i guess we should take each case on its own, even while seeing parallels.
nothing is worse than mass killings, genocide, violence that destroys everything. there is some discussion around the notion that the pressures on habyarimana to accept a multi-party democracy drove the conflict to a head, resulting in the extremist faction of his party generating the genocide.
democracy means what? that we can vote, that the vote counts, that we have rights that the govt cannot abrogate.
if the price for democracy is mass deaths then we are operating on the logic of those who orchestrated the reign of terror in the french revolution.
it won't come that way. example? rwanda: despite the victory of those who overcame the genocidaires, rwanda has now one of the least democratic states, measured by the elements above, in africa, in the world actually. there was a "vote," but the scare quotes defeat the claim, since indeed it is fear that pervades the country, according to human rights reports.
and to believe our list, nigeria has a way to go before there is an acceptable vote as well, despite a multiparty opposition.
i guess i wouldn't want to decide for others. when patrick henry says, "give me liberty or give me death," well, let him take it on for himself.
will the conditions in kenya and zimbabwe result in a greater number of deaths than would have been the case had the compromise not been reached? would the deaths that gave iraq "democracy" under american rules have been as great had the "great satan" saddam not have been unseated?
and would "democracy" always enable us to vote out unpopular govts?
aren't the answers really messy in each case. and isn't each case different.
i wonder how much fighting the ivorians have a taste for to remedy this bad scene.
our list would profit from their views--we can't tell them to bite the bullet, as it were
ken
At 05:56 PM 12/8/2010, you wrote:
Ken, the tragic examples are piling up across Africa of election winners "forced" by international mediation to share power with incumbents who won't respect the will of the people. Kenya, Zimbabwe, and now Ivory Coast? When will it end? Yeah, it may keep away the dogs of war for a time, but at what cost? Does it not merely buy time before the inevitable implosion/showdown? The problems rocking the power sharing arrangements in Zimbabwe and Kenya are signposts, in my opinion, to what is bound to happen in Ivory Coast if Mr. Gbagbo is allowed to get away with a power sharing contrivance. And what's the value of democracy if the incumbent can use their de facto position to negotiate the continuity of their power even after losing at the ballot box? During the debate on the Kenyan election crisis, I remember critiquing the convergence of international opinion on the "pragmatic" option of crafting a power sharing government through Mr. Annan's mediation instead of insisting that the genuine election results be released and Mr. Odinga sworn in. Sadly, that and a similar arrangement in Zimbabwe may have provided Mr. Gbagbo with a blueprint on how to keep power illegally. This case may be different because of the unusual unanimity (save for Russia) in international and African opinion and the clarity of the international condemnation of Gbagbo's antics.
Democracy is so expensive in Africa (in monetary (ask Nigerians), social, and policy terms). Its redeeming quality, which may offset its cost to Africans, remains the ability of citizens to vote out erring and unpopular governments. Absent this, and with unpopular and defeated incumbents parlaying their incumbency into power sharing arrangements that keep them in power, what's the value of democracy to Africa/Africans?
On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 11:58 AM, kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
- we all are thinking of obvious parallels in african elections to this: kenya, zimbabwe, with power sharing as ways of muddling through, and, to look on the brighter side, to keep away the dogs of war.
- but here is another example that come to mind: burma/myanmar. (or, as many of us would also say, the u.s. election in 2000). anti-bush though i am, the myanmar example strikes me as more apposite, more egregious, and with similar results in that the annulling of the election depends on which way the army goes.
- ken
- On 12/8/10 12:02 PM, Toyin Falola wrote:
- Gbagbo Rejects Pressure to Leave Power in Ivory Coast
- Scott Stearns | Abidjan08 December 2010, VOA
- West African leaders are calling on Laurent Gbagbo to step down as president of Ivory Coast, in favor of a former prime minister who won a vote that was certified by the United Nations.
- Mr. Gbagbo appears determined to hold on to power in the face of international pressure.
- Gbagbo spent much of the last decade joining fellow West African heads of state in trying to resolve regional issues, most recently military rule in Niger.
- But Mr. Gbagbo is now on the outside, excluded from an emergency meeting of the Economic Community of West African States to discuss the political crisis in Ivory Coast.
- Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan chairs the regional alliance. He says Mr. Gbagbo's former colleagues want him to yield power, without delay, because he lost last month's vote to former prime minister Alassane Ouattara.
- "We believe that, in a democratic election, the votes of the people must count," he said. "Where we have a democracy where the votes do not count, ECOWAS will no longer accept such a pseudo or false democracy. And, we believe that the results declared by the electoral commission and accepted by the U.N. special representative there is the authentic one, and Ouattara is the person who we support as the president of Cote d'Ivoire."
- Mr. Ouattara's claim to the presidency is based on the United Nations certification of electoral commission results that show him winning 54 percent of the vote. Mr. Gbagbo's claim to the presidency is based on Ivory Coast's constitutional council annulling as fraudulent nearly ten percent of all ballots cast, giving him 51 percent of the vote.
- Both men have named new prime ministers and have the support of rival armed forces. Mr. Gbagbo is supported by senior military officers who control southern regions. Mr. Ouattara is supported by former rebels who control northern regions.
- Mr. Gbagbo's rebuke by former colleagues and Ivory Coast's suspension from the regional alliance is not likely to change his approach to the political crisis. The constitutional council's decision is unappealable. Mr. Gbagbo is moving forward with a new cabinet and a new foreign minister, who has threatened to expel the United Nations special representative.
- In the media blackout that has followed this vote, all foreign news broadcasts are suspended. State-run television has made no mention of the original electoral commission results or calls from the African Union, the United Nations, the European Union, France, the United States and Britain for Mr. Gbagbo to step down.
- Instead, the national broadcaster is running a series of interviews with Gbagbo supporters.
- Alcide Djedje, who is Mr. Gbagbo's new foreign minister, used his time on the nightly news to threaten the U.N. special representative here.
- Djedje says the United Nations was meant to help Ivory Coast out of its crisis, not to interfere in its internal affairs. He says this is the last time the U.N. can act in that fashion. He says, if the U.N. special representative here continues to call Mr. Ouattara the winner of the election, he will be expelled.
- Find this article at:
- http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Gbagbo-Rejects-International-Pres sure-to-Leave-Power-in-Ivory-Coast-111515199.html
- SAVE THIS | EMAIL THIS | Close
- Check the box to include the list of links referenced in the article.
- Toyin Falola
- Department of History
- The University of Texas at Austin
- 1 University Station
- Austin, TX 78712-0220
- USA
- 512 475 7224
- 512 475 7222 (fax)
- http://www.toyinfalola.com/
- www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
- http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
- http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
- --
- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
- For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
- For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
- To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
- unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
- --
- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
- For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
- For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
- To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
- unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
There is enough in the world for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed.
---Mohandas Gandhi
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
Distinguished Professor of English
Michigan State University
harrow@msu.edu
517 803-8839
fax 517 353 3755
No comments:
Post a Comment