| Solomon Islands: FIRST --PM WANTS RAMSI TO CONCEDE SOME CONTROL |
And first to go: Australian police chief
Samisoni Pareti
Solomon Islands’ police chief, Shane Castle, will be the first to go if the new Solomon Islands Prime Minister Mannaseh Sogavare has his way.
| Police chief Shane Castle... could be the first to go if PM Sogavare has his way. Photo: PINA Nius |
The Fiji and New Zealand educated tax auditor believes the Regional Assistance Mission in the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) shouldn’t have its own police chief as opposed to the commissioner of the Royal Solomon Islands Police (RSIP) Force.
Extremely displeased about this, Sogavare says his government plans to table an amendment bill to abolish the RAMSI police chief position at this month’s session of parliament.
“Every 23rd of July, every year, the law allows us to review RAMSI,” Sogavare told ISLANDS BUSINESS at his Honiara office last month.
“(And) we will be suggesting some serious review. For example, the recent court ruling of Andrew Nori versus the Attorney-General, the court clearly ruled that there is only one commander of the police force in the Solomon Islands, not two.
“Right now, we have two commanders, we have the commissioner of police who’s in charge of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force and we have another commander, who is commanding the participating force, and the constitution doesn’t allow this.
“In the review that will be coming up this month (July), we will be putting in amendments to section 19 of the Facilitation Act to bring RAMSI under the control of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force Commissioner.
“That’s not us saying it, that’s the requirement of the law, the constitution.”
This intention of the Sogavare Government was a closely guarded secret in Honiara. It was only known to a few of the prime minister’s advisers.
Even if RAMSI was aware of such intentions, its special coordinator James Bartley didn’t mention it when interviewed by this magazine one day before the Sogavare interview.
Bartley’s office seemed to believe the July 23 parliamentary session is simply a technical one. RAMSI’s Facilitation Act demands that an “international assistance notice” should be tabled at the time. And that is what the Sogavare Government intends to do, technically, extending the mandate of the assistance mission.
But the new occupant of the first floor office in the new-look Government Buildings has other plans in mind.
Sogavare believes that while Castle is commissioner of the Royal Solomon Islands Police, his appointment came as part of RAMSI’s rehabilitation and rebuilding ‘package.’
The prime minister said he was advised RAMSI had wanted one of its own to head the local police constabulary.
He wants to change that and for the Solomon Islands to revert to past conventions of appointing a British as police chief.
Said Sogavare: “This country has always engaged commissioners from Great Britain and the kind of discipline the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force had been getting under the engagement of a British commissioner is different from what we have now.
“It’s very clear now the whole discipline in the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force is particularly deteriorating.
“We no longer see junior police officers saluting their superiors, for example. These are little things, but they are important as a sign of discipline and respect and very important to any disciplined force. That is no longer there.”
Also on the prime minister’s list is the exit of expatriates working in the finance ministry.
Sogavare feels that capable locals should resume these posts, something they had been doing during the pre-RAMSI days.
“We need to have an understanding with RAMSI. If there are Solomon Islanders who can be able to do the job, we feel there should be arrangements put in place now for them to assume those jobs.
“They need to be trained, go overseas or there should be an active counterpart training.
“They (RAMSI) are saying that we have yet to identify locals. But there are Solomon Islanders who have been holding these posts before RAMSI came in and I am now wondering where are those people now?
“What happened was that they came in and sidelined Solomon Islanders who can take over these responsibilities.
“This is a very important priority as far as my government is concerned to set the basis for the long-term sustainability of the government system and government as an elected authority.”
Of relief to Sogavare is the insistence by RAMSI that it has no problems with this.
Bartley told ISLANDS BUSINESS that RAMSI agrees that where available, capable Solomon Islanders should replace expatriates.
“We do think there are some areas in the public service where it’s still useful to have expatriates in line positions and the finance department is a handful,” said Bartley.
“I have to stress there’s only a minority of our advisers that are in line positions, so I think we don’t have any disagreement in principle with the government on that question.”
The RAMSI chief said the finance department is headed by a Solomon Islander and the assistance mission experts are merely “rebuilding and reinforcing” financial laws and regulations of the Solomon Islands.
“It’s not like we have introduced a totally new system to the treasury,” Bartley argued.
Both Bartley and Sogavare also agreed that RAMSI’s presence cannot be measured in years, but in tasks completed.
This is really borrowing from a suggestion of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG), led by Fiji’s foreign minister, Kaliopate Tavola, that was formed by the Pacific Islands Forum in 2005 to review the work of RAMSI.
Sogavare concedes to ISLANDS BUSINESS that it will be purely “irresponsible” for his government to now latch a timeframe for the exit of the regional assistance mission.
Bartley, on the other hand, declined to specify when the mission may have to fold up and return home, although it is fair to say that RAMSI will be in the Solomon Islands until 2011, at the very least. That’s the term of the mission’s “medium-term strategy” being developed at present.
Both leaders, however, have one serious disagreement; Sogavare doesn’t buy Bartley’s assertion that RAMSI was introduced as a “package.”
It was Downer who triggered the debate on this during his last visit to Honiara. He reiterated what Bartley had said when he addressed a workshop attended by parliamentarians last month.
“When RAMSI was first designed, there was a clear determination that the Solomon Islands’ problems could not be addressed simply through a law and order approach, or through a traditional aid programme,” said Bartley.
“RAMSI contains elements of both of these but all of the parts work together and reinforce each other.”
Sogavare said: “We don’t believe in that, and that’s not the right way to go as well.”
“We accepted it as a package but within that package, there are areas we can adjust and the law allows for that adjustment. It’s implied that it’s possible to review certain aspects of the package and not as the position Australia has taken, that it’s sacrosanct, you can’t do anything about it. No, we do not believe in that,” the prime minister reiterated.
Despite their differences, both men have expressed the desire and willingness to talk.
Sogavare told this magazine that he’s fully aware of the consequences of angering the financiers of RAMSI, mainly Australia and New Zealand. He has acknowledged that any changes his government would like to inject into the RAMSI status quo will have to be made within the law and in full consultation with the sponsors of RAMSI.
“If something is constitutional in nature, then there’s nothing we can do in terms of arguing about it,” the prime minister explained.
“But of course, whatever we do in that review, we will closely consult with the participating countries and the coordinators here.”
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