Robert Matau
SUVA (Islands Business/Radio Australia/ Pacific Media Watch): Police intervention was required twice in Nauru’s Parliament as government and opposition MPs clashed over the suspension of three Opposition members last month, reports Islands Business.
The standoff that has been brewing for sometime flared when the island’s legislature passed a government motion for the suspension of three Opposition MPs, namely Dr Kieren Keke (member for Yaren), Roland Kun (member for Buada), and Mathew Batsiua (member for Boe).
Justice and Finance Minister David Adeang had proposed the motion to suspend the three MPs after accusing them of making statements to the foreign media that were damaging to Nauru’s development.
Adeang claimed the people of Nauru were becoming increasingly worried at the behaviour of the three MPs.
“There is a place to argue your point and that is here in the Parliament", he said.
"These MPs have done what no other country would deem acceptable - use the foreign media to trash our international reputation".
Adeang added, “They were suspended due to their deliberate attempts and damaging comments to foreign media undermining the good work of the Waqa government to introduce Bendigo Bank to the island, and which also led to concerns raised by donors, and considerations to suspend aid programmes to Nauru.”
He accused Keke of trying to incite a riot by organising his constituents and supporters to mass outside Parliament.
“The government will not tolerate this lawlessness, but has given the MPs the option of settling the matter peacefully.”
MP arrested
More recently two opposition MPs were arrested and appeared in court last week following anti-government protests.
Squire Jeremiah and former president Sprent Dabwido are the latest MPs to be arrested in the government crackdown.
Batsiua, who was arrested last week but has since been released on bail, said it was unclear if his colleagues would be relased on bail or held in remand for an extended period.
He spoke to Radio Australia earlier today of his very strict bail conditions,
"I've been released on 12 bail conditions, so I think that's a record for Nauru and it seems like I have to surrender my passport.
"I have to report once a week to the police station, I cannot travel obviously and I'm constrained to movements after 6pm to remain indoors at my residence."
He also said that if the convictions go ahead and they are found guilty, there will be implications on standing for parliament again.
The government has already pushed the message that overseas lawyers will not be accessible for the MPs.
"If we are looking to bring in overseas lawyers to defend our cases, there's already talk that the Secretary of Justice will not grant visas for them.
"If that's the case I'll remind the government that we are protected under the consitution that we are free and able to obtain legal representation, that is our constitutional right."
Chamber chaos
The government used its majority to get the motion passed to suspend Keke, Kun and Batsuia.
On that day, Keke was the only affected MP that was in Parliament. His two other colleagues were overseas.
Drama ensued when Keke refused to vacate his seat after the motion was passed, and when the Speaker ordered police officers to escort him out of the chambers, other opposition members of the House surrounded Keke and told officers to leave their colleague alone.
The Speaker was therefore forced to adjourn the session and the following day, Keke turned up to Parliament House with a crowd of supporters.
Although police numbers have been beefed up in parliament, the Speaker took no chances and again cancelled sittings.
Speaking to Islands Business, Keke said their purported suspension from parliament demonstrated the extent government would go to hold on to power.
He said the only people that had been damaging Nauru’s development have been the current government.
“They would like to shift the blame for their failures on the Opposition, but everybody can see and everybody knows who is causing Nauru’s demise,” Keke said.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
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