BY GEORGE MANFORD
AUKI
LIGHTS in Auki wharf stopped working in February this year, and have been ever since.
This is causing concerns among members of public, who say that it is a security risk for public and travelers and crews of ships docking in Auki wharf.
They call on authorities to do whatever it takes to have the lights back working.
One group of vulnerable people are the security workers who say that their work is made more dangerous when there are no lights in the wharf.
BY LYNTON AARON FILIA
SOLOMON Islands National University will start refurbishment its dining hall and dormitories at the Panatina and Kukum campuses today.
SINU’s Acting Vice Chancellor Prof Basil Marasinghe said amenities for students have already been improved, including the student dormitory at the Ranadi Campus which had been abandoned for years.
He said SINU administration has purchased new beddings for student dormitories.
Marasinghe adds that the university’s computer facility have been improved; SINU is now with 12 computer labs.
He said when he arrived three years ago, dormitories were running at less than 30 percent capacity. However, now dormitories are at 100 percent with the university ordering 750 extra beds.
He explained main reasons for this high occupancy is introduction over 30 new academic programmes include 10 Bachelor programmes.
“Most of the Bachelor’s degrees commenced two years ago are four years of duration and in two years time when we have students from 1st to 4th years; we will need even more dormitories.
“All these developments commenced during the last 24 months in spite of limited funds.”
Solomon Islands Government has drastically cut down the development grant from $50 million to $10 million this year.
He said from 2013 to 2015 no significant infrastructure activity took place.
But, now SINU is booming with infrastructure development, one of which is the world-class fisheries complex at the Ranadi campus.
One eye-opening infrastructure that will change the face of SINU is the education complex in Panatina Campus, he said.
The complex constructed by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation has cost Solomon Islands Government over $130 million, and will be completed by May 2019.
The science research complex in the Kukum Campus construction commenced in September 2017 will be ready by next month.
With these developments, Marasinghe said there are a number of other infrastructure projects nearing completion which the students and staff will benefit.
By Mike Puia
Gizo
COUNTING of ballot papers for the Gizo/Kolombangara by-election is taking place in Gizo.
Counting starts at 9am and the winner of the election should be known around afternnon.
Police have been working hard in retrieving ballot boxes from 12 polling stations in the constituency when voting closed at 5pm on Wednesday.
When voting closed at 5pm, the first five ballot boxes on Gizo Island were collected by police and transported to Gizo town.
They were kept under police care. Police also retrieved the other seven ballot boxes in Kolombangara Island last night where they were transported and kept overnight at Gizo police station.
Counting is expected to be done at the provincial headquarter compound and the announcement of the provisional result will be made by the Returning Officer.
The provisional result will be sent to the Solomon Islands Electoral Office (SIEC) office in Honiara where it will advise the Governor General to make the official announcement of the winning candidate.
Five candidates are contesting the Gizo/Kolombangara parliamentary seat.
Two of these candidates are; Mrs Lanelle Tanangada, the wife of the former Member of Parliament of the constituency, and a former prime minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo. They are the two strong contenders in this by-election.
Polling day yesterday was quiet due to the passing of a former Member of Parliament and a respected businessman in Gizo on the eve of the polling day.
The turn-out to vote at polling stations was good.
Returning Officer, Chris Siale, confirmed yesterday that he received positive feedback from staff on the field about the turn out by voters to cast their ballots.
Siale said however some issues popped up, such as some voters with cards did not see their names on the list at the polling station.
He said they can’t do much about such case since yesterday was voting day.
Siale said there have been stages during the registration process that would have dealt with such issue.
He said those who are unfortunate to be on the list should make sure their names are on the voter roll they will commence work on this month. This is for the 2019 national general elections.
BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
PRINCIPAL Magistrate Augustine Aulanga has sentenced a man with 44 prior convictions to one month for drunk disorderly yesterday.
Magistrate Aulanga in his sentence said the accused, Nick Pitamama, is not a first time offender and had been sentenced for this offence on two occasions in the past.
He never learnt from the past and continued to cross the red line. His 44 prior convictions showed he did not positively reform himself and by implication, he treated the past sentences imposed on him with ridicule and mockery, Aulanga said.
Mr Pitamama, who pleaded guilty to one count of drunk and disorderly, is not new to committing crimes. He has 44 prior convictions which span from 1993 – 2013.
Aulanga said out of the 44 convictions, two of them were drunk and disorderly offences and this will be his third.
“Why he has no leant from his past sentences is not clear. The fact that he committed again this offence that he has been sentenced of in the past shows that past sentences did not have any effect of positively reforming him to become a law abiding person,” Aulanga said.
Aulanga said for this charge, the facts of the case showed that on May 17 this year at about 2.40pm, the accused was drunk and behaved disorderly and was holding a stone in his right hand in front of the Central Magistrates Court. He was shouting loudly and moving about in an aggressive manner that attracted the attention of the public or the crowd.
