Less than 16 months to go!

J. Roughan 

15 January 2009

Honiara    

 

The Sikua-led government has less than 16 months or so before the next round of national elections in mid-2010. The previous government  had counted on having plenty of time . . . at least a 4-year period to implement its programs while still in power. Of course it never dreamt that a motion of no-confidence would be mounted much less that it would be passed so as to cut short their period of control.

 

But in politics, things do happen out of the blue and are hard to predict. But even if nothing unusual does happen to bring grief to the present government, the hands of the clock are already on the move. It's time in power is surely over by mid-2010. Hence, in a short period of 16 or so months it would be hard for it to begin a new program, follow through with major funding and at the end of government's time in power to really complete it.

 

Hence, the need for tightly focusing on those projects which are not only do-able but more importantly to accent those which will respond to some of the nation's basic needs. Poverty reduction and youth livelihoods lie at the heart of national pain. In our Social Unrest years of 1998-2003 our youth population basically kept its head down. If a trained sociologist had been walking Honiara's streets during the period leading up to our trouble years, he would have been excused had he predicted that the teaming number of bored, listless and half-educated youth walking Honiara's streets were a 'bomb waiting to explode'.

 

But, on the contrary, the majority of island youth kept a significantly low profile in spite of serious temptations--a gun in the hand, riches or at least some easy loot and protection from the weight of the law--offered by some so called leaders. Yes, Honiara's barricades east and west of the town's main road were manned mostly by bored and sullen youth but their numbers were modest even at the height of the tension. Most had come to the conclusion that they had no future in such nonsense. The nation could and would offer more!

 

Now almost 6 years after the Social Unrest had reached its height, the Solomons, with RAMSI's willing help, searches for a new and better life for all. The Sikua government with much less than a year and half remaining in its mandate and now entering its final stretch of power is forced to cut the fabric of progress to fit this realistic time frame.

 

My suggestion to government is that it exercise a tight focus on the youth issue, doing something positive to their livelihood prospects and thereby help to reduce poverty levels across the nation. Targeting youth right across the nation would be a mistake. There's just too many of them. Nothing would  probably get done in the tight time frame government faces. Focus efforts  on those areas which have proven volatile in  the past. Villages which have felt the terrible burden of isolation and neglect would be my choice. 

 

In that scheme of things, Guale's Weather Coast certainly qualifies. Even before independence the colonial government had literally given up on that section of the Solomons. A useable dirt track basically build by local people's sweat and labour, youth's especially, paid for by government funds could prove to be an incentive to the donor community that this is the beginning of the end of Weather Coast isolation. And make it less prone to the excesses which destroyed so many young lives.

 

Another product which youth must explore is alternative uses of coconut and its valuable oil content. For the past hundred years, for instance, the most valuable part of the coconut, its oil, was harvested by outside interests. All Solomons villagers were expected to do was to harvest the ripe nuts, dry the white coconut flesh, bag and ship it to central ports to be ultimately sent overseas to processing plants where foreigners  gleaned the most value. The ones who did the majority of the hard work were villagers. Those who did the least, however, gained the most value. That must stop!

 

Youth enterprise extracting oil from the coconut to replace diesel fuel is one way for Solomon Islanders to finally capture most of coconut's real value. Also, the whole story about a Food Security Economy waits to be told. 2009 is already headed for the record books. The nation's current 24% inflation rate atop of an extremely weak currency is making life harder and harder for our most vulnerable citizens. Politicians can't correct every problem but they can make a serious dent into poverty by targeting youth and enhancing livelihoods through creative use of our local resource base.