Indonesia is NOT Melanesia

LATE last week, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement rejecting the Solomon Islands Prime Minister’s comments on the issue of West Papua and the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). In his statement, Manasseh Sogavare proposes that the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) be given full membership to the MSG. He asserts…

Illegal practices in the logging sector

ON the 27th April 2016, an EX PARTE INTERIM ORDER was executed by His Lordship Foukona Judge (HCC 176 of 2016) Restraining Richfield Timber Company Limited and Vungasilo Investment Limited (licensee) owned by Joseph Tausuli, a member of the Guadalcanal Provincial Executive from landing logging machinery and equipment on Vungasilo concession license area. The Order…

Thanks for the honesty

Dear Editor – I would like to send a note to be included in the paper, if possible, recognising the goodwill and assistance of Atkinson from Imperial Travel Service and Betsy of the Honiara Airport Taxi Association. I recently left my personal phone in the back of a taxi after returning from the domestic airport.…

Kadere Party

Dear Editor – It appeared in a sheep skin, not knowing that it was a wolf, it took advantage of our traditional values by using us traditional chiefs to promote their unfulfilled manifesto under the banner of three 3Cs – CUSTOM, CULTURE and CHURCH to have the support and draw voters attention, assuming they would…

Leadership

Dear Editor – I write to support sentiments expressed by Ishmael A. Nori in your letters column on 19 May 2016. In his letter Nori called on young people to turn their eyes to the nation’s current leadership and see that we no longer have the kind of leaders we used to have. Today, our…

Doing and getting

Dear Editor – The several expressions, which, lead to the topic I would like to share with the readers: ·        “If you continue doing what you’ve been doing you will continue getting what you’ve always gotten.” ·        “Hit them over- the-head with a 50mm X 100mm X 1.00mm timber to get the point across” ·        …

A postmortem of SIPA

Dear Editor – I read with much interest the exchange of words and counter-argument between Mr. Dora and Mr. Tuhanuku on the SIPA saga. The latest being Mr. Tuhanuku’s explanation as appeared on Issue 2295 on 21st May 2016 of the Weekend Sun; which to me presented a strong and honest position that any intelligent…

Island Sun misleading headline

Dear Editor – The Island Sun heading “ Political Appointee Sacked” in reference to Mr. Martin Housanau is not correct. The fact is that Mr. Housanau’s contract had expired and OPMC decided not to re-engage his service. A letter sent to him last week was to this effect. The use of the words “sacked” or…

Cease the shipping grant

CONGRATULATIONS to Northwest Choiseul Constituency and its Member of Parliament Connelly Sandakabatu. You have demonstrated to the nation what transparency and accountability is when you produced the first ever report on the $5 million shipping grant allocated to you. The shipping grant, managed within the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, has been in existence for many…

Curse or mismanagement

When anything goes wrong, there are always two explanations: blame it on bad luck or poor judgment. When an economy does badly in terms of poor rates of growth or inflation, economists put the blame on shocks: external or internal. When an economy does well in terms of high rates of growth or low inflation,…