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In response to JOBs New Year message

Author: SEM Contributor

Please permit me to comment on the New Yearâ€™s message from the national chairman of the opposition SLPP, Mr. John Benjamin. Whilst I sympathize with the thrust of his statement, we must never forget that the APC, unlike the SLPP, is good at protecting their partyâ€™s interest. Â For the SLPP to surge forward, the SLPP political hierarchy must be open in their dealings with the party members and implement key reforms so that the SLPP can maximize the partyâ€™s winning potential in 2012.

Defending the SLPP core values, its vision and having a long-term strategic policy interest are areas of grave weaknesses; thus making life very uncomfortable for the party now that it is in opposition. True the SLPP believes in democracy but at the same time, and regrettably, this has not been marched by a strategy to defend those values when unfairly threatened by violence and subterfuge.

We saw that in the last election when the party surrendered power to the then APC opposition, which the then governing SLPP believed it had won and petitioned against that result. According to the SLPP leadership at the time, if they had contested the result of the disputed election, there could have been violence. Thus the party left office for fear of the perceived violence. Yet even in opposition violence had visited the SLPP, making the fear factor as a reason for conceding defeat to an opposition nothing but an excuse for complaisance and incompetence.

It is noteworthy that in 2007 post election, the opposition SLPP offices were attacked in addition to the violence that marred the Pujehun Local bye elections and in other parts of Sierra Leone.Â I wrote an open letter to President Koroma and expressed my concerns about the rampant violence. Not that these acts of violence lacked prima facie evidence, only that our Law enforcement officers were unable to prevent such violence or apprehend the culprit to charge them to court. But what is more troubling were that these acts of violence have political undertone, which makes effective policing difficult in a country where the independence of the judiciary is constrained by several societal forces.Â In the case of the Pujehun bye election violence, the electoral commissioner had to cancel the scheduled election amid allegation of the thuggish involvement of the resident minister southern province.

Moreover, following the destruction of the SLPP office head quarter and the associate reports of rape of the women staff, the police chief had dismissed the case, for lack of evidence, even before a thorough investigation was conducted.Â Forced by our development partners and the internal outrage over his silence in condemning the rape, President Koroma set up a commission to investigate the rape allegation. There was no such arrangement for the destruction of the SLPP office in Freetown or prosecute the culprits.

The commissionâ€™s findings in to the rape allegation failed to establish that rape had occurred with the key government medical examinerâ€™s testimony citing lack of relevant equipment to ascertain rape. This, in my view, was a convenient opportunity, unintended though, for the commission to dismiss the case, although the integrity of the commissionâ€™s chairman Bankole-Thompson could not be faulted given such inadequacies.Â As consequences of the twin judicial and administrative failings, the women were denied justice on technicality, but they had other avenue to, at least, seek compensation from the government. They could have sued the ministry of health for negligence in failing to provide the appropriate equipment, the lack of which denied them justice. Did the SLPP or the women groups who made much noise about gender discrimination in matters of chieftaincy gave due support to the rape women to take the government to court?

Trust in the rule of law is the collective responsibility for all citizens and it should be above politics.Â Nor does the law serve the interest of a particular group because of their social standings, money, influence or power in our country. Therefore the effectiveness of our laws requires the governmentâ€™s ability and willingness to genuinely promote the impartial application of law and justice for all our citizens irrespective of political affiliations and opinions. Without this, we build a resentment that only served to pull the country apart from focusing on the common objective of working together for a better future.

We know that in the type of societies, in less developed countries,Â the executive arm of the government usually holds sway over the judiciary and no amount of tax payers money from the UK sent to improve the efficacy and independence of these institutions would make much difference unless there is the political will coupled with that illusive collective desire of the law enforcement personnel to reject corrupt practices and stand up to defend their professional integrity against political interference.

We should also take in to account that Sierra Leone is a million years away from practicing say the Westminster and USA style of democracy which some of us are cultured in, although, there is nothing stopping Sierra Leone from moving toward that direction as our country is signatory to multiple international protocols and laid down rules for good governance.Â In essence, the activities of the government are on international radar and can be held accountable for violations of an internationally accepted norm of behavior. There is no longer a hiding place from the emerging climate of strong international rebuke when those standards are breached especially in areas of the politically motivated violence, sexual abuse and other forms of human right abuses to gain or sustain power against the will of the people. It is therefore of great importance that we promote an efficient, independent judiciary in parallel with democratic institutions as this is intrinsically linked to the sustenance of peace and progress in Sierra Leone. So the task for the opposition SLPP is to make sure that justice works for the people as well and not only to protect those in positions of authority.

The SLPP does needs a strategy as to how to meet the challenges in dealing with an opponent widely known to be streetwise and good at self preservation at any cost.

