 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "David Adeang" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
David Adeang | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Adeang in 2012 | |
| President of Nauru | |
| Assumed office 30 October 2023 | |
| Deputy | Lionel Aingimea[1] |
| Preceded by | Russ Kun |
| Member of Parliament forUbenide | |
| Assumed office 18 December 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph Hiram |
| Speaker of the Parliament of Nauru | |
| In office May 2004 – June 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Terangi Adam |
| Succeeded by | Riddell Akua |
| In office 20 March 2008 – 18 April 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Riddell Akua |
| Succeeded by | Riddell Akua |
| Personal details | |
| Born | David Ranibok Waiau Adeang (1969-11-24)24 November 1969 (age 56) Yaren District, Nauru[citation needed] |
| Party | Independent |
| Other political affiliations | Nauru First (2000s) |
| Relations | Kennan Adeang (father) |
| Occupation | Public servant |
David Ranibok Waiau Adeang (born 24 November 1969) is a Nauruan politician, currently serving asPresident of Nauru. Adeang is the formerSpeaker of theParliament of Nauru, and Nauru'sMinister of Finance andJustice, as well as theMinister Assisting the President of Nauru.
David's fatherKennan Adeang, thrice served asPresident of Nauru.[citation needed] David Adeang began his political career as a lawyer. After all Ubenide seats had been vacated on 6 November 2001, Adeang won a seat in the following by-election, oustingJoseph Hiram while the other three previous MPs regained their seats.[2][3] In theparliamentary elections of May 2003, amidst political and economic turmoil, theNaoero Amo won 3 of the 18 seats, and Adeang was one of the elected members. The Naoero Amo entered acoalition withLudwig Scotty and his supporters.[citation needed] Scotty became president and Adeangminister of finance in May 2003.[4] He was the finance minister andMinister Assisting the President of Nauru only for three months, however, as Scotty's government fell in August 2003, andKinza Clodumar became finance minister.
In April 2004, Adeang was charged with sedition along withKieren Keke andFabian Ribauw after a protest at Nauru's airport. He was theSpeaker of the Parliament of Nauru from May 2004 to June 2004.[5] In June 2004 Clodumar and the Naoero Amo united to re-elect Scotty as president. Clodumar remained finance minister, while Adeang became Minister of Foreign Affairs and Justice. Also, the charges against Adeang and the others were dropped. His appointment as foreign minister is interesting because he was the first foreign minister not to be the President of Nauru. That post had been given to the President since Nauru gained independence in 1968. Adeang was easily re-elected to Parliament from theUbenide constituency in the October 2004 elections. Later that month, he left the position of justice minister, became finance minister, and retained the position of foreign minister.
He was a founding member of theNauru First party, at one time the only political party on the island.
Adeang was easily reelected in theAugust 2007 parliamentary election. He received the most votes in theUbenide constituency, which elects 4 seats.[6]
In September 2007, Adeang, as Foreign Minister, made a number of public statements deemed in theUnited States to be controversial. He extolledCuba and criticized US foreign policy, during a visit to theCaribbean island.[7]
The USDepartment of State, referring to events investigated in 2007, reported criticism of Adeang in its Human Rights Report, issued for 2008.[8] This criticism was included in the State Department's report, despite the fact that police, having undertaken an investigation of allegations of wrongdoing, made no attempt to prosecute Adeang.
Allegations of misconduct on the part of Adeang and Scotty's unwillingness to act against Adeang led to the resignation of several members of the government—Kieren Keke,Frederick Pitcher, andRoland Kun—and an unsuccessful motion of no-confidence against Scotty's government on 13 November 2007. Although a majority of those voting supported the motion (eight in favor, seven opposed), it fell short of the necessary nine votes.[9] However, another vote on 19 December was successful in ousting Scotty, andMarcus Stephen was elected president; Stephen named Kieren Keke to replace Adeang as Foreign Minister.[10]
In an unusual alliance, in March 2008 Adeang and former PresidentRene Harris moved to attempt amotion of no confidence in PresidentMarcus Stephen, which was, however, thwarted by the resignation of the Speaker of theParliament of Nauru. It was noted that Adeang had been a strong critic of Harris's record in government.[11]
Subsequently, in March 2008, Adeang was appointed Speaker of theParliament of Nauru,[12] succeedingRiddell Akua. He entered office on 20 March 2008.
