By Isaac Massaquoi
Campaigning for votes is now well and truly underway all over the country. Even before the National Electoral Commission announced the official campaign date and schedule, all parties, in particular the two main ones were already in full swing.
Once again, both parties have relied on the energies of hundreds of thousands of unemployed young people to take part in their rallies, wear their party colours and also attack their opponents or those perceived as such. The young people who only yesterday cried in songs and radio programs about being marginalised or neglected by the political elite, have woefully failed to learn their lessons.
The politicians who for five years hid themselves in fully air-conditioned offices or behind tinted windows in expensive Prado jeeps are out on the streets and in ghettos, pretending to care for the people. They have come back with marijuana, crude alcohol and lots of cheap food. All they want now is passage to those offices and the sweets they offer for another five years. The politicians have used this tried and tested formula since Siaka Stevens and from the look of things; the young people are hooked once again. They have failed to see through all the political manipulation, lies and dangerous gifts that the politicians are bringing for the first time in five years.
I make bold to say that the nation finds itself on the brink of another election that will demonstrate yet again how politically divided Sierra Leone is. We always pretend all is well on the surface but we know deep in our hearts that ours is a country divided along ethnic and regional lines. And it’s reaching frightening proportions because we are refusing to have a decent conversation on how this polarisation will affect the development aspirations of one the world’s most grievously poor countries.
After the elections of 2007, Awoko newspaper attempted to graphically demonstrate on the map of Sierra Leone how the people voted. It’s a scary picture for any Sierra Leonean who cares about maintaining a united country. The map showed a country divided in two: the Northern and Western areas went to the APC – the party that eventually emerged winner – and the Southern and Eastern areas went largely to the SLPP, who were pushed into opposition. There were a few areas in the Southern region where the PMDC which is made up of SLPP people who felt their party had slipped through their fingers, did well. However the SLPP took back a few seats from them in bye-elections, a further demonstration of the strength of the two old parties.
The question remains: how do we govern a country so deeply divided without appearing to alienate sections of the population because we want to reward political friends and supporters. I will return to that map later on.
When President Koroma inaugurated the Steering Committee of the Sierra Leone Conference on Development and Transformation (SLCDT) towards the end of last year he asked a lot of questions as a way of teasing the nation into joining the discussions that would culminate in a document setting out a long term vision and guiding the country’s development towards a middle income status by 2035. I still remember one of those questions about whether the winner-takes-all system of government was the best for Sierra Leone. I became a member of the secretariat of the SLCDT after that event.
In one of the many meetings we held in the secretariat, a colleague said something to the effect that if Sierra Leone was able to properly organise its governance system then the solution to all the other challenges facing the nation would fall into place.
SLCDT meetings were long, sometimes repetitive but frank and substantial. I left this one thinking about that statement of Sierra Leone seeking the Good Governance Kingdom first and all other things will be added unto her.
Let’s return to the map. Remember I spoke about the line dividing the country in two halves. The reality in Sierra Leone today, believe it or not, is that for a significant portion of our people that line means more than just voting preferences. The line represents loss of jobs, dignity and for some displacement from their communities. It represents a call to constantly behave in a hypocritical way to continue in ones job or to get opportunities that every normal citizen should demand and get from true democracies. It represents restraining oneself from speaking out on national questions one feels strongly about to avoid being branded a diehard opposition person fighting to overthrow the state, by which means, nobody can tell.
In the months and weeks running up to the coming elections, I have had the opportunity to work with many community radio broadcasters from all over the country, preparing them for the difficult job of covering the elections. On the face of it, it looks like straight forward journalism – giving all political parties equal airtime and reporting the electoral processes as they unfold. I have to say, it’s not.
The first time I introduced the voting map and the question of what the line represents was at a meeting of community radio managers in Makeni, only about two of the managers had ever seen the map and even they didn’t bother to study the message behind the line in the way I read it. I am absolutely sure I haven’t read too much into the message behind people’s voting preferences. The facts are available for all to see.
And let’s not say the marginalisation of sections of the Sierra Leone society because of their voting preferences began only yesterday. It started since the days of Siaka Stevens and we have never bothered to do something about it. Successive governments have merely applied it with varying degrees of intensity and ruthlessness.
On every stop of my long training tour of Sierra Leone, I have called on the colleagues to use their radio programmes to deal with these serious challenges to national development and that covering the elections presents them with a unique opportunity to tell politicians they are busy splitting the country into two halves to sustain the immediate parochial political advantages it brings them.
Two weeks ago, I was in the town of Mile 91 in north-central Sierra Leone. The Radio Station there is one of the best examples of a Community Radio anywhere in the world. Radio Gbafth has won many local and international awards. Only Eastern Radio in Kenema ranks above Radio Gbafth in the country in terms of organisation, community involvement and programming. But every time there is an election, people find reasons to harass, intimidate and attack the staff and facilities of Radio Gbafth. It has happened at least once this year.
All Journalists are trained to expect attacks – physical or verbal – at some point in their career. But what keeps happening in Mile 91 is just extraordinary. Despite several reports to the local police, I have no evidence the attackers who are known to everybody in the town were ever prosecuted. That sends a chilling message about the state of the rule of law in Sierra Leone.
So how do we tackle this big governance question as a first step to building a cohesive, strong and confident nation? There’s no doubt the winner-takes-all governance system the president referred to must end now. We must replace it with a proportional representation system that ensures that even small parties are able to have a say in the way the country is run. The idea that to have any say in government all Sierra Leoneans must belong either to Red or Green is the reason the country is where it is today.
I know we have bad stories to tell about our attempts to operate a proportional representation system in 1996 and in 2002. I remember how party lists were manipulated in favour of friends and relatives and how some of those who were elected on the basis of that list didn’t even know the boundaries of their constituencies.
However, the truth with the constituency-based system we are operating now is that, it has the same weaknesses. How else can we explain the fact that many incumbent MPs have simply been thrown out of office by their own constituency parties for being arrogant and out of touch.
A carefully-crafted proportional representation system will work in Sierra Leone. I ask for a national debate on the issue immediately after the new government settles into State House. We cannot afford to approach 2017 with this same system of government.
On the same SLCDT document, the president asked questions whether paramount chiefs should continue occupying seats in parliament. I think in the 21st century, Sierra Leone cannot afford to have chiefs who are not elected by Universal Adult Suffrage sitting in parliament and voting as they do with the government on every issue effectively helping to defeat the opposition and indeed civil society on the big questions all the time. Some of those chiefs are constantly based in Freetown with their chiefdoms being ruled by henchmen. That’s not good enough. We can at least reform the way they come to parliament by making it mandatory that all their chiefdom people of voting age take part in electing them, not just a small clique of elders meeting in some darkroom.
I absolutely agree with that SLCDT colleague who said governance reform is the biggest problem facing this country. We can build the infrastructure, pay huge salaries, travel to all international conferences as much as we like, a lot of people will still be alienated from the affairs of their country and that will affect whatever gains are made in other sectors.
I understand one of us on that SLCDT project has been appointed to lead the transformation we planned in the early part of this year. I look forward to him rolling out the process no matter the outcome of November 17. Another colleague is seeking to enter parliament with the ruling party. I am excited about both developments.
Barring a catastrophe of Tsunami proportions, Isata Kabia will represent a constituency in the northern town of Lunsar in the new parliament. That will give her the opportunity to play a frontline role in governance and I hope the SLCDT experience will shine through her work in parliament. Isata is strong, intelligent and beautiful. I appear to have lost my neutrality in the Lunsar area. I will say no more than this: Isata will make a great MP.
