Posted by Cornelius Hamelberg on February 08, 2009 at 05:58:55:
In Reply to: Chaos in the SLPP? posted by CorneliusHamelberg on February 01, 2009 at 02:44:43:
A short comment from the sideline:
I believe in a strong opposition - in the interests of a multi-party democracy in Sierra Leone. In the absence of a strong opposition we would slide into a de facto One Party State of affairs.
Yet it’s difficult to fathom why I specially find the expression "As an emerging democracy” particularly loathsome to me this morning. It's as if forty-seven years after independence - when we were at the same level of development as Singapore - and beloved Ghana was at approximately the same level as South Korea - we are still forever being described as ”an emerging democracy".
Recapitulating the reasons for this description just won't do the trick of justifying it. The past national experiences - I mean the trials and tribulations and uncanny political vicissitudes - the dog eats dog issues must be what has led " Atomic pen" to write that "Sierra Leoneans are not capable of governing themselves, " - but that can only be with reference to the past because surely between the complete end to the war in 2002 and now there has always been a government of the people by the people - even though the same old wars continue and will continue - and by that I mean the perennial war against the high - the highest toll in the world of infant mortality, not to mention disease, food insecurity, physical and educational malnutrition - the war against ignorance - and the deplorable plummet in the standard of education in Sierra Leone, when we have self -glorifying FBC postgraduates strident and battle-ready, who can't even make consistent sense in a civilised matter, in plain and simple English - and you must agree that after trucking with Derrida, for me some of what comes out over here is nothing but anti-climax.
One of my postings that did not appear was this one - in response to what Emmanuel posted - and this and similar experiences have led me to believe that the power behind the moderator of this Forum is SLPP. Yes, sht happens.
http://www.hwforums.com/2195/
Having said that I must also be quick to point out that I think that the SLPP as a political party ( at least during the days of Sir Albert Margai) has been more tolerant of a free press etc - and as for the freedom of access to information - which I was crying about some five years ago – well, through an intelligence network Ibrahim Taqi's WE YONE was consistently able to uncover and expose political and financial misdeeds of the then SLPP government and that it was mainly this - corruption - that cost them the 1967 elections.
We ought mot to lose sight of the attitudinal change that the honourable President Ernest Bai Koroma has been spelling out to include - co-operation in all the good and the goodly efforts of the present government to achieve the goals that they have laid out for the nation, and for the oppositional thinking to incorporate cooperation in their thinking and to avoid destructiveness ( it's unpatriotic) and the bent - ( hell-bent) to oppose both the good and the bad at all costs , simply because it's coming from the one and only APC.
If this forum was created for the express purpose of driving the FOIS Bill through, then I think that we should strive to stick to that issue, monomaniacal, (even to the exclusion of other issues) and also work to ensure that the apparatus (the necessary bureaucratic manpower and machinery) is in place to take care of the awesome responsibilities that will or would accompany a freedom of information act
On Tuesday the outcome of this election will go along way in determining the future of the Middle East – it might even affect Sierra Leone oil prices…….
http://www.hwforums.com/2195/messages/808.html