By John Tom
In just three weeks, we have experienced three Cabinet ministerial reshuffling in the Finance Ministry; one of the most important ministries in Solomon Islands.
One could really start to question why a crucial ministry had to be reshuffled with three different MPs within three weeks.
Was it because of underperformance, instability, lack of trust or outside influence?
Obviously when there are three reshuffles in the same portfolio in a span of 21 days then surely there are political incongruities.
Former finance minister now Minister of Commerce Immigration & Labour Hon Harry Kuma replaced by Hon Trevor Manemahaga who was former finance minister and now reshuffled to Planning & Aid Coordination recently with Rex Ramofafia.
So what was the real reason behind these reshuffling?
Hon Kuma was reshuffled because of the closure of sufferance wharves, Hon Manemahaga replaced Kuma and had one job and that was to reverse Kuma’s decision only to be replaced by Hon Ramofafia a week later.
And now we have Hon Ramofafia who was recently appointed under the guise of ‘politically stability’.
But the veracity of the political situation is far beyond normal political reshuffling.
External interests through political influences are at play again with conditions, one of which is that the Finance portfolio be reshuffled again or People’s First Party (PFP) members will walk out including a faction from Our Party led by the current finance minister Hon Ramofafia.
Over the past few weeks, meetings were in place between Our Party factions with PFP for a mass resignation if the Prime Minister does not accept their conditions.
The instability in government is influenced by external interests attached to the sufferance wharves that financially support the different factions in GNUT.
GNUT is driving the interests of outside forces that will never benefit citizens of this country, a real and true definition of state capture. State capture is a form of political corruption where private individuals,
businesses, or groups manipulate a government’s decision-making processes to serve their own interests rather than the public good.
Over the past few weeks, ‘sponsored’ secret meetings were in place between Our Party factions with PFP for a mass resignation if the Prime Minister does not accept their conditions.
Last weekend was supposed to be a mass political walk out, a planned motion was supposed to be tabled on the 6th of October, resignations to be delivered on 12th and a motion to be moved on 13th October by either former minister Kuma or the current finance minister Hon Ramofafia.
However, a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday last week by the GNUT executive forced the Prime Minister to make yet another reshuffling and stalled plans for another motion giving the finance portfolio to Ramofafia who threatened to walk out with a faction within Our Party.
In this whole political bickering, the Prime Minister is at the centre of a political struggle between his very own GNUT members and the interests of outside forces.
The Prime Minister knows very well that GNUT is hanging by a thread because the same people that are causing the instability in his government are still sitting with him in Cabinet.
Three people now control the Prime Minister’s Our Party without founder Hon Manasseh Sogavare, and they are Hon Bradley Tovosia, Hon Namson Tran and Hon Jimson Tanangada.
They know very well that it’s only a matter of time and they are determined on working on the right political strategy to displace factions within GNUT that are said to be causing instability.
The Hon Prime Minister is a seasoned diplomat, a very soft and meek personality and that is why they will continue to keep him in the chair to drive their political interests and that of their financiers.
But for now lets sit back and watch closely what the new Finance Minister’s decision will be regarding the sufferance wharves.
Will he keep his bargain with the interests of Leroy Wharf or betray the decision made by the former minister Hon Manemahaga on the Goodwood and Penguin sufferance wharves?
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