Troops on high alert after Solomon Islands vote

Australian peacekeepers were on alert in Honiara on Monday night after Solomon Islands PM Manasseh Sogavare fended off a challenge to his leadership.

ADF personnel practise personal protection control training in preparation for more civil unrest in the Solomon Islands. Picture: Gary Ramage

Australian peacekeepers were on alert in Honiara on Monday night after Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare fended off a challenge to his leadership amid claims he had traded the nation’s sovereignty to China.

Mr Sogavare won the no-­confidence vote 32 to 15, with two abstentions, after promises of payments from a Chinese slush fund to MPs who remained with his government.

There were no signs of a community backlash following the vote, after a day of rain in the heavily-guarded capital. But the result will further anger activists from the country’s Malaita Province, who sparked rioting three weeks ago and were said to be considering protests this week.

The Australian revealed on Monday that MPs who backed Mr Sogavare in the vote had been promised payments of about $44,000 each from the country’s China-backed National Development Fund.

Solomon Islands Opposition Leader Matthew Wale attacked Mr Sogavare in parliament over his dealings with “foreign cronies”, saying his reliance on Chinese funds to “prop up” his position had compromised the nation’s sovereignty.

“The Prime Minister is dependent on the NDF money to maintain his political strength,” Mr Wale told parliament.

“How is he then supposed to make decisions that are wholly only in the interests of Solomon Islands, untainted or undiluted by considerations of the (People’s Republic of China) funds?

“This is a Prime Minister who has willingly compromised our sovereignty for his personal political benefit. It seems it does not matter to him what it is doing to our country.”

Mr Sogavare portrayed the challenge to his leadership as being driven by “Taiwan’s agents” and “forces of evil” who had “vested interests in an unstable country”. “This motion was made against the backdrop of an illegal attempted coup,” he said. “It was an attack on the principles of democracy and rule of law. I cannot in good conscience resign.”

Mr Sogavare said his government’s decision to switch its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan in favour of China in 2019 was “simply following the rest of the world” in recognising the PRC.

Amid Morrison government efforts to limit the deployment of Australian peacekeepers in the Solomon Islands to weeks rather than months, Pacific Minister Zed Seselja played down the influence of Chinese money ahead of the no-confidence vote.

“It is up to the people of the Solomon Islands through their government, through their parliament, and ultimately answerable to their people, to make these judgments, and of course to be ­accountable,” he told Sky News.

The vote took place under a ­security blanket provided by the 116 AFP and ADF members, 65 New Zealanders, 50 Fijians and 50 Papua New Guinean personnel. And it came as Malaita Province Premier Daniel Suidani sought UN Security Council intervention under the Townsville Peace Agreement, struck 21 years ago to end conflict between the country’s Malaita Eagle Force and Isatabu Freedom Movement.

He asked for an investigatory team to be dispatched “to consult with all relevant stakeholders in the Solomon Islands, and particularly ‘countries in the region’, to objectively assess the implementation of the agreement.”