Punishment is to deter; often to take
revenge. Reward is to encourage. Rewards can also be a recognition for
outstanding, usually, individual achievements. Which acts are liable to
punishment and which are rewarded depends on the dominant values of society.
These can differ from society to society and from time to time within
same society. Issues of democracy and dictatorship, of war and peace,
of governance and state administration, do not fall within the realm of
a system of punishment and rewards.
Of course, victorious powers recognise their war heroes and vanquished
bury their martyrs with honour. But then heroes of the victor are mercenaries
for the vanquished and the martyrs of the vanquished may be terrorists
for the victor. In other words, the issues of war and peace are contentious
issues and can only be understood in their historical and social context.
And so are the issues of democracy and dictatorship. Therefore, it is
naïve, if not mischievous, to award a person – moreover with a cash
prize – for bringing peace or democracy to his country.
It is even worse to cite "good governance" as an achievement
for awarding an individual president of a country. What is "good
governance"? Who determines what is good and bad governance? What
yardsticks are applied? And why are these yardsticks applied only to Africa?
Why doesn’t any one award a Norwegian prime minister for good governance
or include "good governance" conditionality to lend Mr. Bush
assistance or fund Martin Athissari to advise Bush on good governance?
(Remember Martin Athissari, funded by the World Bank, came to Tanzania
to advise President Mkapa on good governance.)
The point about these rhetorical questions should be obvious. Mo Ibrahim’s
prize for a retired African president which was awarded Joachim Chissano
was in my view an insult to the African people. First, it is belittling
African people. Dictators and undemocratic rulers exist all over the world,
including the West which has arrogated to itself the right to judge others
as "good man" or punish them for being dictators (Saddam Hussein).
Despots and dictators are not a monopoly of Africa. African people, like
other people elsewhere, have always struggled against them. If they have
attained some success in these struggles, it is their collective achievement.
Their success is not due to particular qualities of any single leader.
Good leaders are as much a product of our societies as are the bad ones.
It is for the people to decide who is a good or a bad leader and how to
award a good one and punish a bad one. I certainly cannot imagine Mozambicans
(or any African people for that matter) awarding a 5-million dollar prize
to Mr. Chissano. First because Chissano’s goodness itself is, I am sure,
a contentious issue in Mozambique. Secondly, Mozambican people, if at
all, would have awarded their leader by including him in a list of honour
or putting his picture on a postal stamp. And if they had 5 million dollars
to spare, they would have probably built secondary schools to produce
future good leaders rather than give it away to Chissano to "live
a better life" and invest in business (which is what Chissano said
in a BBC interview he would use the money for.)
The worst disappointment in the prize saga has been its uncritical and
unqualified celebration by scribes and even academics and intellectuals.
Since this prize to a retired president was for stepping down from power
or "good governance’ or bringing democracy and peace to his country,
it was expected that analysts would go beyond the superficial and the
obvious to a deeper understanding and explanation of issues of war and
peace and democracy and dictatorships in Africa. Before we celebrate,
we must understand what it is that we are celebrating. Before we applaud
this prize to Chissano we must understand the history, politics and forces
which underpinned war and peace in Mozambique.
The people of Africa have been involved in a long struggle against war
and for peace and democracy and the struggle continues. In this struggle,
they are pitted against not only their own immediate rulers but also against
the erstwhile colonial and imperialist powers supporting them. Our dictators
were not simply made in Kinshasa (Mobutu) or Central African Republic
(Bokassa) or Entebbe (Idi Amin) but also in Washington or Paris or London
and Tel Aviv. The vicious war in Mozambique was not simply waged by RENAMO
but fully supported and instigated by apartheid South Africa backed by
the US and western powers. Apartheid South Africa also claimed the life
of the liberation leader Samora Machel and his leading comrades.
Chissano took over from Samora and under the tutelage of Washington steered
the neo-liberal course. It is under this new direction that the former
freedom fighters like Chissano’s family and Gebuza and others (with some
honourable exceptions) began accumulating wealth and became businessmen.
Chissano’s son Nyimpine, a businessman, was implicated in the murder of
a journalist Carlos Cardoso who was investigating the fraudulent disappearance
of 14 million dollars from the Commercial Bank of Mozambique in 1996.
The story of wealth accumulation by political leaders in Mozambique is
not that different from what we have been witnessing and debating in Tanzania,.
It is even on a larger scale. In Tanzania Mwalimu’s ghost has had greater
restraining power on vultures of wealth than Samora’s in Mozambique.
As with economics, so with politics. The opening up of space after one-party
authoritarianism did not just come about on a silver platter. People in
Tanzania, Mozambique and the rest of Africa struggled for it. But as usual
the rulers and their imperialist backers pre-empted the struggle for real
democracy by imposing their own truncated version of neo-liberal democracy
So, when our leaders receive prizes for their democratic achievements
we should ask ourselves for which and whose democracy they are getting
a prize. Are they getting the prize for a neo-liberal democracy under
which the World Bank and "development partners" (read: developed
predators!) impose privatization of national assets and resources; under
which their diplomats pressurize our ministers and governments to sign
utterly one-sided contracts with the likes of golden sharks; under which
the parliament is literally ordered to pass laws which have been drafted
by their consultants like the Mining Act, under which our political leaders
in a free-for-all pandemonium overnight become "wajasiria mali"
and bankers and big miners? Is this the democracy for which the peasants,
workers, youth, and wamachinga fought? In short, before celebrating let
us ask ourselves what are we celebrating and whose music we are dancing
to.
Without such critical understanding, I am afraid, we can end up celebrating
and legitimizing the shaming and ridiculing of the democratic struggles
and achievements of our people.
Mr. Mo Ibrahim: you have made millions of dollars from the sweat and blood
of the African people. If you want to return a few million to the people,
build schools, dispensaries, and water wells in the south of your own
country rather than giving them to Chisasanos of this world. Do not add
insult to injury by robbing (poor) Peter to pay (rich) Paul.