Solomon Islands Development Trust - SIDT

Our leaders continue to practice, to an unacceptable degree, the Politics of Self-interest.  Historically, over more than two decades of independence, this was the very reason why many entered politics in the first place. The myopic prism they use to study their world is bound up with what they themselves can garnish from their positions of power. Unfortunately at the present moment, the
Solomon Islands state is basically weak and growing weaker by the day which makes the Politics of Self-interest so dangerous at this time. 

In our present climate--a weak and weakening central government--, not a few of our official leaders are more than willing to bend the rules to insure their pockets remain lined. In past years the Politics of Self-interest could satisfied itself by looting the national treasury and/or donor monies. Presently this has become almost impossible since government's revenue collection is severely weak and donors are more and more reluctant to hand over their tax payers' money only to
see them disappear. This state of affairs has forced those guilty of gross self-interest to cast their nets in other directions. Over the last two years, for instance, more than 2,000 passports have been issued, a majority to Southeast Asians, most of whom did not meet the ten-year waiting period needed to qualify for citizenship. 

Solomons, from an international point of view, looks more and more like a ripe plum waiting to drop.  The nation is basically bankrupt, our currency devalues daily and recently our own high court has determined that government must re-pay SI$48 million to local banks, the National Provident Fund and other lending institutions . . . an amount almost 25% of our total income for 2002. If government complies with this court ordered decision, what would happen to public officers salaries, villager education and health grants, provincial administration costs, etc? 

Internationally, vultures currently hover around the nation waiting for the body politic to become even more insolvent. It is not hard to imagine one of these vultures worming its way into the heart of a nation so that the country's fundamental institutions become floating platforms, not three flying hours from Australia, for money laundering, people trafficking, drug transiting, toxic waste
dumps, illegal arm deposits, etc. The April 12 issue of Star newspaper in a front page story, for instance, headlined the fact that the Development Bank of Solomon Islands could be controlled by a Mafia-type group operating out of Brisbane. The Chairman of AMCO, the group casting about to purchase 80% of DBSI, is the same person who had difficulty paying his just debts, e.g. coffee bill
at a local eatery.

It is not by coincidence that last month a number of senior public servants' best laid plans of 2001 to import 5 million tons of toxic waste from Taiwan to Makira's Weather Coast made major headlines in the nation's media. With a central government desperately searching for 'quick and easy' money solutions for its growing domestic and foreign debt burden, salary costs and servicing villagers'
education and medical needs, the temptation to listen to glib con artists becomes irresistible. We as a nation, unfortunately, have a proven track record along these lines. We have travelled down the road of seeking 'easy and quick' money before. In the early 1990s, for instance, the Mamaloni-led government was seriously thinking about and sometimes actually putting into action such 'money spinning' activities. During those years, there was serious talk about and sometimes actions to bottle bush oxygen, push the Tulagi gold dig, swap our tree wealth for Saudi Arabian oil, travel to Hong Kong for 'free' money, etc. All came to naught!

As the Solomons' nation, at least major parts of it, slowly slides into insolvency and lawlessness, it is in the Pacific metropolitan nations own best interest, Australia in particular, to help arrest this accelerating slide into bankruptcy and chaos. The security issue, largely confined to Guadalcanal, parts of North Malaita and areas of Western province, still posses serious disruptive capability. Perhaps the advent of New Zealand line officers working closely with Solomons' police will begin to reign in the more serious trouble-makers along Eastern Guadalcanal's Weather Coast. 

However, the most pressing point will be to fully reinstate the social services of education, medical attention and livelihood generation to get the ordinary, typical villager back in the picture of social health once again. Investing resources--personnel, funding, material--with the churches, NGOs and especially women's groups will go a long way in responding to the need to bring the rural areas back to a semblance of normality. Over the last four years, these people have had their lives turned up side down and they thirst for a normal atmosphere where they can do their gardening, fishing and housebuilding with a minimum of disruption.

And not to be forgotten is the power of publicity. Much of what happens in the highest reaches of decision making within the nation still fails to attract the light of publicity. Local journalists, radio personnel and investigative reporters must be assisted to uncover and analyse what is happening to the country. The Politics of Self-interest is best checked by an insistence on an accountable public authority.

Solomon Islands Development Trust - SIDT