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Voice of Reason and Non-violent Way of Conflict Resolution Based on Opinion Poll Thinktank Database Benford
OKECH Friend and well
wishers I would like to appeal for fund to help with the setting up and subsequent running of the above centre. The Moslem rev. Louis Farrakhan called to black men to raise up and take responsibility should not be seen as restricted to America, but as also an eye-opener for all black men the world over. For the present-day predicament of change like modernisation, industrialisation is a world wide phenomena that cut across tribal or religious border. At the beginning I need about a million US dollars for the venture. Any contributor that will exceed 10000 US dollar will receive a copy of my book 'politics and Punishment in Africa". While any contributor that will exceed that 100000 dollars will receive also the second book: "The African and government". The centre will be situated at the Sheraton complex in Kampala. P 0 BOX 10524 on trepan avenue as there is the facility for such work. For example the issue of economic privatisation should move to the heavy weight level. Wealth creation is something in our heart as the example from land like Hong Kong show. This is a piece of land that has no known natural resources. The climate was created such that people with money went and put it there. Now the resources of other area are drawn there and stayed as stock-pile of wealth. I am told that in some of those 40 stories building as my as 60000 people live in a block in the night as sleeping area and at daytime as workstation for making electronic building block. The bed act as the divider of two block : the skyscraper and the chip. The contrast between the two block is best depicted by the level of visibility. The detail of the micro-chip is worked at in the invisible range and the house the most visible man made object on the skyline of the town scope. The choice of rationality in a democracy will be maintained starting with ten cell as the stepping stone. To listen to the voice of reason mean that we choose that ballot boxes as opposed to the bullet boxes. For transparency as a lack of guile imply vulnerability to the manipulation of other as they also struggle for power. Here is where compromise and tolerance come in shape. In a disagreement our slogan will be: the first choice is not a return to the bush or a run for the gun. There are referendum, debate, parliament and multiparty politics. There are the judiciary the constitutional court as well as a memorandum of understanding. By staying within the constitutional bound we confine ourselves to the limit of those organ of government. In a competition there is a guile which is confined to the so called zero sum game. In other word we are dealing with a level playing ground. As you look at it is not very idealistic from the point of view of a tyrant because a democracy is the middle ground of the masses where the leaders are the one under stress of the load public responsibility. Given further confinement of check and balances what filter down the ramble of the mass is a democratic righteousness where the individual can choose to do his work as a free citizen as the rule of law enabled him or her. The ideas of the government is all about the farmer repairing his grass roof house and the seven years old child going to attend his primary class work. Need I cite for you the number games of how many refugees there are in Africa and that the farmer cannot in that case repair his grassroof house? The reflective community is also vital for the matter. They come in their various forms as the intelligent community, the thinktank community, church organisations and elders and committee of all kinds. This is also where the consent of the governed is brought into a melting pot. It take many adviser to make a modern nation of today. The visit to Uganda has shown that the problem facing the affected area of the north mean that the centre of dialogue form the area is now disperse all over the world. For when Jimmy Carter went there the next day was when I enter. There was no meaningful dialogue even though the elder from Acholiland met the president in his home ground of Rwakatura. Most of the member of that delegation no doubt voice their feeling on the prevailing situation in the north. This is in order as part of politics is the feeling of the people. The second observation that came out was that there was no properly articulated view of the situation that would not only represent the picture as complex political knowledge but also solve the problem. The proper working of politics must bring the confuse picture of their political situation which is also making them feel bad to a proper comprehensive setting that changes their feeling to a true aspiration of the dream of uhuru. This will allow them to overcome the challenge of nationhood of which nation building a difficult agenda. In the thinktank we confine ourselves to make clear the knowledge base in line with the feeling of the people in the area. In the corridor of power one has to exercise influence peddling to bring about meaningful change. When many groups has to do that then we are up against competing self-interest. In the event that there is no proper consensus intrigue will replace agreement. This may lead to open conflict. Consensus building is build through dialogue, talking, debate and all other means of communication. Starting the thinktank