Bartholomew Ulufa'alu
Encyclopedia
Bartholomew Ulufa'alu (25 December 1950 – 25 May 2007) was the fifth Prime Minister
of the Solomon Islands
from 27 August 1997 to 30 June 2000.
He completed his schooling at Aruligo Secondary School and received a Bachelor of Economics from UPNG, during which time he was also President of the UPNG Students’ Union (Moore 2004, pp.61–63).
He founded the Solomon Islands General Workers' Union and also founded and led the union-affiliated National Democratic Party (NADEPA) in 1975. NADEPA was successful in the 1976 national elections, gaining 8 seats (including Ulufa'alu in the seat of East Honiara
) in the 38 member Legislative Assembly. Ulufa'alu was appointed as the first ever Leader of the Official Opposition
.
NADEPA fared poorly after the 1980 elections, winning only two seats and they subsequently joined the opposition. However, after the 'Independent Group' led by Francis Billy Hilly withdrew their support for the Kenilorea government in 1981, Solomon Mamaloni
became Prime Minister and Ulufa'alu became Minister for Finance.
Ulufa'alu is generally regarded as having performed well as Finance Minister (Moore 2004, p.47) and perhaps because this distracted him from attending to his constituency, he was defeated in 1984 (PIM Dec 1984), p.7). Out of office, he went into business and headed up both the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and the Farmers' Association. In 1988, he split with fellow unionist Joses Tuhanuku
and formed the Solomon Islands Liberal Party
(in the meantime, Tuhanuku and the Solomon Islands Trade Union Congress established the Solomon Islands Labour Party
). He was re-elected in 1989 and joined the opposition group but in 1990 he resigned from parliament after accepting an offer from Prime Minister Mamaloni of a well-paid two year consultancy with the Prime Minister's Office.
Ulufa'alu won office for a third time when he was elected as the member for Aoke/Langa Langa
in 1997 (a seat he held through two further elections in 2001 and 2006 until he died). He was able to muster a slender majority to defeat veteran politician Solomon Mamaloni
for the position of Prime Minister in 1997. However, Ulufa'alu was faced with difficult economic problems: debts were high, government spending was out of control and logging was occurring at an unsustainable rate. He set about implementing much needed reforms to improve government financial management and cut down on corruption; however, he was constantly harassed by motions of no confidence (in November 1997, April 1998 and September 1998), the last of which he only won in a tied vote. See Fraenkel (2004, pp.41–42) and Moore (2004, pp.61–63)
The second-half of the Ulufa'alu government was overwhelmed by the internal conflict commonly known as the 'Ethnic Tensions' (although as Kabutaulaka (2001) and Dinnen (2002) have argued, the 'ethnic' label is an oversimplification). For detailed discussions of the Ethnic Tensions, see Fraenkel (2004) and Moore (2004). By late 1998, militants on the island of Guadalcanal
commenced a campaign of intimidation and violence towards Malaitan settlers. During the next year, thousands of Malaitans fled back to Malaita
or to the capital Honiara
(which, although situated on Guadalcanal
, is predominantly populated by Malaitans and Solomon Islanders from other provinces). In 1999, the Malaita Eagle Force
(MEF) was established in response.
The Ulufa'alu government struggled to respond to the complexities of this evolving conflict. In late 1999, the government declared a four month state of emergency. There were also a number of attempts at reconciliation ceremonies but to no avail. He also requested assistance from Australia
and New Zealand
in 1999 but this was rejected.
In June 2000, as Prime Minister, he was kidnapped by militia members of the MEF
who felt that although he was a Malaitan, he was not doing enough to protect their interests. Ulufa'alu subsequently resigned in exchange for his release. Manasseh Sogavare
, who had earlier been Finance Minister in Ulufa'alu's government but had subsequently joined the opposition, was elected as Prime Minister by 23-21 over Rev. Leslie Boseto. However Sogavare's election was immediately shrouded in controversy because six MPs (thought to be supporters of Boseto) were unable to attend parliament for the crucial vote (Moore 2004, n.5 on p.174).
