{"id":74914,"date":"2022-09-02T14:30:51","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T04:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=74914"},"modified":"2022-09-02T13:58:30","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T03:58:30","slug":"sogavare-is-playing-australia-for-a-sucker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/sogavare-is-playing-australia-for-a-sucker\/","title":{"rendered":"Sogavare is playing Australia for a sucker"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a moment to realise that you\u2019re being played for a sucker. That moment has come for the Australian government in the case of the current Solomons Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare.<\/p>\n

Since the new Australian government came to power after the 21 May elections, it has engaged rapidly and deeply with Pacific island leaders and with Sogavare himself and acted in ways that address their deeply held concerns<\/a>, notably on the existential challenge of climate change. Foreign Minister Penny Wong\u2019s trip to the Pacific<\/a> straight off the plane from the Tokyo Quad meeting, followed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u2019s participation in the Pacific Islands Forum meeting and the visit to Honiara<\/a> by the minister for international relations and the Pacific, Pat Conroy, were welcome evidence of priority and attention to the region and its leaders.<\/p>\n

They have also sought assurances<\/a> from Sogavare that Australia will remain the Solomons\u2019 \u2018security partner of choice\u2019, despite the Sogavare\u2013Beijing security pact<\/a> signed in April. Wong, then the opposition foreign affairs spokesperson, said<\/a> this pact was \u2018the worst foreign policy blunder in the Pacific that Australia has seen since the end of World War II\u2019.<\/p>\n

Sogavare has been quick to oblige Australia\u2019s new government, issuing many statements of reassurance<\/a> that there will be \u2018no Chinese military base\u2019 in the Solomons and that Australia will indeed remain the Solomons\u2019 security partner of choice. He seems to enjoy meeting leaders like Albanese, Wong<\/a> and Conroy, receiving their support and commitments to aid and other cooperation and having smiling photos<\/a> taken, even hugging<\/a>, after providing his assurances.<\/p>\n

But perhaps he enjoys even more the feeling of then doing something quite different as he opens the Solomons to deepening engagement with Beijing.<\/p>\n

Sogavare has held on to office by buying parliamentarians\u2019 support<\/a> with money paid out by the Chinese embassy. He has a wealthy, authoritarian backer in Beijing who is comfortable with the path he is taking the Solomons on, mainly because it suits the Chinese government\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

Cash splashes to buy political support are not completely new, of course. The decades of competition for diplomatic recognition between Beijing and Taipei included Taiwanese \u2018constituency development<\/a>\u2019 funding. But Beijing\u2019s agenda this time is broader and nastier than just diplomatic recognition.<\/p>\n

Sogavare is probably delighted that we\u2019ve developed sufficient amnesia to forget that he\u2019s been a virulent opponent of Australia before. In 2007, he accused Australia<\/a> of trying to undercut the Solomons\u2019 sovereignty by being part of RAMSI (Operation Helpim Fren), the regional assistance mission that helped the Solomon Islands people control endemic violence and instability over more than a decade. It\u2019s not news that he\u2019s no friend of Australia.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Beijing is the major supporter<\/a> of Sogavare\u2019s plan to hold the 2023 Pacific Games in Honiara. He is using this two-week event as the reason to suspend the country\u2019s constitution<\/a> and not hold the election required in 2023.<\/p>\n

Beijing is capitalising on Sogavare\u2019s time in power to rapidly expand its political and economic presence and leverage. The cash splash to members of parliament is one example, but more disturbing are the growing commercial deals and opaque loans Chinese-state-backed firms are providing, like the recent Huawei deal<\/a> to build some 161 mobile phone towers using a $96\u00a0million concessional loan from Chinese government banks.<\/p>\n

Sogavare has been prime minister four times<\/a>\u2014in 2000\u201301, in 2006\u201307, from 2014 to 2017, and since 2019\u2014each from an opportunity created by turmoil and instability. He clearly wants to be leader and seems unlikely to step down willingly. Xi Jinping<\/a> knows that feeling well.<\/p>\n

There seems to be a strong alignment between what Beijing wants in the South Pacific, what it\u2019s willing to do to get it, and what we see of Sogavare\u2019s ambitions and directions.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no such strong alignment between these interests and the interests of the Solomon Islands people or those of the broader Pacific. Instead, Sogavare\u2019s embrace of Beijing and increasingly authoritarian tendencies at home are against his people\u2019s interests and against the security interests of the rest of the Pacific Islands Forum countries.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s probably why he has been so keen to issue his loud reassurances<\/a> that there\u2019s nothing for anyone to see or worry about in the relationship he\u2019s building with China\u2019s ruling communist party.<\/p>\n

