SANF 04 no 115
Africa must strengthen home-grown frameworks for the delivery of democracy and rid itself of the indignity of having its elections vetted by Western countries.
President Benjamin Mkapa told parliamentarians from the region meeting in Tanzania that African parliamentarians, civil society and political parties should work together to strengthen institutions of democratic governance, and not to agree to be “levers for the political manipulation and destabilisation of Africa.”
“Democracy, like all political systems, is contextual. For us, the ultimate test of good governance and democracy has to be what the people freely determine,” Mkapa said.
He urged African members of parliament to champion such determination. “We should not be misled into thinking that what is practised or preached in Western countries is the sole version of the incontestable gospel of democratic governance.”
Mkapa said that while the Western liberal democracy model focuses on individual rights, in Africa the community comes first.
“There are people who believe that democratic elections in Africa are only free and fair when the party in power, especially if it is party of liberation, loses power. We cannot be heartily independent if we incline to subdue ourselves to the stamp of approval of foreign governments every time we go to the polls.
“The time has come for Africa to rid itself of the indignity of having all its elections vetted by Western countries, some of whom denied us democracy for many years, or were complicit to such denial.
“Mass media in the West have also taken upon themselves the task of precipitately passing judgement on our elections. But to whom are these global news channels accountable?”
Some of the observer missions from outside Africa come “not as observers, but as pedagogical monitors,” Mkapa said. “Besides the indignity this entails, their findings and conclusions did not sufficiently take into account the reality of our situation and the experiences of our countries.”
Opening the 17h session of the Plenary Assembly of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum, Mkapa urged them to continue and strengthen their mechanisms for election observation, based on the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
He said Africa wants to “consolidate democratic achievements, to strengthen institutions of democratic governance, and to build the capacity for good governance in the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. But we should not welcome disrespect; and we must not welcome patronizing or condescending attitudes towards our countries and our peoples.
“Civil society have a role to play; and political freedom and competition is healthy. But they must not be used as smokescreens to delay and derail development initiatives, or to destabilise our countries.
“How can a democracy promoter, or a political party that wants to lead, incite barbaric violence and anarchy in the name of “mass action” or protest? This is completely alien to the African traditional ways of expression and participation.”
He said if the so-called “democracy support foundations” want to help, they should be constructive in building the capacity of political parties.
Tanzania supports the objectives of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, “the promotion of Parliamentary democracy and the defence of human and people’s rights as reflected in the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights,” Mkapa said.
“My fellow Heads of State of SADC and I also view the Parliamentary Forum as a nucleus of future regional assembly, purposefully designed to effectively involve and benefit the ordinary citizens of our region in the formulation and implementation of regional development policies and programmes.”
The Tanzanian President, who is the previous chairperson of SADC and a member of the current SADC Troika, called on the parliamentarians to reflect and take action to:
“Champion initiatives that enhance the ownership of the process of evolving home-grown political and government philosophical frameworks for democracy and delivery institutions;
“Seek a better balance between the pace of political profiling and the pace of poverty elimination; and
“Find innovative mechanisms for making elective offices at all levels of governance demonstrably accountable, but with tenure.”
The theme of the 17th session of the Plenary Assembly was, “A review of the role of the SADC Parliamentary Forum in promoting democracy elections”. (SARDC)
