-New majority coalition calls on Prime Minister Manele to ‘do the honourable thing’ – resign or call parliament to debate the motion of no-confidence
-New coalition warns PM Manele’s delay tactics is a tilt towards ‘dictatorship’
BY IRWIN ANGIKI
The new coalition with the majority of MPs is calling again on Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele to do the ‘honourable thing’ – resign or call for parliament.
This statement comes as the notice of the Motion of No-Confidence (MoNC) against PM Manele matured in parliament yesterday with no sign of the prime minister calling for parliament to debate the MoNC.
Mr Manele had said on Sunday that he would call parliament at an ‘appropriate time’. But the new coalition says the most appropriate time is ‘now’.
With Manele prolonging his rule with a minority government, refusing to let go of power and delaying parliament from debating the MoNC, the new majority coalition warns that the prime minister is pulling Solomon Islands from a democracy ‘towards dictatorship’.
The new coalition boasts 28 MP members and PM Manele commands 22. Two of government’s MPs are in serious medical conditions, rendering only 19 MPs helping Manele run government.
Speaking on behalf of the new majority coalition yesterday, MP for East Are’are Peter Kenilorea Jnr called the group the ‘Government in waiting’.
The new opposition coalition is officially registered with the Political Parties Commission – comprising six parties; People First Party (PFP), Solomon Islands Democratic Party (SIDP), SI United Party (SIUP), Democratic Alliance Party (DAP), Iumi for Change Party (U4C) and SI Party for Rural Advancement Party (SIPRA).
Mr Kenilorea Jnr and Peter Shanel Agovaka (MP for Central Guadalcanal) represented the ‘Government in waiting’ at a press conference yesterday in which the group rebuffed PM Manele’s statements in his press conference on Sunday which the group said attempted to ‘undermine’ and bring ‘uncertainty’ to the current political crisis.
The new majority coalition is 28-MP strong and rock-solid
“We have now been together for one week as a group, 28 strong and being consistent throughout this whole week,” MP Kenilorea Jnr said.
“We are not simply saying that through photographs. It’s not just snapshots on photo. It’s not just rumours that I think the Prime Minister might be referring to it as such.
“It’s actually registered in the Political Parties Commission.
“We have a strong resolve to see this through right till its natural end. We see ourselves as the government in waiting.
“We already have the number. We already have the majority. We’re all about majority rule.
“We will be the next government for Solomon Islands. And that is the resolve that all of us 28 we have.
“To start we are the government in waiting and we look forward to that honour and privilege to serve our nation again in a new government. And that is something we want to say out front and to rebuff the idea that what is happening is perhaps unclear, uncertain. There is a clear certainty.
“We are very clear about our objectives, about what we are doing. And I would encourage you to check out the Office of the Commission for Political Parties. All the documentations are there and that should give you a good guidance.
“And I would also encourage the Prime Minister to also go and have a look at the registration of our coalition. It’s already there in black and white. All 28 have signed.”
PPIA supports new opposition coalition and condemns PM Manele’s minority government
“We now have the PPIA, which is the Political Party Integrity Act. That is a law in itself that governs how the coalition or political parties have coalition,” MP Agovaka said.
“And the PPIA is also a proof that [PM Manele] hasn’t got the number.”
MP Kenilorea Jnr said: “There is an effort to try and undermine what is happening here and perhaps doing the playbook of the old days where we didn’t have this particular office in place where the fluidity was more at play. Now, with this new Political Party Integrity Act and the Political Party Commission, I think unless you look if everyday change, change, somebody signed, resigned, more signed, resigned in a coalition or so, there is no fluidity anymore.
“So, the days where the fluidity, you don’t know who’s here, who’s there, photo taken today might not reflect what happens tomorrow, those days are gone. We are now in a new era where there’s a strong resolve by our group to look forward towards taking this country forward.”
Majority rule is a bedrock of our democracy
“We are all about majority rule. Majority rule is the bedrock upon which democratic countries are built,” MP Kenilorea Jnr said.
“That is the foundation upon which all that we are doing, otherwise it’s meaningless. Otherwise, we might as well be a dictatorship. We are very much a democratic country, believe in the values of democracy.
“And this is something that we thought the Prime Minister also believes in. That is why it’s quite surprising for some of us to start to hear this kind of dictatorship tendencies coming out and holding on to power. Because for us the clear and simple way forward in this impasse that we are now experiencing is simply resignation.
Numbers is important in politics, not just a concept
“Numbers are so important. And we refute and we … disagree with the suggestion that numbers somehow is a concept. Number is not a concept,” MP Kenilorea Jnr said.
