Major reforms and meeting the press

GOOD on you Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela for taking the bold move to reduce your political appointees, terminating all vehicle lease agreement and cutting back on post-paid mobile phones for your staff.

These reforms are as you rightly said to save money and cut back on unnecessary spending past governments has endured.

Thumbs up Prime Minister and we congratulate you for this brave move.

We say this was a bold decision because we know some people would be unhappy; however the national interest is paramount and we wish to congratulate you and your team Mr Prime Minister.

Despite your short stint in the Prime Ministership seat, you’ve done a tremendous job so far in saving money. We wish you will continue to implement these reforms until your term ends.

We will want to see these reforms carried through until the next elections early next year.

We also hope these reforms would not be the only ones taken to save money. As an economist yourself, we know you can do a lot of reforms to qualify this country of its developing status.

Although we do not have the qualities to become a developed nation overnight, we have the resources at our disposal to become a rich country.

And only visionary leader like yourself and likeminded people around you would be able to push Solomon Islands forward to be self-reliant, economically sustainable and ensure financial stability.

However we demand such reforms to be implemented in other government ministries and departments.

We think other line ministries are also inquiring unnecessary costs which costs the national government a lot. If such reforms can be done across the board, then it would be save us more money.

Saying it is one thing and actually doing it is quite another, so we hope such reforms must be seen to be done and supported by all those involved. Supporting these reforms spearheaded by Prime Minister Houenipwela is what we are asking for here.

Finally we welcome the ‘meet the media’ strategy the Prime Minister has announced. As patron of the Media Association of Solomon Islands, you have exercised your rights to take the lead in meeting the media with your regular press conferences.

We hope your regular press conferences will contribute to public awareness, educating our ordinary people with government’s policies and eradication of rumours and dissemination of factual information for our people to make informed choices.

For that this newspaper wishes to register its appreciation in spearheading this move and for other ministries to also meet the media regularly.

This is an act of recognising the important role the media plays as a fourth estate and a cornerstone of democracy.

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