AFRICAN DEMOCRACIES: VOTING WITHOUT CHOOSING
By Fonju Ndemesah
The democratic wind of change that blew through the continent in the early nineties seems to be climbing a very stiff hill and, in some countries, it seems to be making some few steps backward. In fact, if ‘politics is less ‘the art of the possible’ and more ‘the art of making possible that which is necessary’ (Cardoso 2001), then, many aspects are still blocking the way towards true democratic politics in many parts of the continent. Some observers point at the ‘politics of the belly’ practiced in many countries; others accuse the neopatrimonial vision of government. Can the aforementioned flaws explain everything?
‘Electionizations’ of democracy
Democracy in many African countries seem to be focused on elections, forgetting the other key aspects such as institution building, rights and duties of the citizens, and the separation of powers. Most often, the political scene is heated during election time. During this period, the people are overwhelmed by elites and political leaders who are most of the time absent when the people are complaining about the growing inequality. Even when they appear during the electoral period, their programs and concerns oftentimes do not ‘recall the face of the poorest and weakest’ in the society. The result is a fuzzy pre-electoral environment, where the voters are confused by the abundance of pseudo leaders, pseudo political parties - most often regarded as acting opportunistically. This cacophony produces a fertile environment in which the postcolonial leaders, who intern to stay in power eternally, organize pseudo elections, where people vote but don’t choose.
‘Etnitocracy’
The politics of ‘divide and rule’ seems to be the predominant governmentality. It is obvious that belonging to any ethnic group will never kill anyone. However, the manipulation of this ethnic differences for egoistic political interests produces results such as what we are witnessing in many African countries. The ‘divide and rule’ policy borrowed from the colonial masters has become the primary content of many democracies. From Tunis down to Cape Town, from Ouagadougou to Mogadishu, we most often hear complaints of groups fighting against each other. These complaints, in many cases, are fake pictures of what is really happening in the continent. This ethnocentric analysis, most often cherished by the western media and some lazy local journalists, is simply the result, and not the cause of the problem, as it is often assumed. The real cause is found in the political manipulations of the various ethnic differences by some political parties and leaders. This political manipulation, for example, produced its extreme consequences in Rwanda in 1994, with more than 800 innocent people killed in the name of a presumed hutu/tutsi difference.
Power Balance
It is clear that one of the fundamental aspects of any democracy is the separation of powers. However, the case in most countries in the continent is that of an executive controling all the other arms of power. This leads to an unbalance situation which, most often, produces a totalitarian democracy. The latter uses all coercive strategies to control the countries institutions, and also to promote egoistic and group interests. This tendency to monopolize power has led to an increased perfunctoriness towards many political issues. This is sometimes portrayed by the low participation during many political elections. Many leaders in the continent are hanging to power after elections, even after a participation of less than half of the eligible voters. That is, democratically speaking; they don’t represent the majority of the people they claim to represent.
Aware of their lack of legitimacy, to maintain control, many postcolonial dictators have decided to create a ‘dictatorial democracy’, where freedom, power, and state institutions are coercively controlled by a few. Liberty, equality and brotherhood in these regimes are empty concept, which from time to time are manipulated by the political entrepreneurs to strengthen their hold to power, or simple positioning for patronage.
Lack of public philosophy
“Whenever the ethical code of society is lost, civilization will end” (Gandhi). Many political leaders often use expressions such as, ‘the people have chosen me as their leader’, ‘the people are calling for my candidacy’; when implicitly, they are thinking only of their private interest. The questions to know the true representative of the people still needs to be answered. Can we really say we represent the people in a situation of disorganized organization, where people vote but don’t choose, where public policy is not based on any reliable population census, where there is, most often, no clear public philosophy, and where private property comes before human wellness, and where politician hardly ‘recall the face of the poorest and weakest’ in the society?
The answer is obviously no. In fact, rampant corruption, growing unemployment and absence of some elementary freedoms cannot be the philosophy that underpins nation building. A body of positive principles and precepts, which a good citizen cannot deny or ignore, needs to be recognized and implemented in many African countries. Without a thorough reorientation of the public philosophy in many countries, to borrow from walter lippmann, ‘it will be impossible to reach intelligible and workable conceptions of popular election, majority rule, representative assemblies, free speech, loyalty, property corporations and voluntary association’.
