Lessons from Solomons’ riots
The return to relative calm in Honiara owes much to the speed with which Scott Morrison responded to last week’s urgent appeal for help from Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. Working with local security authorities and 34 police flown in from PNG, and with regional backing from Fiji, our soldiers and police have done much to restore order after three days of rioting and looting. The Solomons’ political crisis remains far from over, however. Events show the Prime Minister was right last Thursday when he insisted Australia was determined to not “in any way” get involved in the domestic political infighting that led to Mr Sogavare’s desperate plea.
A no-confidence motion in Mr Sogavare filed at the weekend by Opposition Leader Matthew Wale underlines the threat that faces the pro-Beijing Prime Minister over his 2019 decision to abandon 36 years of close diplomatic and economic ties to Taiwan and hitch up to the “debt diplomacy” of China’s Belt and Road bandwagon. As Anthony Bergin wrote in Inquirer on Saturday, “links between China and corruption” in the Solomons lie at the heart of the impoverishment that underpins the grievances which led to the violence. Daniel Suidani, the pro-Taiwan Premier of Malaita, the Solomons’ most populous island, remains determined to force out Mr Sogavare and restore relations with Taiwan’’. Mr Sogavare should not ignore the popular opposition towards his pro-Beijing policies. The lesson from the rioters’ targeting 200 Chinese-owned businesses is clear. So is the reality that in times of trouble, the Solomons can call on regional partners such as Australia, PNG and Fiji for help, while the Chinese Communist Party – as it did in the Global Times on Saturday – rants that “Australia has fomented (the) riots in Solomon Islands”.
Nothing better shows how little China understands the South Pacific. Mr Sogavare should make clear to his friends in Beijing how wrong they are about Australia’s role. Mr Sogavare insists that recognising Beijing puts the Solomons on “the right side of history”, but anti-Chinese sentiment runs deep in the Solomons, based on fears about Chinese religious intolerance and potential interference in the island nation’s traditional way of life. Mr Sogavare is not helping his people or his role as a regional leader by pandering to Beijing’s self-serving strategic designs. Australia, PNG and Fiji have again shown which countries are the Solomon Islands’ real friends in a crisis.