There is a reason for confusion and murk clouding international understanding of what is going on in the Solomon Islands; people assume sovereign states act logically and in the best interests of the majority of its people. This would be especially so when conducting diplomatic affairs with a place such as China.
But the assumption is wrong: Manasseh Damukana Sogavare, 67, the sixth and current prime minister of the Solomon Islands, is not only far from rational, he is afflicted with a peculiar political culture which China is skillfully exploiting.
Whether Sogavare’s erratic behaviour finally produces a Chinese military base in the Solomons almost does not matter; he’s already destabilised the region and distorted security. It is necessary to look not just at the nature of the Solomons, but at the man and what he believes. Sogavare is staging a determined putsch, defying his age and building not an ideological state, but one devoted to him.
Sogavare was born in Australian ruled New Guinea in 1955, the son of Seventh-day Adventist missionaries from Choiseul in the Solomon Islands. SDA, a United States based evangelical church, has played a large role in Sogavare’s life. Its views are not too different from many Christian sects, other than the odd point that the Sabbath is a Saturday. Sogavare, a powerful and fit man who is SDA observant, is also a recommendation for SDA’s dietary rules and Weetbixs.
As an adult Sogavare worked his way up and can - with a bit of spin - claim to have started working life in 1974 (four years before independence) cleaning toilets at the Honiara Consumer Cooperative Shop. He moved onto Inland Revenue and rose through the civil service. Aged 42, he became a member of parliament in 1997, representing East Choiseul. At the time, West Makira MP Solomon Mamaloni, 54, had been prime minister for three years. As Sogavare became an MP, Bartholomew Ulufa’alu became prime minister and named Sogavare as finance minister but in less than a year was fired when Ulufa’alu needed to reward other supporters. It was bruising for Sogavare, but not especially unusual for politics in the region.
Sogavare fell under Mamaloni’s influence. The former chief minister in British Solomons was easily the most damaging figure in Solomon’s politics. His anti-colonialism and hostility toward Australia was open, blatant and ridiculous. Sogavare became Mamaloni’s deputy,
This is where a deranged political side entered. Mamaloni had gone to school in New Zealand and through those connections stayed in the home of Bruce Beetham, one of the leaders of the New Zealand Social Credit Party and member of parliament. Mamaloni was enamoured of the social credit theory of economics and took it home. While the philosophy of social credit defies definition for most, In theory social credit opposes foreign control of an economy and demands monetary reform, although turned into what is far from clear.
Sogavare, who had a remote learning masters’ degree in management studies from Waikato University, believed it. Mixed in his head at this point was fundamental Christianism, Mamaloni’s conspiracy theories and straight out weird economics. Mamaloni certifiably died in January 2000, except Sogavare believes, still, he is alive.
In July 2005 Sogavare launched the Solomon Islands Social Credit Party and retained its philosophy through his premierships. He served as prime minister for over nine years in four blocs. His latest term began in April 2019. The Solomon Islands economy has, under Sogavare, become even more foreign controlled and there is little sign of economic reform. Deep in poverty and corruption, it constantly edges towards failed state, saved only by endless aid. The social credit party has now gone, replaced by Sogavare’s Ownership, Unity and Responsibility Party.
Earlier this year Understanding 'Solo': A biography of Solomon Mamaloni was published by Christopher Chevalier of the Australian National University. It’s an extraordinary book in which he quotes Sogavare describing Mamaloni’s influence: “He was like a father to me, I was like his son and he taught me many things’. Mamaloni introduced Sogavare to “what was really going on” with organisations like the World Bank and the European Union and “what they were doing to the country”.
Mamaloni taught Sogavare about the Solomons’ colonial history. Sogavare stressed that Mamaloni had a “love for the country” and adopted “his aggressive nationalist agenda…. That was the philosophy [he] drove into me...He converted me overnight.”