On 22 March, Adeang called a Parliamentary session, allegedly without informing government ministers, who therefore did not attend. Opposition MPs, Adeang included, constituted a majority of legislators present, and passed a ruling outlawing dualcitizenship for Members of Parliament. The ruling, if applied, would affect senior Cabinet ministersKieren Keke andFrederick Pitcher. Were they compelled to resign from Parliament, the Opposition would control a majority of seats in Parliament. The government rejected the legitimacy of the ruling, stating that it wasunconstitutional because of the lack of parliamentaryquorum.[13] President Marcus Stephen accused Adeang and the Opposition of passing the ruling "after dark on Easter Saturday", "under candlelight".[14] For his part, Adeang asserted that 22 March session of Parliament was valid.
On 28 March, Adeang, as Speaker, ordered Keke and Pitcher to vacate their seats in Parliament. They refused to do so, and Adeang suspended the sitting.[15]
On 31 March Adeang claimed that the government had mounted a coup: since the police refused to eject two government ministers from the chamber of Parliament, in accordance with his ruling of 28 March, the rule of Parliament no longer governed the police. The Government, in response, denied the claim, stating that they were awaiting a ruling from the Supreme Court on the issue.[16]
The crisis continued into early April 2008, with Adeang stating that he would consider the Supreme Court's ruling as "just an opinion", and Keke responding that the Supreme Court, not the Speaker, had the jurisdiction to determine a member of Parliament's eligibility.[17]
On 7 April, it was reported by the government that the Supreme Court had ruled in the government's favour, apparently confirming that the law forbidding members of Parliament from holding dual nationality was anticonstitutional and invalid, due to lack of quorum. The Court also reportedly rejected Adeang's claim that the courts have no jurisdiction over Parliament.[18][19] Adeang said that he would seek legal advice before responding to the court's ruling.[20]
Relations between Adeang, as Speaker of theParliament of Nauru, and the Stephen Administration, remained under severe strain following the ruling, and the Administration's ministers continued to exercise executive powers without the support of Parliament.
Following 7 April release of the Supreme Court decision which ruled against the dual nationality law, with the passing of which Adeang was particularly identified, Adeang indicated that forty years of post-independence Parliamentary precedent had been set aside.[21] For its part, the government ofMarcus Stephen strongly welcomed the Supreme Court's ruling: whether or not for ideological and principled reasons also, it was seen as ensuring the immediate survival of the Administration.
On 10 April, following allegations of unruly behaviour in the chamber of theParliament of Nauru, Adeang, as Speaker, suspended PresidentMarcus Stephen from Parliament, along with all members who supported Stephen's Administration.[22] On 18 April, Stephen declared a state of emergency, dissolved Parliament, and announcedfresh elections. In so doing, President Stephen claimed to be seeking a way out of the impasse which has characterized the relationship between the Government and the Parliament of Nauru, since the Stephen Administration lost a working majority there. For Adeang, the step was one which he had been advocating for several weeks.[23][24][25]
Adeang was replaced as Speaker of theParliament of Nauru byRiddell Akua (who also preceded him as Speaker), following the elections of 26 April 2008, when PresidentMarcus Stephen increased his support.[26]
With the death in July 2008 of former PresidentRene Harris,[27] David Adeang lost an important ally with whom he had closely worked in the earlier part of 2008.
Following the2013 parliamentary elections, in which he was re-elected, Adeang supported the election ofBaron Waqa to thepresidency. Adeang was appointed to the cabinet by Waqa, and was given the portfolios ofFinance and Sustainable Development, Justice, and ministerial responsibility for theEigigu Holdings Corporation and theNauru Air Corporation. He was also appointedMinister Assisting the President of Nauru.[28]
In July, as Waqa was out of the country, Adeang, as acting president, took the controversial decision of banning Nauruan media from broadcasting an interview in which Opposition MPMathew Batsiua criticised the government's sacking of the chief of police. This act of censorship drew international media attention, and was condemned by the Opposition.[29]
A few days later, Adeang once more banned an interview from being aired - this time, an interview of Opposition MPKieren Keke criticising an agreement between the Nauruan and Australian governments over the resettlement in Nauru of foreign refugees arriving by boat in Australia. Adeang saw to the broadcasting of an interview in which he himself gave the government's position on the agreement, but did not allow the Opposition's view to be aired. He explained: "Kieren's interpretation about the MOU [memorandum of understanding with Australia] does not necessarily match our interpretation of the MOU, and I think ours is the right one".[30]
On 25 October 2023, a vote of no-confidence passed through parliament against PresidentRuss Kun. Following the vote, the parliament was unable to break a tie in their vote for president.[31] On the next day of voting, 30 October, there was another vote for president, with a tie between MPDelvin Thoma and Adeang. In the next vote, Adeang won with ten votes to Thoma's eight.[32]
Adeang was sworn into office on 31 October 2023. He announced his cabinet the same day.[1]
Heads of state ofNauru | ||
|---|---|---|
| Head Chiefs |  | |
| Presidents | ||