Which Kelvyn Alp?

I was having a conversation with a friend of mind the other day when I mentioned to him the fact that Kelvyn Alp has been writing a lot of his views in the print media in Solomon Islands, especially in Solomon Star and that I was beginning to wonder what he (Mr. Alp) is actually up to.

My friend turned to me with and asked, which Kelvyn Alp? Kelvyn Alp the miner or Kelvyn Alp anti-capitalism activist?

From this, I totally understand the point of view where my friend was coming from; Kelvyn Alp was allowed to come into Solomon Islands as a miner businessman, not as a person that would try and brain-wash Solomon Islanders with inpragmatic socialist perceptions.

We have all seen and may have read his articles and as far as I am concerned apart from being too patronising,construed and inpragmatic, his views have to me demonstrated why he is a 'blacklisted' person back in his native New Zealand.

He seems to advocate for options which have been proven to be of economically ineffective and infeasible. Most of his views are influenced by socialism ideologies and the fall of the Soviet Block in the late 1990s should have given us enough reason to not to believe in such practices in a large scale, especially also given the fact that economies are becoming interconnected into a single global mainstream.

Well some people may say that Solomon Islands is in many respects has been a socialist society in terms of our traditional market economy where there is the practice of accumulation and redistribution of wealth to ensure equality. But this is only practiced for reasons that are not economical but more or less social in nature.

However if we are to advocate for the maintenance of that market model then we are actually going backwards in terms of our market and economical evolution. And that is one thing we should understand a long time ago that it is not for the best interest of Solomon Islands.

Having said all that, one may ponder why I am so concerned about what Kelvyn Alp thinks. Well, this guy has friends in higher places and within our current government structure his influence is actually present.

He has a lot of direct interest in Solomon Islands governance and I do understand that it was some of his thoughts that were included in the Direct Development Party's (DDP) policy platform, a party which at the moment have few party members with the government and at the PMO.

This guy (Alp) had financially supported the DDP during the last general elections and long before that he already had the current Minister of Education, Hon. Dick Ha'amori and the current Press Secretary to the Prime Minister, Alfred Sasako, within his grips. 

Clearly the Kelvyn Alp we now see is no longer the same person we once known as the guy who came to Solomon Islands bringing much hope for the people. He did some prospecting along Guadalcanal Plains and also at East Kwaio and the people there are still waiting for him to deliver on his promises.

Today, there are even rumours circulating that he may pull out of the mining industry very soon. So one cannot help but wonders what this guy is up to. If those rumours are true then what's next for Kelvyn Alp?

We have seen similar trends in the past where people come in under the guise of  making business and not long after that they are given permanent residence or citizenship status hence making them legally eligible to become candidates for Parliament. Before  we know it they are now candidates vying for one of the parliamentary seats.

Sounds so strange, but it is true. It has happened many times already in the past.