It was during that time that police patrol team came by and apprehended him, placed him in the police vehicle and escorted him to the central police station, Aulanga said.
“Few things I see that aggravate how he committed the offence. First, he was armed with a stone and very aggressive and uncontrollable. This has the potential to terrify the public or someone who he was angry with the material time. Second, he committed the offence at the Central Magistrate’s Court vicinity. He should know that this building represents the third arm of the government called ‘the judiciary’ in so far as the separation of powers in a democratic country like Solomon Islands is concerned. By shouting loudly and moving around with a stone in his hand at the court’s vicinity, he utterly disrespected the court’s premises and those who worked and attended to the normal business of the magistracy.
“In fairness to him, I take into account his early guilty plea, being a family man with two children and his remorse. He said sorry for what he did and said that the last time he was in prison was in 2013. He is currently working for a private law firm called Rano and Company. I give him full credit for that,” Aulanga said.
He also said criminal cases are not only for punishment but to ensure the offender does not repeat it again in the future. And if the sentence does little or no effect at all to a particular repeated offender, the Court must also be sensitive to this failure and adjust how it will sentence that offender accordingly.
“The accused as of now must seriously learn to reform his behaviour and ways if he wants to stop seeing the court and treat Rove Prison as his second home in the future.
“Though taking into account that his family will be affected, perhaps in future, he should choose what is best for his family – whether to drink alcohol and commit a crime so that he will end up in jail or to settle down; stay out of crime and engage in positive things that will help him and his family,” Aulanga said.
BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
PRINCIPAL Magistrate Fatimah Taeburi has sentenced a Chinese woman to one year and six months for offences committed last year.
The Chinese woman is convicted of six counts of larceny and embezzlement to the sum of more than $400,000 from her employer in money and cartons of cigarette.
Tong Jian Jing was an employee of the Low Price enterprise as a clerk, and was charged with six counts of larceny and embezzlement by servant in relation to incidents which occurred from November last year to around March this year.
Prosecution alleged that the first incident occurred on November 23 last year where she stole 11 cartons of cigarettes worth $170,500.
Prosecution further said from December last year to around March this year she stole a huge amount of money; the management of Low Price found out and reported her to the police.
Police Prosecution Service is prosecuting the case in court while Cathy Hite from Public Solicitor’s Office represents the accused.
SKBA competition enters Day 6
By Taromane Martin
THE Solomon Kids Basketball Academy (SKBA) competition continues today with round robin matches as the final playoffs approaches.
This year’s competition sees three boys’ team in the 15 years of age and above category, two mix teams in the 11- 14 years category and four teams in the junior category competing.
The academy competition enters day six today at the Chung Wah School after matches were forced to cancel Thursday last week due to school examinations.
SKBA Coach Davidson Toliliu said the players are making progress and has already identified some areas they will work on after the mid-year break.
“The competition is just to give our academy players the opportunity to practice the basics we’ve been training in an actual game,” Coach Toliliu told SunSPORTS.
“They are making progress. I’d say at the moment it’s fifty-fifty because some of the boys taking part are just here because they heard about the competition and decided to come.
“However majority of the boys have been training with the academy. So far it’s looking good, they’re improving.
“Just some areas to we need to work and polish up on. When they come back from the break then we’ll work on them,” he adds.
Final round robin matches for the the SKBA competition will take place Tuesday and Thursday next week with the final playoffs set for the week after next.
“Two weeks is left for the competition and then we’ll go for the break.
“This week and next week we’ll continue with the final round robin matches and then the week after next we’ll have the finals,” Coach Toliliu said.
Meanwhile SKBA Co-Founder Moses Kivo thanked the volunteers who came to help officiate matches and also their sponsors for making it possible to host the competition.
“Big thank you to Timmy Magi, Cecil Loti and Kafuru for coming out and helping referee the matches and also to our sponsors Qualitech Accessories Limited, Solomon Sheet Steel, Pacific Casino Hotel, CBSI and Our Telekom for the immense support,” Kivo said.
Fixtures for today’s matches are as follows:
Junior Category (INDOOR)
5:00pm DOGGZ vs BULLS
5:300pm SUPERSTARZ vs WOLVEPOWER
MIX GENDER &High School Boys (OUTDOOR)
5:00pm CELTICS vs GSW
5:30pm TIMBERWOLVES vs TITANs
Bye KNIGHTS
BY ROMULUS HUTA
THE president of the national soccer club champions Solomon Warriors has called on members of the Telekom S-League (TSL) Board within Solomon Islands Football Federation (SIFF) to step up on their mandated duties.
Hon. Dettke was referring to the delayed pay-out of their Telekom S-League (TSL) prize monies where organisers kept hanging onto it without releasing it earlier until two weeks later where it was finally paid out.
