LONDON, May 16 (IPS) – There are changes at the top in Solomon Islands, but civil society will be watching closely to see whether this means a government that has become hostile will start to act differently.
Jeremiah Manele is the new prime minister, emerging from negotiations following April’s election. He is a member of the “our party” led by outgoing four-term Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. The party came first, winning 15 of 50 constituencies, but several incumbent MPs who supported the party lost their parliamentary seats, with Sogavare holding on to his seat by a slim margin. Sogavare was weakened and he stepped aside, allowing Manele to win and become the consensus candidate in a post-election coalition formed by his party.
China takes center stage
Voters will have to wait to have their say. The election was originally scheduled for 2023, but the government postponed it. It claimed it could not afford to hold elections and host the Pacific Games that same year, and voted to temporarily suspend constitutional provisions. The opposition accuses Sogavare of a power grab and questions his commitment to democracy.
A focus of political debate in recent years has been the government’s relationship with China, a major funder of the 2023 Pacific Games. Sogavare turned to China soon after becoming prime minister for the fourth time in 2019. The move sparked controversy and was made without consultation after an election in which it was not an issue.
Sogavare subsequently signed a series of agreements with China, including a highly confidential security cooperation agreement. For civil society, it has raised concerns that Solomon Islands police may be trained in the same repressive tactics used by China, which may deploy security forces if unrest breaks out. The country has experienced several rounds of conflict, including race riots and violent protests by young unemployed men, some of which targeted ethnic Chinese. Such conflicts followed Sogavare’s return to power following a controversial electoral strategy in 2019 and have surged again in 2021 over the government’s ties with China. Sogavare blamed “foreign powers” for the 2021 unrest.
China is engaged in a wide-ranging economic diplomacy effort to encourage countries to change their allegiances and has taken a keen interest in Pacific island countries long ignored by Western powers. Its efforts are paying off, with Kiribati and Nauru also abandoning Taiwan in recent years. The Pacific islands cover a vast swath of maritime territory, and one of China’s major foreign policy goals is to break up the island chain that it believes surrounds it and limits its scope. It has long been suspected of coveting naval bases in the Solomon Islands.
Furthermore, while the population may be small, every country has an equal vote at the United Nations, and the more allies China has, the better it can protect itself from criticism of its many human rights abuses.
China doesn’t just help pay for the Olympics. It provides direct funding to pro-government members of parliament and has been accused of outright attempts to bribe politicians. Daniel Suidani, a fierce opponent of deals with China, claims he paid bribes to change his position. Sudani served as Malaita governor until 2023, when he was ousted in a vote of no confidence due to apparent central government interference. Police later used tear gas against protesters who supported him.
China’s efforts to exert influence extend to the media. Last year, reports emerged that the Solomon Star had received funding from the Chinese government in exchange for agreeing to publish pro-China content.
Disinformation favorable to China was also spread during the campaign. A Russian state-owned news agency falsely reported that the U.S. government was plotting a so-called “electoral coup,” a lie that was repeated by the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times. During the campaign, Sogavare also stepped up his support for China, praising its political system and suggesting that democracy could open the door to same-sex marriage, which he believes is incompatible with his country’s values.
While Chinese media influence continues to grow, the Solomon Islands government has become notorious for its attacks on media freedom. It took full control of public broadcaster Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation, giving itself the power to directly appoint the broadcaster’s board and tried to censor all of its news and current affairs programming, but abandoned the plan after facing backlash. The government has threatened to ban foreign journalists from entering the country if they report what it deems “disrespectful” and accused the media of spreading “anti-China sentiment” following an investigation by Australia’s public broadcaster into ties with China.
Following criticism, the government also threatened to investigate civil society, which it accused of fraudulently receiving funds. Clearly, the flip side of closer ties with China is growing hostility to dissent.
expect
China is far from the only issue in the campaign, with many voters highlighting day-to-day issues such as the cost of living, education, health care and roads, and the economy. Some criticize politicians for spending too much time talking about foreign policy — and judging new administrations on their progress on these domestic issues.
The good news is that voting appears to be competitive and so far there has been no repeat of the post-election violence that followed the 2019 vote. This is certainly a positive basis.
But Sogavare did not retire from politics and became finance minister. Meanwhile, Manele, the former government foreign minister seen as another pro-China figure, is unlikely to take a new foreign policy direction. But there is hope, at least for civil society, that he will emerge as a less polarizing and more moderate politician than Sogavare. The first test will be how the new government handles its relations with civil society and the media. The government should prove that it is not playing into China’s pocket by respecting civil liberties.
Andrew Firmin is Editor-in-Chief of CIVICUS, co-director and contributor to CIVICUS Lens, and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
