BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
Opposition leader Matthew Wale says Government of the day must ensure that foreign donors do not compromise the country’s sovereign decision-making.
“Firstly, it is important to note that, you know previously, we have Taiwan and now China and the fact that they engaged in giving money to members of Parliaments (MPs) for constituencies, is wrong.
“It means our politics is always vulnerable and subject to foreign influences. So that must be considered,’’ Wale said when he presented his view on the role of foreign aid in SI development and what changes or how aid should be negotiated and utilized efficiently.”
He said that no foreign power or government should ever give money to be handled by the MPs or elected officials.
“Such that might compromise the decision-making of leadership. This is very critical When we negotiate bilateral agreements for funding, etc, we must ensure that they do not compromise our sovereign decision-making,” Wale said during a podcast recently.
He also notes that the 2025 budget when it comes to parliament has a 1.3 billion deficit requiring the government to secure or seek funds from foreign donors.
“In other words, the Government do not have money. So, they must ask or seek credit from donors for that money, but an equivalent of 1.3 billion was given to us through donors, but it was outside of the Budget. It is called the non-appropriated funds.
“But donors are doing their things outside of government machinery, processes and systems. This practice is also bad because it undermines our government,” he said.
He pointed out that if donors believe in the policies the government sets to implement, they should do it within the country through the government system and powers.
“If you want to partner with us because you believe in the policies the government want to implement, do it within our system. Build our capacity. We need institutional capacity so it is sustainable in the long term,” he said.
The opposition leader argued that even the World Bank (WB) Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Monetary Fund IMF play their systems.
“But what sort of good government do you want to promote while doing things outside? If corruption is high, let’s fight it and fix it within our system. I think that is an important factor in our negotiation,” he said.
Mr Wale also asked the basic question of what it would take for the Solomon Islands as a country to move forward and focus on rather than spreading resources too thinly.
“I would say there are only two things, education and health. Invest three times in Education more than what we are doing now. All Solomon Islands children must be educated and skilled. That is an ambition,” he said.
“And the next is health. You know, turning up at a clinic and there is not a Panadol, it is beyond the joke. It’s a terrible thing. We must fix our health care system,” Wale said.
