| Cover Story/ Solomon Islands: 30 YEARS ON...LITTLE TO SHOW FOR |
Three decades of missed opportunities
Alfred Sasako
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Birthday bash... celebrating 30 years of independence at Honiara in July.
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Solomon Islands, a cluster of 1,001-plus islands, slightly north east of Australia, is 30 years old this year. To be precise, it was on 7th July, the day it gained its political independence after 80 years of British colonial rule.
Like many of its Pacific neighbours, its developmental journey has been somewhat erratic, marred by social upheavals, near economic collapse and endless bouts of no confidence votes, creating a spasm of political instability over the years.
Australian High Commissioner, Peter Hooton, told ISLANDS BUSINESS in an exclusive interview just a few days before the big bash, “the last 30 years has been three decades of missed opportunities”.
With its 50,000-plus residents, Honiara, its capital, remains the mixing bowl, incubator or the epicenter for many of the social ills.
As the nation or rather Honiara celebrated with colourful floats through Honiara’s main thoroughfare last month [July] and a trade show organised to coincide with the 30th birthday anniversary festivities, some of the nation’s top leaders are asking what the country was supposed to be celebrating.
Take the view of Richard Na’amo Irosaea, the Premier of Malaita Province, the nation’s island with the largest population, for example.
“What’s the meaning of this celebration?,” Irosaea asked.
“What’s the meaning of this celebration in Honiara for the people of Solomon Islands when 85% of the population are not even involved,” the Premier, my one-time schoolmate, asked.
Celebrations: Premier Irosaea heads a province which bore the brunt of the so-called ethnic tension of the pre-2003 years. Some 15,000 Malaitan workers—skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled—were forced out of their jobs mainly on Guadalcanal as a direct result of the civil unrest. They’ve returned to Malaita where they remain unemployed today.
Premier Irosaea is not alone in his view. A few days earlier, a senior Government Minister echoed a similar view.
“What are we celebrating?” the minister asked.
A senior public servant of 30 years also weighed in. As I headed to my hired car in the direction of where the trade show was being held, the officer asked if he could be dropped off at the show grounds.
To strike a conversation, I asked my passenger what his thoughts are on the 30 years of independence and indeed the trade show, which has moved east from its traditional site at the Town Ground in the centre of Honiara.
[The Town Ground site has been fenced off since it was taken over by a Chinese firm to build a shopping complex and rugby union stadium which it then intends to sell to the Solomon Islands rugby union code once it is completed].
“I am 30 years old in the public service, just as old as the nation,” he began with a smile.
“We have the wrong people here,” he said as my three-door Rav 4 vehicle came to a stop outside the show grounds.
Reality: “The real people—the people of Solomon Islands—are not here. The people of the Solomon Islands should have been the ones celebrating if independence was meant for them in the first place. They are not here.
They are in the rural areas and there is nothing in the rural areas to celebrate—that’s the reality,” he said.
“The whole thing is a farce.”
The officer’s view is pretty close to the mark.
Since its “discovery” by Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendana in 1568 and subsequent declaration of the Solomons as a protectorate by Britain in 1893, Solomon Islands appeared set on a strong European-style administration and to some extent development trend.
But the gloss of European influence wore off rather quickly soon after independence on July 7, 1978. Services have been on the downward spiral since.
Take shipping services, for example. As a maritime nation, shipping is critical to move cargo, passengers and so on. As the biggest employer, the national government too, used to operate a fleet of its own. These ships ran a regular service delivering mail and pay to all government workers in the provinces. They were rotated amongst the different administrative centres such as Auki on Malaita, Gizo in Western Province, and Kirakira on Makira/Ulawa. It is no more.
It seems the excitement, or perhaps the shock of independence pushed the government of the day to phase out the service, allowing the private sector to take over. While charterers and businessmen are laughing all the way to the bank, the users have been feeling the pinch with the upward spiralling costs of fuel, freight charges and fares.
Users have little choice. Any upward movement in cost is passed on to the users. The rural dweller is caught between a rock and a hard place.
With a “centralised” development mode, little can a rural dweller do to avoid regular trips to Honiara, the capital, and its beckoning bright, deceptive neon lights.
The presence of Members of Parliament in Honiara is an added attraction for the rural dwellers to visit. And they do flock to town in great numbers—repeatedly—not entirely in search of jobs, although some do.
Many, however, travel to Honiara in the hope their elected representatives dish out in cash funds from the grants MPs receive from the central government on their behalf. Grants to the 50 constituencies have substantially increased since 2006.
For example, in the four years to 2010 when the next national general election is due, some S$100 million [US$12.83 million], that is S$2 million [US$256,600] per year in grants will have been injected into each of the 50 constituencies.
Asian loggers: These grants are designated for micro-projects in the rural areas. Half the funding comes from the Republic of China or Taiwan, the balance is from the Rural Livelihood Fund, a scheme introduced by Prime Minister Derek Sikua’s Coalition for National Unity and Rural Advancement [CNURA] government this year.
Its 28,986 sq km land mass puts it 142nd in world ranking in terms of the area it occupies. It may be small by any standard, but Solomon Islands is filthy rich in natural resources, including minerals, fisheries, timber, and so on.
