I do not just sit around and wait to make a reply on any news article written against/about me in the mass media; but for this one I have been requested by many in the public to make this response to Dr. George Manimu’s article which appeared in your paper on Tuesday 24, January 2012.
I am obligated now to do so. To some this response may be seen as a personal vendetta on Dr. George Manimu but for me, I will take it as a way of making some important observations and messages to the public.
The principle truth about this issue is that; certain elements in the Ministry of Health as well as the Government Caucus did have a problem with this particular applicant although he is qualified.
In this article, I will not delve into the reasons used by MH&MS or the Ministry of Public Service for that matter in delaying the appointment because many in the Executive body of the Health Ministry knows about the background of the delay for this particular appointment and it has absolutely nothing to do with me.
At this point I feel it is important to put the record straight on one thing; that the person wrongly named in recent media statements, as Ivan Ghemu and being appointed as CEO of the National Referral Hospital was incorrect.
Mr. Ghemu was in fact the appointed Director of Planning in the same Ministry. Even his appointment as has been inferred was not made by me.
Whoever mentioned this to the media must retract his statement.
The other truth about the issue is that even within political circles (not limited only to politicians in government) there had been very strong reservations about the appointment of this particular applicant to be CEO of the NRH.
But I did not take this as the reason to do anything about the appointment because I felt that it would not be prudent on my part to do so and therefore leave the matter to be dealt with by the Ministries of Health and Public Service to deal with.
The uncalled for outburst by Dr. George Manimu in your Tuesday 24 January edition with his claims that I had directly obstructed his appointment to the position of the CEO was a far-cry from the truth.
In his article, the doctor allegedly that I was directly involved in obstructing his appointment.
This was nothing more than a complete joke because as Prime Minister, I issued no directives to anyone to withhold, reject or delay the appointment.
I must tell Dr. Manimu categorically that I had not in any way obstructed his appointment simply because I was not the Minister for Public Service at the time.
Even if I had tried to do anything about it in conformity with the political inclinations of the time, the Ministry of Public Service will not be easily coerced to accept such reasons because it has the legal charge over all public servants appointments.
How could you say that I was responsible for the delay and obstruction in your appointment?
If you had applied and was actually interviewed by the Interview Panel and had recommended you as the most “qualified” person to the post why haven’t you been appointed in the first place?
I have no qualms about how qualified you are as a medical doctor. If you are the right man for the job in April 2011 why haven’t you been appointed to it at the time but waited till December 2011 or January 2012 for it to be given to you, Sir?
I must categorically inform Dr. Manimu and to deny that whoever the junior doctor he was referring to in his article as having been appointed to the job initially was definitely not made by me when I was the PM; that I can tell him right from my shoulders.
By the way, how dare you demean another graduate medical personnel by calling him a “junior” doctor?
It does say much about who you are as a person and your attitude towards other professional staff in the medical profession.
You must not allow yourself to run and manage this hospital (our National Referral Hospital) with an attitude and a heavy hand.
That, I honestly see as the greatest risk in dealing with the lives of people in the hospital more than just sheer knowledge of medicine.
Furthermore Sir, might I remind you that the job of the CEO of the hospital does not necessarily require a medical doctor to perform.
The previous CEO, and the current MP for East Honiara was not even a medical doctor, in fact he is a graduate economist but had done a splendid job; it would be a bonus if he did have some medical training but not necessary.
What I see as most important for the position is that well informed and collective decisions based on consultations are being made on daily basis; first for the welfare of the patients, the staff and the hospital as an institution.
Some medical knowledge may be required but definitely not the attitude.
Your appointment to the Chairmanship of the so called Civil Society Group dubbed as “Peoples Power” as you rightly mentioned was made in October 2011, only a couple of weeks before the No Confidence Motion in November 2011, but after 6/7 months of waiting for your appointment to the CEO post.
