ICTJ in the News

July 17, 2008

Engagement of Ranjit Hewagama

Solomon Star

DEAR EDITOR - I refer to the column "View Point: Gov't hypocrisy - here's more to it," on pages 8-9, Solomon Star, Friday, 11th, July, 2008, No. 3679.

I wish to correct the misinformation supplied by the Office of the Leader of Opposition on those pages about the engagement of the former Legal Draftsman who has been invited back to draft the Truth and Reconciliation Bill, 2008.

This misinformation was repeated in the column, View Point, on page 9, of Island Sun, published on Tuesday, 15 July, 2008.

This is the truth. Believe me. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission Steering Committee was set up by the Cabinet of the former Sogavare Government.

The Paper that went to Cabinet for approval was jointly sponsored by the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs and the Ministry of Reconciliation and National Unity.

The policy of the then Government on the reconciliation issue appears on page 10 of the Grand Coalition for Change Government (GCCG) in the Political Directions document that bears the name and signature of Mr Sogavare, undated.

The same appears on page 7 of the Coalition for National Unity and Rural Advancement Government (CNURA), dated in January, 2008 with the same level of priority.

A number of citizens had been approved by Cabinet in 2007 to be members of the Truth and Reconciliation Steering Committee, including myself as the Chairman.

The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Reconciliation and National Unity is also a member of our Committee.

Our Committee is a Government appointed Steering Committee mandated by the then Government to implement Government Policy on this issue and to come up with a set of drafting instructions for the drafting of a Government Bill to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Solomon Islands.

I accepted the chairmanship of the Steering Committee because I thought I would contribute something to this worthy cause for our country.

Our Committee then set to work immediately. This Government Policy, as we understood it, was given top priority and we were given a timeline within which to complete the work.

We were told that the Bill must be ready by the November, 2007 sitting of Parliament.

As chairman, I was a bit worried because I was not an expert in the subject of truth and reconciliation. I told the committee about my own ignorance. We were all in the same boat more or less.

Fortunately, Ruth Liloqula, a Permanent Secretary, had done some preliminary work on the issue and cited the Truth and Reconciliation and other similar commissions elsewhere. She is also a member of our Committee.

However, her work needed to be further extended. As we were brainstorming, I was already thinking ahead about the drafting aspect of our mandate.

I immediately wrote to the then Government Legal Draftsman, Ranjit Hewagama, and sought his advice.

I wanted him to be ready in good time so that when we came running to him for a draft, he would not be taken by surprise.

I told him that we were under pressure to produce a bill that we had no idea in our minds as to what it would look like and what would be its content.

We literally found ourselves in unchartered waters. We were planning to go on overseas visits to learn from the experience of others like in South Africa for example but time was not on our side.

We also had to consult extensively within Solomon Islands itself within the time limit available to us.
On technical aspects of the issue, we were forced by our own limiting circumstance to scout the internet websites to find anything that would be relevant and of use to us.

Unfortunately, Ranjit Hewagama was sacked by the Government. There was a gap in time that we did not have a draftsman. This was a set back for me as Chairman.

However, I was assured by Joy Kere, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Reconciliation and National Unity that Government had put out feelers to the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation, (CFTC) in London and the response was in the affirmative.

After painstaking efforts to get further information and enlightenment on the issue from internet websites, we were able to conclude the drafting instructions and have them ready for drafting purposes. In the meantime, there was a change of Government towards the end of last year.

The next step was finding a good draftsman. I had in mind Ranjit Hewagama subject to what CFTC might say.

I convinced myself that the right man for the job was him. He has 36 years of drafting experience, he was here during the ethnic tension, he drafted the two Amnesty Acts now in place, he knows the Constitution well and he understands the local circumstances after 22 years of residence here.

He was on the Government team that negotiated the Townsville Peace Agreement and the Marau Peace Agreement. Also, there was not much time left to shop around for any other candidates.

A Cabinet Paper then went to Cabinet to sanction the engagement of Ranjit Hewagama for our purpose and was duly approved by Cabinet. The way was then clear for us to proceed to recruit him.

The response from the CFTC was positive. They told me that they would look around for a draftsman or I could suggest one to them if I had one in mind.

I suggested Ranjit Hewagama to them. They accepted him without condition. In fact, Ranjit Hewagama was sent to us in 1985 by them and he is still on their list of drafting experts.

They paid for Ranjit Hewagama to come to Honiara for six weeks. He came back and produced the draft bill. He had the bill printed before he went back.

Because the present Government wanted the aid donors to assist, if possible, in the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission when it is set up, they wanted to have a look at the draft bill first and make comments.

Copies of the draft bill were given to the offices of the Australian High Commission, NZ High Commission, EEC, UNDP and all relevant stakeholders, including the International Centre for Transitional Justice.

UNDP, NZ High Commission and the International Centre for Transitional Justice have made comments on the draft bill. Bob Pollard of Honiara has also made comments.

A number of the comments would need further discussion with the draftsman before the bill is finalised for Parliament Meeting this month.

This was discussed and through the Ministry of Reconciliation and National Unity, the EEC Office agreed to fund the return of Ranjit Hewagama to finalise the bill.

He is here for 5 weeks to finalise the bill after which he will return to his homeland.
His return to Honiara has nothing to do with the Prime Minister or any of his Ministers or any government officials for that matter.

He is not being paid by the Government for the few weeks he is here to do the work for us. The CFTC had met the cost of his first coming and the EU Office in Honiara is meeting the cost of his present visit.
The approval to engage Ranjit Hewagama had come from Cabinet although our Committee identified him in the first place.

We did it for the good of the country. The Steering Committee simply implemented the past and present Government Policy on the issue of truth and reconciliation.

There is no hidden agenda, no underground deal, big money, or politics in our work as a Committee.
We were given a job and we have done it. The bill will be ready for Parliament this month as intended by the Government.

It will be processed through the acting Legal Draftsman in the Attorney-General's Chambers in the usual manner.

Frank O. Kabui
Chairman, TRC Steering Committee

"Engagement of Ranjit Hewagama" was originally published by Solomon Star.