Warriors’ president Honourable Bodo Dettke made this statement during the club’s 2018 awards night in Honiara on Saturday.
“This kind of behaviour must be stopped. This is like we’re been let down by SIFF when they continue to drag on with matters supposed to be dealt with as soon as possible.
Warriors were issued with their cheque of $250,000 on May 10 but could not be withdrawn at that time because the concerned account lacked sufficient funds.
The $250,000 is a combined amount of the $150,000 won in the league competition and the $100,000 won in the championship series.
Despite been in possession of the cheque already, it took them another week before they could withdraw their money, according to the club.
“Hopefully, we look forward to one day things will improve in there or we just go in and simply change them because they always neglect their duties.
“Very soon we will raise complaints about them because they seem not to be doing things fairly and on time,” Hon Dettke stressed.
Hon. Dettke was also disappointed when their club was told by SIFF officials prior to the pay out that they would be given half of their prize money first and the remaining part later.
“Even though the sponsor Our Telekom had already given the money to SIFF, organisers continue to hang onto the monies, even promised and asked Warriors to pay half first and another half later but there is no such thing like this.
“We the clubs are tired of this and must be put to a stop,” Hon Dettke expressed.
Formal protest
Due to the above, Hon. Dettke is thinking of nothing else but will opt to go see other clubs with the possibility of coming together as a group to formally lodge an official protest.
“The only thing is to come out and group together with our other clubs in the TSL to formally lodge a protest to stop authorities bullying us around with this kind of ‘uncalled for’ attitude.
“This is to make sure that organisers don’t bully around with clubs next time.
“Warriors were lucky to have an established sponsor who is looking after its affairs.
“If this trend continues, it will not help the growth of football in Solomon Islands but will only see it deteriorate.
“I have spoken with some members of our club’s executive on the idea of forming a group with the other clubs to come together and protest against SIFF and we will soon table it for proper discussion.
“There are many concerned others out there who don’t have the guts to shake up the SIFF office but are being posed with fear that their clubs might end up getting penalised.
“We should not fear them but speak out to help us achieve what we desire to achieve for Solomon Islands football. We must speak out on issues affecting football in Solomon Islands. We must not remain silent.
“The more we talk, the more we will see improvement and changes made.
“This is my immediate task and I will raise this when meeting with my club’s executive members to share the idea of teaming up with the other clubs.”
Football and Politics
Hon Dettke then added that politics seem to hinder the growth of football in Solomon Islands.
“Politics is killing football in Solomon Islands.
“Just look at HFA, what is the problem at the moment?
“We have a serious issue here. Is it because of no money or they remain unwilling to look for sponsor?
“A lot of business houses in Honiara are willing to sponsor.
“But because relevant authorities continue to fail their mandated duties and it is the players who are becoming the victims here.
“You players too must involve in this crusade. You also have a voice. You are our voice. You should go around and sing the same tune to your friends from other clubs.
“Although we played against them but the important thing is to come together as a union to speak out against this.
“We must force to stop this.
“Most of the times, those responsible football leaders always abuse the process. We must do something about it,” Hon. Dettke, who is also the Member of Parliament for North West Guadalcanal, said.
Meanwhile, after the TSL presentation this month, several other clubs apart from Warriors have also raised similar concerns where their prize monies were delayed.
PRIME Minister Rick Houenipwela has confirmed the funding arrangement for the Pacific Games 2023 with President of Taiwan Dr Tsai Ing-Wen.
The Prime Minister successfully negotiated the arrangement with the Taiwanese President during his bilateral recently.
The president of Taiwan has thrown her Government’s full support for the Games and she was particularly overwhelmed and welcomes the Green Games initiative.
“Yes, we have been waiting for this,” President Tsai said.
The President was also impressed with the political will driven by Prime Minister Houenipwela and his Government for making significant progress since assuming office.
This was after the Prime Minister informed President Tsai on the latest progress made in securing land for the main stadium.
Prime Minister Houenipwela and 2023 Pacific Games Sub-Committee chairman Hon Steve Abana also led the delegation to meet with two top constructing companies in Taiwan.
The two companies are Futsu Construction, Ltd and CECI Engineering Consultants Inc.
The Prime Minister and chairman Hon Abana will then return and present a Cabinet paper for Cabinet to endorse any of the two companies that will build the stadium.
Speaking during the presentations, Prime Minister Houenipwela told the company representatives that the PG 2023 Games is an important project for his Government.
He said land for the main stadium had already been secured.
“This will be the first ever green games in the pacific region and we would like to host a successful and memorable event,” he said.
Hon Abana has also acknowledged the presentations made by the two companies and welcomes the funding arrangement support for the main stadium by the Taiwanese government.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is expected to make further announcements regarding the PG Games support and also other achievements from his trip to Japan and Taiwan in a press conference upon arrival in Honiara.
