General News of Wednesday, 20 May 2009  |  |  Rawlings' Speech At Oxford    ADDRESS BY FLT. LT. (Rtd) JERRY JOHN RAWLINGS, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE  REPUBLIC OF GHANA AT A LECTURE ON ‘DEMOCRACY AND SECURITY IN  AFRICA’ UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE OXFORD RESEARCH NETWORK ON  GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA – MAY 18, 2009    Distinguished ladies and gentlemen the subject matter of security and  democracy in Africa is thought provoking and interestingly, the story  of our diverse continent.    Africa’s diversity was existent long before the colonisation of the  continent and its subsequent partitioning leading to various regional  and political blocks.    I need not bore you with the historical antecedents to the  partitioning of the continent and the various security implications it  had. Nevertheless the subject of
security and democracy on the  continent cannot be removed from the fallouts of the Berlin Conference  of 1884.    I recently had the opportunity to address the African Presidential  Roundtable in Berlin where the issue of land security was discussed.  It was evident that colonialism (a partnership of greedy landowners  and colonialists) had taken a great toll on the political fortunes of  the continent as land security continues to be an albatross round the  neck of many governments and indeed full-scale civil wars and other  conflicts have evolved out of land insecurity. Lest I digress, it is  important to first identify what security is. Security is the ability  of a people to feel safe and comfortable within a certain  socio-cultural framework. In this regard we can all understand the two  modern security structures - National Security and Human or Political  Security. National security involves protecting the state, its  institutions and sovereignty. Human or political security entails  issues of poverty, basic amenities, employment, and abuse of human  rights and a host of others. How can we have security without genuine  democracy? Since freedom and justice anchor democracy, how can you  have the security of peace and stability when there is no freedom and  justice? It is most unethical and politically unwise to attempt to  govern a people by resorting to a high ratio of physical security as  opposed to political/human security. Are we not violating people’s  human rights,
 sensibilities and sensitivities with the use of the  coercive machinery of the state by terrorising people into a State of  subjugation?    The use of the judiciary also, to jail innocent people contributes to  instilling fear and emasculating the populace. In effect, it creates a  false and intoxicating sense of security for the leadership at the  expense of the security and the empowerment of the citizenry. We then  get away with being corrupt dictators. Integrity, transparency and  accountability become meaningless in our leadership. Fear,  intimidation and terror tactics are the tools of corrupt  dictatorships.    On the other hand, a high ratio of political/human to physical  security is a mark of good leadership and a demonstration of  confidence in the sense of responsibility of our people. It empowers  our people. If we have the courage to empower our people, it then  demands of us a leadership that will necessarily be accountable to the  people, be transparent, and maintain a high degree of integrity.    Ladies and Gentlemen, Ghanaians experienced the worst form of famine  any country could conceivably endure in 1983 when there was widespread  drought due to a lack of rainfall. Food insecurity aside, there was  also insecurity associated with electricity. Ghana’s major  hydroelectric dam almost dried up and the country had to resort to  load shedding with its attendant negative impact on economic  development.    Regional security in Africa has always been an im
portant factor in the  political directions of most African countries. Ghana belongs to the  Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). We have other  regional groupings such as the Southern African Development Community  (SADC). These institutions have all played significant roles in the  security of their various regions. Security cannot however exist in a  vacuum but always overlaps with the political environment.    In Africa, democracy and security have always been bedfellows. The  democratic system of governance relates to the free and equal  representation of the people in the management of a country. Several  exceptions aside, Western type of multiparty governance is the most  adopted form of political system on the continent and I must say the  major source of insecurity on the continent.    Democracy works only when it has evolved within a specific  socio-cultural environment and fused into the traditional political  systems such that it is seen as an indigenous product, but  unfortunately Africa has not been given the opportunity to develop  this.    In 1987 the government of the Provisional National Defence Council  established the National Commission for Democracy with the task of  seeking national consensus on Ghanaian political reform. Their final  report hinted at a democratic system that was not multiparty based but  on a grass roots system that encouraged elected unit committees  district assemblies, regional assemblies and national assemblies - In  effect, the continuation of the20governing structure of the PNDC. The  concept was more entrenched within the socio cultural fabric of our  traditional political system and was aimed at ensuring that every  citizen played a direct active role in national politics. The aim of  our leadership at the time was to place utmost importance on  participatory governance, where power belonged to the ordinary  citizen. Such empowerment in an evolving political situation ensured  stability because our leadership was under a constant challenge to do  the peoples’ bidding and not capitulate to the whims of a select  elite. Governance was demystified. There was a sense of social  responsibility, respect for human values and transparency of  governance.    