Solomons PM survives confidence vote after riots
Embattled Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare survived a no-confidence vote yesterday, while accusing “Taiwan’s agents” of orchestrating recent political violence that plunged the Pacific island nation into crisis.
The pro-Beijing leader comfortably saw off an opposition attempt to oust him, winning 32 votes to 15 after a fractious and hot-tempered day-long debate.
The febrile scenes in Parliament, in which lawmakers traded claims of corruption, coups and shadowy foreign support, echoed recent anger on the streets that prompted the arrival of hundreds of international peacekeepers.
Three days of rioting late last month left the Chinatown area in the capital here in ruins and claimed at least three lives, with dozens of buildings destroyed.
Ahead of yesterday’s vote, armed troops and police from Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand helped operate checkpoints here to forestall more unrest.
The prospect of further violence prompted the US consulate here to restrict operations.
The crisis erupted last month when protests about Sogavare’s poli- cies turned violent, fuelled by poverty, unemployment and interisland rivalries in the nation of 800,000.
Sogavare, 66, has refused protesters’ demands to step down, telling Parliament yesterday that leaving office under such circumstances would be surrendering “to the dictates of hooligans and lawlessness”.
Many of his detractors come from Malaita. Residents there believe the country’s most populous island does not get a fair share of resource revenue and is neglected by the central government.
An underlying complaint against Sogavare is his 2019 decision to switch Honiara’s diplomatic allegiance to China from Taiwan, which had close ties with Malaita.
China and Taiwan have competed for influence in the Pacific for decades, with both sides using development aid as bait, as Beijing attempts to isolate a rival it sees as a rogue province resisting unification.
Sogavare said the opposition had conspired with Taiwan to incite unrest over the 2019 switch in an “attempted coup”, although he offered no solid evidence.
“If I am to be removed, it must be by the legal process, by members of parliament, not by calls to resign from Taiwan’s agents.”