Kelfala, I agree that we may have to try it and see whether it works. By the way, is it not true that everything we learn and do is borrowed?. When we write, we genuinely borrow from other sources and give credit to those who discovered the idea in the first place. In scienctific research, you read about a good idea and you try to either extend or improve on the original idea untill a major breakthrough is achieved or it completely fails. That is our problem in Sierra Leone, we want to sit tight and expect the world to come solve our very basic needs.
Not to sound very sectional, which I am not; I will given you a personal experienced I had in Sierra Leone while Travelling in the Kono District in October 1995. I requested and received a ride and security protection from Branch Minerals and Executive Outcome (EO) to go to my village that had been totally destroyed to look for my brother and his six young children living in the bush. On the way to Jaiama Nimikoro, we came up to a check point manned by RSLMF. They were all lying down near women and the EO soldier nearly drove through the cross bar. Then we came to another check point manned by local hunters. Guess what happened?. They were standing with their weapons ready and once they saw the EOs, they saluted and waved us through. I immediately turned to Major, the head of the mission and asked "Why are local hunters so awake and alert, but our trained RSLMF are care free about security"?. He said, "That is the problem in RSLMF, indiscipline, these fellows do not receive their salaries on time, they are given no logistic support and they have nothing at stake here in this area". I asked again, "What do you mean that they have nothing at stake here?. You take a soldier from Freetown and send them to protect Kono or Kailahun, he does not know the terrain, cares for nobody because he is not from here. On the other hand, the local hunters are recruited by us and we give them incentives, but most important, they have a lot at stake. This is their home and they know the terrain very well, they can hide and they can search for rebels successfully.
On training and discipline, he said, "We give each 15 catridges for patrol and ask them in a group of 5 hunters to fire only three round per person per ambush if and when they fall into one; meaning 15 rounds per group. They are each left with 10 rounds to cope with other problems. The RLSMF uses all their amunation in one encounter, with any subsequent encounters resulting to heavy casualties on their side.
To emphasie the point, the RSLMF ran away from Koidu when the rebels first entered there and the second time as well. Why can our people not form militias to protect those still alive and the little property left. I had to depend on foreign troops to go outinto the bush and rescue my brother from dying of starvation in the bush with his young children. I had to at any cost because that was why I went to Sierra Leone immediately I learnt of their plight. I am pround I did that though others may say I used foreign troops, but I am still alive and so are my brother and his children.
The message is that we trim this RSLMF to the skeleton if not disban them. Ask the EO or another country to come and train the new enlisted army to be or retrain those we maintain. The key word is discipline not accept bribery, fight against corruption and make them professional soldiers. What I mean by professional soldiers is medical doctors, engineers, scientists etc. Obviously, you have to pay very well and Sierra Leone is wealthy enough to do this without a wink. To achieve this goal, we must put the nation first before our dream house to built. It must be done by Sierra Leoneans for Sierra Leone, not by the Konos or Mendes, or Creols. We are all one and only Sierra Leoneans. Here we go again, but you are welcome to dissect and throw away my ambitious plans, but if we have to plan for the future , then we might as well plan seriously for the future and avoid the calamities we are going through as a nation.
Finall, we should avoid dancing in the streets for any government that comes to power. We are so easily confused and taken for granted. Oh!, before I forget, there was more serious damage at Njala-I am awaiting the fax on it and I will post.
Have a good day everybody.