Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Indigenous Participation in Constitutional Development

2013; Routledge; Volume: 48; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00223344.2013.776784

1469-9605

Clive Moore,

Island Studies and Pacific Affairs

Abstract In 1950 the first four Solomon Islanders were nominated for the Advisory Council. Further constitutional reforms were made between 1960 and 1978, slowly preparing the Protectorate for a transfer of power through a unitary state operating under the Westminster system. British policy was guided by previous colonial experiences in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and to a limited extent by local circumstances, particularly through constitutional review committees. This paper addresses three central questions. Did Solomon Islanders make their own decisions when establishing the structure of their constitution and parliament, or were these decisions made for them by British and other advisers? What attempts were made to include Indigenous political structures in the governing process? To what extent did events elsewhere influence Solomon Islands political development? Notes 1The Protectorate was first divided into four districts: Eastern, Guadalcanal, Malaita and Western. From 1978 there were seven provinces: Guadalcanal, Malaita, Makira-Ulawa, Temotu, Isabel, Central and Western. In 1981 the Provincial Government Act was passed, which increased the level of provincial autonomy. Choiseul (Laura) Province was created in 1992, excised from Western Province, and Rennell and Bellona Province was created in 1996, excised from Central Province. 2An increase in the number of constituencies to 65 was mooted in 2009. 3Ministry of Development Planning and Aid Coordination, Government of the Solomon Islands, National Development Strategy 2011 to 2020 (Honiara 2011). 4 British Solomon Islands Protectorate Legislative Council Debates: official report, 31 May 1961, 1. 5Select Committee on Constitutional Development (1971–1972), Background Paper no. 4 – The Executive, Auckland, University of Auckland Library, Western Pacific High Commission Archives (hereinafter WPHC), 28/III, CF 343/15/123, 2–3. 6BSIP, Legislative Council Paper no. 22 of 1969, Report of a Special Select Committee appointed by the Legislative Council to Examine Proposals set out in Paper no. 119 of 1968 entitled Interim Proposals on Constitutional Development, Joan Herlihy papers, Canberra, Pacific Manuscripts Bureau (hereinafter PMB), PMB 1190, reel 10. 7S.A. de Smith, Forms of Government: New Experiments in the Commonwealth, WPHC, 343/15/123. 8BSIP, Legislative Council Paper no. 22 of 1969, 4. 9Sam Alasia, ‘Politics’, in Hugh Laracy (ed.), Ples Blong Iumi: Solomon Islands, the past four thousand years (Suva 1989), 143. 10Tom Russell, ‘The 1970 constitution for the British Solomon Islands’, in Marion W. Ward (ed.), The Politics of Melanesia: papers delivered at the fourth Waigani Seminar … (Canberra 1970), 231–32. 13Ibid., 234. 11Alasia, ‘Politics’, 144. 12Russell, ‘The 1970 constitution’, 236–37. 14Select Committee on Constitutional Development (1971–1972), Background Paper no. 5 – The Committee System, WPHC 28/III, CF 343/15/123, 1. 15 British Solomon Islands Protectorate News Sheet (hereinafter BSIPNS), 31 Apr., 15 May 1969; Solomon Mamaloni, ‘The road to independence: the first ten years’, in Ron Crocombe and Esau Tuza (eds), Independence, Dependence, Interdependence: the first 10 years of Solomon Islands independence (Honiara 1992), 16; Russell, ‘The 1970 constitution’, 235. 16S.R. Ashton, ‘Ceylon’, in Judith M. Brown and Wm. Roger Louis (eds), The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. 4: The Twentieth Century (Oxford 1999), 455–56; Russell, ‘The 1970 constitution’, 235. 17BSIPNS, 15 Apr. 1970. 18John Smith, An Island in Autumn (Kinloss 2011), 19–88. Smith, who was financial secretary from 1970 to 1973, provides an interesting view of the working of the Governing Council. 20Solomon Mamaloni, quoted in Warren A. Paia, ‘Aspects of constitutional development in the Solomon Islands’, The Journal of Pacific History, 10:2 (1975), 86–87. 19Solomon Mamaloni, Oral Submission, BSIP, Legislative Council Paper no. 22 of 1969. 21Paia, ‘Aspects of constitutional development’, 87–88. 22Francis Saemala, Our Independent Solomon Islands (Suva 1979), 21–22. 23 British Solomon Islands News Sheet (hereinafter BSINS), 16–31 Jan. 1972; Francis Saemala, ‘Solomon Islands: uniting the diversity’, in Ron Crocombe and Ali Ahmed (eds), Politics in Melanesia (Suva 1982), 70; Select Committee on Constitutional Development (1971–1972), WPHC 28/III, CF 343/15/123. 