An era ends but not without a fight!

J. Roughan

23 March 2010

Honiara

In the Solomons, a few people, mostly by getting themselves elected into Parliament, have managed to absorb the lion's share of the nation's wealth. But those who actually are the owners of the nation--its land, trees, rivers, seas, reefs--the villager through the lien, clan, tribe, in other words the landowners, have had to do with so much less. That short sentence, in a nut shell, is a brief history of where the nation's wealth has disappeared over the past 30+ years. However, this year may well see the beginning of the end of that history.

 

At independence day in 1978, we had little time to work up a home grown constitution that would accurately reflect Solomon Islands customs, traditions and history. We left the writing up this vital document to a group of overseas experts who had, however, little knowledge of our country. Now with more than 30 years of experience under our belt, having suffered a severe Social Unrest testing period (1998-2003) and now with a people restless for basic change that would bring a better and more productive life to the majority, has arrived. The time is ripe for a deep review of our original Constitution.

 

And that is what's been happening! A group of dedicated citizens, men and women, from across the nation have been working on just such a project. That is exactly what the Constitutional Review Congress has been doing over the past two years. The initial step of reviewing the present Constitution clause by clause, shaping it to better reflect the nation's present needs and adding things that weren't thought of before has been their labor of love. The first part of that work was basically completed by the end of last year, 2009.

 

The second step in the process--presenting a Draft Constitution to the people for their approval--is currently taking place as you read these words. Since it is the nation's citizens who will live under any new Constitution it is only fair and just that they have a major say how they think Solomon Islanders should be governed in the future. Province by province, teams of those who crafted this new Constitution, currently travel across the nation, explaining the whole idea behind this new document and seeking, not only people's understanding, but more importantly, their consent to continue working to create a new Constitution.

 

The third step, having Parliament pass the new Constitution into law, will be the most difficult. There are other forces at work which prefer NOT to see a new Constitution take effect at all. These, the nation's political elite, the whole Honiara establishment, for instance, are more than happy to continue with a way of life which has brought them riches beyond their wildest dreams. Wealth they never worked for and certainly never paid a penny to enjoy have become theirs. A new Constitution would slow down and then stop the over centralization process in its tracks and devolve more and more power to the community level. That is exactly what the political elite and the Honiara establishment do not want!

 

The new Constitution's basic aim is to break down this over centralized process which has made it possible for a select few to gain so much but at the expense of the many. To re-allocate national wealth--overseas grants, the nation's resource base, multi-national funds, etc.--that has taken deep root over the past three decade is totally against what they, the elite, stand for. The new Constitution plans to empower people themselves and to have more and more governance take place at the local level where the vast majority of our people live.

 

And it's not simply a shift to provincial level politics but at the local, village level especially, that the new Constitution has in mind.. Don't forget that long before white, colonials came to this country, people were their own masters. They lived off their own resource base of food, housing,  energy, medicine, etc. Yes, compared to today's needs, that resource base was skimpy. Recently, however, when pressed to become self sufficient all over again as they were forced to do during our Social Unrest years, they moved up and met the challenge. Less than 5% of our  nation went off the social rails during the time of tension. Villagers protected their most vulnerable--olos, young, women, sick in their society--with little or no assistance from the political elite who were scurrying around protecting themselves.    

 

The villagers reward for keeping the nation going, being the cement gluing our many provinces and people together and continuing to function has been just the opposite.  Last year, for instance, Parliament passed into law making room for 17 additional seats. The nation already finds it hard to sustain a 50-seat parliament with its salaries, perks, travel, etc. etc.  as it is! How then does an additional 17 seats make it easier for the nation's tax payers to sustain such an additional growth. 

 

This type of thinking--the centre demanding more and greater wealth at the expense of those who live at a distance--is normal, natural, almost  an inevitable way of understanding how our modern political and business leaders view the Solomons world. Expect them to protect that way of life since it has been so good and kind to them for so many years. They will not give up a single perk which, in their eyes, they have worked so hard to gain and will fight tooth and nail to keep that over-centralized world that has been so kind to them, unchanged.