Makira – A sleeping economic giant

Friday, 02 July 2010 09:21


MAKIRA is a fascinating island.

Its open coastline, certainly from Kira Kira – the Makira/Ulawa provincial capital to Arosi II – can be less friendly at times.

Several ships have come to grief in several areas around the island.

Although I have traveled widely throughout Solomon Islands, a three-day trip to Makira in early June this year was my first there.

That trip, albeit short, has given me a better understanding of the island’s strategic geography, its natural resources and the potential it has in terms of a robust, rural-based economy politicians have talked about for the last three decades, but had done little to live it.

Dick Ha’amori, a former head of the Solomon Islands College of Higher Education (SICHE), was our guide of sort on the trip.

Our Kira Kira-bound flight on the Twin Otter from Honiara was late, but we made good time on the hour-long flight.

It was a beautiful day, with what appeared, certainly from the air, as nothing but glassy seas below. As we made landfall, one could clearly see the scars of logging operations below us.

“That’s Waimapuru National Secondary down there,” someone said to me as he pointed to buildings on the coastline below us.

On the way into town from the airstrip, we passed a tract of land, designated for the new Kira Kira Township.

It was surveyed about a year or so ago, but to date the report has been withheld because of non-payment of a $50,000 fee.

We settled briefly at the Freshwind Motel, just metres away from the Kira Kira hospital.

“The roof of that hospital building has never been repaired in 60 years,” someone pointed to the rusted corrugated iron roofing on the building.

As we had time to kill before we set out on our two-hour boat ride to Boroni, Mr Ha’amori’s home village, we took a drive around town, traveling past the hospital and on to what is regarded as the main seaport.

The seaport is an interesting place. On one side is a privately-operated fuel depot and on the other is a Chinese-run retail shop, which I was told had created quite a competition for local operators.

There are outboard canoes everywhere, but there’s no wharf.

“This is the most depressing sight I’ve ever seen,” someone in our group said.

At 5pm, we were finally on our way to Boroni – a two-hour ride away in Arosi I, arriving there around 8pm that Saturday night.

Because we headed west, the daylight seemed longer, giving me an opportunity to quiz the two Makira/Ulawa Provincial Government Ministers who traveled with us about the coconut plantations that dotted the coastline.

“Those are coconut plantations you see along the coast. There are cocoa plantations as well and the road goes through them,” they told me.

The road goes almost the entire length of the island. Sites of logging operations too were visible against the background of the setting sun.

On Monday morning, it was another long trip right to the southern tip of the island and up the western coastline of Makira otherwise known as Arosi II. Again, it was a perfect day for traveling on open, motorised canoe.

Heranigao – a large South Sea Evangelical Church village was our first stop for the day. There, some landowners have come out to meet and hear New Zealand businessman, Kelvyn Alp, talk about his business model.

These landowners have apparently heard about what he’s doing on Guadalcanal and want to hear it from the horse’s mouth as it were.

The two-hour meeting dragged into four. It was 4pm by the time we left.

It was on the way to Heranigao village, a name meaning ants’ cemetry in the local dialect, that something bizarre happened to my digital camera.

As we were dropping off two people on a cliff face there, a small wave hit our canoe, wetting my camera bag.

As I switched it on, the light and the viewfinder came on but not the screen. It was all blank.

I learned later that where we had made the drop was not far from the entrance of a tunnel rumored to have a military base on Makira.

This “base” so says some reports, is where so called soundless military planes, submarine and even amphibian vehicles operate from.

All manners of state of the art gadgetry including telecommunications are in operation here, according to those familiar with the reports on military activities inside the tunnel base.

My camera returned to normal three days later after I had arrived back in Honiara. It was just as well I had taken a few photos around the Marou Bay area before the mishap.

I would have missed the beautiful scenery altogether otherwise.

As we headed back to Kira Kira that Monday night, questions were going through my mind – questions such as why Makira has not taken off economically.

After all, it has cocoa, coconut plantations, not to mention banana ones, timber, mineral potentials and a road network, all make for an economically robust and viable unit. Its outer islands are great places for tourism, fisheries and so on.

Makira, in my mind, is not living its full potential. Yes, it is contributing to the national basket in terms of copra and cocoa exports, timber and so on, but its resources far outstrip its population.

And yet it does not seem to be moving, why? Is it leadership?

Freshwind Hotel proprietor, Noel Mamau, blamed a Makira mindset for this stagnancy in development, so evident in Kira Kira.

“You see we have a mindset here in Kira Kira that a wharf can never be built here. The reason: no wharf can be built in an open coastline. It is rough,” he said.

“But hang on, what are engineers for?” he asked.

He said political leadership is at the heart of the matter.

“Look at Kira Kira, we’re about to celebrate our centenary and yet government houses built during the colonial administration time have never been repaired.

“Kira Kira should set the development benchmark for what happens in the province.

“When nothing happens here, nothing happens anywhere in the province. And that’s the mindset our people have – nothing will happen here,” Mr Mamau, a candidate contesting this year’s national general election, said.

"Our market here is one example. Vendors only come to the market for an hour [6am – 7am] every day except on Sundays.

“They never bring anything that they believe would not sell after that 7am. And that’s a mindset,” he said.

As we prepare to head to the airport, I turned to Mr Ha’amori and repeated what I had said to him over the last two days. I told him the conclusion of my assessment.

“You are way, way ahead of some of us when it comes to the basic infrastructure you need to build a viable and robust economic unit in West Makira,” I said.

“You have a road network that almost spans the island. You have banana, cocoa and coconut plantations, which some of us don’t have. Your answer it seems now lies in organising and providing leadership.”

Makira Island in my view is a sleeping economic giant, ready to take off given a leadership that focuses on its rural population and the abundant resources available to them.

Its set up is perfect for the Rural Economic Communities [RECs], which the Direct Development Party [DDP] espouses.

Mr Ha’amori heads the DDP and is its candidate for the West Makira Constituency.

Could he be the man to end the Makira mindset and set in motion an avalanche of new thinking to develop this naturally-rich island?

The outcome of the contest for the seat will be an interesting one to watch.


By ALFRED SASAKO

Alfred Sasako is a veteran journalist and a candidate for the East Kwaio seat in Malaita in this year’s national elections. He is a member of the Direct Development Party