Transcript
LAURIE CHAN: The purpose that was here was basically to bring the rule of law back to our country. I think they've achieved that. I’ve been in politics since 2002 and served my time as a public servant. If you had to compare the environment in 2002 to what we have now, albeit nothing is perfect, we still have crimes. It is in much better shape, is has much more opportunity to move on and to progress into something the Solomon Islands wants to grow.
KOROI HAWKINS: I guess it’s that progress, that moving that people are sort of concerned about. Can the Solomon Islands make progress or build on where RAMSI has helped it get to now?
LC: I think so. I think it will take time it will take a lot of political will by the leaders of this country to steer it in a direction that they would like to see as long as it is in harmony with our people and where they want to go. So, yeah, RAMSI was here to give that opportunity without that rule of law you won’t get there. But now it really depends on Solomon Island people. They need to decided where they want to go and to pick the leaders they want to take them there in their capacity as a public servant
KH: There are concerns about various thing related to security, to corruption, the ways things are run, basically to the issues that led to the tensions in their first place, inequality, wealth, land, for issues, those not being settled by RAMSI. Do you think that’s a lost opportunity on the Solomon Islands side?
LC: Well, RAMSI, like I said is the rule of law. They've got to bring out the rule of law. They can’t run our country, that wasn't their mandate in the first place. Some people might say that's a very limited mandate. We should have expanded it further to include all the things that you've just said. But I don’t think we could have got them in if we had given them everything - if we gave them everything they might as well rule the country. That’s not our purpose, our purpose was that there was a breakdown of law and order. They had to come in and help us fix it. And the other stuff - it’s really up to us. In many ways RAMSI coming here questions our ability and we have the will now to make use of their presence to guide our people and look at how we can fix all the problems that cause the attention in the first place. That's our job.