Hundreds of islands, dozens of languages but One People!

J. Roughan
28 Sept. 2010
Honiara

The school kids were among my first teachers! I was running a small school (about 250 boarding pupils) in the southern Malaita area during the early 1960s. On a clear day the southern-most tip of Guadalcanal was clear to see. While standing on a near-by reef I pointed out that part of Guale and asked the kids with me what was that large land in the distance?

The kids, almost in chorus, told me: "That's the Solomons!" What about this piece of real estate we were now standing on? Isn't this the Solomons also? "No, this is Malaita!" they confidently informed me. In their minds eyes, then, Malaita and Guale were not only two completely different pieces of real estate; they had very little to do with each other. But that was 1960!

Now 50 years later, most Solomon Islanders are beginning to accept that these different island groupings do form a single country. We have, of course, a long way to go before everyone accepts completely that all these different island groups make up a single nation, one people. But compared to the 1960s we have moved a great distance in our thinking.

Our recent Civil War—1998-2003—attestes to the fact that these hundreds of islands, dozens of languages, many different traditions and customs but a very brief history of oneness continues to be an uphill struggle for the whole nation. Fortunately the present government is not simply sitting by and hoping that the task of forging so many different people into a single nation comes alive. It has publicly informed the people of the nation, for instance, that each MP has been given a significant yearly touring allowance. Visiting villages in one's constituency is a critical way to forge the country into a single nation.

But Government's most important step so far to this end has been its blessing on the idea of establishing Growth Centres for each and every constituency. These centres, however, must be thought primarily as information hubs, places for up-to-date, accurate and empowering information brought to the nation's people constantly, continuously and consistently.

Rural people's most pressing poverty concerns, for instance, have much more to do with not being aware of what's happening throughout their district, province and nationally. Economic life best takes root, depends upon and follows on when a people are made well aware of the different forces in their lives. Isn't that the major reason why so many land owners are reluctant to allow their lands to be developed? Money alone is unable to move them to give permission since they remain unaware and hence unsure what will be the consequences to the lives of their people down through the years.  

Although more than 8 out of every 10 people nation-wide do not live in urban centres, and who actually own and control the nation's land, trees, rivers, fishing ground, reefs, etc. remain the least informed even today. Yes, of course, they are certainly cash poor but their most profound poverty has more to do with their information lack. Too often a villager leaves his home site, travels long distances on less than a comfortable ship to reach Honiara in order to re-join that most favoured part of society.

A Growth Centre is an attempt to invest in the village sector with some of the information, services, employment, etc. which we living in the urban parts take for granted. Investing in a Growth Centre is a way of bringing social equity to the bulk of our people so that all citizens bloom. Over a 32 year period and if truth be told even during colonial days, there has been distinct bias favouring one part of the nation over the other. Honiara has absorbed the lion's share of national wealth and has continued to do so at the expense of the well being of all our people.

One of the most effective means of keeping scattered and hard to visit villages is to use broadcast radio. Already some institutions—Don Bosco Society out at Tetere and SIDT here in Honiara—have found that a 3 to 4 hour daily broadcast time in language on a daily basis has increased significantly the information flow to people. Now that Government has allocated money to help Members visit their villagers, a broadcast radio set up in each constituency could only assist in this same work. Rather than a Parliamentarian visiting only 8 to 10 villages each time after a House sitting, the member could inform all his people through radio what exactly the recent sitting was about and how the member had addressed local problems.

A Growth Centre's major purpose is to give the majority of our people a chance to be part of the fashioning of a new Solomon Islands which works for all. For too long only the select few, found in urban centres, have been at the core of doing well while the rest of the nation saw their dreams of a better future falling further and further behind. A new government can implement a program where the majority of our people can look forward to a better and healthier life.