By Neba-Fuh
Anytime I condemn policemen or military officers for gunning down unarmed protesters , I do so out of my basic respect for human life and nothing more. The recent events in Greece, where the killing of a protester has caused government panic, an apology as well as prosecution of the police officer concerned, has pushed me to do some research on police ethics and conduct vis a vis their role of protecting citizens.
Moreover, the recent demonstrations in Thailand that led to the stepping down of an unpopular Prime Minister, characterized by the seizure of the airport and other institutional structures by protesters showed the world the important role the military and police force can play in bringing down an unpopular regime. The role of containment and restraint.
Rogue African regimes can be changed without a conventional coup if the police and the military show containment and restraint, that is, avoiding to gun down the oppressed. The crescendo of any revolution or uprising can only reach its optimum if the military exercises restraint by refusing to take orders whose outcome is the loss of lives of the innocent.
Military officers and policemen are not aliens from a rich and prosperous Utopia,
sent to a nation to 'robotically' execute orders from their
superiors without humane reasoning.
The economic crunch is
'profession-blind'. It crushes you and me; my family and your families;
my friends and yours; the whole country. Therefore, in a system where
we have patriotic leaders, these men in uniform should have a better
pay packet than what they receive now. They will not resort to mean
actions like struggling to squeeze a 'five hundred francs' from a
driver or doing all kinds of fraudulent business so as to survive.
Today, the situation is even worse, even though the policemen and the military earn relatively higher salaries than personnel of other sectors. Some have resorted to arming robbers and even participating in armed robbery.
I
will not want to belabour the point on the level of intellect of our
men in uniform. In as much as a few merit their call to serve, we have
a huge bunch of them who are in the military or police, because they
happen to come from a certain tribe. Others are bandits or dropouts
who happen to have had a god father who bribed to
get them admitted in a police or military academy.
Today, we see the
results of of sacrificing excellence and even mediocrity, for dropouts!
A military force caught in disarray! Soldiers trading their guns with
armed robbers! Others stealing their commander's suit cases allegedly filled with unaccounted millions. Some extracting money from poverty-stricken citizens
during the day, and if that is not enough, at night,they put on their
masks and commune with armed robbers.
The call to serve in the military or the police is a privilege to exhibit patriotism. A common citizen may feel patriotic, sometimes he may manifest it in ways that can be beneficial to his country, without necessarily losing his life; but when a soldier or a policeman is called to defend a nation or fight crime, he is required to sacrifice more than the normal, even his life. Men in uniform are suppose to be an embodiment of patriotism.
In a republican system where the army is answerable to the republican institutions, and a coup is considered an act of subversion, the military still has an important role to play in any transformation that is geared towards restoring true republicanism.
During this period when Africa is under the rubble of broken republican systems headed by lame duck dictators, willing to take their mantles of dictatorship to their graves, patriotism is the only genuine instinct that should guide the actions of men in uniform.
We rarely expect the military to confront African dictators by commission, but by omitting to commit that is, using their sense of patriotism, which surpasses any maxim of republicanism, the only other way for them to push the pull of revolution in order to restore people's power - the bedrock of a genuine democratic republic, is to exercise containment and restraint in their actions towards citizens.
The men in uniform are part of the citizenry. They confront the same economic sufferings like the people they are called upon to protect, even though the dictatorial systems tend to cajole them with higher salaries. The fact is, in a well managed democratic system, where checks and balances are emphasized and embezzlers are denied the opportunity to rule, men in uniform deserve a better pay than what they earn now, just like every other citizen deserves a decent life in his country of birth.
The
pressing issue now is not to categorize the military and the police corps
into those who 'merited' to be there and those who happen to be there
by 'crookery'. Whether you are a policeman or a military officer with a
'First School Leaving Certificate', or a 'PhD', your country needs you
now to exhibit a high level of patriotism. Joining an armed group or
trading guns with bandits can not solve your problem or that of your
children, not to talk of your country's problem. Extracting money from
serfs while civil thieves toss you around with orders inferior to
patriotism, is unpatriotic. Therefore, think again! You may just be
your country's liberator frozen by cheap doctrine or loyalty to the
disloyal.
Defrost!
'The pressing issue now is not to categorize the military and the police corps into those who 'merited' to be there and those who happen to be there by 'crookery'. Whether you are a policeman or a military officer with a 'First School Leaving Certificate', or a 'PhD', your country needs you now to exhibit a high level of patriotism. Joining an armed group or trading guns with bandits can not solve your problem or that of your children, not to talk of your country's problem. Extracting money from serfs while civil thieves toss you around with orders inferior to patriotism, is unpatriotic. Therefore, think again! You may just be your country's liberator frozen by cheap doctrine or loyalty to the disloyal.
Defrost!'- Neba Fuh
This last paragraph of your article posted about two weeks before the current military coup in Guinea Conakry is a prophecy. A junior rank military officer has just seized power in Guinea. It is evidence that if our current African dictators are not willing to hand over power democratically, they will push Africa one step behind. Our liberators will be the military.
Posted by: Sali | December 26, 2008 at 09:18 PM