Citizens must be more involved in governance

An edited version of a recent speech by Jerry Rawlings advocating a greater African input on democracy.

Summary -

The West factor

African countries have had to face the challenge of adopting a new set of responses to impulses coming from the West. The continent has had to reinvent itself and learn new ways of doing business with a changing world.

Autocracies have been dismantled, frozen centralised economies opened up, relationships with multilateral institutions realigned and redefined. The progress African countries will make will depend on the degree to which their national leadership can come to terms with and re-direct their national affairs in line with these imperatives.

There has been positive change in Africa – new democracies have emerged and “democratic” governments that had been virtually one-party states have embraced reforms.

But Africa must move beyond the forms and institutions of democracy defined by Washington and Westminster to make it meaningful to ordinary Africans, involving them in day-to-day decision-making. If the only change is to meet the basic criteria of democracy prescribed by the West, Africa will find itself dealing with a façade behind which undemocratic power is wielded for the benefit of a political elite.

Another challenge is how to deal with internal issues such as corruption and civil strife.

Whilst there has been progress towards lasting peace in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan, many issues still remain to be resolved and in some countries seemingly at peace there are unresolved areas of tension.

Whilst we are rid of the gross corruption propped up by the West during the Cold War, and while many of the newer generation of African leaders believe in service to the people rather than personal gain, there is still a smell of corruption at many levels.

Nobody can solve these problems for us. It is our responsibility to hold our leaders to account, and the responsibility of African governments to demonstrate that their hands are clean.

We must not be deceived into thinking that the African rebirth is well on its way. Our economies are still overly dependent on resources and direction from the G8 and other industrialised economies. Our most important resource, our human capital, either remains ineffectively tapped at home or relocates to the developed economies.

Our politics remain less than transparent, while some of our governments are inefficient and corrupt. Human rights are held in abeyance in some countries; rural hunger and poverty, disease and ignorance hold many hostage; and our urban areas remain unsafe and unclean.

Question assumptions

Too often on our continent “reform” means demolishing useful indigenous culture, jettisoning long-term objectives, removing competent people for no reason other than that they are perceived to be connected to a previous regime.

This, the destructive face of reform, has abruptly interrupted long-term programmes designed to benefit future generations.

“Reform” should mean building upon what exists and reshaping it where necessary to refocus and to realign.

The good and bad of democracy

Democratic reform in the African context is change which enhances democracy, providing broader opportunities for more citizens to be involved in the process of governance.

Such participatory democracy goes beyond the periodic right to vote; it means involving ordinary people in the day-to-day decision-making of grassroots governance so they feel that their actions can influence events.

If some of the burdens and responsibilities carried by the central government were decentralised and shared by empowering the people with some economic and political authority a growing number would become real participants in governance.

This means encouraging an active sense of ownership and pride rather than a passive feeling of helpless acceptance of government decisions. It means nurturing a spirit of positive defiance, a readiness to confront what is clearly wrong.

Birth pains of independence

Western-style multi-party democracy has been projected as a universal model and its adoption has become the criterion either for debt forgiveness or for new grants or loans.

The essentials of democracy, including respect for basic freedoms and responsibilities, the rule of law, due process and orderly succession, are in themselves desirable requirements for every civilised society. However, there is not only one model of democracy that ought to command universal application. What is needed is creative adaptation of the basic principles of democracy to the peculiarities of different societies.

This is an edited version of a speech that Ghana's former president Jerry Rawlings gave while in South Africa recently. It was first published in eAfrica, the South African Institute of International Affairs’ electronic journal.

Africa’s political history since independence has largely been characterised by a scarcity of verifiable documentation and a dearth of information on the activities of the key players in the struggle for liberation and democratic evolution.

It is only in recent years that some African leaders have been able to collect their thoughts after leaving office without fear of reprisal.

The chequered political history of many of our countries has led to the loss of a great deal of archival material, which could have influenced subsequent political developments in our countries. This, in turn, has made it easy for successor-regimes to distort the immediate past to their advantage.

Now that a growing number of African countries are moving towards some sense of continuity in governance, with relatively peaceful and democratic transfer of power, it is imperative that the process should be strengthened by the building of collective sources of material.

It is only when our electorates are armed with true, factual and objective information about our political past that they can make informed decisions and see through attempts at misinformation.

The West factor

African countries, which had hitherto been clients of a bipolar world, have had to face a new challenge: that of adopting a new set of responses to impulses coming from the West.

Autocracies have had to be quickly dismantled; frozen centralised economies are opening up: relationships with multilateral institutions are similarly being realigned and redefined. Africa has had to, as it were, reinvent itself and learn new ways of doing business with a changing world. African countries will make progress, depending on the degree to which their national leadership can come to terms with and re-direct their national affairs in line with these imperatives.

