MANESSEH SOGAVARE INTERVIEW- Wednesday 26th April, 2006
GEORGE NEGUS: Joining me now by phone from Honiara is the
leader of the
Socred Party, Manasseh Sogavare - himself a former prime minister and
one of the defectors who today suddenly deserted the Rini camp. Mr
Manasseh Sogavare thank you very much for your time, because I realise
these are busy moments for you. Am I speaking to the next Prime
Minister of the Solomon Islands?
MANASSEH SOGAVARE, SOCRED PARTY LEADER: I am hoping that will
happen on
Tuesday next week when we go for the elections.
GEORGE NEGUS: So you do have the numbers? You and your friends
that
today we thought it was going to be Snyder Rini who would continue, but
you and your friends at managed to get the numbers and you are the man?
MANASSEH SOGAVARE: Well that’s right we move to the
other
camp to actually fulfil the request of the people. That is to ask the
Prime Minister to resign and the constitutional way of doing that is to
go to the floor of the parliament and the Prime Minister consented to
that and actually resigned on the floor of parliament.
GEORGE NEGUS: Is that why you defected this morning because,
overnight
probably you knew that the numbers were there and there was no point in
the no confidence motion because Snyder Rini knew he did not have the
numbers?
MANASSEH SOGAVARE: Well we that all along that will eventually
happen
when the motion of no confidence was tabled by the opposition. Our
group who actually gave the power, the number to the Prime Minister's
camp to win the last…sorry, at the election for the Prime
Minister. Actually we planned that when that motion was tabled we would
cross the floor to give the numbers to the opposition to effect, that
that motion to let it through. And that is exactly what we did today.
GEORGE NEGUS: Exactly why did you cross the floor, what is so
wrong, so
unacceptable about a prime ministership with Snyder Rini. Why do you
think you responded to the wishes of the people? What was so bad about
any government that he might lead?
MANASSEH SOGAVARE: Well the people have spoken loud and clear
on this
occasion about corruption and we have to leave this to the proper
institutions to deal with. But what we have in hand was actually chaos
on the street - people looting shops and actually burning down
buildings and we cannot allow that to happen. You might appreciate that
when we talk about the Solomon Islands in the Solomon Islands you are
basically talking about many structures which are the commercial centre
so if you subject those to things like that, that is basically the
economy gone. And also this potential of people may be moving on to
other groups in the country. They side with the Asians and who knows.
If things don’t go the way they wanted it could move to other
ethnic groups and that would not be good for the image of the Solomon
Islands. There are a lot of factors to be taken into account.
GEORGE NEGUS: So do you believe that after today's
developments,
that’s behind you? That the violence is behind you, the
racial discrimination is behind you? Do you think that now you can move
to some sort of law and order that obviously has been missing in the
last week or so.
MANASSEH SOGAVARE: And that is correct and we are definitely
sure that
is behind us. We are now looking forward to going to parliament and to
win the election and eventually form the government to move this
country forward.
GEORGE NEGUS: Mr Sogavare what about opposition politicians
who were
arrested by the Australian authorities in fact, what happens to them
now, will they be released?
MANASSEH SOGAVARE: No they are still behind bars and of course
our
lawyers are actually putting a case to request their bail and we are
yet to get the results. Maybe tomorrow we will definitely hear what
happened to them. But without them we feel that we still have the
numbers to win the elections next week.
GEORGE NEGUS: You in the past had been very critical of
Australia's
involvement in your country. You're fearful that this was merely a
re-colonisation, as you put it, of the Solomon Islands. You were in
fact quite openly opposed to the occupation if you like, to the role
Australia has been playing in your country. Do you still feel that?
MANASSEH SOGAVARE: I think that is a representation of what I
actually
said in Parliament. I mean to say that I am openly opposed to Australia
is not be corrected. That would make me a total hypocrite because I
actually asked for intervention as well in 2000 when the Peace
Agreement was broken with Australia. What I am concerned about and is
sheared by many in the Solomon Islands is if we are really concerned
about a lasting peace in the Solomon Islands we must attend to the
underlying issues that caused the ethnic crisis. That is basically my
concern and a concern of other Solomon Islanders as well.
GEORGE NEGUS: What do you mean by ethnic crisis?
MANASSEH SOGAVARE: Well what happened in the year 2000 was the
result
of people demanding that the government address the local demand that
they put to the government since 1978, again in 1988 and repeated in
1998. And it was basically carelessness throughout those years and
these underlying issues need to be addressed if you are really
seriously concerned about longterm stability of the country. And my
concern is that and the concern of other Solomon Islanders as well is
that if intervention is to be any good to last and to address the
problem of the country, the underlying issues need to be taken into
account and addressed.
GEORGE NEGUS: Mr Sogavare thank you for your time. We look
forward to
speaking to you officially as Prime Minister of your country.