But will there be a big celebration party?



 

Solomon Islands is 32 this year. But the journey which began with all the hypes and fanfare on July 7, 1978 has finally lost its steam.
Each year it seems the mood for celebration actually drops one level below the year before.
This year, for instance, no one seems to know whether there’ll be a ceremony if at all to mark three decades-plus of nationhood.
If there’s one, it would be muted and purely ceremonial rather than to celebrate achievements. After hundreds of millions of dollars in donor funds, taxpayer-funded expenditures, there’s little to celebrate, let alone show for, by way of development.
This is not to say as a nation Solomon Islands has not tried. All its attempts somehow have landed in hot water rather than in some of the calm, pristine aqua waters of picturesque harbours found in some of the exotic locations around this nation of 580, 000 souls.
The nation’s merry-go-round began in the pre-independence era, when the then administration, largely British, encouraged its local protégé to speed up what is known as the devolution of powers, that is the gradual and phased-in transfers of certain functions to local authorities, in this case, what is now the provincial government.
Except for foreign affairs, provincial government is an exact replica of the national government in terms of administrative functions. Each province for instance, has a premier who heads a provincial executive whose members are given ministerial responsibilities over health, education, natural resources and so on.
Provincial government administration consumes as much as 70 percent of annual grants provided by the central government in Honiara. These grants are paid in monthly instalments and range from S$2 million [about US$243,200] a year, depending on the size of the province.
While the devolution of power in its infancy was a welcome approach, what was largely missing were adequate resources to help provincial governments run their affairs successfully.
Financial headache
Each function transferred became an additional burden, especially when the provincial governments rely almost entirely on the national government to provide the dough to run its services.
Today, the so-called devolution of powers has become the source of financial headache for the nation’s nine provincial governments. Many hospitals in the provinces lack sufficient medical supplies, let alone trained medical profession to run the services.
Take, Kira Kira provincial hospital in Makira/Ulawa Province, for example. Kira Kira, a word which means war club in the local dialect, is a depressing sight.
The hospital, in the centre of Kira Kira Township, the provincial capital, which will soon marks its centenary, is as old as the township itself.
During a visit there in June, residents told me that the corrugated roof of the hospital had never been repaired since it was built. Rust had set in and the hospital itself looked more like a makeshift building than the main medical facility for the entire province.
Government houses, built by the British during the colonial administration remain in utter disrepair. This is despite the fact that the provincial government has a provincial department of works in Kira Kira. In earlier times, the department of works was responsible for repairing government houses and vehicle fleet.
Crater-like potholes ringed the township including the hospital. There isn’t a wharf because of a mindset that a wharf would never be built in Kira Kira, one resident says.
Neither is there a market. There is a 6am-7am market, but that’s it. The mindset there it seems is that no one buys from the market after 7am each day, so it’s a waste of time to bring a lot of produce to the market.
“It’s the mindset. And as long as we harbour that, we will never breakaway from it,” the resident said.
But that’s not all. One other resident says the hospital has only one doctor who barely spends a week in Kira Kira. A leaking roof in his residence is the main excuse for his on-off presence in Kira Kira.
The plight of Kira Kira hospital epitomises the administrative setup, designed around the devolution of power arrangement which was “sold” to a nation  at the time. While the intention was good, its outcome now raises more questions than answers.
“We have certainly gone backwards,” a caretaker government minister said in Honiara.
In fact in the 32 years since independence, there have been no new hospitals built in this country nor new industries. Most light industries were destroyed during the nation’s ethnic-driven civil unrest which saw thousands lose their jobs.
A regional intervention force, led and paid for by Australian taxpayers, known as Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands [RAMSI], has barely scratched the surface of development issues in Solomon Islands.
A systemic leadership failure has been blamed for the nation’s merry-go-round lack of development. Indeed, any system that was operating was allowed to die a natural yet, slow, agonising death. Take shipping, for example.
Prior to and immediately after Solomon Islands was given its nationhood status, the government used to operate a shipping fleet. Each province was allocated a number of government vessels, which were used by government officials for weekly visits to villages and communities in their jurisdictions.
These ships, for example, would deliver drugs for clinics, teachers’ salaries on a regular basis. Doctors would also pay regular visits to these clinics, using these ships.
As part of the devolution of powers arrangement or decentralisation, as it is later called, the government sold off its fleet, effectively cutting off any meaningful contacts with the nation’s rural people estimated at 85 percent of the total population. Doctors’ visits were no more.
Shipping services are now commercially operated. Initially, the provinces had the first call to own and operate their own shipping services.
Choiseul, Malaita, Western and Isabel Provinces were the first to jump at the opportunity.
Malaita Province which ended up with a huge debt for its three vessels is truly out of the race. Western Province, with one ship, is struggling. Choiseul and Isabel Provinces appear to be the only two provinces doing it right and are thriving.
These provincial government-owned shipping services are supplemented by private operators. Because it is a commercial operation, operators or charterers avoid uneconomical, long-haul routes after the government withdrew subsidies for this purpose a few years ago. This prompted a number of politicians to buy and run their own vessels.
