Dear Editor – It is coming around again! Yes. You know what I am referring to…the inevitable no-confidence vote in a sitting Prime Minister.
So, Solomon Islands, tighten your seat belts for another rough ride when all the money men will come out to play.
Let us hope we don’t have another Black April or Mbeti Island resort in the making.
The current political situation can best be described as one involving a government that is fast disintegrating and an Opposition which is caught unprepared and largely inexperienced to be the alternative government.
Such was the jostling for power for largely personal ambitions and aspirations when the current DCC government and the Opposition were initially formed, that from day one, the country has been in the precarious political state it is now in.
A frantic and mad scramble is now on.
Firstly, on the government side, the Prime Minister had intended to adjourn Parliament to December 3rd to buy time and to avoid facing, in the present meeting, a vote of no confidence he had known was coming.
With the resignation of some of his Ministers and threats of more doing so, he realised that his numbers were dwindling fast.
If he faced any no-confidence motions at this meeting, he would lose as there would be no time at all to lobby to increase his numbers.
The Prime Minister then changed his mind by withdrawing his motion of adjournment to Dec. 3rd and supporting instead, the Opposition’s motion of adjournment only to October 30th when the no-confidence motion will be debated.
This is a huge gamble by the PM, but he knew he did not have the numbers, and that his initial motion to adjourn Parliament to Dec.3rd would have been defeated anyway.
The “Bring it on” exclamation in Parliament by the PM was very likely a hollow one and he knew it. But the PM knows too that the politics of this country is extremely volatile and that the Opposition’s motion for adjournment only to Friday, 30th October, would be good enough for his purposes.
The PM knows that if he can buy some time and spend some money, he hopes his numbers will improve.
The Opposition’s adjournment motion was already giving him this.
The Parliament Opposition meanwhile, was very short in numbers and nearly missed out on the opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
It was very slow to react to a ‘dream’ situation that was rapidly unfolding. The DCC government which at one stage enjoyed the huge majority of about 37 MPs was disintegrating fast before their very eyes.
The least the Opposition could do given its very low numbers was their motion to adjourn Parliament to Friday 30th October, 2015. It too was hoping that the adjournment would give them time to lure some MPs to their side for their no-confidence motion to succeed.
The biggest problem now as I see it, is that more MPs will want to be Prime Minister including new and untried faces. This to me is a waste of time.
Gabriel Taloikwai
Honiara
