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Deposing
Charles Taylor
A Thursday
Postcard
By Tajudeen
Abdul-Raheem
Former President Charles was
forced by a combination of local, regional and international
pressure to resign his office two weeks ago. In a surreal
performance he made his valedictory national broadcast witnessed
by three African Presidents: Mbeki (South Africa), Chissano
(Mozambique and current chair of the AU) and Kufour (Ghana and
current chair of the ECOWAS).
Affecting a patriotism and "love for my people"
that was neither characteristic of his brutal war for the
presidential mansion nor his ransom presidency for six years or
his various regional misadventures he compared himself to Jesus
Christ and felt himself "the sacrificial lamb."
It was distasteful and I am sure very offensive to committed
practising Christians that a scoundrel like "'Charlie Boy"
can misappropriate such potent religious symbolism that is at
the centre of their faith for his ignoble purposes. That said it
does not mean that there is no iota of legitimate concern in it
even if liberally embroidered on a canvass of political
opportunism.
It is like the Man who was accused of being paranoid and he
said: "the fact that I may be paranoid does not mean that
there is nobody conspiring against me." The fact that
Charles Taylor said something does not mean that there may not
be element of truth in it though not for the delusionary and
emotive reasons that Taylor had in mind in forcing the parallel.
He has indeed been sacrificed but unlike Christ his second
coming is neither heralded nor desirable and hopefully he is
gone and gone forever. He has been sacrificed as a symbol of
emerging higher standards expected of African leaders and
growing consensus that African leaders cannot just rule as they
please, how they please, and for as long as they desire.
The Taylor experience has far wider implication in many ways.
One, it is a precedent that sets a higher threshold for other
sitting dictators that they can be dealt with. African leaders
now have to show why they can act on Taylor and not on others.
They will be hard put to justify "softly softly"
diplomacy in confronting similar situations from now on. This
expands the space for public discourse on dealing with these
issues. Some of the positive aspects of the Constitutive Act of
the African Union and worthy aspirations of the African Peer
Review Mechanism in the unpopular NEPAD may be gathering their
own momentum precluding inaction by the leaders.
Two, the hand-me-down, Donor-driven, Aid-addicted limited
democratic dispensations across the continent is being given its
African imprint that demands more than just merely winning
elections in order to legitimise yourself. Here was Charles
Taylor, "elected" in elections judged by the
ubiquitous international community and its allied election
tourists, as "generally free and fair" being forced
out of office before the expiration of his "legitimate"
mandate. It means that elections alone are not the end of the
story. A democratic regime must act democratically in the
country and in relations with its neighbours otherwise the
mandate becomes suspect and can be overrun by wider needs of the
country and the region.
Three, it operationalises notions of collective sovereignty
and security. Your neighbours have as much legitimate stake in
your internal activities as you do in theirs which may give
force to emerging regional citizenship and governance. For
instance, Charles Taylor is not indicted because of what he has
done in Liberia and to fellow Liberians (even though gruesome
evidence abound) but for his support for banditry and predatory
Rebels in a neighbouring country. The Presidents and Commanders
of Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Angola and others militarily
involved in the DRC must worry because maybe not now but in the
future they could be indicted for their actions or inactions in
the tragedy of that country.
There are also a number of problems with the Taylor
experience. Who decides when a government has forfeited its
electoral mandate? Is it the level of armed rebellions and other
military campaigns, regardless of their motivation, support base,
and political programme?
Is it a decision that is subject to the whims and caprices of
the regional hegemonic power that is able to use its good and
not so good offices, to ensure that its will prevails?
If this option triumphs it will only be an African version of
the Bush school of diplomacy whose doctrine is: BE REASONABLE,
DO IT MY WAY! If the region decides what are the institutional
mechanisms that are in place to ensure that these decisions are
made fairly and consistently? President Compaore of Burkina-Faso
is probably as guilty as Charles Taylor in fostering senseless
wars but he appears to be more sophisticated than his former
buddy. If regional concern for security alone will necessitate
action why are they not more robust in dealing with Laurent
Gbagbo of Ivory Coast who is using Xenophobia and genocidal
ideology to retain power?
The big question of all is what can the region do if it is
the regional power itself that is in breach of the emerging
consensus around collective security and sovereignty? If Nigeria
can save the region who will save Nigerians and Nigeria? That
one can raise these questions today is in itself a measure of
the relative space open for Africans to engage and build
consensus on resolving these issues. In the past these debates
were stifled by dubious claims of 'internal affairs',
'sovereignty', or 'territorial integrity'.
There is great scope for African governments, regional and
continental institutions, parliamentarians, civil Society
groups, NGOs and all stake holders to engage on these issues in
order to give concrete expression to our desire for 'African
solutions to African problems'.
"Forward ever
, backward never".....Kwame Nkrumah (1909 - 1972)
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Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem has been General Secretary of the global Pan African
Movement since 1994 and is resident in Uganda and London.
Tajudeen is Nigerian by origin. He was a Rhodes Scholar at
Oxford where he gained his D.Phil in political science. He was a
founder member of the Africa Resource and Information Bureau,
London, and has been at the centre of numerous initiatives to
promote peace and democracy in Africa. Tajudeen writes and
lectures on Africa for several journals and universities. He is
Chairperson of the Centre for Democratic Development and the Pan
African Development Education and Advocacy Programme.
Tajudeen28@yahoo.com or Tajudeen@Padeap.net.
Thursday Postcard appears in Uganda's THE NEW VISION |
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posted 22 August 2003
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
(video) * * *
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update 4 October 2008 |
