THE Governor General during his New Year’s message reminded us of the vulnerability state institutions are in.
The Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has resuscitated our failed state back to its feet.
The description of ‘fail state’ came about as a result of dysfunctional institutions within the machinery of the National Government.
These institutions are found in the executive arm of the Government, the Judiciary and the Legislature.
To be specific, they are the Police Force, the Courts, the DPP’s office, the Public Solicitor’s Office, the Prison Services (now called the Correctional Service) and all the Government Ministries which provide government service to us.
We can also include the government’s statutory authorities such as SIEA, SIWA and so on.
These institutions, on the one hand, are necessary to enable the Government to function effectively.
The statutory bodies, on the other hand, do link up with the government institutions in developing the country and providing service to the community.
Non-functioning of these institutions can be very detrimental to service-delivery to people thus result in a country failing to cope with its problems.
These were all attributed to the past ethnic conflict which ravaged the country more than a decade ago.
Now that these institutions have been strengthened and recovered through the intervention of RAMSI and its subsequent assistance programs, the important messages we can draw from the Governor General’s speech is “We should not sit back, relax and say to ourselves that recovery has been achieved and all is now well and continue to say that there is nothing more to be done or at least, only little needs to be done.
For this decade of handwork from our pacific friends can be easily reversed by bad leadership, corruption, abuse of power, laziness breakdown of law and order and more.
It is therefore a challenge for us now that RAMSI is packing up. RAMSI will be leaving our shores soon. It is only vital that our leaders with the help of citizens start initiating plans that can stimulate the boosting of our institutions to work even better than before the country experienced the past conflict.
This is our country, this is our future, let’s be in control and move forward with confidence and with commitment to reach newer heights. Let’s learn from our mistakes and make Solomon Islands a home we want it to be.