After the 5 April 2006 election, Ulufa'alu's Liberal Party joined with independents and four other parties (the Social Credit (SoCred) Party, the Party for Rural Advancement, the Nasnol Pati and the Democratic Party) to form the 'Grand Coalition for Change' (GCC). Their aim was to unseat the ruling coalition of the People's Alliance Party (headed by outgoing Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza) and the Association of Independent Members (headed by outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Snyder Rini). However, the head of SoCred, Sogavare
, broke away from the GCC after they failed to nominate him as their candidate for prime minister. He threw his support behind Rini and was rewarded with the post of Minister for Commerce.
However, on 18 April 2006, the announcement that Rini had been elected Prime Minister led to the 'April Riots', which resulted in three days of looting and property damage in Chinatown and, to a lesser extent, the Honiara CBD and its industrial area, Rinadi. In the aftermath, Sogavare
switched sides and rejoined the GCC in return for which, he was nominated as their prime ministerial candidate and was duly elected on 5 May 2006.
Ulufa'alu suffered from diabetes and as a result, he had a leg amputated in 2004 and had developed partial blindness. Despite his illness, Ulufa'alu was appointed as finance minister
in the GCC Government but was sacked only five months later, ostensibly on grounds of ill health. However, it was reported that the real reason was that he failed to vote in favour of Sogavare during a motion of no confidence
- he was absent from parliament at the time of the vote.
In June 2006 he was reported to be critically ill and had not been in his office for several weeks. He seemed to make a good recovery and was back in his role as finance minister before his dismissal. His illness returned, however, and he died on 25 May 2007.
Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands
The Prime Minister of Solomon Islands is Solomon Islands' head of government, consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the National Parliament. Solomon Islands is a Commonwealth realm. Since August 2010, the Prime Minister has been Danny Philip of the Reform...
of the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
from 27 August 1997 to 30 June 2000.
He completed his schooling at Aruligo Secondary School and received a Bachelor of Economics from UPNG, during which time he was also President of the UPNG Students’ Union (Moore 2004, pp.61–63).
He founded the Solomon Islands General Workers' Union and also founded and led the union-affiliated National Democratic Party (NADEPA) in 1975. NADEPA was successful in the 1976 national elections, gaining 8 seats (including Ulufa'alu in the seat of East Honiara
East Honiara
East Honiara is a parliamentary constituency electing one representative to the National Parliament of Solomon Islands. With an electorate of 30,049 in 2006, it is by far the most heavily populated constituency in the country, being the only one to consist in more than 20,000 voters...
) in the 38 member Legislative Assembly. Ulufa'alu was appointed as the first ever Leader of the Official Opposition
Leader of the Opposition (Solomon Islands)
The Leader of the Opposition in Solomon Islands is a Member of Parliament who commands a large minority of his peers, united in loyal opposition to government...
.
NADEPA fared poorly after the 1980 elections, winning only two seats and they subsequently joined the opposition. However, after the 'Independent Group' led by Francis Billy Hilly withdrew their support for the Kenilorea government in 1981, Solomon Mamaloni
Solomon Mamaloni
Solomon Mamaloni was the second Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands three times:* August 31, 1981 - November 19, 1984* March 28, 1989 - June 18, 1993* November 7, 1994 - August 27, 1997...
became Prime Minister and Ulufa'alu became Minister for Finance.
Ulufa'alu is generally regarded as having performed well as Finance Minister (Moore 2004, p.47) and perhaps because this distracted him from attending to his constituency, he was defeated in 1984 (PIM Dec 1984), p.7). Out of office, he went into business and headed up both the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and the Farmers' Association. In 1988, he split with fellow unionist Joses Tuhanuku
Joses Tuhanuku
Joses Tuhanuku is a Solomon Islands politician and former trade union leader.Having studied at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology and then at the Australian National University, he worked at various times as a secondary school teacher and as a senior lecturer and course coordinator at...
and formed the Solomon Islands Liberal Party
Solomon Islands Liberal Party
The Solomon Islands Liberal Party is a political party in the Solomon Islands, which was led by Bartholomew Ulufa'alu from its founding in 1988 until Ulufa’alu’s death in May 2007. Prior to the 1997 elections it formed the Solomon Islands Alliance for Change along with several other parties...
