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Kuper aspires to become a national rep in the future

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Lenten Kuper during the junior tennis competiton last Saturday at the multipurpose tennis court.

BY ROMULUS HUTA

Lenten Kuper during the junior tennis competiton last Saturday at the multipurpose tennis court.

LENTEN Kuper aims to represent Solomon Islands in tennis one day in the future.

The 10 years old who hails from Makira/Ulawa Province is one of the more than 60 participants who are currently taking part in the junior tennis competition that is underway during this Easter break.

The junior tennis competition is being organised by Solomon Islands Tennis Association (SITA) for age categories 8 and under; 10 and under; 12 and under; 14 and under and 16 and under.

Kuper, aged 10, takes part in the under-12 category.

Speaking with SunSPORTS on Saturday, Kuper enjoys playing tennis and aims to be a national rep one day in the future.

Asked what he dreams of becoming in the future, he said: “My aim is become a good tennis player and also at the sametime pursue my dream to become a pilot.”

Kuper joined the junior tennis development run by the national governing tennis body SITA last year and admitted that his parents are backing him alot giving him advices and continuous words of encouragement.

“My mum and dad (Henry) are very helpful since joined the program last year. They always give me words of advice and support,” the grade three Saint Nicholas student said.

According to junior tennis coach Doreen Ningalo, Kuper is one of the most consistent performers in his ager group.

“I think Lenten has a bright future ahead of him in the sport.

“He has everything and if he continues with this consistency, he will become a national rep one day in the future.”

Meanwhile, the junior tennis competition will enter into its final day today.

Rebel Inc bags first win

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Rebelle inc James Waneasi goes up for the spike against Rainbow yesterday. Rebelle Inc both sets to pick up their first win in the competition…Pictures Benz Newman.

Easter Volleyball Championship underway

By Taromane Martin

Rebelle inc James Waneasi goes up for the spike against Rainbow yesterday. Rebelle Inc both sets to pick up their first win in the competition…Pictures Benz Newman.

REBEL Inc men’s volleyball team has picked up their first win in the 2018 Solomon Islands Volleyball Federation Easter Volleyball Championship yesterday.

The Easter Volleyball Championship resumed yesterday after Day one matches of the competition on Saturday was cancelled due to the heavy rain.

Rebel Inc defeated Rainbow men’s team two sets to nil to pick up their first win in the competition.

Boosted by players from volleyball powerhouse, Arasina, Rebel Inc cruised through a comfortable first set winning 25-24 before another close margin win in the second set for the victory.

SIVBF President Mr Morris Maitaiki said he expects all pool matches to be completed by Tuesday.

“We expect all our pool matches to be covered by Tuesday due to the postponement.

“Once all pool games are completed then we’ll move into the Multipurpose Hall on Wednesday Thursday and Friday for our finals,” Maitaki said.

The volleyball championship is competed by a total of 26 teams, eight for the women’s division and 18 teams in the men’s division.

Pool matches for the 2018 national Easter Volleyball Championship will continue today at Town Ground, Ministry of Justice playground.

Auki CHS High School 7s champs

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Auki CHS players receiving the winning trophy from SIRUF Development Officer Mr Alivereti Mocelutu.

By Taromane Martin

Auki CHS players receiving the winning trophy from SIRUF Development Officer Mr Alivereti Mocelutu.

AUKI Community High School is the 2018 Credit Corporation High School Easter 7s challenge champions.

The Malaita Rugby Union Association (MRUA) representatives were crowned champions despite losing 26-0 to the national U-18 squad in the grand final match at the Town Ground Rugby Stadium yesterday.

Auki secured their grand final spot after defeating a determined Selco Stormers 14-12 in their semifinal match while the National U-18 squad defeated Kilusakwalo 19-5 in the other semifinal match.

Auki Head Coach Paul Elo thanked God for the achievement and for looking after the team during their travel from Auki to Honiara for the competition.

Elo said it is a big improvement for his players who are mostly soccer players saying they will return to Honiara to compete in this year’s Inter-Islands Rugby 15s challenge.

“I thank God for his protection and guidance during our trip over to Honiara and for blessing us to reach the finals,” Mr Elo said.

“It’s a big improvement for our players who most are their first time to play rugby. They are playing very well.

“With only had two months to set up and reaching the final is an achievement for us. We hope the next time we come around we’ll give another good challenge.

“After this we’ll go back and keep training in preparation for the Inter-Islands Challenge,” he said.

Elo thanked their supporters for coming out yesterday and also thanked their sponsors for making their trip possible.