Democracy is about what the people want and need, not about what the  rulers think the people want or need.    The multiparty system of governance prescribed and inflicted on us by  some Western powers did not factor the social cultural fabric of our  traditional political system that existed before Western multiparty  democracy. We can sit on our high horses and send observers to cover  elections across the continent and they will return with lovely  stories of free expression of the people’s will. What they fail to  realise is the fact that many voters are influenced into voting in a  certain pattern and are threatened with violence should they vote  otherwise. Unfortunately that situation persists on our continent and  we cannot play the ostrich, ado
pt democracy in the form that the West  has handed down to us and expect that our security will be guaranteed.  Democracy could be described as existing in name and form but without  substance in some parts of the continent.    In developing Western style multiparty democracy on the continent, we  have resorted so much to text book definitions which have been imposed  on us and have refused to do a critical analysis of the impact such  wholesale adoption has had on our societies.    THE GHANA EXAMPLE    Ladies and gentlemen, Ghana is one country that has gone through it  all. I first took political office in 1979 when the military top brass  had presided over one coup after the other and turned Ghana into a  very corrupt state following the failure of the two post-independence  elected governments to manage the country. The intervening military  leadership did little to curtail the corruption that had been  inherited and inflation and other economic indices were in a galloping  state.    The insurrection of June 4, 1979 came close to a very violent  explosion. It was an enraged call by the officers and ranks to purge  the armed forces. Containing this rage within the barracks, in other  words, preventing it from spilling into the civilian populace was  indeed a herculean task because the civilian populace kept demanding  for more executions and the blood of their perceived oppressors too.  The shock and rage of June 4 appeared lost on some of the civilian  politician
s and their corrupt collaborators who took refuge in a state  of self-denial.    When I became head of state again in December 1981, it was a desire  for a revolutionary transformation by the people. The regime that we  handed over to after the revolt of June 4 1979 had embarked on a  punitive behaviour towards the armed forces and civil population. Our  country had once again sunk into a political and economic quagmire  that had little respect for the masses. The economy was in shambles;  state institutions had become all but insignificant, corruption was on  the rise again and the hope and expectation that had been ignited by  the spirit of June 4 was virtually being undermined by the civilian  regime.    Ladies and Gentlemen, what is democracy if there is no clear  developmental order? People’s very existence hangs on good  governance and if successive elected governments have failed miserably  in defending the will of the people, it manifests itself in  revolutions.    Ghana underwent political and economic metamorphoses that every true  proponent of democracy has to concede, laid the fertile framework for  what we regard today as a stable democracy.    The social sense of responsibility and natural justice in a  non-constitutional era was so high that the judiciary were not needed  to do justice to the people. The self-empowerment had led to a higher  quality of justice at no cost – the courts had become irrelevant.  The spontaneity t
owards natural justice gave true meaning to  democracy.#    Ladies and Gentlemen, as the ten-year tenure of the Provisional  National Defence Council drew to a close it became clear that economic  development had taken seed. The infrastructural development that went  with it was there to be seen. Electrification around the country had  been vigorously pursued rising from about 25 per cent to over 80 per  cent by the time we left office in 2000. In 2001 I handed over power  to John Kufuor after serving a two-term presidency since 1992. I  handed over gracefully even though the candidate of my party lost. The  people’s will had decided that John Mills was not the man to lead  Ghana at the time. I respected that decision and did not dream of  taking power by force or passing a decree to entrench my stay in  power. Need I mention the number of times it has happened elsewhere on  the continent and beyond? In a lecture I gave at the University of  Science and Technology, Kumasi on April 25, 2009 I stated that:    The stability and smooth transitions recorded within the first eight  years of the Fourth Republic was a true manifestation of the will of  the people and a belief in the leadership they had elected. No  government is without its negatives and I am convinced that my  government had some flaws but what was important was the fact that we  were never alienated from the ordinary folk who elected us into power  to move this country forwardA
