Kabir,
Thanx for sharing. I remembered about a year ago, our friend and colleague
Dave Manneh of Posten fame introduced us to this idea of Mo Ibrahim "The
Philanthroper for Good governance". My advice to Mo then is the exact same advice
I see Issa shares. Perhaps not for exactly the same reasons but close. Like
Issa, I think Mo's millions are better spent in his home country first. Allah
knows they need it. Without even querying the value of the prize or the
parameters of review, Mo is better advised to look home. I am pleased Issa holds
the same view.
"Mr. Mo Ibrahim: you have made millions of dollars from the sweat and blood
of the African people. If you want to return a few million to the people,
build schools, dispensaries, and water wells in the south of your own country
rather than giving them to Chisasanos of this world. Do not add insult to
injury by robbing (poor) Peter to pay (rich) Paul." Issa Shivji
Haroun Masoud. MQDT Darbo. AL Khairawan.
In a message dated 11/2/2007 6:27:35 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Features
The Mo Ibrahim Prize: Robbing Peter to pay Paul
Issa Shivji (2007-11-01)
"Mo Ibrahim's prize for a retired African president which was awarded to
Joachim Chissano of Mozambique was in my view an insult to the African people."
Issa Shivji raises a number of questions around the award such as how and
what is "good governance" and why is it only applied to Africa? And most
importantly "for which and whose democracy they are getting a prize".
First, it is belittling African people. Dictators and undemocratic rulers
exist all over the world, including the West which has arrogated to itself the
right to judge others as "good man" or punish them for being dictators
(Saddam Hussein).
So, when our leaders receive prizes for their democratic achievements we
should ask ourselves for which and whose democracy they are getting a prize.
Punishment is to deter; often to take revenge. Reward is to encourage.
Rewards can also be a recognition for outstanding, usually, individual
achievements. Which acts are liable to punishment and which are rewarded depends on the
dominant values of society. These can differ from society to society and from
time to time within same society. Issues of democracy and dictatorship, of
war and peace, of governance and state administration, do not fall within the
realm of a system of punishment and rewards.
Of course, victorious powers recognise their war heroes and vanquished bury
their martyrs with honour. But then heroes of the victor are mercenaries for
the vanquished and the martyrs of the vanquished may be terrorists for the
victor. In other words, the issues of war and peace are contentious issues and
can only be understood in their historical and social context. And so are the
issues of democracy and dictatorship. Therefore, it is naïve, if not
mischievous, to award a person - moreover with a cash prize - for bringing peace or
democracy to his country.
It is even worse to cite "good governance" as an achievement for awarding an
individual president of a country. What is "good governance"? Who determines
what is good and bad governance? What yardsticks are applied? And why are
these yardsticks applied only to Africa? Why doesn't any one award a Norwegian
prime minister for good governance or include "good governance"
conditionality to lend Mr. Bush assistance or fund Martin Athissari to advise Bush on good
governance? (Remember Martin Athissari, funded by the World Bank, came to
Tanzania to advise President Mkapa on good governance.)
The point about these rhetorical questions should be obvious. Mo Ibrahim's
prize for a retired African president which was awarded to Joachim Chissano of
Mozambique was in my view an insult to the African people. First, it is
belittling African people. Dictators and undemocratic rulers exist all over the
world, including the West which has arrogated to itself the right to judge
others as "good man" or punish them for being dictators (Saddam Hussein).
Despots and dictators are not a monopoly of Africa. African people, like
other people elsewhere, have always struggled against them. If they have
attained some success in these struggles, it is their collective achievement. Their
success is not due to particular qualities of any single leader. Good leaders
are as much a product of our societies as are the bad ones. It is for the
people to decide who is a good or a bad leader and how to award a good one and
punish a bad one. I certainly cannot imagine Mozambicans (or any African
people for that matter) awarding a 5-million dollar prize to Mr. Chissano. First
because Chissano's goodness itself is, I am sure, a contentious issue in
Mozambique. Secondly, Mozambican people, if at all, would have awarded their
leader by including him in a list of honour or putting his picture on a postal
stamp. And if they had 5 million dollars to spare, they would have probably
built secondary schools to produce future good leaders rather than give it away
to Chissano to "live a better life" and invest in business (which is what
Chissano said in a BBC interview he would use the money for.)
