On October 2 the Irish electorate will vote in a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which is supposed to replace the European Constitution. The Treaty had been sanctioned by European Union leaders in December 2007 to speed up the process of integration. But the good people of Ireland threw the EU into turmoil when they rejected the Treaty in June last year. The margin of rejection was by 53.4 per cent to 46.6 per cent, ensuring that the Treaty could not come into force as planned in January 2009.
Many European citizens are much averse to the EU project because they fear that their countries’ sovereignty is being eroded, with power being ceded to Brussels, the centre of the EU.
The whole Irish referendum was undertaken through a fair and transparent process. But, wait for it, Brussels rejected the democratic result outright. Oh no, EU Commissioners said, they were not going to accept the rejection of the Treaty. And that was when they forced the Irish to hold another referendum.
This rather undemocratic act by the EU led readers to make snide remarks in letters to the editor of the British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, which is rabidly against the EU project. One wag wrote: “I note that the EU Commissioners have graciously allowed the Irish people to vote again on the proposed Lisbon Treaty. Does this mean that, if they get a Yes vote, they will offer another chance for the Irish to change their minds again and vote No? If not, why not?” Good question.
Another wrote: “If the Irish are allowed to have a re-run of their referendum, might the British be allowed a re-run of the last general election to see if the electorate has changed its mind?”
The sarcasm in these two letters clearly shows the cynicism with which the democratic process in Europe is viewed these days by ordinary Europeans. And you have the EU telling others how to run their elections when the European electorate cannot be sure that the result of its supposedly democratically guaranteed vote will be accepted by the powers that be in Brussels. Not surprisingly, during the June European parliamentary elections one in three voters did not bother to turn out to cast their ballot. They are that dispirited when it comes to the electoral process and politicians, for that matter.
During elections in Africa these days, there are quite a number of foreign observers apparently to ensure that the democratic process is not derailed. They come from, among other groupings, the EU itself and the Commonwealth, and from the Carter Centre in the US.
One might want to know what the EU is doing preaching democracy and good governance to Africans when its own democratic credentials are suspect. Don’t take my word for it, just read what the British newspapers are reporting about corruption and the lack of transparency in Brussels.
One EU country in which there is total disregard for due process is Italy under the premiership of Silvio Berlusconi. He is as bent as they come. Most of the time he has a number of corruption cases against him pending in court. The former cruise ship crooner is forever ducking and diving, weaving and bobbing as he tries to wriggle out of one case after the other – when he has been in and out of power.
But in April last year, when he regained the position of Prime Minister, Berlusconi put paid once and for all to the judicial problems he had been facing by telling the judiciary to disregard cases against him because there were more important matters the courts had to deal with. He buttressed this by passing a law granting legal immunity to Italy’s four most senior office holders including himself, naturally. The legislation ensures that none of them will face court action for as long as they are in office. Whatever happened to the much vaunted separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary?
Let’s look at the US, home of the Carter Centre. Shouldn’t it be concentrating on American politics, which is as murky as ever? Chicago, hometown of President Barack Obama, was in the news for reasons other than the presidential victory. The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, was accused of trying to “monetise” Obama’s vacant senatorial seat for $200,000; to take a backhander, to you and me. The strange thing is that Americans were not shocked about it. That’s par for politics in the US. What surprised Americans, though, was the fact that in trying to make capital out of Obama’s seat, Blagojevich discussed the matter over a phone that was bugged. He should know better. Phone-tapping is also par for US politics. It’s that dirty.
Obviously, politics and corruption go hand in hand in America, more so in Chicago. Now, if Blagojevich is sent to jail, he would be the fourth out of the past eight governors of Illinois to end up in the state penitentiary. Ouch!
What about the so-called lobbyists in Washington? They lobby US legislators on behalf of various interest groups. But what these lobbyists really do is to act as bagmen for powerful interests that use financial inducements to subvert the legislative process to favour them.
That’s why, for instance, legislators were blinded even when the US housing market was in meltdown. In the last 10 years, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) spent $170 million greasing the palms of US legislators to talk up the wisdom of home ownership in the face of financial hardship for America’s working class. We have now seen the disastrous results of these pay-outs.
Is the lobby system good for US democracy? I doubt it. Just before Obama took up office, he talked of implementing a set of rules designed to severely limit participation of federal lobbyists in what his transition co-chairman John Podesta described as “the most open and transparent transition in history”.
Transparency, democracy and good governance are words Africans keep hearing from outsiders who themselves don’t abide by them. But whenever Africans go to the polls, they should always bear in mind that what they are doing is the right thing. They are not doing it because some outsider has told them to do it.
Desmond Davies is Editor of African Prospects, a monthly digital magazine. [email protected]
By Desmond Davies
ADVERTISEMENT