I can also vividly recall when you led your “group” of supporters into Cabinet with your log of demands when you were unequivocally and aggressively spearheading an unabated media campaign against the Hon. Gordon Darcy (Minister of Finance), Hon. Snyder Rini (Minister of Planning and me as Prime Minister by demanding for the resignation of all three of us as government ministers because according to you we were the most corrupt politicians.
What happens to those calls now Sir, because I actually did resign? In fact on the day of the election of Hon. Gordon Darcy as Prime Minister, you had made no secret about your involvement and your role in the demonstrations that followed.
How is that the new PM has suddenly become your hero now Sir only after you got the CEO job?
By the way, has not it ever dawn on you and the organization which you led that you had clearly benefitted from using it with a motive to gain for your own personal benefit? You have got your CEO job but what happens to the many youths you led in the near riot incident? What did they get?
What does it say about yourself and how you got your appointment after 8/9 months of waiting in the cold but was awarded to you only days after the new PM assumed power? This was despite the fact that another person has already been appointed to the post.
Do these sorts of things ring a bell to you or to anyone else? They definitely do in the eyes of many onlookers and observers in the public.
I did mention in a number of my media articles last year that, “the biggest crime repeatedly committed by leaders in this country for many years now has been the capitalizing or using the ignorance of the masses (peoples power) to achieve their own ends”.
Whilst you are in the job now Sir, be sure you keep to your medical ethics and refrain from your outburst on hospital staff and others.
You have a record at the hospital that speaks much about yourself not as being a “qualified” medical doctor but most definitely about your attitude.
Your involvement in politics and your public display and behaviour when losing elections also speak louder than the material you write in the columns of this paper. Nevertheless, I congratulate you for your appointment now as the current CEO of our National Referral Hospital – well done!
You also mentioned something about my resignation as Prime Minister; but what is your problem with it, may I ask?
My resignation was made from a very personal decision based on the power of the numerical strength of the government on the floor of Parliament; it simply meant that I did not have the numbers to continue governing and I decided to throw the towel in and not because I feared the No Confidence Motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition. That is just what parliamentary democracy is all about, my friend.
It happened before during the time when Sir Peter Kenilorea resigned as Prime Minister in 1986 and it happened again when I resigned on 11 November 2011.
It is just the way democracy must be allowed to work here and elsewhere, but you seemed to be much elated about it as if it vindicated your criticisms about me somehow. What I can simply say is that I have done my part in responding to your call to resign. You now have to prove your allegations about my corrupt dealings.
When are you going to do that, may I ask?
You also raised the issue about the infamous ROC Funding but you must also prove your allegations about my corrupt dealings in this particular matter.
I challenge you to do just that.
Let me tell you right now that I have completed my report on the ROC Funding Saga which I intend to table before Parliament at this sitting.
I will be transparent about this matter which you and others were pampering the public media with prior to my resignation, especially the “Solomon Star”.
Let me challenge you and others to produce similar reports on the Tsunami Funds of 2007.
The people in the Western Province have the right to know how their monies entrusted to their MPs had been used.
The country also wants to know what happened to the Computer Project in 2007/8. Why is it too irksome to debate the Tsunami Report in Parliament but instead going all the way to the courts to stop it from being debated?
Has there been any report also on the Computer Project 2007/8? Are you intending to put these issues in the headlines of “your” paper again Sir? Or is it now time to hang-up the gloves because you have won the bout?
My report on the ROC Funding will become a public document after it has been tabled to Parliament.
Let’s see how many more colleagues in this Parliament will produce similar reports on how they have been using their people’s monies since they came into Parliament.
This is the true litmus test of what is happening behind the eyes of the public. Only then can we know about who are/is the real corrupt guy(s) around.
As I mentioned previously in a number of my articles, “Corruption must not be perceived only but proven beyond all reasonable doubt” is just what I want Dr. George Manimu to do right now, because soon I will flip the coin to see if it lands on the ground to show head or tail.
By Danny Philip
MP for South New Georgia, Rendova & Tetepare constituency
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
