Hamjatta,
That is a brilliant piece!!A few years ago when my son was 8 years old,he was asked to define democracy by his history teacher.This was what he wrote..."Democracy means hope"!!
Kind regards
KUTS
----- Original Message -----
From: Hamjatta Kanteh
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 2:33 PM
Subject: The Wages Of Indifference
In his provocative bestseller, Peddling Prosperity [W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1994], the American economist, Paul Krugman, after deconstructing bad economic ideas from good ones, flails his hands in exasperation that: albeit the efforts of the most vigilant and good economist, bad ideas about economics will always surface in the mainstream after being debunked. How could this be so? Krugman narrates, as usual, a very witty and acerbic anecdote that a gov't economist told him that fittingly sums up the stubborn-ness of bad ideas in every discipline. As he recounted: "An experienced and therefore cynical government economist once described to me his vision of his job. "It's mostly a matter of getting rid of bad ideas," he explained, "but it's like flushing cockroaches down a toilet - sooner or later they just come back again." The role of the economist who cares about policy can be dispiriting: one may spend years devising sophisticated theories or carefully tes! ting ideas against evidence, then find that politicians turn again and again to ideas that you thought had been discredited decades or even centuries ago, or make statements that are flatly contradicted by the facts. It is tempting to give up - either to retreat to the ivory tower, or to start to play the policy entrepreneur game. After all, what is the use of sophisticated policy thinking or careful examination of the facts if simplistic ideas win every time? One answer is simply that it would be wrong to give up. If the people with good ideas do not fight for them, they have no right to complain about the outcome."
Bad ideas, I regret to announce are not limited to Krugman's economics but are on Gambia-L again. Just when you thought certain bad ideas about Democracy are dead and buried, they stubbornly re-surface reminding you how good and genuine Democrats need to be on the vigil in order to hold back the tide of corrupted, weird and, simply bad ideas about Democracy. I mean weird ideas about the principles and indeed, the very concept of Democracy seem to be surfacing on the List again thanks to largely Ms Aisha Sallah and certainly dodgy members. This week, as in previous weeks, has seen her launch veiled attacks on Democracy. The American electoral debacle merely emboldened her to press forward her weird claims that Democracy is simply not for Africa. There is nothing new in that: the fiasco that has become of the Florida vote and consequently the flaws it has exposed in the US electoral system, certainly and inevitably can only re-charge the batteries of enemies of progress and D! emocracy. What makes her stand out probably has got to with the crankiness and hollowness of her assertions. Not only this, but as I shall show later, these attacks on American Democracy cannot be separated from the struggle for decency and respect in the Gambia and those who are opposed to it. They are all part and parcel of the reactionary charge that holds Democracy in such contempt. In order to deconstruct some of these bad ideas about democracy, it is essential we revisit some of Ms Sallah's highly octane but misleading sermons to get things in perspective.
