Culled from The Daily Observer Beran US Democrat takes African leaders to task by Ibrahim JT Brown A two-day conference by the US-based Alliance for Democracy in Africa began at the Senegambia Beach Hotel Wednesday afternoon. In his address, the National Endowment for Democracy, director for Africa Programme, Mr Dave Peterson, said "African democratically elected leaders, such as Charles Taylor behave very repressively, and many others such as Lansana Conteh of Guinea, Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazaville or Idris Deby of Chad, maintain only a pretence of democracy, holding sham elections and repressing serious dissent." He also pointed to what he termed common cases of flawed democracies such as Nigeria and Sierra Leone, where the political class indulge in corrupt, and sometime violent behaviour, to gain or maintain power, and proceed to govern poorly and corruptly once in control. He said he had noticed that the situation on the ground was far from stagnant. "Certainly democracy is not inevitable or automatic. Nor is economic development, for that matter," he said. institutions, holding free and fair elections, and finding enlightened leaders. Rather, it required conscious efforts by individuals, almost always organised in civil society, to push the process forward, to demand change, to raise awareness, to protest wrongs and assert rights and freedom. "If such efforts are absent or repressed, then democratic transition is unlikely," adding that if consumers, farmers, workers and businessmen do not demand economic freedom and strive to protect it, then state control, inefficiency, corruption and economic decline, were the likely outcomes. Democracy, he said, should provide the political space for individuals to assert their economic rights free from fear of state control and corruption. Peterson observed that in Nigeria, the political class is generally a disappointing lot, prone to corruption and scheming, and in the opinion of most Nigerians, not very effective at delivering results in the form of economic development. In the Niger Delta region of the country, recent local government elections within the People's Democratic Party -PDP- were marred by considerable violence and thuggery. "Most of the politicians are hold-overs from the military dictatorship," with the former military dictator Ibrahim Babangida assumed to have bankrolled most of the political parties. Mr Peterson further said that Liberia presents a grim picture. He said an armed rebel movement is creating insecurity and forcing tens of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons to flee for their lives. President Charles Taylor has reverted to his warlord style of governance using his indisciplined security forces to arrest people and abuse human rights activists and journalists, and terrorising ordinary citizens. He said the political parties are weak, and most of the opposition leaders have fled into exile. "The International Community has imposed sanctions on Liberia and the economy is in shambles. Liberia might be another hopeless, failed state, but it is not because of the civil society," he said. Sierra Leone presents a much more optimistic scenario after one of the world's most gruesome conflicts. "In Guinea, by contrast, one cannot help but associate the authoritarian character of the state with the weakness of civil society," said Mr Peterson. "There is no sign of a democratic transition --- and the economy in Guinea is evidently mired in corruption" while Liberia is clearly a disaster. Democracy, Mr. Peterson said, might bring greater transparency and reduce state intervention and the accompanying corruption that has plagued much of Africa. The conference being hosted by the Alliance for Democracy in Africa, at the Senegambia Beach Hotel ended Wednesday, August 7. _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~