{"id":59820,"date":"2013-08-11T13:19:11","date_gmt":"2013-08-11T13:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=59820"},"modified":"2013-08-11T13:19:11","modified_gmt":"2013-08-11T13:19:11","slug":"overcoming-the-apcs-internal-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=59820","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming \u2018The APC\u2019s Internal Enemy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE OSWALD HANCILES COLUMN<\/b><\/p>\n

In his \u201cagendas\u201d, and \u201cattitude change\u201d assault,\u00a0 \u00a0\u201ctransformation\u201d\u00a0 clarion call, President Ernest Bai Koroma in his rhetoric, and some of his actions, is determined to make a difference in Sierra Leone\u2019s, and, indeed, Africa\u2019s history \u2013 and bequeath an enviable legacy.\u00a0\u00a0 The President can do well to take leaves from the political book, and, workable experience, of\u00a0\u00a0 Singapore\u2019s\u00a0 first post-independence Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew.\u00a0\u00a0 Like President Koroma, Lee was a man of soaring vision.\u00a0 In the 35 years of his premiership, Lee transformed\u00a0\u00a0 natural- resource-starved Singapore – \u00a0a developing nation almost at the same developmental state of Ghana and Sierra Leone some sixty years ago – into one of the world\u2019s most developed countries today.<\/p>\n

According to the \u00a0National Geographic magazine<\/span>, in an article titled \u201cThe Singapore Solution<\/a>\u201d , \u00a0it\u00a0 is stated that Singapore\u2019s per capita income for its 3.7 million citizens exceeds that of many European countries (it is about $28,000 today \u2013 compared to about $500 for Sierra Leone); the education and health system can compete with anything in the West; government officials are pretty much corruption free; 90 percent of the households own their own homes; taxes are relatively low; the streets and sidewalks are pristine (it would be almost impossible to find a single sweet peeling on the\u00a0 Singaporean city center where millions of people would daily transverse); \u00a0and you do not find homeless people or slums. Singapore also boasts an unemployment rate of less than 3 percent. Singapore has often been referred to as an economic miracle, because it has achieved so much, in such a short time \u2013 a feat President Koroma appears to want to replicate<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Singaporean-type Discipline in Sierra Leone?<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

President Koroma\u2019s vision can only be speedily transformed into\u00a0 concrete reality with a dramatic change in the discipline ethos of the citizenry \u2013 hence, early this year, the President launched a \u2018war against indiscipline\u2019, code-named Operation WID. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This appears to be another leaf from Lee\u2019s political book.\u00a0 Economic growth is encouraged by what some Singaporeans refer to as the \u201cbig stick and the big carrot.\u201d Everyone can see evidence of the big carrot, by simply witnessing Singapore’s impressive economic growth, its dazzling skyscrapers comparable to that of New York\u2019s. The big stick is another matter:\u00a0 this is done by creating and enforcing many rules that are foundational for a well ordered nation.\u00a0 Prime Minister Lee believed that man can be trained and needs to be disciplined. This is accomplished by lots of rules. The enforcement of these rules have always been extremely strict in Singapore. They are enforced with anything from fines to occasional outings. They also believe in practicing corporal punishment. In Singapore caning is mandatory for at least 42 offenses.<\/b><\/p>\n

Corporal punishment?\u00a0 That appears a wonderful idea that could serve as a deterrent in Sierra Leone.\u00a0 But, would our society give support to it?\u00a0 Police grabbing a man and whipping him in public for dropping a banana peel on the city street, for example?\u00a0\u00a0 So fed up are the generally of the citizenry with the indiscipline in the society \u2013 and its gnawing effect on their lifestyles \u2013 that they would likely support extreme measures to instil discipline in our society.\u00a0 The main resistance\u00a0 President Koroma would face\u00a0 in trying to inject rigid\u00a0 discipline\u00a0 into our society would not come from the masses, it would be energized by\u00a0 the privileged elite\u00a0 who are his \u2018enemies\u2019; especially those who are within his own APC party, or, those who are high ranking government officials claiming to be supporters of his party \u2013 who I term here as \u2018internal enemies\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b><\/p>\n