At least four former politicians have, with help from Taiwan, bought second-hand ships, which run regular inter-island shipping services. Two are struggling, including one with a reported S$400, 000 debt [US$48, 640] and is said to be on the market to sell.
The other two are doing well, including one who is now getting a third passenger/cargo vessel to meet growing demands. This boat is expected to arrive in Honiara from Japan later this month.
“I’m tired of having to come to the wharf every time there’s problem with overloading, so I’ve bought another ship,” this two termer politician, who is vying for a third, says.
“There’s demand for the service but to stay on top, you have to be strict with money,” he says.
Solomon Islands’ myriads of development related problems have given this year’s national general election, its ninth since independence, a new dimension, elevating it to the much-talked about election this country will face.
Depending on who one speaks to, the answer is the same: The 2010 national general election is crucial, a do or die battle for the survival for the nation.
Would-be politicians have provided different prognosis to address the nation’s economic ills. One such individual is Dick Ha’amori, a former head of Solomon Islands’ College of Higher Education [SICHE], the nation’s only tertiary institution.
Ha’amori heads the Direct Development Party [DDP] as President. DDP’s one of the newer political parties which will field 15 candidates for the election.
He says his Party has “a clear policy framework” to deal with the country’s economic problems.
“It has become clear that in every election the same issues and concerns continue to rise. This proves that the problems have not been dealt with in an effective and decisive way and therefore, only a change of focus and a strategic and systematic implementation of a rural development initiative will work for this nation.
“The solutions are simple—create economically independent rural communities throughout the provinces by assisting those with plant, equipment and supplies to effectively manage their own natural resources and business opportunities, whether they be cattle, agriculture, mining, fisheries, forestry and the likes,” Ha’amori said.
“In the absence of genuine investors, the government will take on the role as the business partner with the people. In this way, the government’s share of the profits derived from the operations from each province will be utilized to create the infrastructure needs of the people in the community,” he said.
New leadership, new vision
“DDP’s policy framework will create prosperity for all Solomon Islanders.”
Ha’amori said the DDP’s policy calls for a new level of business partnership between the government and resource owners.
“One particular problem faced by investors when trying to start a business in this country is friction with landowners due to the need to comply with government regulations before the landowners could be engaged,” he said.
He said the way things should be done is for investors to approach the landowners and agree to a particular arrangement, and then both parties approach government to have that agreement facilitated through a one stop shop approach where all requirements could be met from the one government department.“DDP is committed to constitutional changes that would see the resource ownership of the nation’s natural resources placed back in the hands of the people where it rightfully belongs. 
“Only through the power of our people and their productive capacity will this nation ever hope to achieve economic prosperity because the greatest resource we have as a nation, is our people,” he said
DDP is clearly distinguishing itself as a party that has identified the core problems that face the Solomon Islands and has solutions ready to be applied.
“DDP knows that the nation’s problems can be fixed within just one term of parliament and it is now up to the people who will decide whether we sink or swim through their vote in this coming election,” Ha’amori stated.
One other group making a comeback bid to form the next government is OUR Party led by two-time Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare. OUR is an acronym for Ownership, Unity and Responsibility.
“We are determined to take over the Government,” Sogavare told ABC Radio in a recent interview. 
When last in government [2006 – 2007], Sogavare actually pushed hard for a policy of decentralisation, removing power and influences from those he saw as political elites in the capital Honiara. That remains one of his major goals.
“Everything happens in Honiara, everything happens around Guadalcanal and people from other provinces are coming here, intruding into land, violating customs, so thus you have this flare up [in the] ethnic crisis. So we are putting that up as the flagship policy of the party and as I said it is comprehensive,” he said.
One other party contesting the election is the Solomon Islands’ Party for Rural Advancement, led by Gordon Darcy Lilo, a controversial environment minister. 
Lilo served in Sogavare’s last government, before a falling out led to him to changing his allegiance to Sikua, and helping him remove Sogavare at the end of 2007.
Earlier this year Sikua sacked Lilo and other ministers after it was found they had lobbied other government MPs to ensure the failure of a legislation designed to stop party hopping.
“We believe that the outcome of creating employment at the rural level is a major issue that we need to concentrate our effort on, encouraging investment in tourism. We will also be encouraging rural banking services [which] will create the fundamental of the Solomon Islands economy.
"The third point that we need to work very, very hard in developing in this country is basically investment in forestry, agriculture and food security, because as you know that forestry, agriculture, fisheries are still the main stay investment in this country,” Lilo said.
“We need to reskill our community. The main theme that will carry our party’s flagship in terms of reskilling our people is to establish vocational training institutes in all the provinces.”
So as the nation pauses this year to look back, it’s been an uneventful journey, a journey of wasted opportunities for a nation that has so much but has been tied down by a timid leadership tied up in greed and self-serving individuals.
Everyone is hoping the 2010 national general election will produce a new leadership, rather than reconditioned thinkers—a new leadership whose determination to lead will infuse the nation with a vibrant, energetic and a vision for a new Solomon Islands.