President Koroma Defends
his Democratic Credentials and Values in Germany
Abdul R. Thomas
Editor – The Sierra Leone Telegraph
15 February 2011
President Koroma has set out to answer his critics and doubters, in response to widespread suspicion and speculation, regarding his commitment, and that of his All Peoples Congress Party and government, to preserving and sustaining the country’s fledgling democratic ideals and values.
Abdul R. Thomas
Editor – The Sierra Leone Telegraph
15 February 2011
President Koroma has set out to answer his critics and doubters, in response to widespread suspicion and speculation, regarding his commitment, and that of his All Peoples Congress Party and government, to preserving and sustaining the country’s fledgling democratic ideals and values.
His Party and government have been accused by the
country's opposition and media, of stifling and
engineering the erosion of democratic freedoms in
the country.
The latest Annual Report published by Human Rights
Watch, concluded that;
High levels of unemployment, persistent weaknesses
in the performance of the police and judiciary, and
increased political tension in advance of the 2012
elections slowed the consolidation of the rule of
law in 2010.
The rule of Law is a fundamental
pillar of liberal democratic freedom.
Photo
(courtesy of Cocorioko) President Koroma
with Germany's Chancellor - Angela
Merkel
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Speaking at the Centre for International Peace
Operations (ZIF Foundation), yesterday – 14
February, 2011, during his official visit to
Germany, President Koroma strenuously responded to
accusations of anti-democratic tendencies.
But how convincing was he?
The President told his audience:
"Our greatest hope for never having a relapse into
armed conflict is the practice of democracy. Our no
to bullets is predicated on our yes to ballots."
"Our people demonstrated their commitment to democracy
when in 1996, in the midst of war, and on pain of
amputation, queued up in polling stations to cast
their votes for a new civilian government."
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"In 2002, we demonstrated that commitment again by
going to the polls."
"But our aspirations for democracy go beyond polling.
For a democracy to deliver sustainable peace it must
ensure development. Our determination for a better
life stands on the tripod of peace, democracy and
development. The absence of any one of these spells
grave danger for our country.
The democracy that was delivered following the end of
the war in 2002 inaugurated peace, but both the
democratic system of government and peace itself
were fragile because the visible signs of
development were absent. I was elected President in
2007 to sustain democracy and peace through
development."
"International support has been critical during all
the different stages in which we asserted our
aspirations for democracy, peace and development.
International support provided vital technical,
logistical and financial support to the 1996
elections that re-inaugurated democracy in our
country.
International support was integral to ending the war
in 2002, designing and implementing a DDR process,
establishing the Truth Commission and Special Court,
security sector reform, and building institutions of
accountable, political and economic governance.
Without this support, it would have been difficult
for our people to assert their aspirations."
"As opposition leader between 2002 and 2007, I
witnessed first hand the promise and impediments to
the assertion of hopes for peace, democracy and
development.
Transitions are often difficult periods; institutions
are fragile, emerging governance and accountability
processes are often trampled by ingrained
authoritarian attitudes."
"Whilst citizens saw some people being held
accountable through the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission and the Special Court for actions during
the war, they believed that people were not being
held accountable for corruption and other offences
committed during peace time.
But what was more troubling for many people was the
perceived lack of urgency in the halls of governance
for designing comprehensive and focused development
programmes, and implementing them in visible and
concrete ways."
"In countries with many poor people, time is often
calculated according to the short term. Food in the
long term has no meaning for a starving man; the
people who voted me their president in 2007 wanted
government to move a little faster in its
implementation of development projects.
That was why on assuming power my government was
firing on all cylinders to bring electricity to the
capital in three months. When the people saw this,
they strengthened their faith in democratic
governance as a force for good."
"We also moved to complete the Bumbuna Hydro Electric
Project. For thirty years that project had stood as
a symbol of government’s ineptitude. We completed it
to restore faith in government’s capacity to
implement its vision.
It was truly transformative that the Peace Building
Fund recognized the nexus between development, peace
and democracy when it included the provision of
electricity as a peace building priority in the
Peace Building Cooperation (PBC) Framework.
It was one of the early expressions of PBC’s political
support for a priority to which the Government and
people of my country attached great importance."
"It was a timely affirmation of the interconnections
between peace and development that has now become
fully recognized and internalized in the support of
the International Community to countries undergoing
peace consolidation processes.
We call my government’s core programme the Agenda for
Change. We have five key priority areas in the
Agenda; Agriculture, Energy, Infrastructure, Health
and Education."
"In all these areas we have ensured very visible
successes. In Agriculture we increased budgetary
allocation from a paltry 1.6% in 2007 to 7.7% in
2009; it now stands at close to 10%. We have also
launched the Smallholder Commercialization Programme
whose major objective is to move agriculture away
from subsistence towards commercialization."
“We believe this holds the greatest possibility for
wealth creation in our rural areas which contains
over 60% of our country’s population. Electricity
generation has increased more than eight fold since
we came into power.
We are currently involved in a programme to provide
electricity to all district headquarter towns in our
country. We have also embarked on the greatest road
construction programme in the history of the
country."
"In the priority areas of health, we have launched a
Free Health Care Programme for pregnant women,
lactating mothers and children under five. We are
also reforming the education sector."
"We inaugurated a robust fight against corruption by
enacting one of the toughest anti-corruption acts in
Africa.
Today we have had many more convictions for corruption
and recovery of stolen government funds than at any
other time in the country’s history."
"Distinguished members of the ZIF Foundation, ladies
and gentlemen, my vision for ensuring security after
the end of the UN peacekeeping forces is predicated
not only on the need for well trained,
disciplined and motivated national security forces,
but also enhancing the security of their aspirations
for democracy and development.
