Homegrown Constitution? What in the world?

The former Governor General and one of the contributors to the draft Solomon Islands Federal Constitution, Sir. George Lepping, told Radio New Zealand International, and quoted by the Solomon Star news online, "that once the Draft Constitution of Solomon Islands becomes a law there is likely that to be less ethnic unrest." Solomonstar

Just how in the world can a Constitution of 169 pages reduced social unrest in Solomon Islands? This more than a myth-a claim that has no basis, no rationality, and an outright ridiculous statement from a man I thought knew better since he was a former governor of Solomon Islands and should have aware of the dangers we face everyday in a country of diverse culture, ethnicity, and race?

In that interview with the RNZI, Sir. Lepping claimed that the Draft Federal Constitution had been compiled with contributions from all sectors of SI:

Sir George said youth, women, legal practitioners, villagers and politicians have been involved therefore the new constitution is homegrown.

This is incredible and indeed presumptuous on the part of the former Governor General. Those who tore Solomon Islands down between 1998 and 2003 have little contribution to this Constitution, and majority of Solomon Islands have no clue what the DFCSI talking about-the words are simply of legal concourse. In other words, the Constitution's audience are "lawyers" who speak the languages of the Constitution. The average Solomon Islanders have no clue what, and how their social lifestyles are defined in legal terms by this DFCSI. Thus, to believe that this DFCSI is more likely to reduce ethnic unrest in SI is quite a stretch of reality.
This is not a "Homegrown" constitution as Mr. Lepping claimed, rather a piece of paper put together by lawyers who think they know better, who think they understand the basic needs of our poor people in the villages; lawyers who think they can solve the problems of our people by simply using colorful legal wordings on a piece paper, and who in the future will interpret it suit their own butts! The country, I mean those who make up majority of Solomon Islands- those who have little say on many of the political discussions taken place in Honiara, care little about this Constitution and this political transition. They don't care! this is a Honiara based constitution cooked by the elites in government and cronies in law-firms around Honiara with the help of foreign legal and political advisers! Not a "homegrown" constitution. Ask anyone in the villages to open this stupid Draft Federal Constitution and ask him if he understands any of the crap that is written in it! Ask the villagers to read this 160+ pages Constitution and ask them if they can point out where and how this Constitution protects their social life, cultural, and their properties-lands and sea? You won't find anyone in the villages that understands this garbage like the lawyers living and driving air-conditioned cars in Honiara city!

The myths and Truths
One of the main reasons, besides Malaitans aggression toward the people of Guadalcanal, why Guadalcanal youths took up arms against Malaitans is the illegal occupation of indigenous Guale land by, not only Malaitans, Solomon Islanders moving to town from other Provinces. In part, the British colonial administration contributed much to this, but there is no explanation as to the perpetual expansion of illegal settlements into Guale land in post-colonial era. To date, the settlements that were vacated during the tension have been repopulated after the return of law-and-order in 2003. The very root-causes of the past battle between MEF and GRA are back to where they were before. This Constitution doesn't guarantee that illegal settlements would eventually eliminated, nor does it restricting the practices of Solomon Islanders in Honaira who can't afford a town home, to build settlements in lands that aren't belonging to them.

In fact one of the biggest attributes of Federalism is "mobility". The fact that Honiara will be serve as the Federal Capital the new Republic as it is today, internal migration will not reduce but may increase exponentially under the new system. It may also mean that the settlements in Guadalcanal land will not stop. I believe also believe that Honiara population may increase in the next 10 years. And social scientists would agree with me that one of the weaknesses of population explosion in crowded city is "crime". It is only in Communist nations such as China, North Korea, and in Middel Eastern countries under the Sharia Islamic Law that crimes in crowded cities are controlled under severe physical control! Which means the people are subjected to beating, torture, and execution. We all know that this is not a democratic way of maintaining law and order. In the Western world, Democratic nations use crimes in a more business approach. Lawyers have their shares, prison services also benefitting from this, and so is the government. So it is unlikely that Crime rate will be decreased in SI under this Federal system, and since the Federal Constitution doesn't restrict migration of Solomon Islanders to Honiara, Honiara city will not change at all from its current state, therefore, crime rate may increase instead of decreasing, under this new system.

In addition to that, Honiara is protected by the Draft Federal System, making it impossible for the Guadalcanal Province to impose its State law on Solomon Islanders living in Honiara, and on lands within the bounds of Honiara town, but with no proper legal acquisition from the landowners. If Federalism is established with the idea that it is the only remedy to our nations social and ethnic problems, I am afraid that it won't solve a damn thing. This DFCSI doesn't give the people of Guadalcanal the ability to address the problems that brought about the Guale uprising in 1998.