Sogavare described having a three-hour meeting with long dead Mamaloni in June 2006 after becoming prime minister: “I think he came to me because he was worried about the country”. Mamaloni warned him Australia could not be trusted. He then left Sogavare: “it was then that I realised I had been talking to a dead man”. At one point Sogavare visited Mamaloni’s grave site and told people the body in the grave was a dummy. There are also said to be secret bases in caves in Makira, with an army ready to claim the state.
One of those who had a PM-turn was Derek Sikua who said Sogareva had an obsession with conspiracy theories. Sikua claimed Sogavare had taken “donations” from Huawei, the Chinese telecommunication company which had contracted to provide an undersea fibre optic cable. To Sogavare’s anger, and nurturing the Mamaloni influence, Australia interfered with the deal and had the Chinese replaced on spurious security grounds. Sogareva’s has never made secret his distaste for Australia. In fairness to him, Australia often crashes around Honiara acting as if it owned the place. Its behaviour is underscored by the Mamaloni/Sogavare neo-colonialism views.
On September 16, 2019, Sogavare's government gave up recognising Taiwan as an independent nation and switched to China, a decision that was not especially popular in the country, or particularly in Malaita. It led to anti-government riots in Honiara that notably targeted Chinese businesses. Sogavare claimed the riots were “politically motivated”. He survived a subsequent vote of no confidence in Parliament.
Popular anger at Sogavare is not based necessarily on views on communism; it's rather based on the way in which Sogavare has allowed Chinese and Malaysian Chinese outfits to plunder Solomons’ fishing, mining and logging. Corruption at high levels of the Solomon’s Government is rampant.
In May came Sogavare’s still mostly secret security deal with China. It called for China to send security personnel under broad conditions, including “to assist in maintaining social order, protecting people’s lives and property, providing humanitarian assistance, carrying out disaster response, or providing assistance on other tasks agreed upon”. From what is known of the deal, China can move troops and police into the Solomons, and establish port facilities for Chinese ships. The Chinese, thanks to Sogavare, now has close protection from China to ensure no one can challenge his power. It's a risk for Beijing; when, as will happen perhaps sooner than expected, Sogavare is out of power, the Chinese security pact will be scrapped.
Sogavare’s latest dangerously dictatorial move is to bully parliament into extending his four year term in parliament by deferring an election until after the Pacific Games in November 2023. Chinese companies are building massive facilities. Recent debate in parliament shows Sogavare yelling at fellow members, and aggressively demanding adherence to his views. Whatever consensus that existed in Solomon society has now given way to rule by fiat, backed up by Chinese trained police. There is a surprising amount of violence and illicit activity associated with Sogavare’s various tilts at power.
Sogavare’s weirdness came out at August’s events to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal. It was of international significance but notable for Sogavare’s absence. He let it be known that he was offended by the apparently minor nature of the foreign officials attending, and so would not attend it in his own capital. Instead he sent Police Minister Anthony Veke to give a mumbling, incoherent speech no one bothered to report.
Sogavare is a remarkably distinctive fellow. Physically he demands attention. Often elegantly dressed, he speaks a fluent kind of intellectual English which sounds learned until one works out what he is really saying. Others have argued that Sogavare, the country’s longest-serving prime minister, is being the kind of tradition-chief that pre-colonial Choiseul was ruled by. He is as demanding as their bigmen were, and he has created a ruthless party machine that was initially oiled by Taiwan, and is now awash with Beijing money.
Once, this kind of behaviour would have been an amusing curiosity (akin to 1970s Albert Henry in the Cook Islands), but it's a different world now. And when uniformed Chinese are coming across Red Beach with weapons and technology, Sogavare needs to be understood for what he really is; dangerous.
Emeritus History Professor Clive Moore knows Sogavare well: “Sogavare is emotional, and alarmingly, some observers who know him well are stressing that his behaviour is quite paranoid. Can we trust him to keep his word that there will be no Chinese military base, particularly when he refuses to release a copy of the final agreement with China? All we have is a leaked copy of an early draft. The answer is no, Sogavare is self-serving, an expert manipulator, and planning to remain as prime minister. “
©Michael J Field