The rioting is over but many, including Wellington economist Pete Rodger, worry over the Solomon Islands ’ future.
‘‘What has happened is really sad,’‘ the Asian Development Bank consultant said yesterday after flying home early from training seminars in the capital Honiara.
‘‘It’s going to set them back years.’‘
He said the Solomon Islanders had been trying to climb what some saw as an un-scaleable peak; they had slid back with the ethnic conflict four years ago and had slid again.
It’s a familiar refrain from many with strong backgrounds in the Solomons in the wake of riots and looting which destroyed much of the capital, Honiara , this week.
New Zealand diplomat Paul Ash, the deputy head of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), said as police and military reinforcements arrived that the situation was calm ‘‘but still fragile’‘.
The Chinese, he said, had taken heavy blows but they were not alone.
‘‘The real victims in all this are the vast majority of the Solomon Islands , the law abiding Solomon Islanders,’‘ he said.
‘‘There are serious consequences ahead over what occurred here.’‘
Mr Rodger, a former BNZ chief economist, has a Ghana coup, Nigerian martial law and Cambodian tensions on his CV. He joined an evacuation on the RNZAF early yesterday morning because his seminars on privatisation could not be held.
He had several close encounters with the rioters.
‘‘There were a few nasties that threw things at the car, a RAMSI registered vehicle, but there were others who were saying ‘leave them alone’.
‘‘We were a couple of kiwis caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.’‘
He believed the violence and looting was not random and spoke of riot organisers holding meetings, ‘‘planning what to do next…. ‘‘I am really sad at what happened to the Chinese, its been absolutely devastating. People are on this plane with just the clothes they stand up in.’‘ Turangi’s Allan MacGibbon was just coming to the end of a two year Volunteer Service Aboard assignment in the Solomons as general manager of the Chinatown based Guadalcanal Development Authority. On the plane out he was plainly upset, fearing all his work had been for nothing.
‘‘It’s going to put it all back for a bit,’‘ he said. ‘‘Everything has gone, there is nothing left for me to do.’‘ He doubted the place could recover and he did not want to return. Timber company owner Terry Ashdown of Ngaruawahia left because he could not work at the moment. ‘‘We’ll come back later, in May I reckon.’‘ Solomon Islands academic Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka said this week’s destruction was the first of its kind seen in Honiara . A riot in 1989 was nothing compared with this and during the ethnic tensions such destruction did not occur. It wasn’t social unrest alone. ‘‘In fact, it had little to do with the social unrest and more with what people perceived as the corruption of the democratic process,’‘ the research fellow at Hawaii’s East-West Center wrote yesterday in the Pacific Islands Report website. He says it also raises broader issues over the role of political parties in the Solomon Islands ‘‘and questions assumptions about the Westminster parliamentary system and its ability to create a representative government’‘. Most Solomon Islanders had no control over the political process and became spectators. In the short term Prime Minister of Snyder Rini should be allowed to form a government: ‘‘then, if people want, they could use the constitutional processes to oust him from office.’‘ Dr Kabutaulaka wanted this to happen because if Mr Rini was forced out now, a dangerous precedent would be set. ‘‘In the longer-term there is a need to establish statutory regulations that would facilitate the development of political parties, regulate the conduct of politicians, and ensure that the process of selecting the prime minister is transparent.’‘
Rules of engagement need to be set so that the process could not be corrupted. ‘‘Unless these changes occur, getting into parliament, selecting a prime minister, forming governments, and doing good will continue to be a tricky business in Solomon Islands ,’‘ he said. ‘‘In the next few weeks, as we clean Honiara and sweep away the ashes, let us not forget the lessons that this event has offered us.’‘