| Solomon Islands: FACE TO FACE WITH RAMSI CHIEF |
‘Solomons still faces some serious challenges’
Samisoni Pareti
Ramsi chief James Bartley believes it is still a long way way for RAMSI to complete all its tasks.
| James Bartley... completing his term soon. |
He told ISLANDS BUSINESS: “We’ve always said it was a long-term commitment even though there has been some strong progress in the last three years. I think Solomons as a country still faces some really serious challenges and we’re anxious to continue working to help address those challenges.”
Here’s excerpts of the interview:
Are those challenges law and order?
“There’s a few. I think one of the most serious one is the economy. In the tension period, the economy of the Solomon Islands went backwards, hugely it was an economic blow to economic development and some of the estimates from the IMF (International Monetary Fund), for instance, say it will take something like 20 years to recover from the damage. Fortunately, the economy has rallied strongly over the last few years, but that’s a key area. Another one is the whole area of peace and reconciliation, and I think that has been acknowledged by the new government as an important priority because I think I said to the MPs that Solomon Islanders still don’t trust each other. I think that issue of trust between the communities needs to be re-built and again that’s not something that can happen overnight. Law and order I think is a very good story to tell. Certainly, there was a serious issue in April with the unrest and rioting but when you look at the broad picture over the last 12 months, I don’t think there has been a crime committed with a gun reported to the police. Surely, that’s important progress, something that ought to be noted.”
Does that prove there are no more guns around or because of the fear that RAMSI have guns?
“For two reasons, firstly a lot of guns were taken out of circulation in the early part of RAMSI; and secondly, I think because there’s still a strong stigma attached to guns in the community.
“There’s a very strong community pressure not to see guns in the hands of criminals and I think it’s that community pressure which is really the key factor here.
“As you say, I think people also do understand that there’s RAMSI police in partnership with Solomon Islands police that forms a very effective force and so again that’s a deterrent.”
So when you talk of being here long term, how does that translate to years? Five years? Ten years?
“Well, we specifically don’t talk of years because we’re going on what the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) said. I think in some areas, RAMSI will make faster progress than in other areas. I don’t think it’s possible to say in advance that in five years time or 10 years, or whatever, we would have achieved our objectives. We obviously need to sit down with government also and talk about what are the objectives they want us to achieve.”
This “sitting down” with government will happen in July?
“That happens continuously, that happens in our discussions with our counterparts on a regular basis and we are in the process of developing a medium-term strategy for the next five years. I think that’s one of the things we want to talk to the government about in a broad sense.”
What’s the feeling in Canberra, how long can they sustain the budget of RAMSI?
“I think all the governments contributing to RAMSI have said they are prepared to make this a long-term commitment. Not only Australia and New Zealand who are providing the bulk of the funding, but we’ve seen in the last few months three new countries sending personnel to RAMSI (that’s the Micronesian countries—Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and Marshall Islands)—and I think that’s quite a strong sign that not only Australia and New Zealand but all the countries in the Forum are committed to this. We see this as a strong vote of confidence on the part of the region.”
You’ve announced an annual review of the effectiveness of RAMSI, first one to be done in July, and also a survey of what Solomon Islanders think of RAMSI. Why all these?
“Well, we want to measure our work, we want to monitor our work. But we want to do that through a variety of different ways. One of the most straight forward ways is to ask our people who are working here to, if there are any objective measures in their own departments where they work, if they can measure what sort of progress they are making.
“But also, we just like to go out and take a temperature, if you like, amongst the broader group of Solomon Islanders to get a sense from them on whether what we are doing is making an impact on their lives, whether they have a perception that what we are doing is helping.
“Obviously, RAMSI is not the only thing that influences peoples’ lives. We are part of a much larger effort and it really comes down in the end as to what are the decisions that government can take, what policies government can pursue and how RAMSI can support that.
“But we had this idea of a survey so that we can get a broader sense of how RAMSI is going and where it’s going.”
Is it also because of what critics have said, that RAMSI appears to be too aloof from the locals here?
“No, we’ve had this idea for a long time, we’ve planned this for a long time, so it’s not in response to a particular comment about us. I think we need to be always conscious that RAMSI’s got a particular job to do. It was agreed to about three years ago before RAMSI came here. So it’s working in particular areas, those aren’t all the areas of government but it’s particularly working on some core functions of government. So I don’t know whether that affects some peoples’ perceptions of how we interact with the community.
“But you know we’ve got an active programme of engagement with various community groups and a programme of travelling outside Honiara to the provinces to talk to the people.”
Some academics would like us to believe that RAMSI is engaged in a fruitless task because Solomon Islands, like PNG, Vanuatu and Fiji, falls in the so-called “arch of instability.”
