Malaita explains non-invitation of PM for 2nd Appointed Day

The Office of the Premier of Malaita province would like to make further clarifications on the subject of the Prime Minister’s nonattendance on the Malaita province second appointed day, while the Prime Minister continued to attend the same celebrations in other provinces like Guadalcanal, Makira Ulawa and recently Renbel.

The Prime Minister’s press secretariat pointed out that the Prime Minister only attend events where he is duly invited as a matter of protocol. In the case of the Malaita Province second appointed day event the Prime Minister was not invited and therefore cannot attend the event.

The public would have known that the MPG made it clear earlier on through a public statement that for 2020, the second appointed day celebration would be a low key one. And it was in that context that the Malaita Provincial Government had made its invitations.

While it was a low key celebration, the province sees it fit to invite the power of the crown from the capital Honiara to participate and partake in the ceremony. It was therefore felt that the crown minister responsible for the affairs of the provinces be invited to be the guest of honour for the event.

As dictated by the low key nature of the event as announced. It would be rather diminishing to have invited the prime of the ministers to the occasion knowing that the status of the occasion was only a low key one.

Therefore, when the invitation was sent to the minister of provincial government, the province was later advised by MPGIS to instead invite the Deputy Prime Minister to be the guest of honour for the occasion. The Malaita provincial government has adhered to the directive and the DPM was invited as the guest of honour on the occasion.

It was however enlightening to know that even though the occasion was meant to be a low key one, the government delegation that came from Honiara was a big one. Similarly, the big number of Malaita national MPS that were in Auki for the event was like none seen before.

For the MPG, it was a successful and an eventful event despite the Prime Minister not being part of the occasion.

Issued by Malaita

Office of the Premier, Auki, Malaita Province