The Native Iowan

SPEAKER of Parliament Sir Allan Kemakeza was furious when Parliament resumed yesterday morning with an empty house.

Only 21 Members of Parliament (MPs) out of the 49 MPs showed up for yesterday’s meeting.A disgruntled Sir Allan was forced to adjourn the meeting to 9:30am today because the poor turnout has resulted in a lack of quorum.

Before adjourning Parliament, Sir Allan cautioned MPs on the importance of Parliament sittings.

Sir Allan said MPs must be aware that Parliament supersedes all other government engagements, including overseas trips.

The Solomon Star understands Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo also skipped the session yesterday because he was in Munda, Western Province attending the Munda International Airport groundbreaking ceremony and the handing over of the six new Police houses.

It is understood Prime Minister Lilo was also accompanied by a number of his ministers.

In countries like Papua New Guinea, if a MP skipped three sessions of Parliament he would automatically lose his seat.

However, Sir Allan told The Solomon Star last night that it was not applicable to the situation in Solomon Islands.

“We are not like PNG where MPs automatically lose their seat if they miss three sessions,” the Speaker clarified.

But this has been described as a loophole that needed to be addressed so that MPs do not take advantage of the situation and skip Parliament sessions frequently.

Meanwhile, Sir Allan has been sworn in as the acting Governor General at 3pm yesterday afternoon.

Sir Allan will be acting on behalf of Governor General Sir Frank Kabui who left the country today to officiate in two graduation ceremonies as Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific (USP).

His first stop will be at the Emalus Law Campus in Vanuatu.

He will later fly to Alafua Campus in Samoa.

The Governor General will return on December 2.
 

The opposition led by Dr Derek Sikua were forced to withdraw the motion as they didn’t have the numbers.

The opposition has withdrawn the motion of no confidence which was supposed to be lodged today in parliament as they didn’t have the numbers.

Speaker of Parliament Sir Allan Kemakeza told Parliament this morning that the opposition agreed yesterday to withdraw the motion.Meanwhile the Royal Solomon Islands Police force with the support of the Participating Police force maintained order in Honiara today with the Police High Visibility operation.

The abandoned motion affected a lot of businesses and programs planned for this week including “International Children’s Day” celebrations and “White Ribbon Day”.

PRIME Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo says time should not be used to rush the Government in bringing the 2012 budget to Parliament.This came after the Opposition warned the Government yesterday not to adjourn meetings because the budget is still to go through the Public Accounts Committee and tables on Parliament for debate. (PAC)

PM Lilo has moved a special adjournment motion for the second time for the meeting to take on Friday.

This is to allow his cabinet to settle down after the 24 ministers took their oath at Government House on Tuesday.

He first moved the motion last Friday to allow him to name his cabinet line ups.

MP for East Choiseul, Manasseh Sogavare said the National Coalition for Rural Advancement (NCRA) Government had already settled down because one changes was made on the Finance portfolio.

He said the budget was important because the fiscal year ends on December 31st.

“If there is no budget, then we will end up in constitution budget,” he said.

“We can’t continue to adjourn meeting, otherwise we just passed a resolution and move on,” he said.

Leader of Independent, John Maneioru supported the call saying there was no change because the policy and Government still remain the same.

MP for Aoke Langalanga, Mathew Wale said days should not be wasted because there were many reports being tabled which needs to be discussed.

Opposition leader, Dr Derek Sikua said because Christmas is drawing closer, MPs will want to spend their holidays in the provinces.

However, Lilo, also the former Finance Minister said the Government still has enough time to pass the budget.

“Government is committed to create the right democracy but one thing to bear in mind is time should not rush us to bring a quality budget,” he said.

Solomon Star understands, a budget of $2.7 billion is expected to be table by new Finance Minister, Rick Hou in the coming sitting.

Hou said he want the budget to be passed without passing a resolution to discus it next year.

THE motion of no-confidence for this Friday still stands despite reports Opposition leader Dr Derek Sikua is likely to withdraw the motion on the 11th hour.

Government members claimed Dr Sikua would be withdrawing the motion because he doesn’t have the numbers to debate the motion in Parliament.But press secretary to Opposition Deli Oso said the motion was still in place and it would be moved in Parliament this Friday.

“There are alot of allegations against the current Prime Minister’s than his successor,” Ms Oso said.

The Solomon Star understands the civil society has pressured the Opposition to file the motion because of the political uprising that occurred after Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo’s victory last week.

Dr Sikua recently explained that the motion would serve as a circuit breaker to diminish any moves by members of the public to take up any further illegal and violent protests.

He said the Opposition was prepared to expose all the corruption cases the Prime Minister is involved when he tables the motion of no-confidence so Prime Minister Lilo must better be prepared.

Speaker of Parliament Sir Allan Kemakeza had also confirmed through media reports that the motion will be tabled on Friday.

PM Lilo…I have more missiles to fire.

Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo welcomes the motion of no confidence tabled against his government by the Opposition.

He said it is their constitutional right as a watchdog of the government. The motion of no confidence is a constitutional motion which allows members of parliament to do a check on the government.“But the only sad part about it all is that we, as a legitimate government have not yet started. “Immediately after tomorrow, the cabinet should be formed and the government should start working. To move a motion almost immediately after the election of the Prime Minister is ridiculous and totally absurd and the motive behind this motion is obviously questionable.

“Is the Opposition quite genuine about this motion? It appears that they are only causing violence and instability.

“The motion does not have any substance at all, but it is only geared towards inciting the public to react negatively against the government.

“Why cannot we allow this legitimate government to perform first before we could make an appraisal and assessment on its performance?

