| Manasseh Sogavare: 'A LOT OF WORK STILL TO BE DONE' |
‘We’re still dependent on RAMSI’
Samisoni Pareti
Through the help of the now former director of communications of the Solomon Islands Government, Johnson Honimae, ISLANDS BUSINESS was granted a face to face interview with Prime Minister Mannaseh Sogavare at his first floor office in Honiara. The interview lasted almost an hour. These are excerpts of the interview:
| Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare |
What is your government’s priority?
“I think there are on-going issues since this country came out of the rather unfortunate situation of 2000 when the country basically collapsed economically and particularly the relationship of its people. That is the reference point for everything we do from now on and any priorities will basically be determined by how we address those issues. We need to consolidate all the good that have been done so far by RAMSI. There’s this capacity building that needs to continue, the consolidation of law and order, continue with reforms and, of course, looking at the government machinery. These are matters the Solomon Islands Government is addressing in partnership with the regional countries. We need to respect the involvement of regional countries in the affairs of the Solomon Islands.”
RAMSI is now insisting its departure will be determined by tasks completed and not be time-bound. Does your government agree with this?
“We have no problems with that, we see eye to eye on that position. I mean it will be just purely irresponsible for the government to say, you go in five years time. That is unrealistic. There’s a lot of work to be done in the area of policing, for example. We need a lot of work there. We still have a force that is heavily dependent on RAMSI. When they came, they made redundant nearly three-quarters of the force, so they need to do a lot of recruitment and training. I agree, it has to be task-oriented. But we need to see things happening. So we have to see things task by task.”
In a television interview you gave, you spoke of a clear exit strategy for RAMSI three times. So if you agree there shouldn’t be a time set for RAMSI’s departure, how then can there be a clear exit strategy?
“Well, we clearly need to see it. For example, getting Solomon Islanders to hold important posts that are now being held by expatriates, then there has to be a clear exit strategy on that. That means you must spell out how many years you will need to train Solomon Islanders to be able to take over those positions. We want to see this clearly spelt out. That’s what we mean. I think that’s what it boils down to, a clear strategy on passing on these responsibilities to Solomon Islanders. Training, long-term, training needs to be done.”
So what will happen next month in parliament when the RAMSI legislation is debated?
“The EPG report will be consulted in any review of RAMSI and that process is now going ahead. Government will also be coming up with a position of its own, reviewing the EPG report and consulting further with the people. I think the EPG consulted mostly with the members of the public and the general outcome is that the public is very supportive of RAMSI. I think it forgets people who are actually working in organisations like the police, ministry of finance, and so on. I think another review should try and take the views of these people. We can look at some serious economic analysis, like there’s this talk of large amounts of money flowing into the Solomon Islands as a result of RAMSI. But we need to be clear on how much of funds are actually spent in the Solomon Islands. You know these are the sorts of things we need to look at. The kind of figures people are talking about. If they are really spent here, it could make a big difference to the Solomon Islands economy.”
Are you are saying that most of this money is not spent here?
“No, they are not spent here, they are actually spent outside.”
In other words, contracts are mainly given to overseas companies?
“Yes, overseas companies and, of course, most of it flow to the Pacific participating countries in the name of the Solomon Islands, so we need to be clear on that.”
On the matter of handing over to locals, may be the concerns of RAMSI is that if this happens too quickly, there could be a return to the post-2000 situation when public finances were abused due to unending compensation payouts. Are you mindful of that?
“Oh yes very much. Any government, any responsible government, won’t want to see a repeat of that. And that’s part of this whole process of passing on that responsibility to Solomon Islanders. We will need to have Solomon Islanders that do appreciate these issues and will make sure there’s no repeat of what happened in the year 2000 and subsequent to that year, in terms of management of government finances.”
These runaway compensation claims government had to pay and which depleted government funds after 2000 happened during your last watch as PM. As a result you had to sack one of your ministers involved. There are fears there may be a repeat now that you are PM again.
“We are human beings and this issue of compensation is an issue in itself. May be at the time, the environment was such that we cannot effectively control our ministers. Especially at that time, the ruler was essentially the gun and government ministers and cabinet were not able to even enforce law and order because the police itself especially was corrupt and so the environment was such that it allowed such things to happen. It indeed happened and resulted in my sacking the former minister of national reconciliation who had administered the compensation money. Yes, there’s no guarantee that there won’t be a repeat of that. But the comforting thing is that law and order, the police force is now in a position to be able to enforce the law, so we can take comfort in that. That government is now in a position to make tough decisions that you can actually defend, whereas you cannot do that during the ethnic crisis. So yes, that is still a problem. But we feel it is now possible to handle such a situation.”
ESCAP had raised the matter of tax concessions offered by the previous government to the Palm Oil company and the Gold Ridge mine company and how these could seriously impact government’s revenue. What is your view on this?