The worst disappointment in the prize saga has been its uncritical and
unqualified celebration by scribes and even academics and intellectuals. Since
this prize to a retired president was for stepping down from power or "good
governance' or bringing democracy and peace to his country, it was expected that
analysts would go beyond the superficial and the obvious to a deeper
understanding and explanation of issues of war and peace and democracy and
dictatorships in Africa. Before we celebrate, we must understand what it is that we are
celebrating. Before we applaud this prize to Chissano we must understand the
history, politics and forces which underpinned war and peace in Mozambique.
The people of Africa have been involved in a long struggle against war and
for peace and democracy and the struggle continues. In this struggle, they are
pitted against not only their own immediate rulers but also against the
erstwhile colonial and imperialist powers supporting them. Our dictators were not
simply made in Kinshasa (Mobutu) or Central African Republic (Bokassa) or
Entebbe (Idi Amin) but also in Washington or Paris or London and Tel Aviv. The
vicious war in Mozambique was not simply waged by RENAMO but fully supported
and instigated by apartheid South Africa backed by the US and western powers.
Apartheid South Africa also claimed the life of the liberation leader Samora
Machel and his leading comrades.
Chissano took over from Samora and under the tutelage of Washington steered
the neo-liberal course. It is under this new direction that the former
freedom fighters like Chissano's family and Gebuza and others (with some honourable
exceptions) began accumulating wealth and became businessmen. Chissano's son
Nyimpine, a businessman, was implicated in the murder of a journalist Carlos
Cardoso who was investigating the fraudulent disappearance of 14 million
dollars from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique in 1996. The story of wealth
accumulation by political leaders in Mozambique is not that different from what
we have been witnessing and debating in Tanzania. It is even on a larger
scale. In Tanzania Mwalimu's ghost has had greater restraining power on vultures
of wealth than Samora's in Mozambique.
As with economics, so with politics. The opening up of space after one-party
authoritarianism did not just come about on a silver platter. People in
Tanzania, Mozambique and the rest of Africa struggled for it. But as usual the
rulers and their imperialist backers pre-empted the struggle for real democracy
by imposing their own truncated version of neo-liberal democracy
So, when our leaders receive prizes for their democratic achievements we
should ask ourselves for which and whose democracy they are getting a prize. Are
they getting the prize for a neo-liberal democracy under which the World
Bank and "development partners" (read: developed predators!) impose
privatization of national assets and resources; under which their diplomats pressurize
our ministers and governments to sign utterly one-sided contracts with the
likes of golden sharks; under which the parliament is literally ordered to pass
laws which have been drafted by their consultants like the Mining Act, under
which our political leaders in a free-for-all pandemonium overnight become
"wajasiria mali" and bankers and big miners? Is this the democracy for which the
peasants, workers, youth, and wamachinga fought? In short, before
celebrating let us ask ourselves what are we celebrating and whose music we are dancing
to.
Without such critical understanding, I am afraid, we can end up celebrating
and legitimizing the shaming and ridiculing of the democratic struggles and
achievements of our people.
Mr. Mo Ibrahim: you have made millions of dollars from the sweat and blood
of the African people. If you want to return a few million to the people,
build schools, dispensaries, and water wells in the south of your own country
rather than giving them to Chisasanos of this world. Do not add insult to injury
by robbing (poor) Peter to pay (rich) Paul.
© Issa Shivji is one of Africa's most radical and original thinkers and has
written frequently for Pambazuka News. He is the author of several books,
including the seminal Concept of Human Rights in Africa (1989) and, more
recently, Let the People Speak: Tanzania down the road to neoliberalism (2006).
* Please send comments to [log in to unmask] or comment online at
www.pambazuka.org
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