Whatever you invest in here, will go up in smoke like shown in the riots of April. Do you agree?
“Well, I think that’s a very pessimistic view. I think we have to try to be a bit more positive than that. I’m certain that what we do here can have a long-term impact. It has to be in partnership with government obviously. We don’t do it alone, if we try, it wouldn’t work, it wouldn’t be lasting, it wouldn’t have a lasting impact. But if we’re working in partnership with government, supporting their development objectives, than I’m sure we can have an impact. I don’t think what happened in April brought everything back to zero. Certainly, it was a serious incident. I think it underlined that there’s still a fragile situation in the Solomons and a lot of people feel frustrated. But that reminds us that there are very serious challenges. It shouldn’t be a reason to just throw our hands up and just give up. I think on the contrary, it reminds us that we all have to keep working hard at this.”
Do you have to tell your police element to work harder on their intelligence so they would have been better prepared for the riots?
“We all would like to know the future. It wasn’t just RAMSI. The RSIP itself has a national intelligence unit and as far as I’m aware, they didn’t anticipate what happened either. I think what happened really was unprecedented in terms of the Solomon Islands’ previous history.”
So what will happen to the military arm of RAMSI? Will they all pull out, or a small number will remain?
“In response to that unrest we did bring in quite a lot of troops. Some of them have been repatriated back to Australia and New Zealand, but some of them have remained. So what we have now is I think a more than capable military element in RAMSI that will be here for some time to come.”
Is RAMSI involved in the commission of inquiry proposed on the riots?
“I’m not sure. I haven’t seen any terms of reference yet.”
Does RAMSI think the time is right to hand over control of public finances to locals?
“Well I think it’s an exaggeration to say we took over. All these advisers are working in a department that is headed by Solomon Islanders.”
Control in the sense of controlling how money is dispersed, preventing waste, and continous compensation payments?
“There are fewer RAMSI personnel in line positions now than there were two years ago in the finance department. I still think there’s a lot of work to be done in that area—on government finances and how government revenue is collected and how it’s spent. I think there’s still a strong need for RAMSI’s assistance in that area.
“But as I’ve said, compared to the situation we had two years ago, we do have fewer people directly in line positions and I repeat the department is headed by a Solomon Islander and the minister is a Solomon Islander as well.
“So you know our people are working in the system, they haven’t taken it over to the extent of bringing in a foreign system or anything like that, rebuilding and reinforcing Solomon Islands’ own financial laws and regulations.”
This issue of RAMSI as a package, you still insist that the Solomon Islands can’t take away one part of RAMSI and leave the other part, it’s all in one package?
“Yes.”
So you are sure you can work out some agreement with Solomon Islands Government on this issue?
“Sure we can.”
And they ought to know that they can’t deal with one arm of RAMSI in isolation?
“I really think we got to be careful because some of this is just hypothetical at this stage. We certainly do think it’s an important strength of RAMSI that all its different parts are mutually reinforcing of each other, and Solomon Islands benefit from that. At this stage of the game, I don’t think it’s really worth it to speculate about where we want to go and all of that.”
The lack of trust you spoke about, how can you work on that, and you did say RAMSI can’t work on it alone?
“That’s one area Solomon Islanders have to take the lead. It’s an area where obviously RAMSI and other donors can assist.
“But when it comes to these questions about reconciliation between various groups, between provinces or even within provinces themselves, we are not the experts on Solomon Islands custom, tradition and it really goes back to those questions I think. That’s what I also got from government. They also see that this is an area where it should be Solomon Islanders taking the lead and others providing the backup.”
Back to that ‘arc of instability,’ you said one has to be more positive not too pessimistic. But realistically, as you are about to finish your two-year term as RAMSI coordinator, you realistically believe you may be leaving with a sure hope that Solomon Islands can succeed?
“Look, there’s always hope.”
Are indications there for one to be hopeful?
“Yes, because I think there’s been a lot of progress in the last two years and when ordinary Solomon Islanders talk to you, they want to see a continuation of that. What it boils down to, it’s not just RAMSI’s willingness to provide resources. It’s how they are used, how they are applied and how they support these sort of policies that the government puts in place.
“Really in the end it comes down to government policies. I think there’s a strong willingness on the part of the international community to help Solomon Islands. But you know we want to be helping a country that is helping itself.”
Has RAMSI provided a model of the kind of help the region can lend to an island in trouble?
“I think we are learning lessons about how to work in partnership with a government, how to coordinate our work with the work of the host government.
“I think we are learning lessons about connecting the work of different areas of government that we’re with because as you know RAMSI has got all those different parts: military, police and civilians. I think those are valuable lessons.”
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