DRIVERS OF OPPOSITION DYSFUNCTION
Excerpts from IGR Report
Perhaps the most credible local research group in this country, the Institute for Governance Reform has done a surgical examination of opposition politics in Sierra Leone in its latest report on the state of governance. You can be sure we've been going through it with forensic eyes since it was released. It's a great read.
There's no doubt that the IGR has its fingers on the pulse of the nation - the opposition is in INTENSIVE CARE. A group calling itself Concerned Sierra Leoneans in the United States say this country has no opposition, they are composition parties - an integral part of the government. An example of a composition party is the one whose leader goes to a so-called presidential debate only to announce he was pulling out of the race to support the ruling party. The tragedy is that even after such betrayal of even his own members, he continues to expect to be treated as a serious contender for power.
A composition party is one which is headed by a man whose soul is embedded in the ruling party which he gets money from. A man who the whole world knows is using his leadership of the composition party to live a big life. And somehow we still consider them as part of a credible opposition. Ours is a strange country.
Anyway back to the IGR report which lists four main forces that drive dysfunctional opposition politics like the composition parties we are talking about. We now quote portions of that report followed by our comments. Read on:
IGR First, a vacuum is created in the leadership when they lose presidential election: The SLPP constitution for example, requires a leader to step down from office if they fail to win a presidential election. The process of filling the vacuum leads to long drawn-out political battles; recently, there have been tensions between the former flag bearer and the party chairman, between the chairman and the parliamentary leader etc. The parliamentary opposition has not provided effective national leadership within parliament.
POLITICO - We're so surprised that a party that has been in existence for more than five decades is still unable to organise itself after losing an election and is looking so divided and weak with nobody strong enough to pick them up from within. Those at party headquarters like the ones in parliament have simply splintered along factional lines - queuing up behind potential flagbearers.. They are in their trenches shooting at each other. Meanwhile, the job for which they are sitting in parliament is left unattended to. All some care about is debating and voting with the ruling party, traveling abroad and visiting parastatals...hahahahahahahahahaha. Few of them who still remember why they were sent to parliament, are marginalised by their leader. We have been like this for nearly eight years now.
IGR Second is the low caliber of people in elected positions and weak institutional structures that drive political parties. Elections at delegate conferences have not proved effective for recruiting efficient officials for managing political parties. After losing elections a good number of party personnel including former ministers migrate overseas either out of fear of persecution or going in search of jobs.
The weakness of the party structure to manage diversity has been amply shown in the two opposing groups in the SLPP conflict. There is a group which believes that Julius Maada Bio, the party's 2012 presidential candidate is already tried and tested, demonstrated commitment to the party and should be given another chance in 2018...There are also other aspirants and stakeholders who feel alienated by Bio's inner group and argue that his track record does not make him electable and therefore should give way to another candidate.
POLITICO - This is not just an issue for opposition politicians. Even those who are now being sacked here and there have dual citizenship. They quickly melt away into Western capitals when the going gets tough to wait for another appointment. As for those fighting for rival leadership candidates in the Green Movement, that's what they know best. By the look of things, unless they are able to settle their petty squabbles before the end of 2015, they would be looking at another five years in opposition. Some would never return to parliament because even now, their people are involved in a countdown, looking to the day ballot boxes are set up so that they can throw their MPs out of office. Watch out for a possible clean sweep in Kenema district.
IGR Third is the economic hardship among opposition actors. DFID‟s (2006) study, Drivers of Change identified the poverty of the political class as a hindrance to reform. This theory suggests that while in power, politicians accumulate wealth and their expenditures correspondingly rise to meet the rising income. Some politicians become broke shortly after losing power and are compelled to cross carpet to the governing party to maintain their business connections, contracts or jobs.
POLITICO - Absolutely true. In fact, we know one of such former Green Movement ministers who is so broke these days that he has an agency selling Mercury International lottery tickets, something that is mainly done by young people who want to secure their pocket money. The other one is always chasing current ministers begging for this and that contract. How can people like those be trusted to conduct robust opposition politics for the benefit of their supporters and the nation? Meanwhile the young people supporting them are daily hanging out in front of the party office, waiting for 2018...how long?
As far as cross-carpeting is concerned, it's more the rule than the exception. They easily abandon their supporters and run off to join any government in power just to butter their bread. One of them once told us that at 55 years, he couldn't be in the opposition to languish for ten years. It's all about them, you know. If these guys were in Mandela's position, they would have sold their nation out for thirty pieces of silver even before the RIVONIA trials and there would have been no South Africa as we have it today.
IGR - Fourth is lack of professionalism and commitment in the work of the opposition. Newspapers have reported many cases of opposition officials receiving financial gifts from ruling party functionaries especially when they pay official visits. These actions, coupled with newspaper reports of some party leaders making a living by acting as fake opposition parties do not inspire public confidence.
POLITICO - Well, we've just made the point about politicians who can't stay in their parties because of money and other favours that manipulative ruling party people spray around. And there are those who spend a few pennies setting up clueless organisations they call political parties - what we call COMPOSITION PARTIES. They pretend their job was to hold the government accountable but their public actions and statements leave no doubt about the reason for their existence in the first place. Their job is to put on an opposition facade while maintaining their true identity as surrogate parties created and sustained with ruling party cash to continue fooling the people.
Those politicians should know, that the people are more intelligent today than they imagine. How many days more to February 2018?