The democratic wind of change that blew through the continent in the early nineties seems to be climbing a very stiff hill and, in some countries, it seems to be making some few steps backward. In fact, if ‘politics is less ‘the art of the possible’ and more ‘the art of making possible that which is necessary’ (Cardoso 2001), then, many aspects are still blocking the way towards true democratic politics in many parts of the continent. Some observers point at the ‘politics of the belly’ practiced in many countries; others accuse the neopatrimonial vision of government. Can the aforementioned flaws explain everything?
‘Electionizations’ of democracy
Democracy in many African countries seem to be focused on elections, forgetting the other key aspects such as institution building, rights and duties of the citizens, and the separation of powers. Most often, the political scene is heated during election time. During this period, the people are overwhelmed by elites and political leaders who are most of the time absent when the people are complaining about the growing inequality. Even when they appear during the electoral period, their programs and concerns oftentimes do not ‘recall the face of the poorest and weakest’ in the society. The result is a fuzzy pre-electoral environment, where the voters are confused by the abundance of pseudo leaders, pseudo political parties - most often regarded as acting opportunistically. This cacophony produces a fertile environment in which the postcolonial leaders, who intern to stay in power eternally, organize pseudo elections, where people vote but don’t choose.
‘Etnitocracy’
The politics of ‘divide and rule’ seems to be the predominant governmentality. It is obvious that belonging to any ethnic group will never kill anyone. However, the manipulation of this ethnic differences for egoistic political interests produces results such as what we are witnessing in many African countries. The ‘divide and rule’ policy borrowed from the colonial masters has become the primary content of many democracies. From Tunis down to Cape Town, from Ouagadougou to Mogadishu, we most often hear complaints of groups fighting against each other. These complaints, in many cases, are fake pictures of what is really happening in the continent. This ethnocentric analysis, most often cherished by the western media and some lazy local journalists, is simply the result, and not the cause of the problem, as it is often assumed. The real cause is found in the political manipulations of the various ethnic differences by some political parties and leaders. This political manipulation, for example, produced its extreme consequences in Rwanda in 1994, with more than 800 innocent people killed in the name of a presumed hutu/tutsi difference.
Power Balance
It is clear that one of the fundamental aspects of any democracy is the separation of powers. However, the case in most countries in the continent is that of an executive controling all the other arms of power. This leads to an unbalance situation which, most often, produces a totalitarian democracy. The latter uses all coercive strategies to control the countries institutions, and also to promote egoistic and group interests. This tendency to monopolize power has led to an increased perfunctoriness towards many political issues. This is sometimes portrayed by the low participation during many political elections. Many leaders in the continent are hanging to power after elections, even after a participation of less than half of the eligible voters. That is, democratically speaking; they don’t represent the majority of the people they claim to represent.
Aware of their lack of legitimacy, to maintain control, many postcolonial dictators have decided to create a ‘dictatorial democracy’, where freedom, power, and state institutions are coercively controlled by a few. Liberty, equality and brotherhood in these regimes are empty concept, which from time to time are manipulated by the political entrepreneurs to strengthen their hold to power, or simple positioning for patronage.
Lack of public philosophy
“Whenever the ethical code of society is lost, civilization will end” (Gandhi). Many political leaders often use expressions such as, ‘the people have chosen me as their leader’, ‘the people are calling for my candidacy’; when implicitly, they are thinking only of their private interest. The questions to know the true representative of the people still needs to be answered. Can we really say we represent the people in a situation of disorganized organization, where people vote but don’t choose, where public policy is not based on any reliable population census, where there is, most often, no clear public philosophy, and where private property comes before human wellness, and where politician hardly ‘recall the face of the poorest and weakest’ in the society?
The answer is obviously no. In fact, rampant corruption, growing unemployment and absence of some elementary freedoms cannot be the philosophy that underpins nation building. A body of positive principles and precepts, which a good citizen cannot deny or ignore, needs to be recognized and implemented in many African countries. Without a thorough reorientation of the public philosophy in many countries, to borrow from walter lippmann, ‘it will be impossible to reach intelligible and workable conceptions of popular election, majority rule, representative assemblies, free speech, loyalty, property corporations and voluntary association’.
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