2€¦    Crucially important for the successful management of any democracy is  the need for leadership to allow institutions of governance to work  effectively without interference. The Commission on Human Rights  (CHRAJ), The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and all the institutions of  government played their roles effectively. Indeed some members of the  NDC government were affected by adverse findings by some of these  institutions. Embarrassing, as these may have been it sent a strong  message to all that democracy was really at work and elected leaders  were not above the law.#    ANOTHER DARK ERA    Early this year, Professor Mills of the National Democratic Congress  was elected as President of Ghana. Eight out of ten regions voted for  him. Our electoral system requires perfection, but it is significant  to note that several firsts have been chalked since 2001 when Ghana  first experienced one elected leader taking over from another. In 2009  we did it for the second time.    The election of Mills was preceded by an era of that I described in my  April 25 lecture as follows: The election of the New Patriotic  Party’s John Kufuor in 2000 gave further boost to the development of  our democracy. Many had serious doubts about the intention of Rawlings  to hand over power and respect the will of the people, particularly if  his party’s candidate lost the election. Little needs to be said  about the smoothness of the transitionâ8
2¦    Contrary to the assertion that their tradition was truly democratic  the NPP government was an excellent example of an undemocratic regime.  Once you belonged to the party you did no wrong. Every effort was made  to obliterate the P/NDC legacy and the institutions of government were  so politicised that even when they took decisions against government  officials such decisions were disregarded with impunity.    Ghana once again sunk into a democracy of nepotism,  non-accountability, power to the rich and a complete disregard for the  feelings of the electorate.    More dangerous was the abuse of the security services structure, the  hounding and persecution of some services personnel, refusal to follow  laid down promotion procedure and a complete politicisation of the  military. The NPP could not co-exist with institutions with forceful  integrity. The security services were not spared and the judiciary  took a serious beating as well. Seeing shadows and recognising the  fact that some of us were aware of the deepening crises in the  barracks, a blanket ban was placed on respectable senior officers not  to visit military installations including the police and military  hospitals.    Fortunately Ghanaians knew better and did not hesitate to vote out the  ruling party when it mattered most despite the clear doctoring of  figures and tinkering that took place in a desperate bid to stay in  power.    …the general populace was privy to the fraud that was taking=2
0place  and a refusal to allow that to persist meant threats of a state of  emergency and a culture of fear designed to compel the electoral  commission to announce the incumbent as the winner. What was a better  recipe for chaos than this?... The NPP took us to the abyss as far as  democracy was concerned and such methods do nothing to deepen or  entrench democracy. It allows for chaos, lack of confidence in the  electoral process and political apathy.#    It is insightful to note that the previous government left a huge  national debt of GHC 47 trillion when Ghana’s combined debt from  Independence was GHC 44 trillion! Never before in our country’s  history had there been such blatant dissipation of national resources.  There was absolutely no significant infrastructural development to  show for it!    Significantly, Ghana managed to stay stable because of the culture of  tolerance that had been created between 1981 and 2000. These  achievements are not due to pressures imposed by the West but a desire  by a people to prove that peoples’ power is most sacrosanct.    REGIONAL SECURITY AND DEMOCRACY    Several countries in Africa survive on fragile democracies and these  have led to several security threats some of which has spilled to  neighbouring countries.    African governance and security has faced major challenges because of  the imposition of conditions by certain western powers over the manner  our various countries=2
0should be governed.    In 1982 Nigeria deported more than one million Ghanaian economic  migrants in what was a major political and security threat to the very  stability of the then PNDC regime. Rather than panic and plead for  some understanding, we marshalled forces and received the Ghanaians  with open arms. Shiploads of Ghanaians were ferried to Tema where they  were transported by articulated trucks to their various towns, cities  and villages. It was a test of Ghana’s resolve and a ploy once again  plotted by Western vested interests to destabilise Ghana.    Indeed that singular event strengthened the power base of the PNDC as  a government of the people because the manner the repatriation was  managed confounded the harshest critics and sowed an atmosphere of  patriotism never before seen in Ghana. The spirit of positive defiance  was at its best. Many ‘Agege’# returnees with support from  government went into farming and other local industries and  contributed positively to the economy of Ghana. Security in the region  was again threatened when Liberia was plunged into confusion in 1989  following the outbreak of a civil war. Though there was an ECOWAS  Protocol on Mutual Defence Assistance some members developed cold feet  when attempts at deploying an intervention force was mooted.    In August 1990 at a meeting in Banjul, Gambia, some of us impressed on  our colleagues the need to establish a military intervention force,  ECOM
