I saw it reported in today's Financial Times - and in an earlier posting from
Sidi yesterday - that the Rally of Republicans [RDR] of Alassane Ouattara has
managed, through the first free and fair elections since the transition from
military rule to civilian gov't started last year with the flawed and
fraud-laden presidential elections of last year, to win the Municipality
elections.
This is a very important development. To the extent that this is important,
is itself in the relative free and fair manner in the way the poll reportedly
went and how the RDR rode to victory - albeit not resoundingly. How and where
Ivory Coast moves from here remains to be seen. But if Gbagbo's psychology
and history is anything to go by, one can presage a situation where when
cornered, he will resort to his ethnic and xenephobic bigotry to retain
control of the presidency. Gbagbo shares more with Milosevic than many of his
left-wing allies/fans allow: the irrelevant post-cold war socialist
politician with bankrupt ideas who uses xenophobia, ethnic sentiments and
political impropriety to sneakily gain control of the levers of power. By
sidelining Ouattara for such flimsy and silly reasons i.e, whether his
parents are Ivorian or Bukinabe, Ivory Coast might have missed out on her
best opportunity yet to embrace liberal moderation and what it entails in
liberating reforms. By his inclinations, Ouattara was [is still, one hopes]
another Wade in the making. Yet, thanks to the usual leftist smears [being a
former premier under Boigny and a former IMF top official] and the silly and
illegal ban that ruled him out of the presidential and parliamentary races,
his future in Ivorian politics looks bleak and uncertain. Ouattara along with
Wade are perhaps amongst the very few African intellectuals-cum-public
figures who truly believe in capitalism, liberal bourgoisie moderation
without which Afica will always be in the throes of instability. Their faith
in the capitalist order is not only political and economical, but moral. They
strongly believe that tempered to the point where it has a human face, there
is no credible or viable alternative to capitalism. Under Ouattara's watch as
premier, he not only embarked on reforms that seek to promulgate such
capitalistic norms and values as the need to trim the state, end
state/political corruption[which to an extent is responsible for his recent
political problems], encourage not only private capital holding but such
civic virtues as individual liberty and responsiblity - central to the
liberal credo. I notice how he shares with Wade the tendency not to tout
themselves as egalitarians at all cost or insist on material equality, an
ideal incongruent with liberalism.
Because of the sheer weight of my responsibilities these days, i will break
this here. Perhaps late next week or in two weeks time - when i expect to be
freer - i will begin a series of postings that will restate the capitalist
case in Africa. The first of such series would be called: Capitalism and
Human Freedom in Africa. My thanks to Sidi - who perhaps he had shrewdly
discerned the continued importance of Ivorty Coast's economic renewal and
sense of orientation again after the recent political conflagration to that
sub-region of ours - continues to flag articles of importance on the subject
of Ivory Coast's political transition.
Hamjatta - Kanteh
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URL: http://hometown.aol.co.uk/hamzakanteh/myhomepage/newsletter.html

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