Marshalls opposition wants answers

Transcript

The opposition in the Marshall Islands says the government can't explain why it nominated a Lebanese official to UNESCO without checking his credentials first.

In December the government nominated Jamil el-Sayed to be the country's UNESCO representative but withdrew it when a French newspaper broke a story last month that el-Sayed had alleged ties to Hezbollah

The opposition has submitted a motion of no-confidence over the issue and the party chairman, Alvin Jacklick, told Bridget Tunnicliffe the government also violated the constitution with its nomination.

ALVIN JACKLICK: Pursuant to our constitution, any ambassador representing the Marshall Islands in any organisation, or any country, must be a citizen of the Marshall Islands. And that's a clear violation of the constitution, and as members of the parliament it is our responsibility to make sure that the current administration complies with the constitution of the Marshall Islands. And that's the reason why we brought up the vote of no confidence. When we asked questions they did not answer the questions, they are hiding something that we don't know.

BRIDGET TUNNICLIFFE: Do you think it was just laziness that they didn't do the background investigation on the man they nominated?

AJ: It's not that. It is something more than that. No body knows except those two individuals. That's the mystery of the situation right now, because it seems to me that no body wants to tell us exactly what happened. They appointed that individual before a check-up was made to make sure whether he was qualified or not. Then by virtue of the fact that he's not a Mashallese citizen, he's qualified to become an ambassador.

BT: The Foreign Minister, Mr Muller, is he responsible, should he lose his job?

AJ: Yes, he is accountable to the Marshallese people and the government, and he should tell us exactly what transpired the decision to make such an appointment. Unless he tells us exactly what he had in mind at that time, which he's reluctant to tell us. What he's saying is he has appointed somebody and then had UNESCO and other organisations to investigate whether this person is qualified or not. But the appointment came before the investigation. That's unusual.

BT: So you're probably not going to have the numbers to be successful in the vote, what are you trying to achieve?

AJ: Well, we are perfectly mindful that we might not have the numbers to succeed in our vote of no confidence. As responsible leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure that our partners in the Pacific region as well as international communities, it is our responsibility to show them that we care that when somebody violates our constitution and violates our commitment to other countries like our Pacific Island country partners, we have to tell them that we don't agree with those kind of things, create something that would make us dishonest in the eyes of the world, in our work as leaders of the Marshall Islands.