By Edward Marah
It was as result of the activities of some crude politicians in the eighties and nineties that brought about the eleven years of senseless civil war and untold suffering on the people of Sierra Leone. Over half a million people lost their lives, private and public buildings and institutions were raised to the ground.
The entire country was devastated and thousands Sierra Leonean fled the country for safety and most of them have still not returned while hundreds more lost their lives in the process while seeking for asylum.
We had the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) where the truth of the war were told and Sierra Leonean committed themselves that never again shall we resolve to violence to settle matter of our political differences but rather through peaceful and democratic means.
With the request by the government of Sierra Leone, the United Nations backed special court was established to trial those that bear the greatest responsibility and those that were found wanting were convicted and currently serving their jail sentences in Ruwanda.
But have we learnt our lesson?, the answer is no because we have allowed ourselves to go back to the things that politicians used to fuel the conflict which are, hate speech, tribalism, regionalism, nepotism, political division and corruption.
Today politics in Sierra Leone is seen as a cause rather than a blessing because we haven’t been able to define our politics to be that of development than division. Our democracy is also at stake because we haven’t accepted each other’s views and right to belong, vote and to be voted for through the political party of his/her choice which is the fundamental right of every citizen in a democratic dispensation like ours.
Democracy is about acceptance of each other’s views and believes as citizens, opposition parties and the government in contributing to the governance of the state. But sadly we have allowed ourselves as a country to think that we are enemy as long as we don’t belong to the same political party. The government of the day and the opposition now see themselves as enemies which as now transcend to their supporters and sympathisers. Some families, best friends, schoolmates, college mate and workmate have become enemies simple because of bad politics of not belong to the same political party.
The country is more divided today along party line due to the making of our politician. Some politician are publicly preaching hate speech and threatening the democracy of the state which its hope the International Criminal Court (ICC) is taking note.
The success of democracy rests in large part on both the opposition and the government.
In order for democracy and good governance to operate successfully, the opposition must be recognized as legitimate and given an institutional form and both must be working together for the interest of its people.
It’s high time Sierra Leonean begin to understand the true meaning of democracy of acceptance and begin to see ourselves as Sierra Leonean not tribe or political party we belong to. Sierra Leone had long been in existence before the establishment of these political parties by Sierra Leonean themselves.
We cannot continue like this, it’s time we begin to hold our politician and political parties accountable for undermining our peace and democracy.
Time for action is now.