Only its timber resource has been destructively harvested by mostly Asian loggers, who quietly but effectively pull the strings on who is to be the next government.
Take the last vote of no confidence which toppled the Manasseh Sogavare’s government, for example.
Members of Parliament who defected to the then Opposition locked down in a Honiara hotel, under a deal allegedly hammered out between the loggers and certain key go-betweens.
According to insiders, the deal was that if the group failed in its takeover bid of the government, the hotel would bill the loggers for the cost of accommodating and entertaining the group for the entire period they camped out at the hotel.
If the group succeeded in taking over government, insiders said, taxpayers would cover their hotel bill, estimated to have run into hundred of thousands of dollars.
Despite its wealth, the rest of Solomon Islands natural resources, minerals, fisheries and so on remain largely unexplored.
“It’s a country which is second only to Papua New Guinea in terms of endowments in natural resources,” one international observer resident in Honiara told me.
At the same time, Solomon Islands is a land of huge contrast and contradictions. One does not have to travel far outside of Honiara to see the striking contrast that manifests itself in the country’s infrastructures such as roads, bridges and so on. It’s worse in the country’s nine provinces.
The contradictions are just as striking. Take a taxi ride along the Prince Philip and Kukum highways particularly at night and you are soon greeted by candle-lit stalls infront of Chinese shops that line the street.
There, without fail, people sell betel nut, cigarettes and so on just to make ends meet. These are seen in alleyways as well as in suburban street corners. Every day. And the cycle is repeated day in, day out throughout the year.
Land dealings murky affair: For them, that’s what 30 years of independence meant. For them, Solomon Islands is a poor country. For them, only Honiara provides sources of regular income. For them, their development aspirations have all but evaporated.
But even Honiara too is feeling the weight of the population pressures. Demands for social services such as clean water in homes, good roads, clinics and schools have outstripped services. Some homes in suburbs such as Vura in East Honiara do not even have water in their homes—sometimes for extended periods.
Land dealing in Honiara is a murky affair. In many cases, it is where the dust of corruptions is spurned. Take for example the tract of prime land along the Kukum Highway as one heads west into town from Honiara International Airport.
At one point, the area had a dormitory-type accommodation for employees of the Honiara City Council, Solomon Islands Ports Authority, Public Works and so on.
Today, many of these buildings have been replaced with modern Chinese shops, restaurants and massage parlours—all owned by Chinese.
Even the piece of land on which the Kukum Traffic Police station stands has been sold off to Chinese interests.
All sea front land, earmarked for public recreation facilities and or historical sites to be preserved for posterity, have been taken up mostly by foreigners. And no one raises a finger. Take the site where the residence of the Governor in pre-independence Solomon Islands once stood.
Despite protests and parliament intervention, the land was sold to an Italian developer, based in Port Moresby. A five-star hotel is being completed on the site.
Economic growth: In terms of tangible economic growth, there is little to show for it in the 30 years since independence. If any, the only Solomon Islands outfit that has shown real growth and benefits for its clients is the Solomon Islands National Provident Fund (see accompanying story).
Although its membership and membership dues were severely affected by the closures of businesses at the height of the ethnic tension, the fund with a complete complement of Solomon Islands management crew bounced back.
As at December last year, NPF had accumulated investable funds totalling S$741 million. Internally, it has invested in Our Telekom, Bank South Pacific and South Pacific Oil.
Earlier this year, NPF launched into new investment areas offshore, including property, foreign currency and so on.
Its Chief Executive Officer Tony Makabo, said the fund declared an 18 percent dividend to its 130,000-strong membership this financial year.
“The fund’s performance remains strong and is certain to continue in the foreseeable future,” Makabo said
“I am happy. It is perhaps the only large scale economic success story to show for after 30 years of nationhood,” Makabo, a former Ministry of Finance officer, said.
One of the reasons, Solomon Islands’ economic growth, appears confined to Honiara, is the fact that most foreign-owned businesses do not re-invest in Solomon Islands. Instead, many horde their takings and send them overseas.
Honiara, or Solomon Islands, for that matter is a money spinner for these merchants.
In terms of foreign investment, there has been repeated mention of potential investment in considerable amounts of money in the 30-year period since independence. None translated into tangible realities.
Good, honest leadership: So as the nation looks to the next three decades, what have we learnt in the last 30 years and what can the people expect to see?
It is a question I put to Prime Minister Sikua in an exclusive interview a few days before the 30th independence anniversary celebrations last month.
“We have learnt that good leadership—political leadership—must be honest, visionary, inclusive and consultative.
“This boils down to one thing: the quality of MPs people choose at election time to represent them,” the Prime Minister said.
What sort of Solomon Islands do you want to see? I asked. “I want to see a Solomon Islands that is united, strong and God-fearing, a Solomon Islands that is secure and prosperous,” he said.
As long as Solomon Islands continues to entertain missed opportunities, harbour foreign interests, particularly the strong logging lobby and the like, Sikua’s statement of intent may just be an addition to rhetorics piously repeated over and over again over the last three decades. Only time will tell.
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