The \u2018Internal Enemies\u2019<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

In the politics of Africa, even when a country is physically at war with external aggressors, or, embroiled in civil war, it is relatively easy to identify the \u2018external enemy\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 It is the \u2018internal enemy\u2019 of an African government that is extremely difficult to define… is almost spectral<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0 As physical forms, the \u2018internal enemy\u2019 is all too often the most intense and vehement of party executives; <\/i><\/b>appears to be the most loyal of friends to the President. \u00a0\u00a0Sometimes, the \u2018internal enemy\u2019 \u00a0to a governing party in power is epitomized by the President himself!<\/p>\n

The \u2018internal enemy\u2019 of a political party in power are largely those in leadership positions\u00a0 – who suffer from \u2018forget-iasis! For example, in Sierra Leone, they have forgotten that the APC was in power for 24 years, and in the last four years of the APC, the entire system imploded.\u00a0 The \u2018internal enemy\u2019 of the APC today are beating their chests as to how the APC would \u2018live forever\u2019 \u2013 without exerting themselves to ensure that they create the systems that would significantly improve on the livelihood of the majority of the people.\u00a0 The \u2018internal enemy\u2019 of the SLPP between 2002 and 2007 grew arrogant (the SLPP presidential candidate, Tejan Kabbah, had won the 2002 elections by a landslide; and President was speaking as if there would be need to prop up the APC so as to create the impression that Sierra Leone were NOT\u00a0 a de facto One Party state), and complacent \u2013 they were certain that they had completely vanquished their main opposition, the APC, and whoever would clinch the standard bearer position of the SLPP would inexorably become president.<\/p>\n

The \u2018internal enemy\u2019 is capricious and harsh, and, for him, performance is something to be joked <\/b>about \u2013 as what matters to him (or her) would be his \u2018own cut\u2019 of every deal. The \u2018internal enemy\u2019 overtly, or, in some cases, subtly discourages the learned and productive within his \u2018domain\u2019- and empowers the\u00a0 sycophantic\u00a0 and the gossip peddler.\u00a0\u00a0 The \u2018internal enemy\u2019 soon saps the morale of nearly all the staff in his ministry or agency; fear reigns supreme;\u00a0 most who do any form of work would only be posturing, so as not to be too visible as not doing anything.\u00a0 A year to General Elections, the \u2018internal enemy\u2019 would become very generous in donations to the governing \u00a0party\u2019s central coffers \u2013 but, he would have stashed a fortune in government money stolen…just in case<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0 (In the 2002, 2007, and 2012 elections, there were indications that some of the \u2018internal enemy\u2019 would give financial support to all the major political parties….Just in case….).<\/p>\n

There are other innocuous, but, equally virulent,\u00a0 \u2018internal enemies\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 These \u2018internal enemies\u2019 are the apathetic civil servants<\/b>.\u00a0\u00a0 In their air-conditioned offices they would be bemused about the antics of the cabinet minister \u2018internal enemy\u2019.\u00a0 They would collaborate with the minister, or, anyone, to fleece the country.\u00a0\u00a0 They would not bother about productivity.<\/p>\n

There are other much less visible, more amorphous, \u2018internal enemies\u2019 \u2013 those who hoard information.<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0 Even when a ministry\/agency is achieving something positive, they won\u2019t release relevant information to the public to burnish the ministry\/agency, or, to stimulate positive action among their stakeholders.<\/p>\n

There are probable\u00a0 \u2018internal enemies\u2019 among\u00a0 some parliamentarians<\/b> \u2013 especially if the party in power is the majority in parliament.\u00a0\u00a0 These \u2018internal enemies\u2019 as parliamentarians are supposed to monitor the executive.\u00a0\u00a0 They are inclined to swoop into a ministry\/agency, legally demand all documents, probe, and, would ferret out sordid information on corruption and inefficiency.\u00a0 Most often than not, such information would not be publicly debated, and no outcry would be stimulated \u2013 rather, these \u2018internal enemies\u2019 as parliamentarians would \u2018reach a deal\u2019 with the senior executives of the government ministry\/agency, and get their own \u2018cut\u2019 of corrupt deals.<\/p>\n

