Unbeatable Mamaloni

From The Editor’S Desk

AS the Solomon Islands gears up for national elections later this month, there appears no strong enough candidate to wrestle the top job away from the incumbent, Solomon Mamaloni. Despite growing disillusionment with the Mamaloni leadership, the opposing forces have yet to put up someone bold enough and shrewd enough to outwit the wily prime minister.

While there are many who espouse the merits of a change in leadership and have the experience and capability, no one appears to have his act quite together to pose any serious threat to Mamaloni. So it appears that after the May 26 elections, Mamaloni could very well return as prime minister albeit with a new band of supporters in parliament.

But then changing his band of men is not something entirely new to him. Remem ber his coup d’etat in October 1990, when (just as everyone thought he was about to lose the prime ministership), in a single master stroke, he both weakened the Opposition and broke up the political parties. He resigned from the ruling party to form a government of national unity, picking the cream of the Oppo sition members which got him the necessary numbers to allow him to hold on to power and at the same time cripple the Opposition. That move amply dis played his staying power.

Now in 1993, he is again being put to the test. PIM senior writer Martin Tiffany, who has just returned from Honiara, believes the general feeling in the capital is one for change. His assessment is that the educated and urban people are not

willing to put up with another Mamaloni term.

Among the issues they cite which have been botched up by Mamaloni are the deteriorating state of the country’s econ omy, the appalling health sector which

has lost most of its doctors, the slipping education standards, the rising unem ployment figures, as more and more school leavers find it difficult to get a job and no attempt being made to work out solutions.

Then there is the long drawn out Bougainville crisis and its spill-over effect on Solomon Islands. The crisis, which appears far from nearing an end, is taking its toll on the people of the Solomon Islands.

Mamaloni’s attitude towards his job has also left a lot of people, especially senior civil servants, disenchanted. He does not take the high office of prime minister seriously enough, displaying at times a callousness which has not exactly en deared him to his own people or to other Pacific leaders.

He has been absent from regional leaders’ meetings without good reason, he has not showed up for appointments with foreign leaders, including Austra lian Minister for Foreign Affairs Gareth Evans.

But he has still managed to hold steadfastly to his post and could very well do so again after the elections.

He has just released a special fund to assist rural dwellers, bringing in support from those living outside Honiara. He is also contesting the elections as an independent which leaves him free to draw from other parties, if need be, to get the numbers to form a government.

Solomon Mamaloni: a knack for outwitt ing opposition