Mass media coverage of crises

It's incredibly frustrating to see the manner in which 'disasters', 'emergencies' and 'crises' are reduced to a pithy, catchy headline. As the writers below state, "reducing complex historical problems to labels and scare mongering" does nothing to assist in finding a way forward - if anything it compounds and entrenches the roots of natural disasters or civil conflict by proposing simplistic solutions to complex problems.

Greg Sheridan: Melanesia a huge disaster
Canberra was right to pursue a Pacific activism in the post-9/11 era, but there is no real solution for the region
The Australian, 20 April 2006

The reply to Greg Sheridan which the Australian declined to publish...

School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics The University of Queensland
21 April 2006

Dear Sir,

Greg Sheridan’s scare mongering, in calling Melanesia “a huge disaster” (The Australian, 20 April) is insulting and unproductive. The riots that occurred in Honiara were the expression of deep-seated frustrations at flawed political processes and a lack of reconciliation needed after the earlier unrest. They were sparked when RAMSI mishandled the situation at Parliament. RAMSI ignored the plea by the Speaker, Sir Peter Kenilorea, not to use tear gas on his people.

The Melanesian way is to respect their elders and several of the ex-Prime Ministers (including Sir Peter) were willing to talk to the people who had gathered at Parliament. RAMSI did not give them a chance. The result was violence and destruction.

RAMSI has never been able to deal with a central conundrum: the conflict between strengthening the government apparatus, and having to also prop up a government that was flawed and of which the people remain suspicious. The new Prime Minister Snyder Rini is from the old government.

There is quite obviously a deep resentment against Asians, particularly but not only the Chinese. The democratic process is indigenously controlled but business is not. Perceived inordinate Asian influence on the political process frustrates the average Solomon Islander.

There is not a Solomon Islands-wide crisis, and certainly not a “Melanesian-wide crisis”. Mr Sheridan’s Melanesia is full of rampant sexual transmitted diseases and failing states. Has he ever noticed that eighty-five percent of the people of Melanesia are living happily in villages? This is a Honiara-centered crisis. Democracy and egalitarian behaviour is basic to Melanesian culture. Imposed government structures more suitable to First World nations are not. And neither is having forces outside Parliament buying votes in Parliament.

Though it is little acknowledged by those who think RAMSI was the beginning and end of progress in the Solomons, the 400 thousand-odd village majority of the country maintained its own law and order for five years without police presence or functioning courts. How long would Mr Sheridan give Cronulla if all police, firefighters and other public services evaporated? Weeks? Days? Hours? To label the people of the Solomons primitive on the back of two days of rioting is not only insulting but profoundly ignorant. Reducing complex historical problems to labels and scare mongering does disservice to Solomon Islands and undermines Australia's efforts to assist.

The Australian government and RAMSI needs to spend a little more time learning to understand Solomon Islanders and their cultural triggers.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Clive Moore, CSI, History, University of Queensland (c.moore@uq.edu.au)

Professor Kevin Clements, Director, Australian Center for Peace and Conflict Studies University of Queensland (k.clements@uq.edu.au)

Dr Anne Brown, Australian Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland (anne.brown@uq.edu.au)

Dr Volker Boege, Visiting Fellow, Australian Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland (v.boege@uq.edu.au)

Dr John Roughan, Honiara (jroughan@welkam.solomon.com.sb)

Paul Roughan, Islands Knowledge Institute (proughan@gmail.com)