After the Storm

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Britain did not equip the solomons for independence. Government from Honiara soon became erratic, the provinces withered, basic needs were not met, instability frightened off foreign investors, and cultural diversity led to conflicts and tribal disputes. "Democracy and good governance did not take root," says a foreign diplomat. "The ethnic tensions were over land, but they got out of control because the state had lost its legitimacy." From the end of World War II, large numbers of people from the neighboring island of Malaita began moving to Guadalcanal for work; industrious and ambitious, Malaitans eventually acquired significant landholdings around Honiara and came to dominate the public service, especially the Royal Solomon Islands Police (RSIP).

In 1998, Guadalcanalese men, after failing to persuade the government to compensate them for lost land or take action against the resented Malaitans, resorted to violence. Forming militias, the Guadalcanalese began driving the settlers back to Malaita. In response, a rival Malaitan Eagle Force was formed. Drawing many members from the police, the MEF came to control Honiara. Lawlessness prevailed, the main export industries (gold, palm oil, tourism) collapsed and public services ceased to function. In June 2000, MEF sympathizers seized the police armory and deposed Prime Minister Bart Ulufa'alu at gunpoint. Four months later, an Australian-brokered peace agreement was signed in Townsville; by the time it expired in 2002, a fragile peace still held, but the country's institutions were in ruins. Public servants were forced to release funds to gun-carrying gang members, the RSIP was decimated, and reprisal violence was endemic in the villages. In April 2003, Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza called on his Australian counterpart John Howard for assistance; over the next few months, in partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum, the rescue mission took shape. Placed under the command of Australian diplomat Nick Warner, ramsi was born.

Sixteen months after ramsi's arrival, the experiment in nation building is squarely in the hands of scores of junior Canberra public servants and consultants on a steep learning curve; those accustomed to computer spreadsheets, steering committee meetings and the rule of law find themselves in a unique situation that is being monitored not only by the region's political masters but by development and administrative mavens around the world. Some of these accountants, economists and lawyers have assumed "in line" positions in the Solomons' public service. Unlike the soldiers or police engaged in the high-profile task of security, these baby-crats are charged with overseeing the so-called boring bits: public finances, administrative rules and procedures. "Whether the Solomons can become like a Samoa or, implausibly, a Singapore, in a generation rests on fixing the economy and the machinery of government," says a ramsi official. "Everything else - health, education, security - depends on it."

James Batley, 45, a career diplomat, is ramsi's new special coordinator. Most observers say the personable and well-connected Batley, a veteran of Australia's forays in Bougainville and East Timor and a previous High Commissioner in Honiara, was an ideal choice to lead the current phase of the mission. Careful not to draw too many lessons from those other successful ventures, the "SC," as Batley's 4-WD number plate is marked, is used to difficult briefs. Fluent in Solomons pidgin, Batley can work a crowd in jungle communities. He's equally at ease sipping kava after work on Friday, shopping for produce at the central market or chatting on a mobile phone to P.M. Kemakeza, with whom he has a friendly rapport. Compared with his predecessor Warner, whom ramsi staff recall as extremely effective yet aloof and magisterial, Batley is a grassroots operator who takes a direct interest in most issues. "The big risk for us here is complacency," says Batley, who arrived for a two-year tour in August. "People may look around and say Solomon Islands looks and feels like it was 10 years ago, so the job is done. But it would be a big mistake to say that, because of the deep damage that's been done."