Democracy is the best protector of the security of our
people’s aspirations; it is the guarantee of their
freedom; and protector against assaults on their
dignity as human beings endowed with fundamental
civil, political and social rights.
That is why our security sector reforms are geared not
only towards improving the traditional defense
capabilities of the forces, but also towards
subjecting them to democratic civilian oversight."
"International assistance has also been pivotal to our
security sector reforms. The International Military
Assistance and Training Team (IMATT) provided
logistical, training and administrative support to
our restructuring of the military whilst the UN,
DFID, the Commonwealth provided support for our
restructuring of the Sierra Leone Police.
Distinguished members of the ZIF Foundation, ladies
and gentlemen, my country is a post conflict nation
in a region ridden with conflicts and possibilities
of renewed armed conflict."
"Last year’s Presidential elections in the Republic of
Guinea raised a spectre of a country descending into
a bitter ethnic conflict. But the forces for peace
and democracy acted concertedly and we prevailed. A
similar situation obtains in the Ivory Coast today.
The forces for peace and democracy are acting to avert
chaos in that country. I have led delegations to
Ivory Coast and the United Nations in a bid to find
a peaceful outcome to the crisis."
"We are still determined to resolve the crisis
peacefully and we believe the overwhelming majority
of Ivorians desire peace over war.
They have chosen democracy; we must support those
aspirations. We must be on the side of those who
prefer democracy as the governance tool with the
greatest possibilities for delivering peace and
development. We must take sides, repression anywhere
is a threat to democracy everywhere."
"We must soldier on; we must act now, governance is
more about action than it is about contemplation;
good governance is about securing the achievements
of the people; it is about acting on the better
aspirations for peace and development."
"Democracy teaches us that we will always face people
who think otherwise; people who hold opinions other
than ours, people who hold alternative visions of
the purposes of government. We are in government
because voters chose us over them; we must act to
implement the democratic and developmental aspects
of the people’s choice."
"Distinguished members of the ZIF Foundation, ladies
and gentlemen, whilst we do not deny possibilities
of a relapse into conflict; we strongly believe that
our aspirations for peace and our actions for
security, development and democracy are stronger.
We have had events and happenings that threaten the
peace and security of our country. Some of these
events are external, like the global food and
financial crisis and the elections in Guinea; others
are prompted by actors within the country."
"But my country’s post conflict history is a prime
example of a people who have taken a stance against
a relapse into conflict and repression; it is an
illustration of a people’s commitment to democracy,
and an account of a struggle for dignity, democracy
and development.
We still face great challenges; too many of our people
are poor, too many are illiterate, too many die from
preventable illnesses, but our programmes are geared
towards cutting down these numbers."
"Our free healthcare programme is geared towards
reducing the number of maternal and child mortality.
Our agriculture programmes are aimed at reducing
poverty amongst farmers and creating wealth amongst
rural dwellers.
Our road construction programmes seek to speed up
access to markets, health centres and schools. And
our education programs are geared towards building a
citizenry with the skills and knowledge for self and
national development.
I call upon you here today, to support our efforts at
sustaining our peace, democracy and development."
Photo
(courtesy of Cocorioko): President
Koroma and his wife - Sia Koroma,
in Germany
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President Koroma’s decision to choose
'democracy' as the main thrust of his
speech delivered in Germany, is his
strongest attempt, so far, in trying to
set the record straight as to his
democratic beliefs, values, and ideals.
But cynics and critics would no doubt argue, that there is a wide gulf, existing between the President’s policy statements, and the actions of his government in maintaining and promoting those liberal democratic values, which so many had sacrificed their lives to build. They will point out to the spate of local elections violence and intimidation, that have taken place in various parts of the country, since 2007. They are likely to recount the violent attacks on the opposition head office in Freetown in 2009. |
They will cite the recent beatings and arrest of
journalists by the police, on the instructions of
government ministers.
They are likely also to point out to the increasing erosion of the capacity of opposition Parties, engineered through gerrymandering and bribery, which encourages and promotes defections to the ruling Party. This they say is a precursor to a de-facto One Party State.
Although the government would argue against the veracity of some of these accusations, what may be difficult and perhaps more important, is to genuinely begin to work towards building confidence and trust, with the opposition Parties.
President Koroma’s speech is encouraging and commendable. But, he has a lot of work to do in creating the political space, and to guarantee equality of opportunity across the political spectrum, which will enable all political Parties to freely organise and mobilise, without intimidation or threats of violence.
That, most Sierra Leoneans would agree, is the test of the President’s commitment to the process of nurturing and preserving the country’s hard won liberal democratic freedoms.
Today, President Koroma has set his democratic stalls in Germany. The rest of the world is watching, while the people of Sierra Leone live in hope.
They are likely also to point out to the increasing erosion of the capacity of opposition Parties, engineered through gerrymandering and bribery, which encourages and promotes defections to the ruling Party. This they say is a precursor to a de-facto One Party State.
Although the government would argue against the veracity of some of these accusations, what may be difficult and perhaps more important, is to genuinely begin to work towards building confidence and trust, with the opposition Parties.
President Koroma’s speech is encouraging and commendable. But, he has a lot of work to do in creating the political space, and to guarantee equality of opportunity across the political spectrum, which will enable all political Parties to freely organise and mobilise, without intimidation or threats of violence.
That, most Sierra Leoneans would agree, is the test of the President’s commitment to the process of nurturing and preserving the country’s hard won liberal democratic freedoms.
Today, President Koroma has set his democratic stalls in Germany. The rest of the world is watching, while the people of Sierra Leone live in hope.