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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Talks, dialogue, negotiations and GNU - Post June 2008 "elections" - Index of articles
Power sharing
Paulino
Mondo, Africa Files
November 01, 2008
http://www.africafiles.org/article.asp?ID=19386
Who said that one day
Africa would not get fed up of internal fighting and start reasoning
together? A fresh methodology of power sharing seems to be taking
root in several parts of the continent. The countries that have
taken advantage of it are Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast,
South Africa, Kenya and recently Zimbabwe.
When Nelson Mandela was
released from prison and elected President of South Africa ending
peacefully the country-s era of apartheid, in Rwanda a Hutu
militia began its mass genocide that claimed about one million Tutsis,
as well as tens of thousands of Hutu moderates, with unprecedented
speed and brutality. If a prophet had told us in the late 1980-s
that in the early 1990-s there would be a genocide in one
of these two countries, South Africa or Rwanda, I wonder how many
historians would have correctly identified the location.
What led to
South Africa-s relatively smooth transition from apartheid
to a unitary democratic state, while miles away in Rwanda the Peace
Accords ended in an ethnic blood bath? Both South Africa and Rwanda
were confronted with the same challenge of deep-seated ethnic rivalries
and economic inequalities. The two were with a citizenry composed
of a divided society of groups formed along ethnic, racial, religious,
regional, or class lines. What made them different was South Africa-s
option for power-sharing.
Power-sharing is a set of principles that, when carried out through
practices and institutions, provide a significant identity group
with decision-making abilities on common issues and solutions over
questions of importance to the group. The questions are: executive
power, governance, freedom, land, economy control and ethnicity.
The appealing idea is that by sharing political, economic and territorial
power, a system of accommodation develops that will reduce insecurities
and thus reduce the likelihood of conflict.
In this approach we have
to agree that executive power-sharing and group autonomy are key
factors affecting democratic success in divided societies. Successful
regulation of conflict in a multiethnic society is based on bargaining
and reciprocity; unsuccessful regulation is evident when conflict
degenerates into violence.
Power Sharing, as a transition
to democracy, must present the necessary and favorable conditions
for harmony to thrive. It specifically demands a strong moderate
leadership and the motivation to accommodate the former rivals.
In the meantime there is need of an Interim Constitution Pact to
stabilize the state and prevent unplanned conflict. Power-sharing
seems successful in mitigating conflict and stabilizing the divided
electorate into harmonious governance; yet we must admit that it
is only the lesser evil. The post election violence that has happened
in Kenya and Zimbabwe are a tragedy we must learn to prevent by
growing to maturity in political decisions.
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