Learning our ABGs

J. Roughan

26 February 2009

Honiara

 

The Foreign Relations Committee's recent touring of Western and Choiseul provinces, listening to people's views about RAMSI and interacting with villagers is a great step in building up the nation's democratic institutions. Hours of testimony, relayed both by radio and TV, initially live on SIBC but then played back during the evening hours, shows that our nation is really serious about taking into account the views and insights of the nation's rural majority.

 

No, I haven't been able to listen to each and every villager's statement but I did have the chance to take in many hours of radio conversation and discussion. Many showed they were not backward in coming forward. They let loose their thoughts and shared with the Committee what they thought of RAMSI, where it should focus its considerable resources and how to make the Solomons a better place because of its presence.

 

However, all was not peaches and cream! Not a few of these same villagers asked awkward questions and were second guessing why RAMSI was so totally focused in and around Honiara. It should be throwing its significant resource net much further a field and assist the rural person much more than it has been doing over the past six years.

 

These observations are on the mark! Not only because rural people are more than 8 out of 10 of the population but they have a proven track record that makes it miles ahead of Honiara. After all wasn't it the village sector that kept the Solomons alive and functioning during the awful Social Unrest days of 1998-2003!

 

While Central Government, its ministries and its leaders proved ineffectual, costly and leaderless, villagers took care of the olos, the children and protected their women folk while feeding and caring for society as a whole. This happened not for a few months or a year at the most but for 5 long years. When I asked two RAMSI officers what would happen to Sydney if it had lost its security shield and had no police or military to call upon, both responded that it would probably fall apart in less than a week. 

 

One of the reasons why RAMSI comes off looking so good in people's eyes is that Solomon citizens have experienced an ineffectual, poorly led and hugely expensive government for more than 30 years. That is why the majority of people of Choiseul and Western provinces don't want RAMSI to depart these islands. In RAMSI, they think they experience another kind of government, well resourced with helicopters, ships, vehicles, chain saws, radios, etc. able to use them when called upon. 

 

All of this is not lost on people. No, RAMSI is not perfect but compared to government--national and provincial--in the eyes of the nation's ordinary citizen it is proving itself miles ahead. That is why people want it to extend its presence to the rural areas, to invest in roads and infrastructure and get the schools, clinics and whatever else is needed to make village life a bit better than it has been for the past 30 years. 

 

But RAMSI will rightfully say: 'That's government work and duty. That's why there is such a thing called government, to serve people where they live and make everyday existence a bit better each year.' But people's response is every bit as clear! They haven't felt a working government  presence for years and don't expect it any time soon.

 

But the answer can never be: get rid of government and let RAMSI take over. In fact the more successful RAMSI becomes the harder it is for government to follow, to imitate, to be like it. The way out of this problem is not for RAMSI to ramp up and do more but for government to dedicate itself the more to be servant of the people. Ideally, RAMSI has to scale back and government, both central and provincial, must take on the tasks which it has been elected to do. Over the past six years RAMSI has given us a chance to catch our breath, gear up for the hard slog of working for the people and cast off the mantle of thinking of itself first and the people a distant second.

 

ABG--Anybody But Government--is not on! Solomons future lies in our own hands and a great time to take control comes in 2010 with a new round of national elections. Vote in leaders who put the nation ahead of their own interests!