The National Parliamentary Opposition has expressed grave concerns over moves by the Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, to change certain provisions in the Constitution.
Opposition Leader, Fred Fono, claims that Prime Minister Sogavare is planning to amend the National Constitution to enable the Prime Minister to abolish the Police and Prison Services Commission so that the Commissioner of Police would report directly to the Prime Minister."If we are not careful we are seeing a draconian dictatorship, which we only see in Africa, and what is happening now is happening behind the scene, it is a serious trend in Solomon Islands," said Mr. Fono.
The Opposition Leader Claims that the Prime Minister had taken the initiative to create eleven new positions in his Government, ten of which would be allocated to ten members of Parliament and one to former MP for Temotu Pele, Michael Maina.
The Opposition has claimed that the plan had two main objectives. The first was to weaken the Opposition side by luring away at least seven from the Opposition Bench and the second was to have the necessary two third majority needed to amend the Constitution so that the Prime Minister would have almost total power over the Royal Solomon Islands Police.
Mr. Fono also added that the plan to appoint ten MPs to develop major policy initiatives under the Government Bottom up Policy was a move which was in itself contradicting the Bottom up Approach policy.
The Leader of Opposition stated that the PM is not genuine about the Bottom-up approach because if the PM is genuine about it, why spend more money on people who already have money.
Mr. Fono said the real motive behind the PM's appointment is to ensure that the government has more than two-third members of the Parliament on the side of the Government.