Tuhanuku’s

alternative

UNIONIST Joses Tuhanuku is the new Opposition Leader of the Solomon Islands. He is a member of the Labour Party which has two members in Parliament. Tuhanuku spoke to Pacific Islands Monthly's Martin Tiffany in Honiara: What are your immediate plans for the opposition

parties?

To consolidate the party and to continue to provide constructive Opposition to the government. Technically speaking if you are in the Opposition you are naturally expected to oppose everything the government does. But the attitude of the Opposition is that if the government is doing something in the interest of the country the Opposition should support it. At the same time we must develop our own alternative policies and if there’s a need for us to form an alternative government we should be in a position and I believe we are in the position to form an alternative cabinet if the present government collapses or resigns.

What wwould you do if you were Prime Minister?

The main concern of any government is to develop the economy, which means we have to attract investment. The present government hasn’t done enough to attract invest ment. Fishing is the best developed industry but a lot more can be done. The same is with the agricultural sector and a lot of other areas. What is needed is to create economic growth in the private sector which means attracting a lot of growth from outside. We must also improve the machinery to deal with potential investors. We must also have an effective system of industrial relations the Solomon Islands needs a tripartite summit. The government should come to some general agreement with employers and trade unions on a lot of principle matters relating to the

private and public sector.

I don’t believe in asking for aid, I believe in developing the economy of the Solomon Islands. We have great potential for economic development but first we need a well organised government.

Should Mamaloni resign unconditionally?

If Mamaloni has any moral conscience he should resign immediately. The country is in a mess and this is connected directly with his leadership. He has a Cabinet that is so undemocratic he does not call on Cabinet to make a collective decision, he dictates and that is why many things are going wrong. He should allow for the formation of a new government.

Why is Mamaloni continuing to be absent from

regional leaders’ meetings?

Even with the Forum meeting here next year I have my doubts whether he will attend and chair it. There is no doubt of the importance of his attending. Why he doesn’t attend he has no good reason. When he did not go to CHOGM (in Zimbabwe in October) he was back home not doing anything he was playing cricket and darts this reflects his priorities.

It is important for him as Prime Minister to talk to other leaders about the problems we have as they also exist in those places. He may learn something and may even get some assistance. The people are very disappointed and very angry that their PM has not been attending any of these

meetings.

Is he worried that he might be replaced while out of

the country?

I don’t think so this is a very democratic country, there will never be a coup here. He should realise he is not going to be Prime Minister of the Solomons forever anyway. Once he loses the support of the people he will not be PM. If there is a vote of no confidence but he has the support of the people he will still be PM.

What would you like your voters to know about you and your party?

The Labour Party is not built around a personality, it is a party based on ideological position looking at how best we can distribute our goods and services to people.

Especially to low income and poor people and ensure we don’t live a luxurious life at their expense. It is going to be one of the strongest parties in the long-run. The people have tried all the other parties and if they want anything new the group they can expect it from is the Labour Party. We present ourselves as a well organised group who is capable of running the country. We are an alternative. □

Tuhanuku works out of an office high up on Vavaya Ridge overlooking Honiara.

He is confident he could continue from where Nori left off and create a better Opposition in Parliament. “Andrew and I are two different personalities,” he said, “his approach may be different from mine but what is important is that it doesn’t matter about our different style of doing things as long as we deliver the result.

“Andrew was a very good leader but at the same time I believe I am capable of doing the job.”

Tuhanuku was the national secretary of the Solomon Islands Council of Trade

Unions (SICTU) before becoming Op

position Leader. He resigned and his

brother, David, replaces him at SICTU the powerful umbrella body of Solomon Islands trade union movement.

Tuhanuku, 44, is from Ghongau village on Bellona Island in the Central Province. He has been a union man most of his life. In 1975, while working as a training manager for an exporting firm, there was talk about forming a trade union movement. He resigned the follow ing year to become a fulltime union official and in 1977 and 1978 he did trade union training in Denmark.

This union connection and experience makes Tuhanuku a formidable Oppo sition Leader at a time when the Solomon Islands is facing big economic problems and pressure is mounting on

Mamaloni to resign. SICTU, Tuhanuku and former Prime Minister Alebua have called bn Mamaloni to resign because of his failure to redress the country’s diving economy. Similarly Mamaloni’s former private secretary and secretary to the People’s Alliance Party, Edward Kingmele, said the worsening economic situation demands that Mamaloni re

signs.

SICTU members met on November 6 and two days later presented a number of resolutions to government, demanding among other things, for Mamaloni’s resignation. The SICTU also called for the government to restore the salaries of constitutional post holders like the Com missioner of Police, Speaker of Parlia

ment and Attorney General to levels before they were awarded hefty pay rises this year. The 15 permanent secretaries have also recently been given lucrative pay packages, from 51527,000 to SlsBo,ooo, Tuhanuku said. The SICTU wants the massive pay hike to be revoked because it is adding pressure on the ailing economy.

