The Politic They Play

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.