In one highly charged sermon about Democracy, Ms Sallah contended that: "What I'm trying to say is that the democracy that we are looking for does not exist anywhere in this world but we can build our democracy by being there investing, contributing and educating the people rather than shouting from the far east for the people to take up democracy in a violent way." Appropriately, we question: What is this "impossible" Democracy we are trying to impose on Africans from afar? What could be so "impossible" about soliciting the will of the ruled by our rulers? What could be so "impossible" in treating your citizenry with decency and respect? What on earth could be "impossible" about arranging a polity on the principles of government being based and indeed, tacitly acknowledged to emanate from the expressed will of the People/governed? If the above I have tried to delineate is "impossible", then we are obliged to quiz her what is possible? Here is her answer:
"Amat you are able to understand this type of democracy but tell me specifically the understanding of democracy in the eyes of Africans. I can say that as far as democracy is concern there only exist two approaches to deal with democracy in the eyes of the African and that is to either implement the true definition of democracy or no democracy at all (meaning we keep our traditional democracy which in my eyes is the involvement of the elderly who always sort out our differences)." Africa's "traditional democracy" we all know had long been an odyssey from autocratic to authoritarian despotism, which is clearly what we have in the Gambia. So, and effectively, we can argue here that the statement "we keep our traditional democracy" is in fact a closet apologia for the crackpot Jammeh regime. Hardly surprising. Apologists of this Jammeh regime are very vocal in ridiculing the very idea of Democracy into a Western quasi-imperialist conspiracy that was devised to keep Africans sq! uabbling amongst themselves whilst they steal our resources. In vintage Homer Simpson-speak, one hears them rehearsing the litany: "When will we learn Democracy doesn't work!" Democracy doesn't work, huh? These were basically the same arguments that Jammeh was frantically filing against a return to democratic rule shortly before and even after the 1996 elections. Democracy simply doesn't work he would shrilly cry. He had a new form of governance that he believes should replace Democracy: "Docuwocracy" - a weird and silly enough phrase. Indeed, the attack on Democracy certainly finds favour amongst certain Leftists and Socialists who ridiculously ascribe to Democracy the fallacy that it is a bourgeoisie concoction designed to moderate bourgeoisie gains in the interim and strengthen them in the long term. This is why they always rehearse after Jammeh and his like that Democracy is a Western phenomenon and an imperialistic devise to continue robbing the Continent, with of course ! the tacit endorsement of African traitors like the bourgeoisie and elites. Typical Pan African Leftist litany. The idea that freedom and prosperity can be the monopoly of the West is enough of a monstrous travesty. But time and reality is exhausting these litanies. Democracy had and continues to free poor working peoples wherever it is sincerely practiced and bettered their living conditions more than any system of government. So why are ideologues like Leftists and Socialists who claim to be for freedom and better deals for the working poor allied with enemies of democracy?
The idea that American Democracy is a farce meant to pretend that ordinary folks matter is of course convenient nonsense. Ask any American elementary school kid about the virtues about Democracy. Most certainly, they have a better clue about why their parents enjoy the political freedoms and the prosperity inseparable from it what they are currently enjoying. Americans fully well know - like Churchill once quipped of democracy - that it is the worst system of government known to man, except for all others and that despite its shortcomings, Democracy had empowered them enough to share in their nation's yields. Suffice to say that the much admired American prosperity that had seen it attract so many economic immigrants to this very second [critics of Democracy on Gambia-L included], is INSEPERABLE from the civic democratic culture they enjoy more than any modern nation.
All these weird ideas about Democracy coming from people who are comfortably enjoying the fruits that American or Scandinavian Democracy continues to yield, must make our toes curl at the display dishonesty here. Why can't these people wish the same thing for oppressed peoples in the Gambia and elsewhere on the Continent that Democratic traditions have helped the countries they are currently living in to reap? Surely, what is good for the goose must be good for the gander? But no oppressed and wretched Africans deserve something totally different. If as they are suggesting that this "traditional democracy" - a quirky enough phrase - is great for Africa, why in the name of sanity are Africans living under such unprecedented wretched and oppressed conditions? Indeed, if it is all that great, why haven't they packed and gone home to enjoy this "traditional democracy? Why are they still perched in their safe and comfy havens in either New York or Stockholm and not in the Gambia! reaping their share of this "traditional democracy"? After all there is no place like home. How something that tightens the chains of oppression around our legs and necks or what is ludicrously being called our "traditional democracy" can be peddled by matured adults as credible is the irony of our times. That is bad ideas at their weirdest.
