[Solomon Islands] politicians get salaries doubled in poverty-ridden economy

from The Hindu News

Wellington (AP): Politicians in the poverty-ridden Solomon Islands have had their salaries doubled and a fleet of new cars have been bought for senior lawmakers,three months after violent riots and arson wrecked parts of the nation's capital, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Lawmakers ranging from Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to Government Ministers and parliament backbenchers have had their raises approved by the Parliamentary Entitlement Commission, the Solomon Star reported.

Final figures are to be revealed in the nation's official gazette this week, the report said.

Sogavare's annual salary has doubled to 1,40,000 Solomon Islands dollars (US $ 20,300; euro 16,100), it said.

The deputy Prime Minister, other Ministers, the opposition leader and ordinary lawmakers also had their salaries at least doubled, the newspaper reported.

Many Solomon Islanders among the population of around half a million lead subsistence lives in rural villages, with just 10 percent of working-age citizens gainfully employed, official statistics revealed recently.

Opposition leader Fred Fono said the salary hikes and other fringe benefits would drastically reduce the Government's ability to implement its widely publicized rural development policy.

He called the raises and the recent acquisition of 46 new cars for Ministers and permanent secretaries who head government departments an ``extravagance,'' the Solomon Star reported.

The Solomon Islands are just emerging from years of ethnic strife that took the country to the brink of economic collapse.

Law and order was restored only after the mid-2003 arrival of more than 2,300 troops and police as part of an Australian-led regional assistance mission.

Post-election riots in April saw most of Chinatown in the capital, Honiara, torched by arsonists, forcing hundreds of Chinese residents to flee the country.