(in the meantime, Tuhanuku and the Solomon Islands Trade Union Congress established the Solomon Islands Labour Party
Solomon Islands Labour Party
The Solomon Islands Labour Party is a political party in the Solomon Islands. The party was founded in 1988 by the Solomon Islands Council of Trade Unions after the leadership of the union split...
). He was re-elected in 1989 and joined the opposition group but in 1990 he resigned from parliament after accepting an offer from Prime Minister Mamaloni of a well-paid two year consultancy with the Prime Minister's Office.
Ulufa'alu won office for a third time when he was elected as the member for Aoke/Langa Langa
Aoke-Langalanga
Aoke-Langalanga, also known as Auki-Langalanga, is a parliamentary constituency electing one representative to the National Parliament of Solomon Islands. It is one of fourteen constituencies in Malaita Province. It is also a relatively new constituency, having been established for the Fifth...
in 1997 (a seat he held through two further elections in 2001 and 2006 until he died). He was able to muster a slender majority to defeat veteran politician Solomon Mamaloni
Solomon Mamaloni
Solomon Mamaloni was the second Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands three times:* August 31, 1981 - November 19, 1984* March 28, 1989 - June 18, 1993* November 7, 1994 - August 27, 1997...
for the position of Prime Minister in 1997. However, Ulufa'alu was faced with difficult economic problems: debts were high, government spending was out of control and logging was occurring at an unsustainable rate. He set about implementing much needed reforms to improve government financial management and cut down on corruption; however, he was constantly harassed by motions of no confidence (in November 1997, April 1998 and September 1998), the last of which he only won in a tied vote. See Fraenkel (2004, pp.41–42) and Moore (2004, pp.61–63)
The second-half of the Ulufa'alu government was overwhelmed by the internal conflict commonly known as the 'Ethnic Tensions' (although as Kabutaulaka (2001) and Dinnen (2002) have argued, the 'ethnic' label is an oversimplification). For detailed discussions of the Ethnic Tensions, see Fraenkel (2004) and Moore (2004). By late 1998, militants on the island of Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña in 1568...
commenced a campaign of intimidation and violence towards Malaitan settlers. During the next year, thousands of Malaitans fled back to Malaita
Malaita
Malaita is the largest island of the Malaita Province in the Solomon Islands. A tropical and mountainous island, Malaita's pristine river systems and tropical forests have not been exploited. Malaita is the most populous island of the Solomon Islands, with 140,000 people or more than a third of the...
or to the capital Honiara
Honiara
Honiara, population 49,107 , 78,190 , is the capital of the Solomon Islands and of Guadalcanal Province, although it is a separately administered town...
(which, although situated on Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal is a tropical island in the South-Western Pacific. The largest island in the Solomons, it was discovered by the Spanish expedition of Alvaro de Mendaña in 1568...
, is predominantly populated by Malaitans and Solomon Islanders from other provinces). In 1999, the Malaita Eagle Force
Malaita Eagle Force
Malaita Eagles Force is a militant organization, originating in the island of Malaita, in the Solomon Islands.It was set up during 'The Tension' in the Solomons, which were mainly centred on Guadalcanal, to defend diasporic Malaitans in Guadalcanal and the property of Malaitans that have left the...
(MEF) was established in response.
The Ulufa'alu government struggled to respond to the complexities of this evolving conflict. In late 1999, the government declared a four month state of emergency. There were also a number of attempts at reconciliation ceremonies but to no avail. He also requested assistance from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
in 1999 but this was rejected.
In June 2000, as Prime Minister, he was kidnapped by militia members of the MEF
Malaita Eagle Force
Malaita Eagles Force is a militant organization, originating in the island of Malaita, in the Solomon Islands.It was set up during 'The Tension' in the Solomons, which were mainly centred on Guadalcanal, to defend diasporic Malaitans in Guadalcanal and the property of Malaitans that have left the...
who felt that although he was a Malaitan, he was not doing enough to protect their interests. Ulufa'alu subsequently resigned in exchange for his release. Manasseh Sogavare
Manasseh Sogavare
Manasseh Damukana Sogavare was the sixth Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2007. He has served in the National Parliament as Member for East Choiseul since 1997, and he is currently the Leader of the Opposition.-Biography:Sogavare was Permanent...
