User talk:Raykawina

THE FAILED IDEOLOGY IN AFRICA

Many countries in the world have declared their nations as democratic states since the end of the cold war. This was viewed as a strategic and fast method of developing a country with most citizens participating freely in economic activities without interference of the state. Some nations were subjected to realign their economies with democratic systems as a mean of accessing loans from multilateral institutions or to be accepted in trading blocs. The ideology was propagated to improve trade, remove dictators from the governing and misusing public resources.

Abraham Lincoln defined democracy as the government of the people, by the people, for the people. The rule of the people is the governing of the state using democratically elected individuals to represent the will of and for the people. Since the national resources are scarce, the will of the people can be sustained through the policies and plans being implemented should reflect both tangible and intangible desire towards economic development, poverty alleviation, social justice, etc. Leaders are entrusted to safeguard the interest of the people. They have fiduciary responsibilities to the citizens

Democracy has been perceived as the best form of governance as it allows many citizens to participate in investments, managing public and private resources. Many developed countries advocate for democracy as the perfect form of governance. Sir Winston Churchill in one of his memorable speeches stated that, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Calls for democracy cannot be considered to be the perfect form of government but due to the inefficiencies that most African leaders create through their utopian rule over state and national affairs, democracy is then perceived as the only perfect form of governance that could regulate public affairs. Democracy is meant to enforce transparency and accountability over managing resources. The systems should strengthen integrity in managing the delicate public resources.

Almost all countries in Africa have constitutions which tend to favor the economically, socially and politically advantaged in government. Calls for new constitutions which are people driven are sidelined by the ruling political parties e.g. Zimbabwean constitution saga, Zambian constitutions (Mvunga Commission, Mung’ombe Commission and the vote against setting a roadmap for the constitution in Zambian parliament or the failure to roll out the road map for the constitution making process, Muslim brotherhood, etc). For instance, despite the Technical committee handing over the draft constitution document to the government, the contents have remained a secret from the Zambian populace. The voters or the citizens are left to linger without discerning. The less people are empowered with knowledge, the easier it is to govern and exploit them. The constitution has become a preserve of a few individuals who deem it fit to either change the contents that do not favor them or leave the inefficiencies as they are to sustain their political agenda. Enactment of new laws and tightening the systems to curb the loopholes in the constitution has been met with a huge resistance. In spite of the calls from various stakeholders e.g. civil society, political activists, academicians and other legal practitioners, the governments delay the disclosure of the draft documents to fine tune the document and hence fit it into their political agenda. Any constitution that does not favor the political manifesto of the ruling government or tends to limit them on managing the resources in the interest of the public, it either not passed in parliament, or not even passed into becoming a Bill or selected portions of the whole document are enacted. Constraints and propaganda are used to ensure that the whole process of enacting the new constitution is frustrated and hence, resources mismanaged for an event that will never materialize.

Branding is critical for image building and penetration in the markets. Politicians have adopted this strategy of branding their opponents or losing politicians who were serving in the ruling party with corruption and abuse of office cases. These cases are prolonged to either impoverish them or to keep them from standing in the event of general or by-elections. The opponents are seen as threats and branding them is used as leverage.

Despite the endless resources and time, work efforts invested in drafting new constitutions, development plans and policies nothing changes. The inefficiencies have become an accepted norm of governance. Citizens are frustrated with the system. What has become with the citizens. The majority of the elite have lost the conscious over their responsibility of the oath they took before assuming power Many freedom fighters fought for political independence from the colonial master which they achieved. The first and most paramount were to continue to build systems that allowed transparent leadership and governance of national resources. To the contrary, immediately after independence, many leaders in Africa declared themselves as sole Presidents and no one was allowed to dare to contest or speak against the rule. A dictatorial leadership emerged were resources belonged to the President and a few elite class

Democracy propagated by the west helped to diffuse this notion which led to many activists, civil society and oppositions parties to participate in national governance. As a result of this demand, constitutions were amended to slip back nations to democratic rule e.g. Zambia from one party state to multi party state in 1990. What is common in all these regimes is that politicians have become private property once there are in public office. The initial ethics and roles are overlooked for personal gains and interests. They distinguish themselves from the public and are not interested to be accountable to the citizens.

The judiciary has since time in memory represented impartiality and justice, fair and adherence of the law. Excessive interference of the state in the judicial systems has compromised many judicial systems. To diffuse the powers of the judiciary, they are financially starved. This deprives many citizens accessibility to justices in a quick and fast pace. Will Africa understand the true value of democracy? Children are growing up in the world that is fast globalizing and at the same time divided e.g. inequalities in wealth, knowledge, justice, corruption and wars of guns and diseases looming at their door steps

References

[1]http://ukzambians.co.uk/home/2014/08/15/ndulo-ask-zambians-to-push-for-the-release-of-the-draft-constitution/ [accessed 27 Aug. 2014 1.Jump up ^ Jasiewicz, K. "The Churchill Hypothesis" Journal of Democracy 10.3 (1999): 169-173 http://muse.jhu.edu/ [accessed 27 Aug. 2014] --Raykawina (talk) 06:53, 1 September 2014 (UTC)--Raykawina (talk) 06:53, 1 September 2014 (UTC)--Raykawina (talk) 06:53, 1 September 2014 (UTC)--Raykawina (talk) 06:53, 1 September 2014 (UTC)