Pacific view: the meaning of governance and politics in the Solomon Islands

Abstract

Based on the turmoil of the ‘crisis years’ (1998–2003) and the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Island (RAMSI) years (2003–2007), this paper explores epistemological issues that deeply divide the way that Solomon Islanders look at prosperity and good government and the way that foreign aid donors, RAMSI and Australia see the future for Solomon Islands. State-building or re-building is not the same as nation-building based on local concepts of the good life. The stakes are high, and as the Sogavare Government (2006–2007) indicated, substantial changes are needed to RAMSI, with a clear exit strategy or amalgamation of its central features into the central government structure. Unless RAMSI can come to terms with Solomon Islands’ epistemological and related political issues, there is no future for the Mission. The paper looks first at the post-RAMSI period, before concentrating on epistemological and political differences, and uses Malaita Province as an example of local circumstances that apply in all areas of the troubled nation. The argument on the epistemology of development is drawn from the writings of David Gegeo and Karen Watson Gegeo, and my personal experience.

Notes

1. Within weeks almost 2,500 weapons and 300,000 rounds of ammunition were handed in. By late 2003, 3,700 weapons, including 660 high-powered ones had been destroyed. Another 1,755 weapons were collected in 2002–2003 by the International Peace Monitoring Team, the Tasius (Church of Melanesia Brothers), other Churches and the National Peace Council. Around 150 high-powered weapons remained unaccounted for.

2. Reports on the Vanuatu cases can be accessed on <www.paclii.org>: Public Prosecutor v Moti [1998] VUCS 54; CR No. 012 of 1998 (11 September 1998); Moti v Vanuatu Public Prosecutor [1999] VUCA 5; Criminal Appeal Case of 1999 (23 April 1999); S, an Infant v Moti [1998) VUCS 132 (30 September 1999). Australia issued a charge under the Crimes (Child Sex Tourism) Amendment Act 1994 No. 105, 1994 and Section 50AD of the Crimes Act 1914 (Commonwealth). The Australian Federal Police claim to have enough new evidence to gain a conviction. The case history is extremely complex and involves Moti possibly bribing the magistrate. ‘Strange case against fugitive lawyer Moti’, Solomon Star, 9 October 2006 (from Sydney Morning Herald).

3. The High Commissioner had already been in trouble with the short Rini Government in May when he was summoned to explain an email sent by a senior RAMSI official which contained allegations that Cole was dissatisfied with the 18 April candidacies of Rini and Sogavare for the position of Prime Minister. Cole's explanation was not accepted and Rini wrote to complain to Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, recommending that Cole be recalled. Prime Minister Sogavare did not pursue Rini's call, but kept watch and was unwilling to let Cole overstep his mark again. Cole was replaced by Robert Hooton in March 2007.

4. I will use David Gegeo and Karen Watson-Gegeo's (2002): 381) definition of “indigenous epistemology”: “a cultural group's way of thinking of and creating discourses and media of communication, anchoring the truth of the discourse in Culture”.

5. In 2001 the Australian Government claimed that a number of children had been thrown overboard from a suspected illegal entry vessel which was intercepted by HMS Adelaide off Christmas Island. The incident was used by Ministers of Howard's Government to support their draconian policy on refugees, and helped win the National Election. A Senate inquiry found that the incident was fictitious. The Australian Wheat Board made $3,000 million in illegal payments between 1999 and 2004 to Saddam Hussein's Government in Iraq, five times larger than the next biggest corrupt payment. The Howard Government made the payments possible, but the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister denied any knowledge of the payments.

6. In 2004, a statue of the Virgin Mary in a Brisbane Vietnamese Catholic Church apparently began weeping rose-scented oil. Debra Geileskey moved to Toowoomba from Melbourne in 1992. A self-proclaimed visionary, she told her followers that she received messages from the Virgin Mary and Jesus, and claimed that Jesus would return to Helidon in the Lockyer Valley once they built a $45 million basilica. Geileskey began the Magnificat Meal Movement and encouraged families who had settled at Helidon to hand over part-ownership of their properties. In 2007 she left for the USA and sold her assets.

7. The Christian Fellowship Church is the largest independent church in Melanesia. It was founded in 1960 after separating from the Methodist Church. Its founder was Silas Eto (known as the Holy Mama (priest)) from the Kolobagea area of New Georgia. He was trained as a Methodist pastor (1927–32) at Kokeqolo mission. During his Methodist years he fostered a distinct liturgical and theological style, particularly among his own Kusage people on New Georgia. In 1956, after incidents of possession (taturu), Eto believed his congregation had been visited by the Holy Spirit and led his followers out of Methodism to form the new church, with Milton Talasasa as the first chairman. Church services concentrated on hymn singing in Roviana language and sermons from Eto. Ultimate authority resided with Eto who was styled as the vehicle of the Holy Spirit and claimed healing powers. The church recruited a number of ex-Methodist pastors and in the mid-1970s there were 22 adherent villages and five schools, mainly in west New Georgia. The main village is named Paradise and contains what is probably the most beautiful tradition-style church in the Solomon Islands. The Christian Fellowship Church is very practical and has been involve in large reforestation projects, and is well known for being able to raise large groups for community projects. Eto was succeeded by his son, Ikahn Rove.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Clive Moore

Clive Moore is a Professor at University of Queensland, whose recent research projects include a history of Malaita Province in Solomon Islands and an historical dictionary of Solomon Islands