New Direction
- Old Attitudes
- Deadwood Personnel
= ?
By John Roughan
29 May 2006
Honiara
Solomons’ newly elected government is to be congratulated on its determination to turn the fortunes of our country
around by focusing the state’s many and varied resources on rural people’s daily lives. But it’s completely out of
character for me to simply roll over, heap lavish praise on government’s latest initiative and not mention a number of
serious stumbling blocks along the difficult path it has chosen.
The above title says it all! No matter how wonderful and long overdue this new direction is, focusing major finance,
plans, investment, personnel and other scarce resources to revitalize the lot of villagers (I much prefer calling them
villagers, not rural people!), the proposed plan fundamentally operates within an atmosphere that will certainly kill
the new direction before it takes two steps.
Old attitudes die hard if at all! For more than a quarter of a century the Solomons’ political elite and the bureaucracy
have fondly held on to the basic belief that Honiara and all it stands for—the best of services, easy life, rich and
varied food, expensive housing, lavish entertainment, sports, education, comfortable transport, etc. etc.—is what is
meant by The Good Life. Now the new government is asking, no demanding, that that attitude must change and it must
change NOW.
The Sogavare government states in no uncertain terms that it is determined to drag our nation out of its economic,
social and political tailspin by requiring new thinking, a retooling of vision and revitalizing of understanding.
Government personnel especially its political elite, for instance, need recognize that the nation’s basic wealth
producers—copra cutters, cocoa growers, farmers, fishers, wood workers, real estate developers, home builders, family
producers, etc.—are village people mostly.
The nation’s political elite, government personnel and bureaucrats, on the other hand, currently eat up this hard earned
wealth production through a lavish life style, demands for greater services and living far beyond what the nation can
afford. When belt tightening is called for, it’s the national elite that must raise its hands first. Ministers’ new
cars, overseas trips with lavish grants, plush accommodation in first class hotels, never-ending requests for special
allowances for gardener, house help, driver, etc. all help boost MPs and Cabinet members salaries far above the typical
Solomons’ wealth producer.
Over and above the deadening effect of ‘old attitudes’ is the leaden weight of deadwood personnel. They are found at all
levels of government bureaucracy, from the very top—MPs—right through to the Public Service to those at the lowest rung.
A government worker fronting up at the office at 8:00 in the morning, really putting in a full eight hours and clocking
out at 4:00 is a rare sight. But it is this very type of person who government expects to carry out its new-direction
policy.
Government’s new direction policy—focusing national resources on improving villagers’ lives to create greater wealth—is
bound to fail in an ‘old attitude’ and deadwood personnel climate. However, a regime of speeded up rural investment and
substantial villager participation may be the best and only conditions for the policy to work!
Already New Zealand dollars flow to support rural education. EU pledges itself to the rural infrastructure of shipping,
wharfs, roads, airfields, etc. Other donors must be convinced that a strong health sector of rural clinics, aid posts
and touring ‘barefoot doctors’ are absolutely needed for the government’s new-direction plan to successfully pull
through. Telekom is a vital ingredient as well. A cell phone culture reaching out to hundreds of villages and dozens of
community radios speaking to people in language are the minimum vital communication links people need to get this nation
humming once again.
The equation for government’s new direction policy to really take off is easy:
New direction
+ Rural Investment
+ Villager Participation
= The Basic Life for Solomons people.
ENDS