Welcome 1997:
Happy New Year Leonenet .... may God help us make 1997 the Year of Local Government in SL...!! And thanks Jeff for starting the year with this issue. With reservations of course, there has never been a better time than now to revisit this issue although as Jeff noted, a good opportunity was lost.
The NPRC era was the ideal time but again, quite fragile. Ideal in the sense that there appeared no government and the nation was in search of a leadership with vision and the capacity to contain the RUF while leading us into a new beginning - hence the PC Alt proposal. A new beginning drastically different from the traditional norm of governance on the other hand, and been borne out of the NPRC era could also have been of concerns for other reasons ... it didn't happen then.. let's not therefore examine those concerns.
Meanwhile, a civilian government is in place, the war appears to be subsiding, there are efforts to resettle the refugees, mining is going undisturbed, and maybe - this might after all be the year when Freetown begins to look toward, and to incorporate the provinces in the affairs of the government and not just as "upland" where the resources come from but as partners in national development.
Let me quickly pay my respect to the most recent issues re local government...
In the last 6 weeks, there have been quite a bit about this Civil Society idea.
In the beginning, I had high hopes and indulged in it in about 4 email exchanges with Julius. I believe in a society that is civil. However, and based on discussions or exchanges, it seems to me that the civil society now talked of can be pursued on its own merits alone. Julius' definition and explanations do not at this moment convince me that Civil Society will take us out the crunch of government manipulation of the people.
It seems to me more as an effort to empower professional organizations or liberalize government's grip on professional organizations, unions, churches, news media etc.. I think this too is important. But what some of us are really concerned about is the kind of civil society in which municipal governments as well, are brought to the stage that they can provide for their communities. That means granting the communities the authority to make decisions on local issues such as roads, education, health, and land use. In all civil societies, these issues are delegated to local communities. The central government of course could still continue to provide guidance.
Kelfala writes to Julius:
Kelfalla, these are certainly the issues that President Kabba's government should look at now while talking about reconstruction and I think the time is right since he has to rebuild these infrastructures almost from scratch particularly in the provinces. He has the unique opportunity to involve everybody now.
Julius responds to Kelfala:
Julius, my former boss used to use the phrase "the only way" a lot and I happen to be one of those people that don't believe in the "the only way" principle because it imposes an undue limitation on the individual but borrowing it from you, 'the only way' we can ensure people's participation or taking active role, or make government serve their needs is for the government to recognize their needs first.. which is to say, government must give them the autonomy in the affairs of their locality. I think this will make them to participate or take active role in governance. If you look at Jeff's "Chicken or Egg?" remark, it seems that government must first acknowledge the presence of the people and their needs which in turn will make them take active interest in governance and not the other way round.
Saffa Kemokai @ Browns Mills, N