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Sir Baddeley Devesi had his doubts over the lack of preparation in
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Solomons
crisis dates back to hasty British handover
07.07.2003
By MARY-LOUISE O'CALLAGHAN, Herald correspondent
As British
officials and minor royals sweated in their suits, 25 years ago today, the
crowd at
Seconds earlier
the Union Jack had shot down the pole, keeping pace with the indecent haste of
the British departure from one of their last colonial outposts in the South
Pacific.
Then, with an awkward
pause so laden with portent it was to resonate for a quarter of a century, the
bright green, blue and yellow flag of the world's newest nation refused to
open.
"It's
true, it didn't unfurl smoothly," recalls Sir Baddeley
Devesi, who as the 36-year-old
Governor-General-designate was watching the progress of the flag.
"And if
you listen to my speech at Independence Day you will hear the uncertainty I harboured too; I was not sure what was going to be.
"My doubts
were based on a lack of proper preparation by the British Administration for
economic development after independence," says Sir Baddeley.
Now retired
after a distinguished career both as Governor-General for two terms and then as
a minister of the Crown he'd represented, Sir Baddeley
says this lack of preparation is at the heart of his nation's present woes.
Today
Much attention
has been placed on the military component of the planned operation, but perhaps
the more ambitious element of Australian Prime Minister John Howard's Solomons plan is the civilian one designed to essentially
do what the British never did.
This will
involve inserting expatriates directly into the Solomons'
moribund administration to try first to re-establish some of its functions and
financial integrity, but also in the long term to help the islands to develop
their own capacities to operate a modest but modern state.
The Australian
Armed with a
British system of justice, a Westminster Parliament, four volcanoes and about
70 languages and scattered over a 1600km-long archipelago, the Solomons on
But vast
social, economic and political changes were demanded of this island country in
order to craft itself into a viable nation after just 85 years of British
colonialism.
But little in
the way of guidance, education, resources or capital was provided to its
300,000 or so people.
Augustine Manakako was one of just five graduates the British had
managed to educate at the time of independence.
At 34, the
young administrator from the Weathercoast of
Guadalcanal was already a permanent secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs
and saw firsthand the capacity of his young nation.
"
These days Manakako is retired and spends his time campaigning for
funds and awareness of the plight of his people of
These efforts
have been made all the more poignant by the brutal slaying of a niece's young
teenage son at the hands of Keke's men two weeks ago.
"Let's
forget all our dreams, all out illusions, and let's get in touch with
reality," Manakako says now of the plans for the
Australian-led intervention.
It was Western
missionaries who began unwinding the complex thread of custom that had governed
the lives of the predominantly Melanesian people for thousands of years.
But most
Solomon Islanders remained dependent on a lifestyle of subsistence-affluence,
and loyal first to family, tribe and then their island around the time their
colonial masters decided they should form a nation-state.
Speaking at a
National Unity Summit last week, the Catholic Archbishop of Honiara, Adrian
Smith, highlighted how little these loyalties have changed since independence
and the role they've played in undermining the functioning of a modern state.
"Could it
be that the strength of our tribalism is a breeding ground for the ugly face of
corruption which is so visible in our society?
"If I am
corrupt but share the loot with my tribal members or my extended family, there
seems to be little moral judgment on such behaviour.
If this is the acceptable code then it is little wonder corruption is so
widespread."
Sir Baddeley, too, is anxious for his nation to move beyond
what he calls a "hand-out" mentality, feeling Solomon Islanders need
to accept that you can't build a nation without plain hard work.
He believes
that with enough care and preparation
Which was pretty much what happened in June 2000 when elements of
the country's police force from Malaita province
joined with a civilian militia to carry out a coup.
What Sir Baddeley hadn't anticipated was that he would be a Deputy
Prime Minister when these forces finally overwhelmed the state.
In the days
before the coup he had tried desperately to convince the Australian and New
Zealand High Commissioners to recommend to their Governments to send in
peacekeepers.
Then, as 25
years ago, his nation could not survive without outside assistance.
"They were
pretty much forgotten by all of us," says one Australian diplomat who
asked not to be named.
"It wasn't
until the spillover from the
It is
addressing the longer-term nation building that will be the least sexy but most
significant test of
Reuben Moli was an assistant accountant at Solomon Islands
Electrical Authority at the time of independence. He is now the premier of Malaita, home to those who both suffered from and
perpetrated much of the country's current strife.
He is anxious
the mistakes of independence don't get repeated now that
"If we are
to start again, then we have to fully understand what we are doing, we need to
especially explain the full benefits and effects of the intervention that will
occur not only during it but afterwards."
Herald
Feature: Solomon Islands
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3511263&thesection=news&thesubsection=world