This piece was written for distribution to mass media in Australia, and is posted here to promote discussion - we realise it isn't the whole story (that's not possible in 1500 words!)
CIVIL SECURITY REQUIRES ECONOMIC SECURITY
by Rebecca Monson and Wei Choong
Rioting in Honiara is not simply evidence of ongoing instability in the Solomon Islands, but of the powerful collision between conflict, governance, and the struggle for peaceful and secure livelihoods.
Recent crises in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, and Solomon Islands have provoked concern about the rise of “ethnic conflict” in Melanesia, referred to in the Australian media as the “arc of instability”. From 1998-2003 Solomon Islands was plagued by conflict popularly known as "the Tensions", that resulted in the death of hundreds of Solomon Islanders, the internal displacement of tens of thousands more, and the destruction of the country’s narrow economic base. While the causes of the conflict are complex, the primary protagonists were the Malaitans and the indigenous inhabitants of Guadacanal, the island on which the national capital, Honiara, is based. Europeans arrived in the Solomons in the late 1800s, bringing with them the cash economy, and inhabitants of other islands began to migrate to Guadacanal in search of work. Migration of Malaitans escalated during World War II when the United States brought labourers from Malaita, the most populous nation in the Solomons chain, to work on Guadacanal. Large numbers of migrants from other islands were attracted to Guadalcanal by the prospect of employment offering a cash income, leading to competition for land and jobs. Customary land on Guadalcanal was sold to people from other islands, creating a source of conflict because of the strong relationship between people’s social allegiances and land. Younger Guale people were dispossessed of their inheritance, but rather than blaming those who sold the land, their anger has been directed primarily against Malaitans, who achieved dominant positions in the economy. Guadalcanalese people often describe Malaitan settlements established on an agreed lease as “like mushrooms”, with successive generations squatting around an original lease. This resulted in a build up of tensions over time, which successive governments failed to address. The Tensions began in 1998 when Guadacanalese militants embarked upon a campaign of intimidation intended to chase settlers off Guadacanal. While ethnicity and cultural differences played a role in the Tensions, the roots of the conflict also lie in competition for limited resources and strong ties to land in a transitional economy.
The recent rioting in Honiara also has an ethnic dimension, evidenced by the targeting of Chinese businesses in looting, and in the torching of buildings in Chinatown. But this is not about racism - it is about what happens when cultural identity collides with anger about entrenched corruption in government and limited access to resources. While the elections ran smoothly, the old powers – surrounded as they are by allegations of corruption - returned to the helm. The man elected PM, Snyder Rini, is thought to have both Chinese and Taiwanese links – protestors say that his coalition Government is funded and influenced by the owner of the Honiara Hotel, Sir Thomas Chan. During the election campaign, Solomon Islands media reported of complaints regarding the Asian influence over the political process. On Tuesday night the rioting spread from Honiara on Guadacanal to Auki on the neighbouring island of Malaita, where a gang of youths shot stones at a RAMSI vehicle and a Chinese store. The excuse for rioting in Auki was that the “waku (Chinese) supported candidate” won the election for PM.
The Chinese began to arrive in Solomon Islands in the early 20th century, originally in search of trading ventures and then later as labour for the British protectorate. They established a quasi-local economy of small general stores located in Honiara, and supply the local people with basic goods as well as employment. They developed and maintained the cash economy, and continue to control it today. Yet analysts have paid little attention to the place of the Chinese in Solomons society. Our research confirms that there are mixed feelings among the Melanesians about the Chinese. There are feelings of envy and bitterness towards the Chinese community for their economic clout and wealth accumulation, yet during the Tensions the Chinese were not targeted by militants and were acknowledged by senior Ministers for their commitment to the country by keeping their businesses operating in spite of rising violence.
Chinese business interests and political agendas are intertwined, but the situation s complex. Solomon Islands is a nation of incredible cultural diversity and lacks any economic distribution mechanism to ensure that its scarce resources are available to all. There are differing perceptions of productivity and the value of goods and services. More importantly, there is differing access to the cash economy which is now essential to survival. Very few Melanesians own their own businesses, most work for the Chinese. Since most Melanesians can no longer choose to remain outside the cash economy, they are confronted with the differing culture and economic power of the Chinese. The losing side to the PM's race decided to play the race card, igniting decades of bitterness. Locals are now worried about “stage two” in the ethnic tensions – instead of Guadacanalese versus Malaitan, there may now be Melanesians versus Chinese.
There is definitely an element of hooliganism to the rioting, as there was to the Tensions, but this hooliganism is linked also to resource distribution and use. Nowhere is this more obvious than among young people. Issues such as poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy and limited access to activities and services are widespread among youth and contribute to the disaffection among young people that maintains the risk of future conflict. The Solomons Island has one of the highest growing populations in the world, a collapsed (or collapsing) economy, a culture that increases the likelihood of young people being shunned from participation in community affairs, limited access to formal education, and a sense among young people that they are ‘being left out’. These conditions are thought to be the type that lead to, or increase the likelihood of, armed conflict.
Solomon Islanders across all age groups regularly describe young people as suffering form boredom, lack of direction, aimlessness and low self-esteem arising from the marginal participation of youth and women in community decision-making, which is the preserve of older males. This is reinforced by a sense of failure due to the high value placed on formal education, which the vast majority of rural people have limited access to due to geographic isolation and limited finances. Associated with the emphasis on formal education is the increased importance of the cash economy, because even in remote areas such as the Weathercoast, where the informal subsistence economy is far greater than the formal cash economy, cash is required to pay school fees. The formal education system reinforces the importance of the cash economy, because respondents routinely described it as training people “to be employees, not employers”, and without enough emphasis on the vocational education and training that would facilitate the establishment of small businesses and enterprises. Limited access to microcredit facilities provides further limits on opportunities for self-employment. There is also limited financial support and a lack of activities available for young people who are not in formal education or employment.
The emphasis on formal education and the need for cash, as well as the lack of youth activities, encourages migration of people from rural areas to urban areas. This is particularly the case among youth – many respondents described how young people from rural villages “are attracted to the bright lights of Honiara”. However unemployment appears to be high in Honiara, and the issues that young people seek to escape from rural life – lack of community participation, poverty, limited youth activities – exist in Honiara also. Respondents described the sense among youth that they “have no future”. This context provided a breeding ground for the growth of frustration and resentment among youth, and in this context it was not particularly difficult to mobilise youth. Young people have described how during the early stages of the Tensions, fighting was exciting, it provided a cause for young people to believe in. All of a sudden they had something to do and something to believe in. One young person described how, "at the time it was just exciting, and I was angry with them for stealing our land. I didn't know what would happen. I didn't know what bad things would happen." Ironically, the situation of young people is worse in the aftermath of the Tensions than before. The formal/cash economy largely collapsed during the Tensions, and while starting to recover, the opportunity for income generation remains limited. Poverty and aimlessness finds no relief through traditional village structures, and the situation is exacerbated by poor access to education and high illiteracy rates.
The rioting, like the Tensions, brings the consequences of cultural differences and tension over minimal resources into sharp focus. The increased immigration of Chinese and their economic success in Solomon Islands only reinforces the sense among Melanesians of being at the bottom of the economic heap in their own homelands. There is a limit to what Australian security forces can achieve. As is the case throughout the world, there will be no chance for real improvements in civil security unless the sources of insecurity are acknowledged not only by the country and its people, but by the bilateral aid donors.
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