The delusion of \u2018internal enemies\u2019<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

In Africa, \u2018internal enemies\u2019 are most likely to be deluded by power that lasts a decade, or, two decades, and they talk and act as if their political party is immortal, and they are invincible and inviolable.\u00a0\u00a0 This perception is reinforced when they win elections, then, they are disdainful of any person or group who seeks to clean up the system, and check their diabolical predation on the country.\u00a0 \u00a0Ephemeral popular support of the people simply gets the \u2018internal enemy\u2019 drunk, and more irrational.\u00a0\u00a0 They forget certain historical lessons.<\/p>\n

\n

In Sierra Leone, the APC won all the parliamentary seats in Freetown and the Northern province in the 1967 elections, and determined crowds outside State House were ready to sacrifice their very lives to challenge a group of military officers who wanted to rob them of their earned power \u2013 yet, in 1992, when the NPRC military crowds booted the APC from power ecstatic crowds in Freetown hailed them.\u00a0\u00a0 Master-Sergeant Samuel Kanyan Doe bludgeoned to death the Rev.\u00a0 William R. Tolbert in his pyjamas in the Executive Mansion in 1980, ending 130 years of oligarchic Americo-Liberian rule; and for two months adoring \u2018native people\u2019 from all over Liberia revelled on the streets of the capital city of Liberia, Monrovia, hailing Doe \u2013 yet, after just five years of rule, Doe was massively unpopular, and his brutal rule plunged the country into a miasmic civil war\u00a0 in 1989.\u00a0\u00a0 The SLPP Leader, President Tejan Kabba, won the 2002 elections by a landslide, winning over 62% of votes cast in Freetown, which is traditionally an APC stronghold \u2013 just five years later, the successor who Kabba had \u2018anointed\u2019, Solomon Berewa, lost the presidential elections; and, in the same Freetown which Tejan Kabbah candidate had won by 62% in 2002, the APC presidential candidate, Ernest Bai Koroma, polled 72% of votes cast in 2007. The \u2018internal enemy\u2019 has failed to learn that the people must never be taken for granted!!<\/b><\/p>\n

Prosperity only when the \u2018internal enemy\u2019 is tamed, reined…<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

President Ernest Bai Koroma has floated a vision of a disciplined Sierra Leone embarking on an Agenda for Prosperity that would make the country into a Middle Income country in 25 years, and a donor country in 50 years.\u00a0 The President\u2019s vision even within the next five years would remain just fantasy if these \u2018internal enemies\u2019 are not confronted, neutralized, or, vanquished.\u00a0 <\/b>There are structures, and\/or agencies already in place legally mandated to do combat with these \u2018internal enemies\u2019 \u2013 but, these agencies lack potency without overwhelming \u2018people\u2019s support\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0To even mildly replicate \u2018the Singaporean experience\u2019 in Sierra Leone, President Koroma has to be resolute in overcoming the wile and guile and poison of the \u2018internal enemy\u2019 within his own APC.\u00a0 The President\u2019s 25 year and 50 years vision for the country is intrinsic with a Lee-type political longevity for his APC.\u00a0 To \u2018be a Lee\u2019, President Koroma has to be as tough as Lee \u2013 firstly, with his own \u2018internal enemies\u2019, before he can have the moral authority to address the \u2018lesser enemies\u2019 of the political opposition, and the generality of the ordinary people who would be all too easy to discipline once the President can bridle his own \u2018internal enemies.<\/p>\n

Oswald Hanciles<\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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THE OSWALD HANCILES COLUMN In his \u201cagendas\u201d, and \u201cattitude change\u201d assault,\u00a0 \u00a0\u201ctransformation\u201d\u00a0 clarion call, President Ernest Bai Koroma in his rhetoric, and some of his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":9661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,692],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=59820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}