It is also gratifying that in so short a time, the indications of positive change in Africa have been encouraging. New democracies are taking hold in different parts of the continent. Concurrently, existing ‘democratic’ governments that had been virtually one-party states have opened up the political space and have embraced reforms, albeit often reluctantly.

This brings us to another defining challenge, that of moving beyond mere forms and institutions of democracy as defined by Washington and Westminster to make it meaningful to the ordinary people of Africa. Meaningful participatory democracy must involve our people in day-to-day decision-making, as it did in most African cultures in pre-colonial times and still does to some extent in our traditional areas. Voting once every few years is just a part of what true democracy should be.

If we settle for meeting the basic criteria of democracy as prescribed by the West, we will find ourselves dealing with a façade behind which very undemocratic power is wielded to the benefit of a political elite.

Yet another defining challenge concerns how we deal with negative internal issues such as corruption and civil strife.

Whilst there has been appreciable progress towards lasting peace in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan, many issues still remain to be resolved, while in other countries seemingly at peace, including Ghana, there are unresolved areas of tension.

Whilst we are rid of the Bokassas, the Mobutu Sese Sekos, the Idi Amins and their gross corruption propped up by the West during the Cold War, and while many of the newer generation of African leaders believe in service to the people rather than personal gain, there is still an insidious smell of corruption at many levels.

Nobody can solve these problems for us. It is the responsibility of Africans to hold their leaders to account, and the responsibility of African governments to demonstrate that their hands are clean.

We must not be deceived by the modest signs of progress into thinking that the African rebirth is well on its way. Our economies are still overly dependent on resources and direction from the G8 and other industrialised economies. Our most important resource, our human capital, either remains ineffectively tapped at home or relocates, out of frustration, to greener pastures in the developed economies.

Our politics remain less than transparent while some of our governments are largely inefficient and regrettably very corrupt. Human rights are held in abeyance in a number of African countries in spite of the proclamation of democracy throughout the continent. Rural hunger and poverty, disease and ignorance hold many hostage and our urban areas remain unsafe and unclean.

Question assumptions

We must critically question all received assumptions, overturn moribund institutions and jettison counter-productive beliefs, be they alien or indigenous.

What do we mean by “reform”? I shall take it to mean amending and improving existing institutions and policies to better perform their functions in furtherance of the sustainable well-being of the people, and where necessary, thinking “outside the box” of external prescriptions.

Too often on our continent, “reform” means demolishing useful indigenous culture, jettisoning long-term objectives, removing competent administrators, technocrats and board members for no other reason than that they are perceived as being connected to a previous regime.

This is the destructive face of reform, which has abruptly interrupted long-term programmes designed to benefit future generations.

To me, “reform” should mean building upon what exists, but with an open mind to reshaping it where it is necessary to refocus and to realign.

The good and bad of democracy

I would, in the African context, prefer to define democratic reform as change which enhances democracy in the sense that it provides broader opportunities for more citizens to be involved in the process of governance.

What I would call participatory democracy goes beyond the periodic right to vote. It goes beyond lining the electorate up behind political parties in order to determine winners and losers. It means getting ordinary men and women involved in the day-to-day decision-making of grassroots governance in their communities to the extent that they feel that their actions can influence events.

I have known from personal experience, both when I was at the bottom and when I became a head of state, that if we could decentralise some of the burdens and the responsibilities carried by the central government and share these responsibilities with the people by empowering them with some of the economic and political authority that a growing percentage of our citizens would become real participants in governance, understanding the hard realities of development and progress and sharing in successes and difficulties. Both the governed and governors, therefore, end up taking responsibility for the right and wrong policies.

This means encouraging an active sense of ownership and pride rather than a passive feeling of helpless acceptance of whatever is decided by the government. It means nurturing a spirit of positive defiance, a readiness to confront that which is clearly wrong and which undermines the building of a just society.

Birth pains of independence

Today again, the logic of world history has led to the projection of Western-style multi-party democracy as a universal model. Every country is now to be measured in terms of whether their political system approximates the classical Western model. More dangerously, adoption of this brand of democracy has suddenly become the criterion for either debt forgiveness or new grants or loans.

To my mind, the very essentials of democracy are in themselves desirable requirements for every civilised society. These include respect for basic freedoms and responsibilities, the rule of law, due process and orderly succession.

I, however, refuse to accept the claim that there is only one model of democracy that ought to command universal application, as, indeed, no one model has as yet been known to be above blemish. What is called for is a creative adaptation of the basic principles of democracy to the local peculiarities of different societies.

In South Africa, for instance, centuries of white rule dictated a different constitution from what we adopted in Ghana, where racial discrimination has not been as destructive an issue in our history, outside the slave trade.

It is possible to see how some conflicts and tension in some parts of Africa are traceable to the rigid application of divergent interpretations of democracy to heterogeneous societies.