, who had earlier been Finance Minister in Ulufa'alu's government but had subsequently joined the opposition, was elected as Prime Minister by 23-21 over Rev. Leslie Boseto. However Sogavare's election was immediately shrouded in controversy because six MPs (thought to be supporters of Boseto) were unable to attend parliament for the crucial vote (Moore 2004, n.5 on p.174).
After the 5 April 2006 election, Ulufa'alu's Liberal Party joined with independents and four other parties (the Social Credit (SoCred) Party, the Party for Rural Advancement, the Nasnol Pati and the Democratic Party) to form the 'Grand Coalition for Change' (GCC). Their aim was to unseat the ruling coalition of the People's Alliance Party (headed by outgoing Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza) and the Association of Independent Members (headed by outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Snyder Rini). However, the head of SoCred, Sogavare
Manasseh Sogavare
Manasseh Damukana Sogavare was the sixth Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2007. He has served in the National Parliament as Member for East Choiseul since 1997, and he is currently the Leader of the Opposition.-Biography:Sogavare was Permanent...
, broke away from the GCC after they failed to nominate him as their candidate for prime minister. He threw his support behind Rini and was rewarded with the post of Minister for Commerce.
However, on 18 April 2006, the announcement that Rini had been elected Prime Minister led to the 'April Riots', which resulted in three days of looting and property damage in Chinatown and, to a lesser extent, the Honiara CBD and its industrial area, Rinadi. In the aftermath, Sogavare
Manasseh Sogavare
Manasseh Damukana Sogavare was the sixth Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2006 to 2007. He has served in the National Parliament as Member for East Choiseul since 1997, and he is currently the Leader of the Opposition.-Biography:Sogavare was Permanent...
switched sides and rejoined the GCC in return for which, he was nominated as their prime ministerial candidate and was duly elected on 5 May 2006.
Ulufa'alu suffered from diabetes and as a result, he had a leg amputated in 2004 and had developed partial blindness. Despite his illness, Ulufa'alu was appointed as finance minister
Finance minister
The finance minister is a cabinet position in a government.A minister of finance has many different jobs in a government. He or she helps form the government budget, stimulate the economy, and control finances...
in the GCC Government but was sacked only five months later, ostensibly on grounds of ill health. However, it was reported that the real reason was that he failed to vote in favour of Sogavare during a motion of no confidence
Motion of no confidence
A motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion whose passing would demonstrate to the head of state that the elected parliament no longer has confidence in the appointed government.-Overview:Typically, when a parliament passes a vote of no...
- he was absent from parliament at the time of the vote.
In June 2006 he was reported to be critically ill and had not been in his office for several weeks. He seemed to make a good recovery and was back in his role as finance minister before his dismissal. His illness returned, however, and he died on 25 May 2007.
Further reading
- Alasia, S (1997) ‘Party politics and government in Solomon Islands’, SSGM Discussion Paper 97/7
- Dinnen (2002) ‘Winners and losers: politics and disorder in the Solomon Islands 2000 2002’, The Journal of Pacific History, Vol.37, No.3, pp.285–98.
- Fraenkel, J (2004) The Manipulation of Custom: from uprising to intervention in the Solomon Islands, Pandanus Books, Sydney
- Moore, C (2004) Happy Isles in Crisis: the historical causes for a failing state in Solomon Islands, 1998 2004, Asia Pacific Press, Canberra
- Kabutaulaka, T (2001) ‘Beyond ethnicity: the political economy of the Guadalacanal crisis in Solomon Islands’, SSGM Working Paper 01/1
- Keith Reid, R (Jan 1989) ‘Showdown’, Islands Business (magazine), pp.24–25
- Hamel-Green, M (April 1982) ‘Workshop hears of unionism in Solomons’, Pacific Island Monthly (magazine), pp.47–48
- Pacific Island Monthly (magazine) (Jan 1983) ‘Solomons minister warns on graft’, pp.5–6
- Pacific Island Monthly (magazine) (Dec 1984) ‘Eight ministers out in Solomons poll’, p.7