24BSINS, 16–30 Apr., 1–15 May, 16–31 May, 1–15 June 1972; Minutes of the first meeting of the British Solomon Islands Governing Council Special Select Committee on Constitutional Development, 19 Jan. 1972, WPHC 28/III, CF 343/15/123. 25W.A. Paia, ‘Letter to the editor’, BSINS, 1–16 Aug. 1972. 26Paia, ‘Aspects of constitutional development’, 84–86. Paia may have been referring to the Colonial Office, Oxford Conference on Colonial Policy, July 1965, Kew, National Archives, GEN 140/146. There is no mention of any influence from this conference in the BSIP and WPHC papers that I have seen, for instance in the Special Select Committee Report on Interim Proposals on Constitutional Development, Apr. 1969, or in the detailed background papers prepared for the 1971–1972 Select Committee on Constitutional Development (both referenced above). It may, however, have been distilled for the local audience. Also see Colin Allan, Bureaucratic Organisation for Development in Small Island States, National Centre for Development Studies, Australian National University, seminar paper, 1979, PMB 1189/269. 28Bishop Dudley Tuti, ‘An open letter to Solomon Islanders’, BSINS, 17–31 Aug. 1972. 29Francis Bugotu, ‘Letter to the editor’, BSINS, 16–30 Sep. 1972. 27BSINS, 1–15 Sep. 1972. 30Select Committee on Constitutional Development (1971–1972), Background Paper no. 8 – Pidgin English, WPHC 28/III, CF 343/15/123; ‘Proposals for a new constitution, talk 1', BSINS, 16 Jan.–15 Feb. 1973. 33BSINS, 1–15 Nov. 1972. 35‘Proposals for a new constitution, talk 5’, BSINS, 16 Jan.–15 Feb. 1973. 31‘The people of north west Malaita were in favour of a Council of Chiefs’, BSINS, 16–31 July 1972. 32BSINS, 17–31 Aug., 1–15 Sep. 1972. 34Ibid.; Alasia, ‘Politics’, 144. 36Ibid. 37BSINS, 22 June 1973. 38BSINS, 14 Dec. 1973. 39Frederick Osifelo, Kanaka Boy: an autobiography (Suva 1985), 52–54. 40This happened because both Mamaloni and Kinika represented Makira. Kinika thought that is was best that the chief minister and the leader of the opposition come from different islands. 41 Solomons News Drum, 2 May 1975. 42This related to the minting of some self-government commemorative coins by Phillips Creations Ltd. Peter Kenilorea, Tell It as It Is: autobiography of Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Kenilorea, KBE, PC, Solomon Islands' first prime minister, ed. Clive Moore (Taipei 2008), 187; Saemala, ‘Solomon Islands: uniting the diversity’, 71–72; Saemala, Our Independent Solomon Islands, 4–5; ‘Mamaloni resigns’, Solomons News Drum, 21 Nov. 1975; ‘Mamaloni re-elected chief minister’, Solomons News Drum, 5 Dec. 1975. 43‘My government one of walkouts, reshuffles – Mamaloni’, Solomons News Drum, 7 May 1976. 44Saemala, Our Independent Solomon Islands, 3. 45‘The Mamaloni interview’, Solomons News Drum, 28 Feb. 1975. 46Saemala, Our Independent Solomon Islands, 1; Constitutional Talks in UK on British Solomon Islands, Pacific Dependent Territories, Kew, National Archives, FCO 32/1260 HPS 1/18 (part A). 47Saemala, Our Independent Solomon Islands, 1–2. 48Saemala, ‘Solomon Islands: uniting the diversity’, 72–5; Saemala, Our Independent Solomon Islands, 4; Solomons News Drum, 2 July 1976. 49Deputy Governor A.T. Clark, ‘Solomon Islands Constitutional Committee: Legal Advisers’, 25 Nov. 1975, Honiara, Solomon Islands National Archives, file no. HPS 1/24, SINA FCP 32/1263. Brown had been attorney-general of Tanganyika and later principal legal adviser to President Julius Nyerere. On his retirement from Tanzania, he joined the Commonwealth Secretariat's advisory unit on economic laws and agreements. In this capacity, he also assisted with the negotiations between Papua New Guinea and Bougainville in 1976. Yash Ghai, pers. comm., 7 Nov. 2011. 50Report of the Constitutional Committee 1975, March 1976, Joan Herlihy Papers, PMB 1190, reel 10; ‘Sub-committee makes 1st draft of findings’, Solomons News Drum, 6 Feb. 1976; ‘Report on new laws criticized’, Solomons News Drum, 30 Apr. 1976. 51Saemala, Our Independent Solomon Islands, 6–17. 52The Constitutional Committee toured between 13 Oct. and 22 Dec., visiting all districts including the Polynesian outliers. Report of the Constitutional Committee 1975, appendix 2. See also ‘Independence talks may be delayed’, Solomons News Drum, 24 Sep. 1976. 53Report of the Constitutional Committee 1975, chap. 8, 17; ‘Councils to study role of chiefs’, Solomons News Drum, 15 Oct. 1976. 54Maasina Rule was an Indigenous proto-nationalist movement grounded in a desire for self-government and self-determination. The movement began on Malaita in early 1944 and ended in 1952. Always centred on Malaita, it also spread to neighbouring islands. With the Protectorate still weak after World War II, Maasina Rule disturbed the British attempt to reintroduce their pre-war administration. It was the most significant proto-nationalist movement in the British Pacific colonies. Malaita Council, established in 1953, was one of its major outcomes. David Akin, Colonialism, Maasina Rule, and the Origins of Malaitan Kastom (Honolulu 2012). 