Politics
Donors Shy Away From The Solomons
But top cop will have to focus on the minority
Over in Greater Manchester in England, Bobbies are learning Urdu, the language spoken by Indian Muslims. The initiative aims to bring the force closer to the minority communities in the English city. But for one of its senior officers, speaking the language of the minority won’t be a priority for a while as he takes up his new posting of police commissioner in the troubled Solomon Islands.
William Morrell, until recently a senior police officer in the Greater Manchester area, will need more than just learning a new language to tackle what many fear is virtually an impossible task: carrying out a complete overhaul of the Royal Solomon Islands Police (RSIP) and restore it to its constitutional role of maintaining law and order in a country that has been devastated by an ethnic war and where gun-wielding militants thrive on extortion and threats.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
 |
|
|
Morrell is being brought in through funding from the European Union, which together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the governments of Australia and New Zealand are lending a hand in revamping the police force.
UNDP is focusing on the re-training of about 1000 militants who were recruited as special police constables. The force now wants to shave off this group in order for the RSIP to be leaner and more efficient. Re-injecting professionalism and discipline into the force is expected to be the British police officer’s number one priority.
He will have to start from the top, since a number of his senior officers are tainted with allegations of being involved in the ethnic war that has gripped the capital, Honiara, and its surrounding suburbs. It was these officers who mounted a strong opposition to Morrell’s recruitment. Of late, the force has become a law unto itself, where some of its officers have been accused of extortion and illegal use of firearms.
Soon after handing down his government’s budget for 2003 in parliament last December, Finance Minister Laurie Chan had to resign after he and Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza were held at gunpoint by some members of the police force for their overdue salaries.
The gunman or men who shot and almost killed Kemakeza’s senior adviser, Robert Goh, is or are still at large. The police hunt for renegade rebel Harold Keke in the Weathercoast has been marred by counter claims of police brutality and gross human rights abuses. Homes have been burnt down and local women raped, reports seeping in from the area say.
It is not all doom and gloom, however. For one thing, Morrell comes into Honiara with the backing of Kemakeza and his government. It was Kemakeza who sought European Union help for an expatriate police chief when he was in Fiji last August for the Pacific Islands Leaders Summit. What remains for Morrell now is for him to get Kemakeza to match his rhetoric with solid financial backing. Morrell will also be encouraged by the enormous amount of goodwill and benevolence amongst the people of the Solomons.
As human rights advisor with UNDP in Honiara Ashley Wickham told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat programme recently: “Ninety-nine percent of Solomon Islanders are still the same wonderful people you have always known: generous, caring and fun-loving. The mess is being caused by less than 1% of the people.”
Morrell will therefore need to zero in quickly and effectively on the one percent Wickham talks about. He may, however, learn sooner or later that this is easily said than done.
Paramount will be the need for him to tread cautiously and carefully, otherwise, he could soon be on the same path as two of his expatriate colleagues recently took.
Senior adviser to Kemakeza, Rob Solomon and Permanent Secretary for Finance Lloyd Powel resigned in a hurry last December and fled Honiara for Australia in a chartered flight. Just a few weeks ago, Powel returned to fill his previous job as consultant in the Department of Finance, while Solomon has reportedly moved on to Tonga.
The Hapi Isles’ top cop will also need to do better than the man he replaced. Morton Sireheti repeatedly complained about lack of money, and that his constant request for funding to government fell on deaf ears. That the European Union has agreed to pay for Morrell is a good sign for the virtually bankrupt Kemakeza government. But recent cabinet changes are least impressive to donors like the European Union. With Chan out as finance minister, Kemakeza got his deputy Snyder Rini to be money man. But Rini was finance minister under the previous government of Manasseh Sogavere and he’s alleged to have run down the economy during his term as Mr Money Man.
It was his decision, for instance, that saw many goods imported into the country duty-free. The government lost millions of dollars in waived duty as a consequence.
The absence of financial aid from donor agencies has been cited as the main reason why Kemakeza and Rini are considering an offer of $2.6 billion from an organisation calling itself the Royal Assembly of Nations and Kingdoms. Never mind the fact that the people behind this so-called assembly entered the Solomon Islands through dubious means. Never mind too the fact that these same people are wanted in Papua New Guinea for organising a dubious and ludicrous money scheme in which many Papua New Guinea citizens lost a lot of money. Governor of the Central Bank of the Solomon Islands, Rick Hou has warned Kemakeza to reject the offer.
National radio, SIBC (Solomon Islands Broadcasting Commission) did report that among ministers lobbying for the dubious organisation is Alex Bartlett, one of Kemakeza’s cabinet ministers. Bartlett was sacked as foreign minister and moved across to the tourism portfolio as minister responsible. Like Rini, Bartlett also has a coloured past.
As the new police commissioner, Morrell will have an up-hill battle securing the needed cash for his men and women. He may just pick up a tip or two if he talks to Lottie Yates, director of the country’s National Disaster Management Office in Honiara. By the end of last month, Yates was still lobbying international agencies for money to fund the second phase of his cyclone rehabilitation programme for the remote islands of Tikopia and Anuta.
After Cyclone Zoe caused extensive damage to the two islands and amidst severe criticisms for the slow response by the Kemakeza administration, Yates says he needs at least $900,000 to cover the second phase of the programme which will see the dispatching of tarpaulin, plant seedling and cuttings, building materials and rice to the two stricken islands.
Yates told Islands Business that his office wants to charter the country’s largest cargo and passenger boat, the MV Ramos 3, to cart relief supplies. Along the way, the freighter is expected to stop in southern Malaita to load sago palms and pandanus for the construction of thatched homes on Tikopia and Anuta. An agricultural officer is also in Tikopia to study the soil and recommend remedial actions.
It may not be a good idea though for Morrell to talk to Chan. After resigning as finance minister and agreeing to take on the foreign affairs portfolio, Chan was nearly sacked last month for reportedly seeking to oust Kemakeza. Chan refused to talk to Islands Business about his aborted ousting plan. The man quickly pledged his support for Kemakeza and the prime minister, insiders say, in turn agreed to retain Chan as his foreign minister. For now that is.
