‘quake’ feared in assembly

Rumbles in the Solomons: ‘quake’ feared in assembly

From JOHN CARTER, in Honiara

There are subterranean rumbles in the Solomons. Kavachi, the undersea volcano off Vanguna island in the Western District, has popped its angry head out of the water again and when last reported in October was spewing rocks, lava, fire and brimstone. But nearer the centre of things in Honiara, there are rumbles of a different kind; the same sort of convulsions which tipped Gough Whitlam out of office in Australia.

The Budget, due to appear in the Legislative Assembly some time in November, may be blocked by the Opposition. Peter Kenilorea, Chief Minister since beating Solomon Mamaloni in July, is expected by many to resign. He’s fed up. Who wouldn’t be with his kind of problems!

At the time of writing, late October, everything was in the melting pot. Kenilorea, a 33-year-old Malaita man, ex-schoolmaster and district commissioner, who was un successful in the 1970 and 1973 elec tions, after making an impassioned appeal for support in July, now finds that his only support comes from his seven ministers and there are now 38 seats in the Assembly, an increase of 14 over the last one.

It was a sad awakening for him, new to politics and parliament, to find the House arrayed against him.

Unofficial leader of the Opposition is trade union leader Bartholomew Ulufa’alu, no mean orator some would call him a rabble-rouser still in his twenties and a graduate of the University of Papua New Guinea. He heads the new Nationalists Party and claims seven seats in the House for his party, which looks like being the only party with clearly-defined political ideas, most of them radical.

Solomon Mamaloni, aged 33, the first Chief Minister, a close second to Kenilorea in the July election for Chief Minister, is regarded as the Opposition whip. But I’ve got a feeling that Ulufa’alu will only be opposition leader as long as it pleases Mamaloni unless, as thousands expect, Mamaloni bounces back into the Chief Minister’s seat.

The Assembly met in August for

the first time since the elections, and continued into September when it closed with two very important measures deadlocked. The House refused to approve the committee’s, report on the constitution, and also knocked back a proposal to deal with land problems.

Kenilorea was elected Chief Minister after seven ballots with 21 votes, five more than Mamaloni.

What happened to his 21 supporters?

The number had dwindled to a third when the Assembly met.

The refusal to approve the constitution report has thrown the machinery for independence out of gear. There was to have been a final meeting in London in November between the British Government and the Solomons delegation to tread the last steps along Independence Road and D Day was expected to be on January 1. That date’s out. Another date suggested is next June, but I think the earliest will be January 1, 1978.

There have been reports circulating outside the Solomons which suggested the hold-up was because the Solomons people don’t want in dependence. All the politicans do want it, and a large proportion of the people, though there are some doubts, especially in the outer islands. Some say there hasn’t been enough prepara tion, that independence hasn’t been properly spelled out to a people with only a hazy idea of what central government is.

Mamaloni isn’t saying very much on that at the moment. The only course he has indicated up to now outside the House is that, once he’s back in the saddle, there’ll be a few changes around the government buildings.

Some think the opposition to the constitution report and the lands measure was a muscle-flexing exercise by the strong men controlling the Opposition; that if they can command enough support over two such important matters they will be able to block the Budget and that Kenilorea will resign. When these words are read, all may be over.

The Budget session is expected to

be some time towards the end of November. The retiring Governor, Sir Donald Luddington, has left for home and his successor, Mr Colin Allan, ex-British Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides and, more lately, ex-Governor of the Seychelles, will be installed at Government House before October’s end.

Kenilorea is regarded by all as a man of high principles with a wide, if at present theoretical, knowledge of Solomons administration on the higher levels. He’s not had the opportunity yet to show whether he is a fighter, but in some circles it is thought that, if he can be persuaded it is for the good of the Solomons that he should stay in the hot seat, he will fight.

Whatever happens, the birth of an independent Solomon Islands isn’t going to be an easy exercise in political obstetrics. But, there’ll be attempts behind the scenes to enlist more support for him among the back-benchers, and, if the Budget is blocked, the present constitution gives him breathing space. He can ask the House to allow him to draw finance from the coffers for four months. If this is refused, he can go to the country and ask for a vote of confidence through the ballot box. In the interim, the Consolidated Fund will take care of the bills.

Meanwhile, Mr Mamaloni is saying nothing. I found him with three friends sitting under a tree near the wharf. He’s a great sitter-under trees and being Chief Minister didn’t change his habits. Some of his friends and he’s got plenty think he should have showed more dignity and let some of the gilt, which goes with such a job anywhere else in the world, rub off on to him. But he didn’t, for he has no conceit whatever. He sees himself as a man of the people and doesn’t see why he should change his habits, betel-nut chewing or anything else.

But I got the impression after a lengthy talk that he is a determined man but doesn’t talk a lot about his feelings or his plans. He’s got a ready smile. You get the idea that he agrees with everything you say. He’s got two smile types. There was one smile when I referred to the fact that he’s had his long hair cut short.

“It’s the custom in my family”, he said, “to have your hair cut every five years, and it’s five years since the last one so it was cut recently. It won’t be cut again for another five years.”

I wasn’t sure whether he was pulling my leg.

Then there was another type of smile, a slow one, the secretive sort which came when I asked him what he thought would happen at the Budget meeting. He wasn’t saying, and all he would do when we talked about the political situation was to admit that he had also heard the local gossip that he would be elected Chief Minister for the third time; that, anyway, he was the only candidate with the necessary experience; that his resignation over the affair of the self government commemorative coin was “engineered” and that certain people in the higher echelons of government service didn’t want him as Chief Minister.

Some people believed the election of Peter Kenilorea as Chief Minister had been swayed by “them”. That

secretive smile came again when I asked him about that one, and there were more smiles when I repeated gossip I'd heard similar gossip to the stories I’ve heard in the past about the tactics of the expatriate civil servants in other places of how they contrive to keep the reins of “so called self-government" in their own hands so that they can delay the day of independence, which will also be the day of their departure.

But there wasn’t a lot to be extracted from Mr Mamaloni. He’s an enigmatic charismatic, but odds-on favourite for Chief Minister some day, if not in November-December.

That is if a rank outsider doesn’t come up on the outside.

Now, let’s put the record straight over the last elections when PIM published a garbled report. Only two members, who were ministers at the time of the previous Legislative Assembly, lost their seats David ThuguvoDa (Natural Resources) and Ashley Wickham (Public Works and Utilities) who was beaten for one of the Honiara seats by Nathan Wate of the Nationalists Party, and not by Bartholomew Ulufa’alu.

Two other members, who were formerly ministers, also lost their seats Jerial Asuta (Agriculture and Lands) and Philip Solodia (Public Works and Utilities before Mr Wickham). Six previous ministers retained their seats and, altogether, 14 of the previous assembly were returned.

When this picture of Mamaloni was taken, he had long hair. To bring it up to date PIM's artist has given him a haircut.