55Colin H. Allan, Solomons Safari, 1953–58, 2 vols (Christchurch 1989–1990); Colin H. Allan, Customary Land Tenure in the British Solomon Islands Protectorate (Honiara 1957). 56‘“Act now” call on constitutional study’, Solomons News Drum, 29 Oct. 1976. 57Report of the Constitutional Committee 1975, 5. 58Colin H. Allan, Untitled account of constitutional development in the Solomon Islands, 1975–1978, PMB 1189/267; Solomons Toktok, 26 July 1978. 59It also echoed the efforts at consultation in neighbouring Papua New Guinea; see this issue, Jonathan Ritchie, ‘Defining citizenship for a new nation: Papua New Guinea, 1972–1974’, The Journal of Pacific History, 48:2 (2013), forthcoming. 60 Solomons News Drum, 4 Mar., 11 Mar. 1976, 23 Sep. 1977; Kenilorea, Tell It As It Is, 222–24. 61Kenilorea, Tell It As It Is, 215–34; Yash Ghai, ‘The making of the independence constitution’, in Peter Larmour (ed.), Solomon Islands Politics (Suva 1983), 9–52; Yash Ghai, ‘Constitution making and decolonisation’, in Yash Ghai (ed.) Law, Politics and Government in Pacific Islands States (Suva 1988), 1–53; Solomons News Drum, 15 Oct. 1976. 62The delegation consisted of Kenilorea, Benedict Kinika (minister of finance), Francis Billy Hilly (minister for home affairs), Paul Tovua (minister for natural resources), Jonathan Fifi‘i (leader of the opposition group) and Bartholomew Ulufa‘alu (leader of the opposition). They were accompanied by Professor Yash Ghai (constitutional adviser), two officials from the Ministry of Finance (Tony Hughes and George Kejoa) and two from the Chief Minister's Office (Arthur Stoneham and Francis Saemala). The governor, Sir Colin Allan, was also present. Saemala, Our Independent Solomon Islands, 7; Kenilorea, Tell It As It Is, 218–19. 63Charles Valusa (East Guadalcanal) and Ben Tumulima (Nggela). The original proposal was to send all 38 members of the assembly and two officials, with the Protectorate paying the airfares and the British government paying for accommodation. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office blanched at the size of the accommodation bill, and eventually 25 members attended. As Kenilorea described, the large size of the delegation was to the advantage of the Solomon Islanders, as the British were not keen on bearing the cost of extended negotiations. Kenilorea, Tell It As It Is, 226. 64Clive Moore, ‘Papua and New Guinea's political development to 1967’, in Clive Moore (ed.), A Papua New Guinea Political Chronicle, 1967–1991 (Bathurst and London 1998), xx–xxv; Clive Moore, New Guinea: crossing boundaries and history (Honolulu 2003), 196–97. 65‘New Hebrides looks to the future’, Solomons News Drum, 30 July 1976. 66George Kalkoa, ‘Kafman’, in Vanuatu: twenti wan tingting long team blong independens (Suva 1980), 165–71; Stephen Henningham, France and the South Pacific: a contemporary history (Honolulu 1992), 31–43. 67Lissant Bolton, Unfolding the Moon: enacting women's kastom in Vanuatu (Honolulu 2003), 19; Lissant Bolton, ‘Leading lights in the “Mother of Darkness”: perspectives on leadership and value in North Ambrym, Vanuatu’, Oceania, 73:2 (2002), 126–42. 68Brij V. Lal, Broken Waves: a history of the Fiji Islands in the twentieth century (Honolulu 1992), 212. 69Barrie Macdonald, Cinderellas of the Empire: towards a history of Kiribati and Tuvalu (Canberra 1982), 220–43. 70Richard Shears, The Coconut War: the crisis on Espiritu Santo (North Ryde 1980); John Beasant, The Santo Rebellion: an imperial reckoning (Honolulu 1984); Ralph Premdas, Jeff Steeves and Peter Larmour, ‘The western breakaway movement in the Solomon Islands’, Pacific Studies, 7:2 (1984), 34–67. In the mid-1970s politicians in the Western Solomons began to agitate for separation of the region from the Solomon Islands or for provincial status, citing a variety of factors: the region's economic importance; the common darker skin colour of its people; its unique languages, values and history; and desire for local control of previously alienated land. Western Province did not celebrate independence in 1978, although quietly a year later Prime Minister Kenilorea was able to visit and the national flag was raised. 71Neither of these leaders ever seriously considered incorporating kastom chiefs in the national government process. The evidence comes from my extensive access to Sir Peter Kenilorea's views when I edited his autobiography and from discussions with Christopher Chevalier, who is writing a biography of Mamaloni.