OPMC PRESS.
BY ROMULUS HUTA
THE National Olympic Committee of Solomon Islands (NOCSI) has confirmed the participation of the under-18 futsal boys team in the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina come October.
The confirmation was made during Wednesday’s NOCSI Executive meeting in Honiara.
Wednesday’s declaration had put to rest doubts and uncertainty which previously hovers over the youth futsal side’s trip to Argentina following a quota in the games’ regulation which had it that each participating National Olympic Committee (NOC) is only allowed to send only one team sport per gender to participate in the global youth tournament.
Weeks leading up to the decision, futsal was in a stern competition with the hockey 5s under-18 boys following their qualification during April’s hockey qualifiers in PNG as to who will be given the green light by NOCSI to represent Solomon Islands in the games.
The Youth Olympic Games will run from October 6 to 18 in Buenos Aires and athletics and weightlifting are the other two approved sporting codes by NOCSI to accompany futsal.
Weightlifting and athletics are attending the games through ‘wild card’ unlike the case of futsal.
According to NOCSI, the decision embarked on to declare futsal men as the country’s team sport for the games was not an easy decision made by NOCSI taking into consideration that hockey men’s had also qualified through the same process.
“Hence, following the final deliberation by the NOCSI Executive Board in today’s meeting 23rd May 2018, the NOCSI Executive Board boldly agreed to send the Futsal men to compete at the Youth Olympic Games.
“The decision to pick futsal over hockey men’s is based on obvious reasons such as the following:
NOCSI President Martin Rara said: “On this note, I would like to congrate both futsal and hockey for making into the final stage to be qualified.
“However, it is unfortunate for Hockey men for not to be travelling to Bueno Aires as the IOC/YOGs rules and regulation spelt out very clear that there will only one space for team sport per gender to be selected from four (4) team sports that is ( Rugby Sevens, Futsal, Beach Handball and Hockey). In this situation, NOCSI select futsal to represent Solomon Islands as the most outstanding performed team sport in the region.
“As President, I would like to ask the national federation to cooperate with us in preparation the team.
“The process has now been completed, so I expect national federations to work closely with us to ensure we prepare our teams and meet deadlines.
“This will be the first of its kind to send a team to youth Olympic Games that truly qualified through merit or qualification. During the past two youth olympic games we only sent individual sports through Universality Placement (UP) or ‘wild card’.”
ULMWP calls on SI to be wary of report from recent Indo-funded trip
BY ROMULUS HUTA
THE United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has called on Prime Minister Rick Houenipwela not to believe a single word which may be carried in the report of the recent visit by the government-led delegation to Indonesia in April, but rather ‘shove it into the trash’.
ULMWP Spokesman Jacob Rumbiak, who is in Honiara at the moment told Island Sun yesterday that information gathered from Jakarta during the visit may not truly reflect the cries of the people of West Papua but merely represents the cruelty stand of the Indonesian government.
“This trip was funded by the Indonesian government. They paid for the delegates’ airfare, per diems, accommodation and everything.
“The trip was purposely planned to mislead the Solomon Islands government on issues affecting the people of West Papua.
“The issues there are real. It is genocide where the Indonesian government is trying to hide,” Rumbiak stressed.
The trip to Jakarta was headed by Prime Minister’s Office Chief of Staff, John Teddie Usuramo.
Those that accompanied him were Special Secretary on Foreign Relations Rence Sore, Solomon Islands’ Ambassador to Indonesia, Salana Kalu, Development Service Exchange Chairman Inia Barry and other civil society activists.
The main purpose of the trip was to find out first-hand about the human rights and the self-determination issues in West Papua, according to Mr Sore in an interview with the RNZI on Wednesday.
“In my view, the delegation should be independent and supposed not to be using funds given by the Indonesian government,” Rumbiak said.
According to Rumbiak, the delegation’s visit was an indication that PM Hou was approaching a different stand on Papua to that of the previous prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare.
Mr Sogavare, who is now the deputy prime minister, campaigned internationally about West Papuan human rights issues.
He was also supportive of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, and instrumental in its admission to the Melanesian Spearhead Group in 2015.
Rumbiak then called on PM Houenipwela to continue on from what was left behind by the former PM.
“I’d like PM Hou to carry on with what was left behind by Sogavare,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rumbiak is expected to meet with Sogavare, who is currently serving as the Acting Prime Minister in the absence of PM Hou who is still away overseas.
Island Sun Newspaper Limited is a privately owned daily newspaper in the Solomon Islands. Island Sun launched its first issue on Friday 6th October 2006. It began as a weekly newspaper before going twice a week in early 2007 and later publishing three times a week by the end of the same year. In 2008, Island Sun was published five days a week and later added the Saturday issue in June 2014. Plans are already underway to add a Sunday issue anytime soon.
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