Dear Editor

Firstly I would like to commend Drummond for his strong stance and argument for the statehood system as a way forward for our nation. Well my views are somewhat similar to those express by Drummond. From my point of view provinces are only agents of the National government on the current political system. As a result major decision making and controls are being done like remote controls from Honiara. This is in spite of the fact that most of the resources that drive the country are from the Provinces. This I believe is unfair. I believe the current political system needs to be reviewed and improved.

Therefore we need to see a Political system that will include but not limited with the following key features;
- A system that gives more powers and responsibilities to the Provincial Government. A system that empowers Provincial Governments to manage as much as possible their own resources & services. The degree of accountabilities & responsibilities will be determined by the capacities of respective Provincial Governments to perform the required functions. This is a development process that will be gradual. The National Government will need to mentor the Provincial Governments on the change processes.
- A system that will encourage to distribute Departments that perform National roles to the Provincial Governments. Get developments out to the Islands, to the people. This is to avoid all services & developments to accumulate in Honiara as it is today. This will mean we need to design our own Government system that reflects diverse values & norms in the islands. A system that will express our heritage, cultures and customs. It calls for creativity.

We may learn from the basic political principles in other countries but I believe we must not copy the details of the systems in other countries. This is because the foreign political systems are expressions of their cultures, customs, values, histories & norms. Thus such imported political systems will be like wrong tools for given tasks.