Forget the big 'D' word! Focus on The Basic Life

J. Roughan

10 February 2011

Honiara   

Since our first tentative steps as a nation in 1978, there hasn't been a single political part which hasn't drummed up the idea that what the nation needs, in big doses of course, is development, development and more development. It has become the big 'D' word! Yet, year after year it's been emptied of any real meaning.

 

Anything, so long as it talks loud and long about money, is called development. Honiara's casinos which regularly suck out money from the poorest people's pockets is labelled 'development'. That is why I'm calling on public leaders, politicians and business people to stop using the word development for the next three to five years. What the nation needs is much less development but loads and loads of The Basic Life things for all.

 

First of all The Basic Life is about the majority of our people living their lives in peace, harmony and tranquillity in their everyday lives. If various levels of fighting, discontent or discord reign among our people or worse still a gun culture controls ordinary life, it's hard to speak about advancing people's life, without a strong presence of peace and harmony. Our recent Social Unrest history—1998-2003—gives a potent example of what happens when basic peace is absent.

 

But most recently The Basic Life's peace, harmony and tranquillity got a severe jolt. A major part of any kind of peacefulness depends upon the proper working of the police, court and prison systems. Tamper with any one of these vital three pillars of a well run society and watch peacefulness fly out the window.

 

This is what happened last month when a government minister, although properly sentenced by the courts to more than 2 years of prison, was then set free with only a 'slap on the wrist' by some other government body. A major pillar of society which underpins The Basic Life had been trashed. Our court system has been made to look powerless—one set of laws for most citizens but another kind of law for the 'high and mighty'!

 

The second part of The Good Life are governments fulfilling their work to supply basic human services—strong education patterns,, working medical facilities and infrastructure projects—which the vast majority of citizens need for their well being.

 

Yet, SIDT's 8 Report Cards, dating all the way back to 1989, regularly show how the small people of our country fail the governments of the day for falling down on the job of adequately providing citizens with quality education, strong medical attention and a minimum of infrastructure projects.

 

Malaita farmers, for example, are constantly begging government to repair damaged, water logged roads. Our one and only referral hospital in Honiara has four operating theatres but is limited to two of them which actually work. Recently the Government earmarked $24 million for overseas students education but not a penny is allocated for Adult Education. And the list goes on and on!

 

The third leg of The Good Life idea is the chance for ordinary people to gain modest amounts of cash through the sale of their market goods, copra, cocoa, timber, fish, etc. Fortunately, most of our people  work hard to make a success of this part. Local shipping agents supply the boats, truck owners do much the same and there is a strong network of local farmers—read women—who regularly feed Honiara's 70,000 population on a daily basis. Locally owned and operated busses and taxis take care of the travel needs of town dwellers.

 

If these three pillars—peace, government supplying services and people securing modest amounts of money—are allowed to flourish for a few years, then the big 'D' word could start to be used once again. At present, however, the big 'D' word is at best a distraction and at worst a way of fooling people.