamed of your act because of the fact that signing of the prospecting agreement in your view is the only easiest way you can get $800 once in your life time to relief the burden bared by our MP’s who have been pestered over the years to meet your children’s fees.

You also seen as an opportunity to get money to feed your hungry children.

While appreciating and respecting your decisions to sign the agreement for the prospecting of the land owned by all ancestors, I would like to caution you that the money you are going to get from prospecting is a curse that you and your immediate families will reap its fruits.

Believe me not, wait and see.

I would also like to pause these simple questions to help us know where we are heading.

1)              Do you think the piece of land signed to be prospected is rightly owned by yourself?

2)              Is the amount of $800 you get in return for your signature can sustain the present and future generations?

3)              Do you think you will become a millionaire?

4)              Are you running out of God’s wisdom and knowledge to make right decisions?

5)              Are you tired of living in a clean beautiful environment?

If you have more than one (NO) to the above questions then reconsider your position on this destructive development or other alternative approach you could take is to book a psychiatric doctor for proper assessment.

To conclude, the Wainoni solidarity movement wished to condemn to the strongest term the negotiators, the supporters and the followers of this destructive development.

Thank you very much.

Lawrence Wai

Concern Man

DEAR EDITOR, please publish my views on the recently reported comments by Hon Manasseh Sogavare regarding the MPs terminal grant in parliament.

Reading Hon Manasseh Sogavare’s comments in Solomon Star edition 6998, one can’t help but feel aghast at how inhuman our so-called leaders have become. But one is hardly surprised nowadays too.

One would not be far from the truth to say that the national representatives are no more than a bunch of selfish, self-serving, self-centred, etc, nothing but self, self, and self to the core of their souls.

I say this because I believe Hon Sogavare speaks for his fellow colleagues, the members of parliament. Even Hon Moffat Fugui, the MP for my constituency is mentioned as backing Hon Sogavare’s comments.

Hon Sogavare is reported as saying he has closed his ears to civil society groups the likes of Transparency Solomon Islands and others.

He justifies the terminal grant for MPs as a legal entitlement for them. However, no one’s questioning the legality of the exorbitant MPs terminal grant. Sogavare fails to see the essence of the call by TSI and the thousands of Solomon Islanders to have the terminal grant taxed. He and his colleague MPs will never see it, for they are corrupted human beings.

The call for the terminal grant to be taxed is based on fairness to the hardworking people of Solomon Islands who are seeing a huge chunk of their hard earned salaries being chewed off by tax.

Sogavare and the other 49 MPs will never vicariously experience the pain and hurt one feels when he/she sees the significant tax deduction in his/her pay slip.

Hon Sogavare and his 49 colleagues are tax-free waxed dolls who do not get to feel how we feel. And even they know of the feeling, having once experienced it before, when they were still humans, and working earnestly and honestly to earn a living, they are hard-skinned to it and are ignorant of its psychological effects.

Sogavare and his 49 colleague MPs will never connect with the people of Solomon Islands in this respect until they lose their seats in a national general election and end up on the side which one is required to pay tax.

Then and only then will Sogavare and his 49 colleagues get to feel the way we do now.

It’s funny that some former national leaders are barking now, throwing mud on the current MPs over entitlements, tax and other benefits.

I won’t be surprised when some of the current MPs lose their seats next year and join this circus and bark at the next 50 robots.

Overall, Sogavare’s ignorant statement in parliament on the matter just shows that he is living in his imaginary world, far from the rest of us.

He is too blind to see that $20 million is a huge weight on the supplementary budget, for only 50 persons out of the nearly 800,000 Solomon Islanders.

And he is blind to the fact that the rest of the country is watching on while he and his 49 colleagues are enriching themselves.

It is now widely accepted that the previous era, under GDL, which was thought to be the most corrupt period in Solomon Islands’ history of governance, is cowered by the current group.

The current group has set a new standard, which is equal to mad dictators in the world’s history.

To all of us, the rest of Solomon Islands, please choose your candidate wisely this national general elections. Go for someone who will at least consider the people of Solomon Islands before deciding on benefits and entitlements.

Otherwise, we will continue to be trapped in the poverty cycle, one which was reflected so vividly in the recent poverty report which Sogavare gave a passionate but empty speech on at its launch.

To TSI, I take my hat off to you for your continuous diligence in the critical role you play for a better Solomon Islands. Don’t be swayed by deaf politicians (Sogavare himself confirmed this in parliament). History will remember you TSI and other CSOs who voiced out the injustice in Solomon Islands’ government, allowing Solomon Islanders and the rest of the world know what type of leaders we are serving, 2014-2018.

Lastly, my fellow Solomon Islanders, let us pray for Sogavare and his 49 colleagues.

God Bless Solomon Islands.

Ron Qalobute

Chinatown,

Central Honiara Constituency