The Politic They Play
The new world order is
begging to show promising signs. 2011 prove this point: Gbagbo of Ivory Coast
is gone, Ben Ali of Tunisia followed suit, Mubarak is in a cage, Abdoulie wada
no longer in power, The Qaddafi regime is over, and the idea that change could
only come through fighting and bloodshed has been buried with him. Something is
happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way they are
now. Technology is putting power into
the hands of the people giving them a clear view of what their government-- for
far too long-- is keeping them from seeing.
The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open.
Dictators are on notice; forcing the people in delivering a powerful rebuke to
their oppressive and tyrannical rule, and rejecting the propagandas some heads
of states who do not desire democracy will tell them. The promise recognized
universally that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights” , is closer at hand.
Nelson Mandela once
said, "To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a
way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." Around the globe,
people are making their voices heard, insisting on their innate dignity and the
right to determine their future and destiny without been told what to do.
Around the world, citizens are recognizing the period of slavery is over and
each and every one of them has a say in the way they should be govern.
"True democracy
demands that citizens cannot be thrown in jail because of what they believe,
and that businesses can be open without paying a bribe. It depends on the
freedom of citizens to speak their minds and assemble without fear, and on the
rule of law and due process that guarantees the rights of all people. "
In other words, true
democracy--real freedom-- is hard work. Those in power have to resist the
temptation to crackdown on dissidents. In hard economic times, countries must
be tempted -- may be tempted-- to rally the people around perceived enemies at
home and abroad, rather than focusing on the painstaking work of reform.’
Freedom and self-determination are not unique
to one culture. These are not simply Western values; they are universal values.
Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is more likely to
bring about the stability, prosperity, and individual opportunity that serve as
a basis for peace in our world.
It is important to
understand that peace is more than just the absence of war. It is important to
understand that peace is more than just the absence of crime. We have got to
make—not merely peace—but a peace that will last. A lasting peace, for both
government and its people, depends on a sense of justice. A lasting peace depends on the absence of
terror and anxiety from the government to its people. A lasting peace depends
on opportunity, of dignity, and of equal distribution of wealth. It depends on struggle and sacrifice, on
compromise and tolerance, on humility and a sense of common humanity.
In other words,
peace—real harmony requires that government cannot create a gang of villains
that snitch on its citizens at dark hours, beat Fathers’ to death, and take
mothers away from their children for weeks or months in solitary confinement
without due process. A government that kidnaps its citizens lost all the
legitimate right to rule. For it only criminalizes its citizens and instill
anger in them. Unless we forget, unvented anger causes pain; pain causes rage,
and rage releases violent and threatens peace.
Dictators who cling
into power using tribe and religion to fan the flames of hate and division among
people and justifying its action of evil to stay in power, will soon realize
that, even if they escape this world, their children would live to pay for
their actions.
“It is time to
marginalize those who, even when not directly resorting to violence, use tribe
and religion and the west as the central organizing principle of politics, for
that only gives cover and sometimes makes an excuse their evil actions to
silent the saints.” That brand of politics-- one that pits Fula against
Mandinka, jola against Manjago, Wollof
against akus, Muslims against
Christians, the west against Africa,
can't deliver on the promise of freedom.
To the youths, it
offers only false hope. Being an
anti-west does nothing to provide a child an education. Smashing on gays and
lesbians does not fill an empty stomach. Withdrawing from commonwealth won't
create a single job. That brand of
politics only calls for violence and makes it harder to achieve what we must do
together: educating children and
creating the opportunities that they deserve, protecting human rights and
extending democracy's promise, helping the poor and curing the sick. No government or company, no school or NGO,
no person or group will be confident working in a country where its people are
endangered, arrested and tortured without the due process of the law.
“It is time to leave
the call of violence and the politics of division behind. On so many issues, we face a choice between
the promise of the future, or the prisons of the past, and we cannot afford to
get it wrong. The future is bright if
the present is set clear. We must seize this moment to work a brighter future.
The future must not
belong to those corrupt few who steal a country's resources. It must be won by the students and
entrepreneurs, the workers and business owners who seek a broader prosperity
for all people. Those are the women and
men that America stands with.”
The future must not
belong to a dictator who massacres his people.
If there's a cause that cries out for protests in the world today,
peaceful protest, it is a regime that tortures children and arrest its citizens
at night without due process
Many a times when I
write, some see me as unpatriotic. I stand guilty as charged the same way
Martin Luther King stang guilty, the same way Mahatma Gandhi stand guilty, the
same way Madiba Nelson Mandela stand guilty. If I am unpatriotic, there is no
way these men can be patriotic. If standing for injustice and demanding the
respect of the inalienable right of all human is what unpatriotic means, and
then these men lived in vain, fought in vain, and died in vain.
It’s time to
marginalize those that even not directly on the spotlight, support dictators
just to gain regconition and rat their way to economic stability. It is time to
recognize them and help them understand that hugging a porcupine only harms the
hugger and add pleasure on the porcupine.