Sogavare is taking the Solomons down a path that is undemocratic and centred on his continuing to hold the office of prime minister, regardless of the effects on the health of the Solomon Islands constitutional democracy.<\/p>\n

His government is making alarming statements about press freedom in response to criticism of his actions. An ABC Four Corners<\/em><\/a> report documenting some of his most serious connections to the Chinese government is one example. Sogavare resorted to accusations of racism<\/a> and racial stereotyping to attack the media outfit that reported his connections and avoid dealing with the substance of the issues. He apparently is comfortable preventing further visits by independent foreign journalists.<\/p>\n

And reacting to an editorial in a local paper expressing alarm at moves to censor the Solomons\u2019 national broadcaster, his government said it\u2019s the journalists themselves<\/a> \u2018who are a threat to freedom of press in our country, and not the government\u2019.<\/p>\n

This is what authoritarian regimes say and do, not what healthy democracies and their elected leaders say and do.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s why China\u2019s state-owned mouthpiece, the Global Times<\/em>, has endorsed Sogavare\u2019s attack<\/a> on press freedom, saying: \u2018Even if the Solomon Islands\u2019 government bans ABC reporters from entering the country, it is justified and understandable.\u2019<\/p>\n

That support for Sogavare\u2019s moves to limit press freedom contrasts starkly with the stance of professional journalists. The international Public Media Alliance<\/a> has called on Sogavare to respect his national broadcaster\u2019s independence and expressed concern at the \u2018government\u2019s order for it to self-censor and only cover stories that show the country in a positive light\u2019. The PMA used an eloquent quote from the premier of Makira-Ulawa province, Julian Maka, who said, \u2018It\u2019s very sad that media has been curtailed, this means we are moving away from democratic principles.\u2019<\/p>\n

The creeping tide from Sogavare\u2019s turn to Beijing is also the best explanation for the UK and US having difficulty with naval and coastguard vessel visits to Honiara. This month, both Britain\u2019s HMS Spey<\/em> and the US Coastguard cutter Oliver Henry<\/em> were unable to dock in the Solomons because its government failed<\/a> to provide permission, even though both vessels were helping the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency protect local fish stocks<\/a>. The Solomons has now suspended naval visits pending \u2018new procedures<\/a>\u2019 being put in place. We can expect that under these new procedures, no Chinese government vessel is likely to have this kind of difficulty during Sogavare\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

Controlling the local press to limit freedom of speech and reporting, threatening to block foreign journalists from visiting if they report negatively on his government, suspending the constitution, signing a security pact with an intrusive authoritarian power, preventing friendly partners\u2019 vessels from docking in his country and buying the support of MPs with money from that authoritarian power all add up to one simple fact: Sogavare should not have the support of the Australian government or any other democratic government while he takes the Solomon Islands people on this dangerous path.<\/p>\n

Instead of helping Sogavare fund the Pacific Games he\u2019s using as a pretext for suspending the constitution, the Australian government should provide no funding for this event and direct the $17 million it earmarked<\/a> for it towards funding events by Solomons civil-society groups, visits to the Solomons by Australian parliamentarians and reciprocal visits to Australia by Solomons parliamentarians and provincial leaders who are not part of Sogavare\u2019s set of MPs and leaders. Some of this funding could be added to the new money that Albanese has announced as going to increase the ABC\u2019s Pacific reporting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Instead of inviting Sogavare to Australia as a guest, which would give him yet another platform to provide empty assurances in return for having his profile as an elected leader endorsed by Albanese, there should be no Australian visit by Sogavare until he ends his security deal with Beijing and holds free and fair elections. That may well mean he only visits Australia again as a private citizen after he\u2019s been voted out of office.<\/p>\n

It’s time for the friends of Solomon Islands to engage with its people, its opposition figures in parliament and the provinces, its institutions and its leaders who believe in its constitution and its people\u2019s freedoms. This list doesn\u2019t include Sogavare and his set of purchased MPs.<\/p>\n

Instead of saying that Sogavare\u2019s bill to suspend the constitution has to work through the democratic processes<\/a> of the Solomon Islands parliament, the Australian government should simply oppose this manoeuvre to suspend the Solomons\u2019 democracy and call on Sogavare to let his people vote on who leads them.<\/p>\n

Not doing this and waiting for Sogavare to again use Chinese cash to buy the parliamentary votes he needs is to be wilfully blind to a budding dictator. Sogavare needs to be condemned and isolated, not hugged and supported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a moment to realise that you\u2019re being played for a sucker. That moment has come for the Australian government in the case of the current Solomons Islands prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare. 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