Meanwhile, in the third and fourth position playoffs it was Kilusakwalo who secured third position while Selco Stormers claimed fourth position.

Final standings for the 2018 Credit Corporation High School Easter 7s challenge are as follows:

1st place- Auki CHS

2nd place-Kilusakwalo

3rd place- Selco Stormers.

Leong want to emulate his uncle

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Popai Leong wants to emulate his uncle and former Pacific tennis number one Michael Leong.

BY ROMULUS HUTA

WHEN Popai Leong steps onto the tarmac at the Henderson International Airport to board his Nadi-bound flight next month, the young lad knows well at the back of his mind that he’s in for another serious tennis business.

18 year old Popai is one of the players named in the six-member Solomon Islands team for the Oceania Tennis Nations Cup.

The one-week tournament will be held at Lautoka from May 31 to June 5.

The other five representatives alongside Popai includes Fiji-based quartet which comprised Benjamin Joel Junior, Graham Mani, Prudence Bird and Zorika Morgan and home-based Doreen Ningalo.

Leong and Ningalo are the only two home-based members in the team.

Representing Solomon Islands in international competitions overseas is not something new for Popai.

In the previous years he had represented Solomon Islands abroad by participating in the West Pacific Regional Competition and the Pacific Oceania Junior Championship.

The satisfactory results he achieved in those competitions qualifies him to an opportunity to don the national jumper for a second competitive outing when he received a call to take part in the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games in Apia.

The dream run extended into last year’s Pacific Mini Games in Vanuatu, when he broke through into the national tennis squad marking his senior debut at the Korman tennis complex in Port Vila.

“I think I have come a long way and I hope experiences gained throughout the years will help my performance in the Fiji Open and the Nations Cup.

“This would be my second time to represent the country at the senior level and I’m excited with the experience.

“I’m ready to compete and looks forward to the tournament.

“My aim is to achieve a good result at the event and I’m using this as a build up toward future senior international representations,” the former Bishop Epalle student said.

As a young lawn tennis player who has a very bright future ahead of him in the sport, his aim is to emulate the footsteps of his uncle, the former Solomon Islands number one and the former Association of Tennis Professional (ATP) ranked netter Michael Leong.

Popai is the son of Michael’s elder brother.

According to records, since after the reigning years of former Pacific number one and Solomon Islander the late Lency Tenai, Michael became the next most-profiled and highly rated Solomon Islands tennis player ever to come out bracing the Davis Cup courts across the Asia Pacific region for team Pacific Oceania for quite a number of years.

To mention a little bit more on his credential as an athlete, Michael was the winning recipient of the only gold medal Solomon Islands won during the 2007 South Pacific Games (now Pacific Games) in Apia when he defeated Samoan and number one seed Juan Langton in two easy straight sets.

According to Popai, those achievements spelt out above are stringing benchmarks that Popai aims to reach and surpass with his racquet one day in the not too distant future.

“My uncle advises me a lot. He’s my mentor.

“He always encourages me to remain calm and focus during any match.

“Discipline and commitment are the other areas he always talk to me about.

“Always play with a winning mentality.

“If you have the right attitude when taking on any opponent on the court, you can easily win,” an unwavering Popai stressed when asked about some of the advices he often get from his uncle Michael.

Meawhile, Popai and his fellow national team members will participate in the Fiji Open set for May 23 to 27 at the Denerau Golf and Racquet Complex in Nadi before heading into the Oceania Tennis Nations Cup kicking off May 31 in Lautoka.

Wantok system corrupts the country

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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DEAR EDITOR, as a student and a concerned citizen of the Solomon Islands, I urge all government sectors and citizens to stop practising wantok system in the country.

This is due to the fact that wantok system produces corruption; and does not promote the standard of living in the country.

We should have already reached a higher standard of living with all the useful resources we have at hand, unfortunately, wantok system has corrupted our development system.

First, the hindrance of having positive economic growth in which funds are misused by the responsible authority and the ignorance of the country’s need like instead of promoting tourism or proper management of cleaning up the town (Honiara), the fund is misused for different purpose/personal gain.

Second, wantok system is a recipe for poor economic growth.

Job opportunities and selection of employees nowadays does not based on merit but it depends on who you know; if you have a good connection or know someone working in the system you will have more privilege of getting the Job.

Third, wantok system increases political interference with admin process.

A good example is during selection of scholarship awards; politicians are always involved.

We all know that the education authority can handle this issue and it is their responsibility to do the selection; so why do politicians always get involved?