OG (ECOWAS Monitoring Group). The initial composition involved  troops from a few countries from the West African region. The grounds  for the establishment of the force were based more on a political and  moral will, and the need to set a precedent than on a legal basis.    Under the leadership of General Arnold Quainoo of Ghana, ECOMOG had to  fight its way into parts of Monrovia to create a buffer zone. Its  intervention led to the United States and United Nations showing  subsequent interest. ECOMOG had its major issues like every military  intervention group but it served as a fillip to the international  community as the United Nations then intervened and helped broker  peace.    What was significant was that the political powers within the region  had grown to appreciate the need for a regional force to act with  dispatch when member states encountered situations that affected their  internal security particularly because of the spill over effect. The  war in Liberia was linked in so many ways to the war in Sierra Leone  and both countries traded accusations over what each other was doing  to destabilise her government. Regional stability is thus crucial and  a permanent machinery to either prevent or manage conflict hence the  initial idea for ECOMOG.    MEDIA, DEMOCRACY & SECURITY    The media has played both positive and negative roles in democracy and  security. With particular reference to the Western sponsored media,  bad news about Africa make the headlines all=2
0the time and even in  times of great achievements the negative aspect is highlighted.    Ghanaians could for instance not fathom why the Bloombergs, Al  Jazeeras and a host of others chose to call Ghana’s last elections  for the ruling party’s candidate when Professor Mills was leading  the poll by a respectable margin. Back home Kufuor had over the past  eight years sponsored a vociferous bunch of no-good journalists who  had sold their ethics and were practising what I will refer to as  stomach journalism. They aided in creating an atmosphere of fear and  turned the NPP leadership into a quasi-dictatorship with power  centralised within the presidency and all dissenting opinion snuffed  out with the full weight of the sponsored media.    I must admit that some media houses stayed neutral and made great  efforts to report the real situation on the ground. One station in  Accra was brave enough to call the election for Prof Mills eliciting  heavy abuse from the ruling party. The inevitable nevertheless  happened.    CONCLUSION    Africa’s security and political stability is key for real  socio-economic development. Security in effect relies on a genuine  democratic culture. Significantly, directions taken by countries such  as Ghana have served as a source of inspiration to many countries  within the region and beyond. As leaders of our countries, we have a  responsibility to gauge the mood of the people and always move the  poli
tical train in a direction that ensures that the electorate feel  their interests have been served. Democracy makes true meaning when it  is the kind of governance that advertises true people power. It is not  the absence of military interventions, which we seem to have achieved  that will restore democracy, freedom, justice and development. What is  required is the integrity of leadership and ability to empower the  people. Leadership should have confidence in our people and not feel  intimidated by empowering them.    Are we bold enough to empower the people? Are we prepared to be  accountable to the people?    Corruption has persisted because our leaders have used state machinery  to terrorise the people and silenced the opposition. Vested interests  from outside have also contributed to perpetuating this by  whitewashing such corrupt and autocratic governments.    In Ghana, the recent victory of the NDC is a strong indication that  people are ready to lay down their lives for freedom, and has sparked  hope that the opposition can stand up to the power of corrupt and  autocratic governments. The uni-polar nature of the Blair-Bush years  did little to improve the political situation in Africa. The growing  culture of democracy suffered a serious setback.    Ladies and Gentlemen, Barrack Obama offers hope for the world. His  victory is to some extent an indictment of the political immorality of  the past and the savagery of capitalism as Pope John Paul put it.  Obamaâ€
s leadership will now hopefully make it more difficult for  governments to get away with the corrupt and autocratic behaviour  since the fall of the bipolar world. Let us take advantage of the  redeemed political morality before we lose this opportunity again.    Interference by some Western powers in African political affairs where  corrupt and errant leaders are supported to consolidate their stay in  power should be denounced in no uncertain terms.    When students and academics like you make an assessment of Africa it  is important that you identify the underlying issues created by your  own leadership and make calls to them to revise their posture.  Democracy is democracy so long as it is propped by freedom and  justice, probity and accountability. Our problem is having to deal  with the Western double standards unknown to the public. We are  clothed in the form while they live the substance!    I take this opportunity to thank the Oxford Research Network on  Governance in Africa and the University of Oxford for the opportunity  to address this august audience. Thank you to all who helped in  facilitating this trip. Good evening.        | Source:  GHP    ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤  To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings,
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