,font size=1>5-03-06, 9:30 am
Statement adopted by the Central Committee Executive of the CPA at its meeting of April 29-30, 2006
We congratulate the people of the Solomon Islands and those opposition parliamentarians who brought about the defeat of a corrupt government which was supported by foreign money and foreign military and police forces.
We see this as an important step to fully re-establish the independence and sovereignty of the Islands.
There are those who condemned the protests of the people as the actions of a “mob” and a “rabble” or as “unruly masses”. However, the demonstrations and the anger of the people on the streets was fundamental to the defeat of Snyder Rini and his government.
As in 2003, Australia and New Zealand intervened in the Solomon Islands using military and police forces. They justified this by referring to the Solomon Islands as a “failed state” and that it was necessary to restore “law and order”. As in 2003 and again recently, these arguments were used to back up and protect a government that was seen by many as being corrupt. Despite their alleged concern for “democracy” and the “security” of the region, their actions indicate that their concern only extends to governments which implement policies to their liking. “Security” really means internal security within the Solomon Islands and the protection of propertied and business interests and the establishment of a government or governments which will give preference to their interests.
But democracy can never be imposed by outsiders and security within the Solomon Islands is the responsibility of the people and government of the Solomon Islands.
Security in the South Pacific region is a collective responsibility of all the countries acting on the principles of cooperation and mutual benefit for all concerned. It is not the right of one country, no matter how powerful, to impose on others by threats or occupations their policies and interests.
Australia’s policies over many years were summed up by Geoffrey Barker in the Australian Financial Review (23/7/03). He wrote: “For years Australia has used its regional dominance to push Pacific nations towards the nirvana of free-market economic reforms: tariff cuts, private sector promotion, reduced government spending, more rigorous public accountability and investment transparency. The results have been dismal in big countries like Papua New Guinea and Fiji, they have been non-existent in smaller, poorer places like Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and Nauru.” Today, he could add the Solomon Islands.
Both the Australian Liberal and Labor Parties have supported over many years the same policies of interference, occupation and even the take-over of government responsibilities in South Pacific Island states. It is these policies that have been a dismal failure.
Writing in The Guardian in 2003, Peter Symon, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Australia said: 'From the first colonisation of the Pacific Islands by British, French and German colonialists and later by Australian Governments, they have attempted to impose their forms of government, their culture and language, their religion and their social ‘standards’ on Pacific Islanders. The undoubted economic, political and social problems that are faced by the Solomon Islands and many other nations of the Pacific Ocean (and many other countries around the world) are not going to be solved by the policies which are being imposed by armed might. They are not the solution but the problem.”
We call for:
1.Full respect for the sovereignty and independence of the Solomon Islands;
2.Respect for the traditions, cultural and religious heritage and the political and social practices of the Solomon Islands people;
3.The withdrawal of all the armed forces of Australia, New Zealand and any other outside country;
4.Assistance to be extended and trade to be conducted only on the basis of mutual benefit;
5.The rooting out of corruption that is endemic to the private enterprise commercial sector of the economy;
6.Elections to be free and fair and be held on the principle of one person one vote and the involvement of the Solomon Islands people in the affairs of the state.
One of the issues that arose in connection with recent events is the role played in the politics of the Solomon Islands by business interests associated with Taiwan and the diplomatic recognition by the Solomon Islands of Taiwan.
In connection with this matter we draw attention to the Ministerial Conference of the China-Pacific Island countries held in Fiji in the early days of April this year. The representative of the People’s Republic of China said at this conference that it is a strategic decision, not a diplomatic expediency, for China to foster friendship and cooperation with the Pacific Island countries.
He said that China aims to “accommodate each other’s interests and reinforce mutual support and establish a new economic and trade relationship of mutual benefit that meets the needs of the island countries. China is offering to give zero-tariff treatment to the majority of exports to China from the least developed countries in the region that have diplomatic ties with China and cancel their debts that became mature at the end of 2005.”
Friendship and cooperation is to be conducted on the principles of sovereignty, equality, territorial inviolability of every state whether big or small, non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, respect for the right of every people to freely decide their social, economic and political system and the settlement of any disputes through political means and negotiation.
These are different principles to those being pursued by the Australian and New Zealand governments which are still based on the attitudes and policies of colonialism. They offer an attractive alternative.
From The Guardian
