It's hard to believe our nation has fallen so far, so quickly. In little more than a dozen years we have gone from a nation enjoying a solid future to one wracked by fear and evil. Rather than looking forward to a great 25th anniversary celebration early next month, we wait uneasily with a strange mixture of hope and fear. We hope against hope that things might actually get better, to turn our country around from being the Pacific's biggest beggar to once more becoming the master of our future. But we also fear that we haven't seen the worst of our problems. Solomon Islands has become the first Pacific islands nation to invite Australia's military to 'invade' us, to bring us back to sanity, to help us create a worthy future both for ourselves and our children.

The last five years have been bad, real bad. But if we turn ourselves around by 2005 with the help of the friends, then there's good chance that our children will live in a Solomon Islands that we first dreamt of 25 years ago. First of all, however, it must be clear and accepted by all where our problems come from. They are man-made, pure and simple!

We did not suffer some terrible of Act of God, e.g. grave sickness, or a natural disaster like an earthquake, cyclone or an enemy army from afar which destroyed us. No, it was we ourselves who did it to each other. Our own selfishness, thievery (false compensation claims, bogus allowance demands, stealing cars, trucks, goods, etc), killing, torturing and outright hatred that pulled us down. To build the nation back once again means that those who did the killing, thieving, destroying must not only stop and turn their lives around. Some must actually pay for their crimes.

Near by neighbors are willing to send troops and armed police to take the guns out of the hands of those who willingly destroyed the nation for their own deep greedy pockets. But soldiers and armed police taking back the guns is only the first step. Going after the criminals is our next necessary step.

Our national sickness is one of the soul . We fool ourselves to think what is needed are a battalion of accountants, dozens of new judges and hundreds of military personnel. These people can help. Our biggest help, however, comes from ourselves. We are given a last chance to get it right. In 1978, our future looked rosy. We had little or no debt, no great tribal rivalries, no terrible war scars to heal and a people willing and able to get a nation up and running.

In fact the first 8 years of our short national history--1978-1986--we made progress. Slow, yes, but basic progress: two steps forward, one step back. Education blossomed, medical attention reached the villager and youth found jobs. Unfortunately from 1987-1997 our politicians with the help of many landowners wanted to move faster. Rape the nation's forest wealth became their solution. Yes, great heaps of money were made but by the few, the rest of the nation suffered.

Village life--always hard and difficult--became even more so when education and medical services decayed. Money which should have been gained through the sale of the nation's timber was given away and squandered by the few, mostly the political elite and their cronies. The nation's wealth--better education, health facilities, jobs, entertainment, the 'good life'--heaped up in Honiara. Little made its way to those that were the poorest and least able, the villager. Is it any wonder that the poorest rebelled against such an unfair situation!

But to really change our future means radical surgery. It can not be a case of 'business as usual'. Leaders, no matter how high up in government, who profited illegally either by outright stealing or through clever working the system must face the courts. If found guilty, they earn a place in Rove. The killers, rapists and torturers must face the law as well. If guilty, they too must feel the law's full brunt. Gun runners, bank fraudsters, property stealers, etc. would be well advised to look for legal help now because they will face a judge soon. No longer will these nation destroyers hide behind their guns, gangs and thugs because these too will already have earned themselves a Rove cell.

This is not about 'settling old scores' but about bring back the rule of law. Far too long have we been under gang rule. All the necessary laws are already on the books. The coming armed intervention gives the nation a chance for the law system to work, to bring back common sense by actually applying these laws to those who almost destroyed us. If we don't get it right this time, there's no next time.

The next few years is the nation's last chance to pull itself back from destruction. The task is immense but the number of good people is enormous. The Good Lord does not seek our destruction but he will not do our work for us. Either we do it together or it won't be done. The Australians/New Zealanders are coming in to help us. We ourselves have now to do the work. Parliamentarians are instructed: Don't waste this chance!


6 June 2003