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BOOK REVIEWS 2°3
1987 Constitution Review CommitteeReport, Solomon Mamaloni, chair.Honiara: Government Printer, 1988. 3volumes, 826 pp.
This massive document is the first sys-. tematic review of the Solomon Islands
constitution since it was enacted by theBritish parliament in 1978. Criticism ofthe politicians who formed a majorityof the review committee made them
From this we can see the anthropologist looking at the people who arelooking at the anthropologist.Borofsky was acutely aware that whathe was doing was not of the people'sculture but about both theirs and hisown and the culture of anthropology aswell. He has told how Pukapukansconstruct their reality and at the sametime shown how he constructed hisreality concerning their reality. His lastchapter is a reflection of anthropological ways of knowing-fresh, open,accessible.
Borofsky's discussion of how thePukapukans value the Beaglehole ethnography as an account of themselveswill in time be echoed in his own workfor he has presented Pukapukans tothemselves without condescension orconcession. His informants wouldsurely agree with his statement, "partof the reason for the differing accounts... stems from my being too curious.I asked too many questions." To hiscredit, no one could possibly thinkthat this ethnography is any the worsefor it.
JAMES RITCHIE
University 0/ Waikato
publish the evidence and backgroundpapers that led, they say, to their recommendations. The three volumes area fascinating source of material onSolomon Islands political culture, andraise wider questions about participation, popular authoritarianism, federalism, the rights of indigenous people,and the role of constitutions. Many ofthe documents and recommendationsbear the strong imprint of the ideas ofone of the country's most original politicians, Solomon Mamaloni, whochaired the committee.
The first volume, Evidence, recordsthe 151 oral and written submissionsmade to the committee, mainly by individuals, but also by groups of "chiefs,"professional associations, and government departments. Only one submission was made by a political party (thePeople's Alliance Party)-perhaps anindicator of the irrelevance of parties inthe Solomons political system. The volume also includes 14 "tour reports" ofthe visits made by committee membersto public meetings in most parts of thecountry. Some of the reports providean engaging diary of the trip: rows overcabin allocations, "very filling" breakfasts, meetings skipped because localpeople were in mourning, and a submission so long that it covered sevenblackboards.
The results are summarized, ifsomewhat slanted, as the "people'sviews" in Volume 2, BackgroundPapers. It also includes an interimreport, seeking an extension of timeandIIloney; a summary of the provisions of the existing constitution, andthe questionnaire used during publicmeetings; a summary of the writtenand oral submissions; a paper on
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2°4 THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC. SPRING/FALL 1989
bicameralism; and a paper on "Fundamental Defects of the Present Constitution." The last recapitulates many ofthe "New Right" ideas that were part ofSolomon Mamaloni's platform asPrime Minister from 1981 to 1984: hostility to government regulation andjoint ventures with foreign capital, criticism of the "discriminatory" lendingpolicies of banks, and support for afederal system of government.
The "people's views," as summarized, were roughly as follows. The1978 constitution, enacted by a foreignparliament and embodying foreignideas, is no longer appropriate. Itsdemocratic ideals must be "consideredin the context of the long term interestsof indigenous Solomon Islanders," andthe new constitution must include reference to the "wisdom and authority ofchiefs," cultural diversity, indigenousownership of land and natural resources, and the rights of communitiesand clans as well as individuals. Community rights should be expressed invarious ways: a restoration of capitalpunishment; limits on the introductionof new religions; limits on the numberof political parties (no more thanthree); limits on freedom of movementbetween provinces (perhaps by internalpassports); and economic discrimination in favor of indigenous people, asagainst naturalized citizens and resident foreigners. Citizenship lawsshould be tougher (the tour reportscontain frequent references to Fiji as anegative example, to foreign businessme!1,ancl to the several thousand .Gilbertese settlers in the SolomonIslands). The country should become a"Republican Confederation of States,"with an indigenous elected president.
Chiefs should be represented in anupper house. Alienated land should bereturned to its traditional owners,whose rights should extend to mineralsfound under their land. The viewsabout provincial government are,appropriately, different for each province, most preferring a form of federalism, but some of the small islands preferring rule by lower level "AreaCouncils" dealing directly with the central government in the capital,Honiara.
When it comes to Recommendations, however, the committee is of twominds. Volume 3 contains two inconsistent recommendations, with detailed"drafting guidelines" for each, but doesnot say which the committee favors.Recommendation One, for a "FederalRepublic," roughly follows the summary of the tour reports and Mamaloni's economic critique of the constitution set out in Volume 2. But it fudgesthe politically important question ofthe number of states (particularlywhether Choiseul Island should haveits own) and whether they shouldincorporate the smaller outlyingislands. Recommendation Two, for a"Unitary Republic," is more incremental. The queen is replaced by an indigenous, largely ceremonial president.There is a new senate, constitutedrather like Fiji's before the coups. Otherwise, the changes are minor, thoughthe constitution would be adopted byparliament sitting as a constituentassembly and would thus achieve forma.! autochthony..
Many of the issues canvassed by thecommittee, such as the position of thehead of state, the powers of provincialgovernments, and the place of tradi-
BOOK REVIEWS
tionalleaders, were also discussed byits predecessors in the 1970S (who alsoextensively toured the country). Butthere have been changes to the agenda.Almost nobody now seems to favor acontinued link with the British monarchy (even the governor general's ownsubmission is noncommittal). Awoman is now on the committee, and asubmission from the National Councilof Women recommends constitutionalamendments against wife-beating andrape (while a tour report records thecountersuggestion of constitutionalamendments to keep women in theirtraditional place). And the process ofreview is now carried out without foreign advisers and consultants. At leasttwo themes are of wider relevance tothe South Pacific. First, the continuingpressure to incorporate traditionalleaders ("chiefs") into the formal structures of government and to qualify liberal constitutional provisions for individulll rights. Second, the fate ofconstitutional reviews: a similar committee reported in Papua New Guineain 1983, for example, but only some ofits report has been debated by parliament. Meanwhile, piecemeal constitutional amendments continue to be proposed by members of parliament, notnecessarily following the review's recommendations.
PETER LARMOUR
University of Tasmania
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Return to-theHighValley.: ComingFull Circle, by Kenneth E. Read.Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1986. xxi + 269 pp, photographs, index. us$18.95.
2°5
As I started Return to the High Valley,I harbored some doubts about thebook. Although the book was verygood reading, I wasn't quite sure that itwas "good" anthropology. I soon realized that Read, with his eloquent andaccessible writing style, offers an excellent and engaging description of thechanging world of the Gahuku Gamaof the Papua New Guinea Highlands.He has given us what is perhaps thebest anthropology available thesedays.
Read describes Return as a postscript to his earlier book, The HighValley (1965), but Return stands on itsown. I do not doubt, though, that thenew book will stimulate many to eitherread or reread the older work, and thusenrich their understanding of theGahuku. In Return, Read embarks ona voyage of self-discovery, returning toa world unseen for three decades. Intrying to understand the present, heconstantly bumps into the past.Indeed, just as he expanded his knowledge and understanding of the Gahukuthrough comparing the present withthe past while he was there, so too doeshe teach us by weaving the past andpresent together, presenting a changingtapestry of Gahuku culture.
Read charts the course of changefrom the immediate postwar period tothe beginning of the eighties. He contends that the people of Susuroka village, where he lived among theGahuku, far from mourning their lostpast and passively receiving imposed
-Westerninstitutions and culturaLpat- .terns, are rather pragmatic, taking themain chance offered by contact withthe outside world.
The Gahuku showed no regrets