“In this very difficult time the Prime Minister decided to move all permanent secretaries from $27,000 to $BO,OOO per annum. This has no relevance or con nection to their work output it is irresponsible,” Tuhanuku said. “The PM is doing it to buy political loyalty, it has nothing to do with the economy or the effective management of government finances.”

Tuhanuku has publicly called on Mamaloni to resign. In a front page story in the weekly newspaper Solomon Star of November 8, Tuhanuku said that “if

Mamaloni and his government do not have the moral con sent for the country, they should step down and give way for a new govern ment to run the country.”

So far Mamaloni has remained silent.

He has stopped go ing to the office everyday and works out of his new resi dence at Lengakiki, which is being reno vated to the tune of over SIS 1 million.

He has not replied to the . SICTU de

mands. Attempts

by Pacific Islands

Monthly magazine to interview Mamaloni were unsuccessful. Two PIM appointments were cancelled and several calls after failed to secure a meeting. /VMjoins a growing list of people who have been promised a meeting with the Prime Minister only to find the appoint ments cancelled at the last moment.

Those unfortunate to have been turned away by Mamaloni include Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Gareth Evans and New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Exter nal Relations, Don McKinnon. This year, the South Pacific Forum voiced disappointment at Mamaloni’s continu ing absence from regional leaders’ meet ings.

The Solomon Islands Government’s cashflow problem has reached what has been described as “crisis level” although in a press statement Mamaloni said the government’s financial position is still manageable and looks brighter than

most countries. “In fact the govern ment’s financial statement as of today is much healthier than the unnecessary panic,” said the Prime Minister’s state ment. He said the government is confi dent that although certain fiscal measures have been put in force the government still has the money to support the services up to the end of the year.

Tuhanuku disagrees and said the government’s cashflow problem is very serious. He claims that the government has used up more than 60 per cent of the country’s total net credit facilities which does not leave much for the private sector. He says the private sector can’t expand because there is no money.

Before he resigned, Nori threatened to take out a high court injunction prevent ing the country’s three commercial banks ANZ, Westpac and the National Bank of Solomon Islands from giving

anymore overdraft to the government.

He said the government had reached its borrowing limit provided for in the 1991 Appropriation Act. Nori added that more overdraft would lead the govern ment into financial disaster.

Nori did not go ahead with his threat, saying it might affect the welfare of the families of public servants.

In a press statement released on November 5, Mamaloni warned that “any move by any of the existing foreign owned commercial banks to support Nori will be severely counteracted even to the extent of closing the bank involved and deporting its management.”

Mamaloni said one bank manager, whom he did not name, has “helped in creating the widely-publicised rumour that the government has gone broke.”

The three commercial banks refused to comment on Mamaloni’s threat.

Mamaloni said that comments by Nori and Opposition MP Nathaniel Waena

that the government is broke were made

without proof.

Again Tuhanuku disagrees: “Our foreign reserves at the end of 1988 stood at $B3 million, at the end of 1989 they were down to $6O million, at the end of 1990 they were down to $4O and now they are about $23 million. This is cover for about two weeks which is very serious.

Figures released in the first week of November put the country’s foreign reserves at Sls23 million, a drop from Sls34 million four weeks previous. And Finance Minister Christopher Abe said that the government had surpassed the $53.4 million borrowing limit it has with the Central Bank of Solomon Islands

(Cbsi).

He said the government still has money to pay public servants and run essential services, but it did not have enough money to cover overseas debts and non-essential services. Abe said this

critical shortage of funds had led to the

government borrowing

from other monetary institutions and

stopped borrowing

from commercial banks.

He said that the gov ernment had surpassed its borrowing limit with CBSI because of a huge overseas debt payment made last month. The government had to make that payment be cause it would lose credibility if it did not service overseas debts.

The government has introduced measures to help ease the cashflow problem. All overseas

trips by ministers, constitutional post holders and government employees have been cancelled from the first of this month until the new year. Local travel, seminars, workshops and fuel for motor vehicles for ministers and other senior government post holders have all been stopped. Overtime claims by non essential workers have been stopped and after-hour allowances for police officers reduced. Police officers are now angry and have threatened not to work after hours because the reduction in allowance is a breach of an agreement signed with the government, their association said.

Warren Paia, the president of the Business Federation of Solomon Islands, said the worsening economic situation is creating a feeling of hopelessness among the people. He called on the government to introduce an economic recovery plan.

Failing, he said, the economy will collapse in a matter of a few weeks. □

Honiara: capital of a struggling economy