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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Slap on the Wrists for MPs!

Since the arrival of RAMSI, instigators of the Coup of 2000 and their leaders were rounded up and appeared one by one before the Magistrate and High Court. MPs were also arrested on corruption charges, but since then, laws that our politicians designed to protect themselves are now being put to work. Such laws are not good for Solomon Islands as a whole.
Ask any Solomon Islander in the street about the cases of these prominent people and you would find out that no one sympathizes with these corrupt creeps, save the law itself. To name a few leaders that these laws have been so graciously protected; Sir. Allan Kemakeza, Charles Daosabea, Ezekiel Alebua, Alex Bartlett, and Shanel. These men were charged with various serious crimes related to, especially, the coup of 2000 and they what did the get as punishment? a few weeks in jail. These laws don't only protected them, but also guaranteed them ways and means of getting back to the Public sector, especially elected MPs.
The Solomon Islands lawmakers should rethink the laws of Solomon Islands, especially the ones that deal with politicians or lawmakers themselves. It should be noted that lawmakers must lead by example and if they created laws they do not intend to keep then their should be stiffer penalties for them to make sure the the integrity of lawmakers and the principles they stand for are upheld or kept.
Secondly, there should be laws in place to avoid MPs or public servants who were convicted of terrible crimes from returning to the public sectors. These law breakers must be be treated as ordinary citizens when the laws of the country are broken. That means that Charles Daosabea and Shanel must not hold any public offices after their time in jail. This is for obvious reasons, but fundamentally a way to encourage our leaders from committing crimes and or break the laws they created and handed down to the country.
With great power comes greater responsibilities; our MPs should serve the country and not themselves and when they do (contrary to the constitution) then they should be locked up!

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