Political experiment gets
pp. 28-29 · Read in the full issue
going soon in Solomons
By Stuart Inder
Elections now going on in the British Solomons will culminate in the setting-up, in July, of a type of legislature to be tested for the first time in the South Pacific—a method of “government by committee”.
The BSIP Legislative Council and Executive Council have been abolished, and will be replaced in July by the BSIP Governing Council, which will have the functions of both. u And the interesting thing about the new-style government is that the present British administration in the Solomons admits that it is not sure whether the system will work, but is willing to “give it a go” because it is what the Melanesians themselves seem to want.
BSIP Finance Secretary Tom Russell put the problem clearly in May in a paper he presented at
Port Moresby’s Waigam seminar (see p. 28). He asked: “Can a system of democracy suit able for a country of 58 million [Britain] be photographed down to suit a population of 152,000, a people w t j 1 4Q spo ken languages and no written literature, with a population density of 13 to the square mile, wit h the h a bit of agre eing by con sensus ra ther than by majority vote and with a susp i c ion bred from a history of foreigners, foreign ideas an d foreign natives? Can a country the size of the Solomons afford the trappings of the ministerial system, the prestige cars, offices and houses,
the private secretaries? Is there ultimately to be a bicameral system?”
The new system will explore an alternative. The Governing Council will comprise 17 elected members and up to nine official members. It will be divided initially into five committees, each committee respon sible for a broad field, communica tions and works, education and social welfare, health and internal affairs, natural resources, and finance.
The High Commissioner will appoint a chairman of each com mittee, and every elected member will have a seat on at least one com mittee.
The finance committee will be chaired by the Financial Secretary and its membership will include the chairmen of the other committees, thus involving the whole council in budget decisions. All committees will have a majority of elected mem bers.
The committees will be able to summon anybody, including public servants, before them during their work, and the Chief Secretary will have the right to attend any meet ing. Committee meetings, which are likely to be held every two months, will be private. The Governing Coun cil will meet three times a year in both executive (private) and legis lative sessions (open to the public).
Bills will have three readings in the legislative session in the usual way.
The High Commissioner will con ;inue to have reserve powers on ex :ernal affairs, police, etc., and con :rol the public service. The day-to lay official work will continue in he government as before, but public ;ervants and politicians will obvi >usly be brought in much closer con _act, and have to explain their reasons or decisions.
As Mr. Russell says; “A group of )eople sitting down together to thresh mt a problem is far more Melanesian n character than a formalised debate n the legislature where the issue is inally put to the vote: and once a lecision is reached in committee it s far more likely to be accepted.”
In short, the traditional patterns »f Melanesian authority are being ynthesized in the 1970 BSIP con titution.
Systems like it have been tried be ore, notably in Ceylon and the ieychelles. It failed in the Seychelles Tobably because there is a developed tarty system there.
On a recent visit to the BSIP, found hope, but not over-con dence, in all sections of the olomons that the committee or division of operations” system will mrk there. It will be interesting to how it develops.