Whatever fault/flaw the current US electoral debacle exposes about American Democracy, there is no doubt that no system is comparable to its relative empowerment of her citizenry. Americans don't pretend that with Democracy, their problems have all suddenly disappeared. No. What American Democracy has taught us is simple: for a polity that reflects the will of the people and empowers them to enjoy whatever fruits their nation bear, there is no credible alternative to Democracy. Equally, let me be crudely determinist here: in the governance of human affairs, no system of government has surfaced that is as credible as Democracy that empowers the people and entrust with them the ultimate power to govern themselves as they see fit. That is what Americans keep telling us. Sometimes it might even sound benignly imperialistic or even meddlesome or at worst excruciatingly irritating. Americans never boast about the superiority of their system. They simply make it known that their s! ystem has worked and is working for them. A blip in the radar like the Florida vote cannot erode the enormous progress American Democracy had brought and continues to bring in the lives of ordinary Americans.
Most outlandish in Ms Sallah's outbursts was when she quizzed about her stance on the Jammeh Mess. What she had to say on the situation back home certainly would unmask her true inclinations, as we shall see. Indeed, as she had written, "To be frank with you I stand on no side. I just fear for the lives of the innocent and poor children who will be left orphans. It sounds to me as if I have to take side in order to make my point of view, can't one be neutral?"
I have to confess here that when I first read this, I had to take off my glasses and rub my eyes twice in disbelief and re-read her assertions. I mean how could any sane and rational Gambian or any other nationality that has a stake in the Gambia claim to be "neutral" about the tragedy unfolding in the Gambia? "Neutral" about the slaying of children as young as three? "Neutral" about the arson attack on George Christensen's radio station? "Neutral" about the rapid ascension of political thuggery to silence political opponents and in the national discourse? "Neutral" about the rapid decline in everything in the Gambia from the economy to unprecedented levels of poverty as the country increasingly lurches towards abyss? "Neutral" about the callous murder of a patriot like Koro Ceesay? Only someone remotely attached to the Gambia or a Gambian without blood running in his/her veins can say he/she is "neutral" about what is happening in the Gambia and keep a straight face. Even ! if one has his or her doubts about the opposition - as I certainly do and do not flinch from criticizing them - it remains to be seen how being "neutral" can make up or change the situation back home such that "poor children" wouldn't "be left orphans". How on earth can "neutrality" bring back normalcy and peace to the Gambia? I have always argued that in the present political configurations in the Gambia, there are two pole positions: One is either for the dictatorship or totally opposed to it. However, an even uglier third position has emerged out of the woodwork as manifested by Ms Sallah and her ilk. They call themselves "neutrals", but are merely either indifferent to the situation back home or we can effectively speculate that they are closet Jammeh apologists. Indifference has always been an ugly position certain Africans have adopted if oppression doesn't directly affect their fortunes or personal well-being. The messes that are currently, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Liberi! a, Zaire, et al are largely ascribed to indifferences of their citizenry especially those who could have helped contribute to make a difference. The wages of indifference, unlike sin, is the horror choreographed in the present predicaments of the aforementioned failed and war-torn countries. And as the Independent British MP, Martin Bell, once commented on evil around the world, "one of the great causes of evil in the world is indifference." To this aphorism, I add that: the perpetuation and strengthening of evil in the world especially in Africa is indifference.
As the Florida Debacle continues and the cottage industry of American-Democracy-bashing continues to flourish, what should genuine and serious African believers in Democracy do about the bad ideas that will continue to be peddled about Democracy? African Democrats must simply intone after Krugman's truism that: "If the people with good ideas do not fight for them, they have no right to complain about the outcome." Africans who remain convinced that there is no credible alternative to Democracy must continue to fight bad and weird ideas about Democracy whenever they stubbornly re-surface. They should also remember that as Krugman's economist friend suggested, bad ideas on Democracy are like cockroaches - somehow flushing them down the toilet will see them relentlessly re-surface whenever Democracy is on trial. African Democrats must then always be ready to argue the case against such bad ideas about Democracy. It is the only hope we have of our dreams of an African modernity! - that is constructed and embroidered with a polity that expressly reflects the will of the people in all its manifestations - realised. If anything, the past few days have demonstrated why we cannot afford the luxury of resting on our laurels. Bad ideas about Democracy are in town.
Hamjatta Kanteh
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