One of the main reasons why the SLPP is in opposition today is that it did not apply the first rule in politics whiles in office. The political leadership of the party was distanced from the internal party dynamics. There was a glass ceiling between former president Kabba and the â€œcommon manâ€ on the street and he was susceptible to sycophants and flatterers who surrounded him for jobs.Â Some appointments were made because of personal allegiance to the president rather than to the SLPP. There was no coordination between the presidency and the party at both grass root and more importantly at strategic level. Leadership and national policy making was divorced from party machinery and the grass roots support bases, which meant that some critical decisions were taken above the dominance party aspiration and thinking, which eventually turned out to be an election loser.

Contrarily, the APC will push the interest of their party above other considerations.Â They do not seem to differentiate between their partyâ€™s political machinery from other critical areas of state apparatus. We saw that when our national army officiated at their last Makeni convention, an act that questioned the constitutional role of our sovereign army as it undermined their constitutional role.Â The principal role of the army is to defend our sovereignty, protect us in times of national disaster and foreign threats. The police on the other hand enforce the law and protect us from law breakers. So there is a clear distinction in the lines of duties and responsibilities for the two state apparatus, which on that day was usurped.Â

Many may not see the APC as a party with conceptual ability but they possessed a common sense approach to politics and appear to have more strategic innovativeness than the SLPP. After the attack on the SLPP office in Freetown, President Koroma walked, unannounced, amid international concerns, to see the damaged building and subsequently invited the SLPP national executive as guest to his partyâ€™s national conference that took place in Makeni.Â Although many were critical of his gesture, it nevertheless went down well with the international observers.Â

Indeed, for me, it is bewildering that the APC, which came about as a protest party, had won the only two competitive democratic elections which the SLPP in government had conducted.Â The current president should not be underestimated.Â He has shown empathy, charisma and prioritizing the unfinished programs left by the Tejan Kabbaâ€™s SLPP government.Â Not that he had achieved anything new, thus far, apart from completing the Bumbuna electricity that lighted Freetown.Â However the president deserves the due credit for his sense of priority because Freetown had become unacceptably dark for a national capital.Â The darkness in Freetown was a major election issue to Freetownians and it was almost criminal for the Tejan Kabba’s administration to have gone in to an election with such swelled up frustration over the darkness in our capital city and expect to pull more votes than the APC in Freetown.

President Koroma also appear to be a good student of politics by trying to avoid the mistakes president Kabba made with his party,Â one of which was not strengthening and maximizing the SLPP support bases.Â And it is my view that President Koroma is a party politician who is empowering his party base and membership. Â Â Â Â Â Â

The SLPP was weak in Freetown throughout its 11 years in power. The party should find an explanation for this and strategize on what can be done to reverse the situation. Ernest Koroma considered the western area and north as his strength base and he wants to keep it that way. But he is also taking the political battle in to the SLPP’s support base by inducement, incentives and other less visible means.

On our part, we need to penetrate the key battle grounds to have a fair chance of exiting them from power.Â Central to this is to reform the party, shed the image of elitism and old timers at the helm and present credible alternative programs, led by a proven performer with trusted background and superior intellect to President Ernest Koroma.Â

Our first objective therefore is to winÂ the trust of the voters and those whoÂ believe the party had abandoned them and not capable of a change. To do that, the party must acknowledged its own areas of weaknesses and recognized the strength of the APC led government of President Ernest Koroma. The mistake to guide against is that the SLPP should not believe the government unpopularity and failure can necessary win us votes by 2012. We need to do more to convince the voters that we are worthy of their votes and that despite our past short comings, we are ready to turn a new page in building a more coherent country and effect tangle changes in the lives of our fellow citizens no matter their political affiliation, tribes or regions.

And our hopes and chances of winning in 2012 rest on the type of leader the party elect. For me, I am totally convinced that picking our flag bearer from the past recycled old school will be a disastrous mistake and an electoral liability.Â We should not gamble on that. We need to campaign on a reform and new agenda for our country and it is politically prudent, responsible and logical to have a flag bearer who can promote his credentials than be forced by our opponent to defend past records.

As a former secretary general of the UK branch who made meaning contribution to the restoration of the Tejan Kabba led SLPP, I resigned from the party that I was born in to for reasons which no progressive and sincere SLPP could dispute.Â Today I write as an SLPP having renewed my membership with our UK branch few months after the completion of the 2007 election.

I resigned from my party when it was in power but I returned when it is out of power to fight for those reasons which caused me to resign: to restore the core values of our fore fathers, to build a country that is not separated by regions, ethnicity, tribes, patronage or treated unfairly because of these situation or divided by the have and have not.

There is no greater motivation for me to join national politics than to contribute in making Sierra Leone a proud nation, progressive, happy and united in common destiny.Â It can be done.

God bless the people of Sierra Leone.

20 January 2010

Yankuba Kai-Samba, London

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