Bartholomew (Bart) Ulufa'alu (25 December 1950 – 25 May 2007) was the fifth Prime Minister of the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

from 27 August 1997 to 30 June 2000."Former Solomon Islands PM dies"
AFP (News.com.au), 25 May 2007.

Early career

He completed his schooling at Aruligo Secondary School and received a Bachelor of Economics from The University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG), during which time he was also President of the UPNG Students' Union. He founded the

Solomon Islands General Workers' Union The Solomon Islands Council of Trade Unions (SICTU) is a national trade union center in the Solomon Islands. It was created in the 1970s by the '' Solomon Islands General Workers' Union'' and had membership of over 90% of SI TUs. After the indep ...

and also founded and led the union-affiliated National Democratic Party (NADEPA) in 1975. NADEPA was successful in the 1976 national elections, gaining 8 seats (including Ulufa'alu in the seat of

East Honiara East Honiara is a parliamentary constituency electing one representative to the National Parliament of Solomon Islands. With an electorate of 30,049 in 2006, it is by far the most heavily populated constituency in the country, being the only one ( ...

) in the 38 member Legislative Assembly. Ulufa'alu was appointed as the first ever Leader of the Official Opposition. NADEPA fared poorly after the 1980 elections, winning only two seats and they subsequently joined the opposition. However, after the 'Independent Group' led by Francis Billy Hilly withdrew their support for the Kenilorea government in 1981,

Solomon Mamaloni Solomon Sunaone Mamaloni (23 January 1943 – 11 January 2000) was a Solomon Islands politician. He was the first Chief Minister of the islands, and later served as Prime Minister for three spells in the 1980s and 1990s. Biography Mamaloni was ...

became Prime Minister and Ulufa'alu became Minister of Finance of the Solomon Islands. Ulufa'alu is generally regarded as having performed well as Finance Minister and perhaps because this distracted him from attending to his constituency, he was defeated in 1984. Out of office, he went into business and headed up both the Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and the Farmers' Association. In 1988, he split with fellow unionist

Joses Tuhanuku Joses Tuhanuku (born 1 January 1952Biography
National Parliament website in ...

and formed the

Solomon Islands Liberal Party The Solomon Islands Liberal Party (SILP) was a political party in the Solomon Islands. History The party was established as the Nationalist Party in 1975, before becoming the National Democratic Party (NADEPA).Haruhiro Fukui (1985) ''Political pa ...

(in the meantime, Tuhanuku and the Solomon Islands Trade Union Congress established the Solomon Islands Labour Party). He was re-elected in 1989 and joined the opposition group but in 1990 he resigned from parliament after accepting an offer from Prime Minister Mamaloni of a well-paid two-year consultancy with the Prime Minister's Office.

Prime Minister (1997–2000)

Ulufa'alu won office for the third time when he was elected as the member for

Aoke/Langalanga constituency Aoke/Langalanga, also known as Auki/Langalanga, is a parliamentary constituency electing one representative to the National Parliament of Solomon Islands. It is one of fourteen constituencies in Malaita Province. It is also a relatively new const ...

in 1997 (a seat he held through two further elections in 2001 and 2006 until he died). He was able to muster a slender majority to defeat veteran politician

for the position of Prime Minister in 1997. However, Ulufa'alu was faced with difficult economic problems: debts were high, government spending was out of control and logging was occurring at an unsustainable rate. He set about implementing much-needed reforms to improve government financial management and cut down on corruption; however, he was constantly harassed by motions of no confidence (in November 1997, April 1998 and September 1998), the last of which he only won in a tied vote. The second half of the Ulufa'alu government was overwhelmed by the internal conflict commonly known as the 'Ethnic Tensions'. By late 1998, militants on the island of Guadalcanal commenced a campaign of intimidation and violence towards Malaitan settlers. During the next year, thousands of Malaitans fled back to Malaita or to the capital Honiara (which, although situated on Guadalcanal, is predominantly populated by Malaitans and Solomon Islanders from other provinces). In 1999, the Malaita Eagle Force (MEF) was established in response. The Ulufa'alu government struggled to respond to the complexities of this evolving conflict. In late 1999, the government declared a four-month state of emergency. There were also a number of attempts at reconciliation ceremonies but to no avail. He also requested assistance from Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

in 1999 but this was rejected. In June 2000, as Prime Minister, he was kidnapped by militia members of the MEF who felt that although he was a Malaitan, he was not doing enough to protect their interests. Ulufa'alu subsequently resigned in exchange for his release.

Manasseh Sogavare Manasseh Damukana Sogavare (born 17 January 1955) is the sixth and current Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands, serving since 24 April 2019. He previously held the office in 2000–2001, 2006—2007 and 2014–2017; in all he has served over ni ...

, who had earlier been Finance Minister in Ulufa'alu's government but had subsequently joined the opposition, was elected as Prime Minister by 23–21 over Rev. Leslie Boseto. However, Sogavare's election was immediately shrouded in controversy because six MPs (thought to be supporters of Boseto) were unable to attend parliament for the crucial vote.

Later career and death

After the 2006 election, Ulufa'alu's Liberal Party joined with independents and four other parties (the Social Credit (SoCred) Party, the Party for Rural Advancement, the Nasnol Pati and the Democratic Party) to form the 'Grand Coalition for Change' (GCC). Their aim was to unseat the ruling coalition of the People's Alliance Party (headed by outgoing Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza) and the Association of Independent Members (headed by outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Snyder Rini). However, the head of SoCred, Sogavare, broke away from the GCC after they failed to nominate him as their candidate for prime minister. He threw his support behind Rini and was rewarded with the post of Minister for Commerce. However, on 18 April 2006, the announcement that Rini had been elected Prime Minister led to the 'April Riots', which resulted in three days of looting and property damage in Chinatown and, to a lesser extent, the Honiara CBD and its industrial area, Rinadi. In the aftermath, Sogavare switched sides and rejoined the GCC in return for which, he was nominated as their prime ministerial candidate and was duly elected on 5 May 2006. Ulufa'alu suffered from

diabetes Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...

and as a result, he had a leg amputated in 2004 and had developed partial blindness. Despite his illness, Ulufa'alu was appointed as

finance minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

in the GCC Government but was sacked only five months later, ostensibly on grounds of ill health. However, it was reported that the real reason was that he failed to vote in favour of Sogavare during a

motion of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or m ...

– he was absent from parliament at the time of the vote. In June 2006 he was reported to be critically ill and had not been in his office for several weeks.Arthur Wate
"Finance minister taken to hospital"
, ''Solomon Star'', 15 June 2006. He seemed to make a good recovery and was back in his role as finance minister before his dismissal. His illness returned, however, and he died on 25 May 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulufaalu, Bartholomew 1950 births 2007 deaths Prime Ministers of the Solomon Islands Finance Ministers of the Solomon Islands Leaders of the Opposition (Solomon Islands) Deaths from diabetes People from Malaita Province University of Papua New Guinea alumni Solomon Islands Liberal Party politicians Members of the National Parliament of the Solomon Islands

Early career

Prime Minister (1997–2000)

Later career and death

Further reading

References