“Yes the concern about tax concessions is there. Now looking more into the future, and may be the immediate to medium term, support for the budget is still there. As you know right now, Solomon Islands’ development budget is financed by development partners. One of the concerns is government’s contribution to the budget, so we are mindful of that. That is an issue that has been raised by aid donors that they are only here for the short-term, and we need to pick up, we need to fill that gap. This will happen in the medium to long-term, but we have the powers to review that. If it is such that it affects government’s position to be able to finance the budget, then of course we can always go back to them (the two companies) and ask for a review. You need to weigh these things, there’s a balance there because they may say that this is what they need to establish and get their operations going, so we will be caught in such a situation.”
What about the economy, has your government identified sectors that will drive economic growth and boost exports?
“We will continue to encourage traditional commodities and there’s very few on the list. You talk about logs, you talk about copra, you talk about fish, those will still be the core of the commodities that my government will continue to encourage. In terms of logs, that’s an area we will need to seriously look at in terms of the impact to the environment and sustainable harvesting. But there’s a big potential in fishing and we feel we can actually replace logging revenue through proper utilisation and exploitation of our marine resources, fish especially.”
Assistance to SOLTAI (government fishing company) perhaps?
“It might include that as well as reviewing some of these licences that we give to foreign fishing vessels that are exploiting our sea resources. That has to be properly designed. Right now we are on the losing end.”
Logging can be a sensitive industry to reform as well as fishing as is true in Fiji. You are not wary of reviewing practices in these sectors?
“Yes as you’ve said it is a very sensitive area for us in terms of supporting the budget because as you know any drastic move in terms of policies on logging will drastically affect the budget. So whatever we do, we need to do it sensibly and responsibly. We need to address it with an understanding of the industry and the government without really affecting the budget.”
Tourism holds great potential. What is government’s policy on tourism?
“That’s also an industry that my government will really be putting a lot of resources into as you know there is actually a ministry looking after tourism in the country. We believe that it is an area that can respond quickly. You don’t really need a lot of infrastructure to actually attract tourists to the country. The country is naturally beautiful already and all that needs to be done now is may be organise ourselves to get more tourists in. One of the areas we need to work on is in the area of airfares. Just coming to the Solomon Islands from the other countries is costly.”
After the riots in April, RAMSI has identified lack of trust as an issue the country needs to work on. What’s your view on this, how can people of the Solomon Islands be more trusting of one another?
“That’s very important, in fact it’s an on-going concern. To develop trust you really have to go to the underlying issues that caused this country to collapse in 2000. That’s the starting point. Now the strategies so far have been addressing the effects of year 2000. But you still have to address the underlying issues and this government will actually be going back, and say let’s address these underlying issues. When you do that, I believe people will be able to see eye to eye. The way the peace process is being carried forward by RAMSI in partnership with us has really not been addressing the real issues.”
The EPG report did speak of an enquiry to look into the causes of the ethnic war in 2000, and the previous government did establish a taskforce to consider this. What is your government’s position on this?
“I’m in support of that strategy. The message is coming out loud and clear from the people that unless and until the perpetrators of the ethnic crisis are locked up, this country will continue to have problems. It’s one of the areas that we are willing to address to ensure long-term stability and we will pursue that. We think a legal and sensible way of approaching that is through a commission of inquiry and we will be looking at that programme as well.”
What about the underlying issues of the ethnic crisis you spoke about, does this include the unfair or unequal distribution of development?
“Oh yes if you want to look at a summary of that, it is basically summarised in the demands of the people of Guadalcanal submitted to the government. It’s just a repeat of all the demands since the country went into independence in 1978. The first people to revolt or show some signs of revolt were the people of the Western Province way back in the 1970s. The same kind of issues were brought up again in 1998. In 1998, it was not the issues only, they actually took up arms to force these issues.
“I feel that as a government we need to look at those demands, that’s what I’m referring to when I talk of underlying issues of the ethnic crisis. Of course, it’s being compounded and made complicated by subsequent events like for example the Townsville Peace Agreement (TPA) that was signed and the warring parties actually agreed to certain issues. That was shelved by the previous government or by the RAMSI/government partnership. But those are very serious issues, and if you want to look at a common area that people agreed to in terms of how to address long-term peace and stability, the TPA is one of them. The presence of RAMSI itself in this country, for example, and how they address the effects of the ethnic crisis also complicate this whole peace process. So its now a complicated task.”
Is that why you appointed Dr John Roughan as your secretary?
“Yes I think that’s a very responsible strategic political decision.”
To silence a critic or to use his experience?
“(Laughs)...No, no, no, he’s a very interesting character. He came to the Solomon Islands in 1958 and he’s existed in the Solomon Islands longer than some Solomon Islanders who now hold positions in government, the so-called qualified indigenous Solomon Islanders. So he’s a Solomon Islander, a very interesting character. He has spent most of his time in rural Solomon Islands. He’s involved mostly with NGOs and their objective is people empowerment, getting people in the villages, in the rural area to cope with life. I feel his views are in line with what the government is talking about and yes looking at the stock of Solomon Islanders, I feel he’s the most appropriate person to drive this new thinking of government.”
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