Finally, wantok system fuels systematic corruption in terms of individuals using their power to give contracts to their relatives/wantok.

Instead of giving the road contract to a civil engineer that has qualifications on that field; they gave it to a Human Resource manager or a farmer.

Now, in light of this national concern, I believe that implementation of the Anti-corruption bill is a way that can help reduce this issue.

The country should create a convention that is not bias and is applied to everyone with penalty; so that anyone who practice wantok system should be penalised definitely.

Also, building a monitor mechanism such as a government division in a form of the key performance indicators that can monitor it with proper implementation strategies will make it effective in the country.

I call out to all citizens to work together to get rid of wantok system and corruption.

The standard of living in our country depends on the choices we make today.

If we want an advanced standard of living in the future then we should stop the practice of wantok system or else we are left to only hope for the better in the future.

Sincerely

Margareth Esther

USP, Laucala

Disaster preparedness a must

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

PACIFIC Island Countries are vulnerable to natural hazards that include floods, droughts, tropical cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis.

In an article by Pacific Islands Report in 2016, Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu are highlighted as the top 5 highest risk countries in the world.

These past months and Easter weekend, these 5 countries had been faced with the sudden onset of disaster.

This Easter weekend, in Fiji, most of the town in the Western division had been underwater following torrential rains and heavy winds caused by Tropical Cyclone (TC) Josie.

In PNG last month, a 7.5 earthquake hit the highlands killing 125 people in its wake causing 35000 people to be displaced.

In Vanuatu, volcanic alert is at level 3 with only last week, Lombenben volcano on the island of Ambae erupt causing buildings to collapse under the weight of volcanic ash. In Tonga, between 12 and 13, February 2018, TC Gita with average winds of 110 knots (285km/hour) crossed the small island nation, making it one of the worst cyclones to have hit the island of Tonga.

For Solomon Islands, though not catastrophic, a 5.8 earthquake jolted almost everyone in Honiara on Good Friday morning (maybe a spiritual awakening for some).

Because of the frequency of such natural hazards, disaster preparedness is a must and people must be educated and made aware on preparedness plans.

Our National Government has its National Disaster Risk Management Plan and this should be an ongoing priority area for them. Despite the limited budget, National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) must be able to develop and strengthen its disaster risk management capacity in the country.

People too, let us not be ignorant.

We should do something now to reduce or mitigate the effects of such disaster on our property, lives and infrastructure.

Let us not wait for a catastrophic event to happen.

Malaita proposes exchange visit to Guadalcanal

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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BY SAMIE WAIKORI

Auki

THE Malaita provincial government through its ministry of education and human resource has proposed an exchange visit to Guadalcanal province in May this year.

The visit is part of the Peace Through Education (PTE) established between the two provinces to create a culture of peace and harmony through the two provinces’ education sector.

Minister for education and human resource who also chairman of Malaita education board, Randoll Sifoni made the statement in an interview with this paper.

Mr Sifoni also during the recent Malaita provincial assembly moved a resolution on the need for the exchange visit which was supported by the house.

He said under the programme the Guadalcanal province government through its education sector has already visited the province some years back.

“Now it’s Malaita Province’s turn through its education sector to exchange the visit, so that discussion could embark on how to execute the activities under the programme.

“On my side, this is priority and before Malaita province will engage in any major activity under its education sector in the province, the first thing to do is to pay the visit.

“The visit is very important as my side see areas of improvement and inclusion of some more ideas under the concept that we will discuss for the future of the relationship,” Sifoni said.

According to information this paper obtained on the PTE concept, the mission of the programme is to create opportunities for school students in the two provinces.

This is so that they can share learning spaces, participate in cross cultural exchanges and experience and interact with each other in ways to create understanding, tolerance, and national consciousness.

The proposal will also help young people from the two provinces to appreciate and understand each other’s cultures, experiences and perspectives, challenges faced and culture shared as Solomon Islanders.

According to the proposal, the concept of PTE is meant to boost post-conflict peace building.

The idea is to create understanding that will ensure sustainable peace between the two once-rival sister provinces and stability for the country.

ENDs////

Putting money where our mouth is

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0
Dr Melchior Mataki, PS Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management & Meteorology

BY GEORGINA KEKEA

Dr Melchior Mataki, PS Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management & Meteorology

THE recent report on Climate change and disaster risk finance assessment was basically putting together all the information that is already known about climate finance and also to look at areas needing improvement so as to better access climate finance and how to manage it.