“Have we not seen NCRA government’s performance in the last 14 months which resulted in good sound economic management? I do not demand any answers, but I will leave it to the public.”

The statement said the country cannot compare NCRA to other Arab countries where People’s Power had caused rebellion against dictatorship governments ruling for 3 – 4 decades.

“In Solomon Islands, NCRA government has produced good results, in terms of our economic growth, stabilizing of inflation, creating good relations with donor partners for more resources to be made available for development in Solomon Islands, including our recent qualification for funding under Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCC).

“Would you consider all these as achievement s done by a corrupt government,” he questioned.

Prime Minister Lilo had met with the City Councilors of the Honiara City Council over the weekend and he assured them his government would work together with the council because this is the government which is closer to the people.

The current government under the leadership of Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo welcomes the motion of no confidence on his government.

“Come Friday we will know of what kind of bullets the Opposition Leader Dr Derek Sikua would be firing at Lilo.”

Prime Minister Lilo said he hopes they are not mere bullets and he is prepared to launch missiles (not bullets) on Derek Sikua and he is asking Sikua to get himself prepared.

“I meant what I meant’. Let the people of Solomon Islands read this message out of the debris and will find out who’ll do the cleaning up and equally who will be responsible for all these.”

Hon. Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo is now working with all stakeholders, including the Peoples Power, Civil Society Groups, and Honiara city council to build a good relation with each other in the city. He intends to carry out civic education with the youth in the city.

“We have a lot of good young people who are often misled by certain leaders of this country. It is time we should have respect for our government, it is time we have respect for human rights in our society, and in so doing, our beautiful country Solomon Islands will flourish with prosperity, peace and tranquility and harmony.”

Sogavare….

The opposition in Solomon Islands says pressure will keep building for the removal of Gordon Darcy Lilo as Prime Minister.
The parliamentary election of Mr Lilo two days ago triggered rioting in central Honiara.Among those rioting were groups claiming that Mr Lilo’s election doesn’t represent a change from his predecessor Danny Philip, whose government largely remains in place.

The opposition has lodged a motion of no-confidence against Mr Lilo to be voted on in parliament next Friday.

The former Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, says the motion is based on questions over Mr Lilo’s integrity.

“That’s what the civil society are concerned about. You cannot have a person who has a lot of allegations over his head to lead the government and talk about concern for government finances when he doesn’t believe in a single word he’s saying. So he needs to go. The pressure should be on him from day one.”

‘Bring it on’

NEWLY elected Prime Minister, Gordon Darcy Lilo will be facing a motion of no confidence next week.The Opposition office made the move with a notice being served to the Speaker of Parliament yesterday.

This came after the member of parliament for Gizo/Kolombangara was elected with a clear majority of 29 votes from the 49 Members of Parliament on Wednesday.

However, his victory was met with a huge protest from some members of the public which escalated into a rock throwing incident against the Police force in Honiara.

About six police officers were injured and police vehicles damaged while 22 youths have been arrested for unlawful activities.

Speaker to Parliament, Sir Allan Kemakeza confirmed receiving the letter from Opposition Leader, Dr Derek Sikua yesterday.

Sir Allan said that he (Dr Sikua) gave the letter which was attached with copies of statements from the Peoples Power and Malaita Ma’asina Forum, which was submitted  to the clerk and theParliament’s lawyer to look at first before being taken up for consideration.

The motion was filed by the Opposition due to the pressure from the civil society group.

Prime Minister Lilo yesterday welcomed the motion of no confidence.

Speaking to the media in his first press conference yesterday, PM Lilo said, “bring it on.”

“We can face them on the floor of Parliament,” he said.

Meanwhile, PM Lilo described the protest as politically motivated.

He claimed some of his friends were behind this protest by using ignorant citizens to get involve in this severe violent way.

Lilo said these same people made allegations against him twice in the past in the National General elections in which he returned with landslide victory.

He said it’s time the country must have a Government that put the interest of the people first.

Parliament will resume next Wednesday after PM Lilo moved a special adjournment in a short meeting yesterday morning.

This was to allow Lilo to name his cabinet ministers in his Government.

MORE than $1.1million in old hard cash had been removed from Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) over the weekend.

This was revealed by the board and management of Central Bank yesterday in a statement.

“The Central Bank of Solomon Islands would like to inform the public that there was a security breach on Sunday 13th November, 2011.”

It was revealed that a security officer assisted by accomplices removed soiled (old, defaced, torn) currency notes that were prepared and set aside for destruction.

“The amount of soiled notes removed totaled $1,157,550.00, all in fifty dollar notes,” the bank said yesterday.

This incident was reported immediately to the Police.

The Bank’s security cameras captured and recorded clearly the incident live on video footage.

The footage of the incident are now with the Police to assist them with their investigation.

The CBSI Board and Management have taken this incident very seriously and additional stringent security measures and procedures have been imposed.

The Bank assures the public that all services are continuing as normal.

The newly elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Gordon Darcy Lilo has been sworn in as the country’s new Prime Minister.
Prior to his swearing in hundreds marched to the Government house demanding the Governor General to halt the swearing in ceremony and protested that Lilo must step down.

The swearing in ceremony which was supposed to be at 2pm had to be delayed until 5pm before the swearing in ceremony took place.

Police dispersed the protesters and calmed the situation.

Meanwhile a tense situation at Chinatown was calmed down by the Royal Solomon Islands police force with the assistance of Participating Police force.

Opportunists who took advantage of the protest threw rocks at the police riot squad at Chinatown which resulted in a police officer being hospitalised.

The situation has since calmed down.