On April 24, 30 years ago, DR Congo then known as Zaire and
under Mobutu Sese Seko, moved from a single party to multi-party state.
Three
decades later, democracy is still under construction. The country has
only changed leadership hands peacefully once, when current President
Felix Tshisekedi won a competitive election in 2018 running as an
opposition candidate.
In fact, this was the only time in the country’s history that it had ever happened.
Even that election wasn't perfect, and it saw some Western countries initially refuse to endorse it.
Hubert
Kabasubabu, a political analyst and former governor of the former
province of Kasai Occidental says the country still has challenges
running as a democracy.
He says the “head-on collisions
between governing political groups, confusion in the partisan
interpretation and exploitation of the constitution, institutional
friction" have combined to create chaos.
Speaking to The EastAfrican, he said; “They give a
glimpse of a cloudy sky over our democracy which is still under
construction," that the path to democracy must be perpetually reviewed.
Often
cited is the friction in the aftermath of the December 2018 elections.
President Tshisekedi bickered with his predecessor on key appointments,
eventually reaching a deal, months later.
March of Hope
Alain-Parfait
Ngulungu, a political scientist and researcher at the University of
Kinshasa, says elections alone don't define democracy.
“Democracy is not obtained only by elections. Democracy is a process that requires time and patience,” he said.
But
to ordinary citizens, the country has come a long way. The emergence of
opposition leaders like Etienne Tshisekedi in the 1980s, the “March of
Hope” in 1992, when Christians were shot dead when demanding the
resumption of the National Sovereign Conference, which sought more civil
liberties.
Then there were the anti-Joseph Kabila protests in 2016 and 2017 which were crushed at a cost of lives of several Congolese.
Under Mobutu, elections were sporadic and he won all by more than 90 per cent.
DR
Congo only knew free elections by universal suffrage in 2006. There
were elections in 2011 before they were delayed until 2018.
Kabasubabu
says, “It is under the regime of Joseph Kabila that construction of the
fundamental systemic materials of democracy was initiated,” he argued.
He
also argues that the work-study regime by Tshisekedi is far from being
“the phase of consolidation of democracy, because it also has its own
contradictions: Corruption, and the absorption of the State budget by
the political oligarchy to the detriment of social needs and
development.”
No comments :
Post a Comment