Speaking to Island Sun newspaper, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Risk Management and Meteorology (MECDM), Dr Melchior Mataki says in order for us to have access to these funds, we must have very robust public finance and mechanism processes in place.

“In other words, the developing partners or the funding agencies, must have confidence in our systems so that when they give us funds, they are comfortable that the resources can be managed well and we are able to achieve our aims and objectives,” Mr Mataki says.

Mataki says with the report, for Solomon Islands this is just the start as the report also comes with its own set of recommendations and work plan.

“For example we need to address coordination between government to ensure programmes are developed and that they align well with the government’s National Development Strategies (NDS) and also in alignment with the needs of the country, so to speak,” Mataki says.

He said studies done for this report identified lack of coordination as one area that needs improvement. Coupled with that, Solomon Islands is yet to attune to climate finance.

“What is becoming clear to us now is that we can actually use climate finance to leverage development finance and also to see that development work is carried out,” Mataki says.

He said it is important that we position ourselves to benefit, optimise and access and manage these resources so that people who are affected will benefit from these resources.

“Like every other thing, it is not easy to access these sort of big funds. It is not like you have to go down to the market and collect it the next day. You have to satisfy these conditions. Of course it demands our time, but if we are to use somebody else’s money, we have to meet the conditions which they want us to meet,” Mataki says.

For the Green Climate Fund (GCF) only accredited entities can submit funding proposals to the fund at any time.

For Solomon Islands, the National Transport Fund (NTF) is recommended to act as an entity to seek funds from GCF. With that work is currently in progress by MID and an USAID funded project to seek accreditation from GCF.

Guadalcanal and Malaita urged to explore areas of relationship

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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0

BY SAMIE WAIKORI

Auki

Member of the Malaita Provincial Assembly for Ward 27 (Siesie) in West, Hon David Nguiburi

GUADALCANAL and Malaita provincial governments have been urged to extend their relationship beyond the Peace Through Education (PTE) concept they have established.

MPA for Ward 27 (Siesie) in West Kwaio, David Nguiburi made the statement when contributing to the resolution moved by minister for education and human resource on the endorsement for the two provinces on the PTE initiative.

He applauded the concept, saying it’s a way forward for the two sister provinces to establish relationship, as a mean to contribute to the post-conflict peace building for the country.

Mr Nguiburi said the idea came about between leaders of the two provinces in a way to build-on from the past civil unrest they were engaged in.

“However, when looked into issues aroused the ethnic tension, it related to issues of land, occupancy of Malaitans in Guadalcanal and other social issues.

“With that I suggested the two provinces should also work together and establish working relationship on those areas as well.

“Because I believe having established relationship on those different sectors it will bring the two provinces more closely to work hand-in-hand in areas of development for the provinces,” he said.

Contributing in support of the resolution Hon Nguiburi said the PTE has paved the way forward for the two provinces to pursue other sectors of establishing relationships.

Western province is flourishing: Maepioh

Written by
Milton Ragaruma
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Former Western Province Premier Hon. Wayne Maepio

BY BARNABAS MANEBONA

WESTERN Province is flourishing, proving how effective its policies have been in the last four years, according to Premier Wayne Maepioh.

He makes this declaration in response to questions over the effectiveness of the policies of the province by Mr Ramrakha Talasasa, MPA for ward 16, during last week’s first assembly meeting on Monday.

Talasasa had called out Western province’s government to prove whether its policies have been effective in the last four years.

Maepioh, speaking to Island Sun yesterday, says that on the contrary to Talasasa’s opinions, Western province’s developments especially in investments is flourishing compared to other provinces.

“Western Provincial Government’s policy is very vibrant. In terms of policies directions, we are achieving a lot in terms of business confidence in the province which is a big achievement to our policy.

“One of my objectives when I came into power as the Premier of Western Province is the open-door policy. That policy is now starting to pick up resulting in investors having interests in the province.

“To me, there is already a positive confidence by the people which is economically proven in terms of confidence from investors. Apart from logging and other activities, the tourism sector is picking up in the province though other productive sectors need more emphases.

“For the cocoa, copra and tuna industries sectors, we will try to relook in them again to talk with the National Government Ministries for their directions in terms of their policies so that we implement them too.

“If we look at the positive side of these areas, the government is trying to promote the province as a place to invest in. This is only what we are trying to echo out to the public to create a welcoming environment.”

The Premier added that not everything can be automatically achieved because of the limits of funds too for the provincial government levels.

This financial year round 2016-17 during the supplementary of the provincial government, Western province managed to have a surplus revenue of $8million compared to the grant given by the national government of $9million.

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