“Number is what makes politics operate. Number is where you see the mandate that is given to the people that help to run government. Number is what gives us, as members of parliament, legitimacy.
“Number is what gives the prime minister legitimacy, because he has to win by absolute majority. And we want to say that number is the bottom end of democracy.
“The mandate that people give to us is controlled by the number. So, the number game, as we always say, is a real reality. It’s not a concept, it’s not something that you think about. It’s the fact that the number is so important.”
“The number game that we are playing is that the prime minister hasn’t got the number,” MP Agovaka said.
“It is evident in the fact that he is appointing ministers to supervise in other ministries, act in other ministries, so that in itself is a proof that he has no number. And the PPIA is also a proof that he hasn’t got the number.”
PM Manele twisting the issue of parliamentary chairmanship
“The issue about the parliamentary chairmanship, how it’s been framed by the prime minister is not the right way to see what we’re going through now,” MP Kenilorea Jnr said.
“It’s framed as a separation of powers, when we all know that the prime minister is elected by parliament. That is a convergence of powers for executive, derived from parliament.
“The executive is accountable to parliament.
“And because of that accountability, he has to take a meeting in parliament, call for it, so that we can really go through that full accountability in parliament.
“That’s something that you see throughout commonwealth parliament, that happens now and again. [It is not a] new something. It might be new for Solomon Islands, [that is true].
“It questions the legitimacy of the executive. When we, who are on this side of the house, who man much of the chairmanship, we resign, that is a protest that there is a minority government in place.”
Government ministers in parliament committees against separation of powers
“Once the prime minister would start to appoint people into those committees again, then the separation of power that he’s been talking about calls into question,” MP Kenilorea Jnr said.
“How would you have people in government sitting in those committees to scrutinise again the government? How can you have your own people do the scrutiny? That in itself goes way against what the prime minister is trying to promote as separation of powers.
“That in itself, prime minister, if you start to do that, you’re driving us straight into a constitutional crisis where you have members of the executive manning parliamentary committees, where you’re supposed to have scrutiny and oversight over the role of the executive, but it’s now done by members of the executive.
“Where is that division? Where is that separation? If you go down that route, you are just committing what is potentially a constitutional crisis.”
Vote of no-confidence takes precedence
MP Agovaka said ‘everything’ that Prime Minister Manele had mentioned in his Sunday press conference are secondary to the democratic principle of numbers.
“That principle must stand. The vote of no confidence is an important motion that takes precedence during parliament sitting. [When there is a] vote of no confidence, first we leave aside all the other motions and we concentrate on the vote of no confidence.
“And parliament must be convened to look at this vote of no confidence. It shows that the house has no confidence in the prime minister.
“He is holding the country to ransom, saying that it is in the national interest. And he has not deliberated on what that national interest is.”
For the love of this nation, PM must call parliament
“I would like to call on my friend, the prime minister, to seriously think about this nation, for the love of this nation and people, that he should call parliament, so that we can test this number,” MP Agovaka said.
“Resign from your position that you’ve now lost numbers, accept that, or call Parliament and test your number on the floor of Parliament,” MP Kenilorea Jnr said.
Background
On March 16, 19 government MPs including 12 ministers resigned from the Government for National Unity and Transformation (GNUT) coalition.
A notice for a Motion of No-Confidence was served to Parliament on March 17.
Yesterday, this notice matured its seven days and today (Tuesday, March 24) marks the beginning of when the motion can be debated.
It can only be debated when parliament is called for by the prime minister.
On February 2 this year PM Manele in a press conference voiced his intention to call for parliament either in May or June.
The Governor General (GG) has come out saying he does not have the power to call for parliament, adding that he can only do so under advice from the prime minister. This followed a petition by the opposition coalition for the GG to call parliament.
PM Manele told a press conference on Sunday, March 22, that he would call parliament at ‘the appropriate time’.
Furthermore, on March 19 nine chairpersons of nine of the parliamentary select committees resigned – a move which crippled parliament in its oversight functions, and looked to force PM Manele to resign or call parliament.
All nine former chairpersons are MPs in the new opposition coalition. The tenth committee was vacant after its chairperson was appointed a government minister earlier last week.
This is PM Manele’s third MoNC. In the first two MoNC the prime minister had not delayed in calling parliament to debate the two MoNC.
By the time the motions matured, PM Manele had already secured majority numbers to defeat them.
In this instance, the MoNC has matured and PM Manele is with a minority. He has not yet called for parliament.
Photo: Supplied
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