|
EDITORIAL DISASTER AWAITING! Elsewhere in this website we
carry a story (from a newspaper owned by a deputy government minister, no
less) about a confrontation between a convoy carrying His Excellency the
President, leader of the APC, and
another carrying the flagbearer of the SLPP, retired Brigadier Julius Maada
Bio. These two parties hate each other to the core, and it would take no more
than a spark to ignite a conflagration. The APC may command majority support
in the Western Area; the SLPP may command majority support in the South and
East. This scenario sets the stage for the kind of conflict that could tear The roots for the intensification
of bitterness between the two sides in the recent past lie in the decision by
Christiana Thorpe, Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission, to
cancel the votes of a large number of polling stations in the South and the
East in the 2007 elections. This decision has given the SLPP a credible
reason for the last five years to believe that they were cheated, even though
the reality may have been that they would have lost the election anyway even
if those votes had been included. The problem has been further compounded by
the decision of the SLPP majority to award the flagbearership of the party to
Maada Bio, a relatively young and inexperienced politician with a military
background and a lot of unenviable baggage in his CV. These two parties have
nothing in common as much as a lust for power and an ability to manipulate
their core, tribal constituents. There is no discernible ideological
difference between them; in truth they have no ideology beyond, nominally, wanting
‘development’. These are essentially two groups of power-crazed individuals
who will stop at nothing to achieve their objectives. Between them they have
not a serious idea in their heads. What they want is power so they can
achieve status and wealth from it. The true interest of What should be done now? The
international community needs to step in quickly to prevent a looming disaster. If things start to go
wrong the Sierra Leone Police will be unable to cope. As a matter of urgency
the open street rallies, such as the ones staged by the SLPP and APC last
week need to be banned. These rallies are invitations to disaster. These parties
are two locomotives hurtling towards each other on the same tracks. The huge
street rallies are provocative, confrontational and intimidatory to all those
who are not part of them. They invite disaster. This is not democracy at all.
This is intimidation plain and simple.
God forbid you happen to be wearing the wrong colour in the midst of
them! The hooligan elements in both parties are just biding their time and
waiting for their opportunity. If it comes, when it comes, the Sierra Leone
Police will be unable to cope. We remember well what happened when thugs
ransacked the SLPP headquarters on two separate occasions a few years ago. We
remember well that missiles were pelted upon similar processions in the |
|