THE Member of Parliament (MP) for Maringe Kokota constituency and Minister for Health and Medical Services has condemned what he described as “the militancy type of behaviour” in the Solomon Islands National University (SINU) by both students and staff.
Speaking in Parliament on the Sine-Die motion, Culwick Togamana talked about the SINU saga which falls under his leadership as the Chairman of the SINU Council.
It’s understood that staff and lecturers of SINU have been seeking the removal of the Vice-Chancellor Ganesh Chand for on grounds of alleged mismanagement and corruption.
Despite extensive media coverage, the University Council held its grounds the Commissioner of Labour and his Minister of Commerce stepped in by refusing to grant the VC’s work permit.
SINU has asked for a judicial review of the decision.
According to Dr Togamana, the last Parliament session ruled out all the allegations against the VC.
“All the allegations that were made against the VC the Council has already dealt with it and all those allegations were found to be unsubstantiated. Full stop,” he said.
Dr Togamana who had spent more than 20 years working at the University of the South Pacific said there is a huge contrast between USP and the new SINU.
“I just want to say this because this is the trend that we have in our national university.
“We have lecturers, academic regional staff if they want to remove anybody they can do it.
“So it is a huge contrast for the university that I worked for more than 20 years and our very new university where we have these militancy elements,” he added.
Dr Togamana it is his dream to see our very academic nurtured but unfortunately, under the circumstances it is not easy, stressing that; “this militancy-like behaviour must not continue.”
By ANDREW FANASIA
Newsroom Honiara
