Pardon me

For the first time, Vanuatu jails corrupt legislators

For the first time, Vanuatu jails corrupt legislators

POLITICIANS pardoning friends who have done wrong are nothing new. It is rare, however, that a politician will attempt to pardon himself. In early October, the president of Vanuatu, Baldwin Lonsdale, travelled abroad and the speaker of the nation’s parliament, Marcellino Pipite, automatically became acting head of state. Mr Pipite took the opportunity to pardon himself and 13 other MPs who had been convicted, though not sentenced, on charges of bribery.

On his return, a furious Mr Lonsdale rescinded the pardons. As a result, the 14 MPs, including two former prime ministers, were sent to prison on October 22nd. This is the first time that sitting MPs have been successfully prosecuted for graft.

The country’s politics are now plunged into uncertainty. Those imprisoned amount to half of the government’s MPs. Parliament now needs to sit to pass a budget for 2016, but the prime minister, Sato Kilman, is reluctant to assemble the legislators because he has lost his majority, and fears a no-confidence challenge. The opposition has called on him to do the honourable thing and step down, but Mr Kilman contests whether the court’s ruling on Mr Pipite and friends was fair and wants to await the outcome of the appeals. The president has given the parties until November 6th to resolve the impasse, or he may order an early dissolution (general elections are anyway scheduled for 2016).

Corruption scandals are a familiar theme in this scattered archipelago of 281,000 people. What distinguishes the latest one is how openly the politicians flouted the law. The story began in 2014 when the country’s then opposition leader, Moana Carcasses Kalosil, offered legislators a total of 35m vatu ($355,000) to support a no-confidence motion (he later claimed that the money had been offered as loans). Those who have now been convicted accepted the offer and helped bring down the government and install a new one in June this year, with Mr Carcasses as deputy prime minister. He is now in jail.

Vanuatu is a poor country in the grip of a severe drought and suffering from the after-effects of cyclone Pam, which swept across its islands in March. Most citizens live far from the urban centres, and rarely punish politicians at the ballot box for indiscretions in the capital city, Port Vila—especially if rewards trickle down to their remote communities. But current food shortages, triggered by the drought and the cyclone, particularly in the southern islands, have increased anger about corruption in high places.

The convictions in Vanuatu echo similar problems across Melanesia. In neighbouring Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Solomon Islands, politicians are frequently convicted for stealing state funds. Local businessmen, often with links to logging operations, bankroll opposition parties or offer cash to vulnerable prime ministers to prop up fragile governments. Over the past decade, reformers in both PNG and the Solomon Islands, influenced by each other’s efforts, have tried to fight corruption by passing new laws to prohibit side-switching by money-hungry MPs, but with little success. They may now be hoping that the high-profile conviction of MPs in Vanuatu will serve as a warning to corrupt politicians in other Melanesian island nations that existing laws are strong enough to bring them to justice.

Author: 
The Economist