DEAR EDITOR, Prime Minister Sogavare has said the Solomon Islands does not have any external adversaries (which I interpret as security threats) and this accords with my own assessment.
Threats to internal security in the years 1998 Dec) through to 1993, in 2006, and in 2021 have been domestic in nature.
I forecast the domestic nature of the nation’s security threats when I addressed a Pacific Armies Management Seminar (PAMS) in Manila in March 1998 and again when I briefed the attendees of the Australia and Solomon Islands Mutual Aid Programme held in May the same year (1998)
What I said on those earlier occasions holds good today, 24 years on, and still relates to a lack of development, especially in Honiara, to unemployment and lack of jobs, especially amongst the youth, urban drift, unauthorized squatter habitation, excessive use of alcohol, including waste and the breakdown in traditional powers and influence of chiefs and village and community elders.
I worry greatly that in dealing with any future public order breakouts, in the absence of having dealt with the domestic causes of security threats, the police service, armed with M4 carbine rifles said to be delivered to the RSIPF by the Australian Government via the AFP, will bring about a “top-heavy” police force with disregard on the face of it to policing by minimum force according to recognized international standards.
Frank Short
Bangkok