{"id":31939,"date":"2017-05-22T12:30:34","date_gmt":"2017-05-22T02:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=31939"},"modified":"2017-05-19T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T00:56:09","slug":"solomon-islands-ramsi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/solomon-islands-ramsi\/","title":{"rendered":"Solomon Islands after RAMSI"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On 30 June this year the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) will come to an end. Established in July 2003, RAMSI has been a feature of life in Solomon Islands for more than a third of its history as an independent country.<\/p>\n

While much of what follows is anecdotal, recent visits to Honiara have provided some insight into the mood among Solomon Islanders as the end of RAMSI approaches. The operation has been in a gradual wind-down since 2013 and is now much less visible that it was in earlier years. Even so, RAMSI still looms large in the minds of Solomon Islanders.<\/p>\n

RAMSI will be leaving Solomon Islands in an atmosphere of general goodwill. The Solomon Islands government is planning a series of events to mark the end of RAMSI in late June. These will be the occasion for sincere and heartfelt expressions of gratitude for RAMSI\u2019s role in restoring the rule of law and the functioning of government in Solomon Islands. Much stress will\u2014rightly\u2014be placed on the regional nature of RAMSI\u2019s composition.<\/p>\n

Although RAMSI couldn\u2019t have been mounted or sustained without Australian funding and personnel, it was the participation of all of Solomon Islands\u2019 Pacific neighbours in RAMSI that gave it its particular character, and lent it genuine legitimacy in the eyes of Solomon Islanders. RAMSI\u2019s positive reputation has, among other things, been underpinned by a record of good behaviour and conduct on the part of its personnel.<\/p>\n

Alongside those warm feelings, though, it isn\u2019t hard to detect a level of anxiety among ordinary Solomon Islanders as to what might come next. The Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) was disarmed at the very outset of RAMSI and it was only on 8 May this year that elements of the force were rearmed, in anticipation of RAMSI\u2019s departure and following extensive training and preparation. Solomon Islands police were seen to play an aggressively partisan role during the euphemistically-described \u2018Tensions\u2019 that preceded RAMSI\u2019s deployment. Despite extensive leadership and generational turnover since then, the RSIPF has struggled to regain the trust of the general population. For many Solomon Islanders the jury remains out on the competence and impartiality of their own police.<\/p>\n

Some Solomon Islanders say they fear that once RAMSI is off the scene, weapons that were hidden throughout the RAMSI period will once again play into local politics. Recent crimes, in particular the horrific double-murder of a Solomon Islands couple<\/a> of Chinese ethnicity at Easter, have done nothing to settle nerves about a post-RAMSI future. Earlier this month, clashes between long-term squatters and local land developers on Honiara\u2019s crowded and only semi-regulated periphery were well-handled by the local police, but they\u2019ve nevertheless served as a reminder of unresolved and intractable issues that continue to generate social stresses in Solomon Islands.<\/p>\n

Popular faith in Solomon Islands\u2019 state institutions more broadly is yet to recover from the Tensions period. Complaints about corruption remain commonplace. Cynicism about politicians and the political process appears alarmingly widespread. This is despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that Solomon Islanders are increasingly dependent on the goodwill of their individual MPs through the distribution of \u2018Constituency Development Funds\u2019 which have risen to record levels (only matched, on a global scale, by Solomon Islands\u2019 neighbour Papua New Guinea).<\/p>\n

New life has also been breathed into a longstanding constitutional debate with calls for a radical redistribution of resources via a shift to a federal system of government, which would see most revenues going to proposed new \u2018states\u2019. Given the interest of national politicians in retaining control over national resources (and their control over any changes to the Constitution), that\u2019s unlikely to happen but it illustrates a sense in which Solomon Islands itself remains a work in progress, 39 years after independence and 14 years after the arrival of RAMSI.<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t to suggest that RAMSI is leaving Solomon Islands in a national funk. After all, some level of nervousness is only natural after such a long intervention. There\u2019s no doubt that RAMSI is leaving Solomon Islands better equipped to manage the many challenges it continues to face. The arrest in April this year of a government minister on corruption charges<\/a> must go at least some way to countering perceptions of impunity among Solomon Islands political class. At the same time, it isn\u2019t hard to meet impressive young and emerging leaders in many walks of life. Beyond government, we shouldn\u2019t forget the critical role played by local institutions, and in particular the churches, in providing structure to people\u2019s lives and indeed in delivering services that the state can\u2019t provide.<\/p>\n

After RAMSI departs, Australia will still provide extensive advisory and training assistance to the RSIPF, although Australian police advisers will no longer enjoy direct policing power. In a significant move, Australia is negotiating a treaty with Solomon Islands<\/a> which would allow Australia to provide assistance \u2018in the case of a major security crisis in the future\u2019.<\/p>\n

As RAMSI draws to a close, Solomon Islanders will hope that such assistance is never again required. But they can be assured that it will be available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On 30 June this year the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) will come to an end. Established in July 2003, RAMSI has been a feature of life in Solomon Islands for more than …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":31940,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[227,228,99],"class_list":["post-31939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-ramsi","tag-solomon-islands","tag-south-pacific"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSolomon Islands after RAMSI | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/solomon-islands-ramsi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solomon Islands after RAMSI | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On 30 June this year the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) will come to an end. Established in July 2003, RAMSI has been a feature of life in Solomon Islands for more than ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/solomon-islands-ramsi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-22T02:30:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-19T00:56:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JPAU24JUL04BM334.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"657\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Batley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Batley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/solomon-islands-ramsi\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JPAU24JUL04BM334.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/JPAU24JUL04BM334.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":657,\"caption\":\"DEEP CAPTION: Since arriving in the Solomon Islands on the 24 July 2003, the military contingent has as part of RAMSI, made a significant contribution to the process of restoring security and law and order. 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