is therefore not the way to return to mother love and tribalism which lead to sectarianism, but to help foster a single voice from the area. Sometimes a group must learn to verbalise just like an individual. This is also the basic definition of man in anthropology that it his ability to verbalise which set him apart from other animal. In Kant's thesis when there is competition the winner will exercise political hegemony. How do we learn to cope with such a defeat when the political hegemony is sometime channel as an abuse? In an election the answer is that we way vote out of office. The approach is perfectly rational. Regular periodic election is part of the democratic process. But this has actually happen in the north. But the problem still persist. The constitution making is also democratic but the problem still persist. The peace that resulted from the amnesty has brought about an impressive economic growth of 10% last year. And this very good. But the problem still persist. In my opinion the problem is to be found also in the administration of that very amnesty. The amnesty on offered is to all Uganda including the Acholi. Technically there is no need to fight with a person who offer you an olive branch without talk or agreement. You cannot also return home as a political party because the movement is in place and every one is to work their way up politically within the movement. Many Uganda are doing just that. These included even the former soldier who lost the war and therefore faced the most pressure due to the effect power hegemony by the winner. This soldier are to be commended for their to face the humiliation of just being look at the defeated ones. This is an emotional problem and I guess that each returning decided that they might as well cope with it. But the military training did not allow other in power feel comfortable with them. To make matter worst some of their friends have chosen to stay back and fight on. The ideas that the government was weaving olive branch began to ground to a standstill. The perception that they posed real or imagined threat caused the government to dropped the amnesty and replace it with panic. The military leader who in good faith had laid down their weapon were arrested and put in jail. The rest as they say is history. The echo of their past has finally caught up with them. But let me remind you that the concise Oxford Dictionary defined amnesty as: general pardon, especially for political offence. Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus define amnesty as: 1. A general pardon, especially for offences against a government 2. A period during which a law is suspended to allow offenders to admit their crime without fears of persecution. From the Greek a.mnestos = without remembering 3. To overlook or forget an offence. The best way to portray want might have happen to the returning soldiers is to tell it as a story. In our area in the north we have some rat that live in open bush and one type the live in the home. The one that live in the home is a real pest such that the human is always trying to get rid of it. This is a normal fight with pest. So the most effective way to killed them is use their feeding habit. These pest live on the grass roof of the African hut by day but come down during the night to look for food under the cover the African night. In the night the people are asleep and as the rat are therefore harmless. If food is not properly covered the rats therefore feast on it. The careless practice of leaving the food properly hidden from the reach of the rat is a free invitation for the pest to come down and do their thing. But by mixing poison with the food and scattering in the most easily reasonable place is to trap them in their own feeding habit. Experience has shown that some will die while other will remain. Once hurt twice shy. The remaining rat learn that the free food which lay on their path is something to be avoided and it is the duty of the mother rat the warning sour for the rest. As a result the entire rats return to the safety of the roof and forget about the free food on the ground. The problem in the north persist because the remaining soldiers have detected rat poisoning tactic in the general amnesty as it administered to them. While the rest of the Uganda enjoy true amnesty the soldiers are not so sure if it include them. The soldier do not see an absence of guile in the political turn of event which mean that there is no transparency. The other problem to be faced is that of political hegemony to the defeated one. Nation building is a delicate balance act. An hegemony feeling toward a section of the country is no the best way to built a nation. If we are going to build a nation we have to face the fact that there is no inferior or superior tribe. Need I remain every one that even the worst written constitution will say that all citizens are equal be the rule of law. If there are equal there is room for political hegemony. Actually in a democracy the situation is worst for the winner. Since the power is vested in the people the leader exercise that power on behalf of the people. Holding public office is to held to public trust. They called it accountability to the voters. To regularly return to the voter is to come and account for the proper use of this public trust of the peoples' power. There is no free ride. To return to the masses is of course the worst form of government with the exception of all other known system of government to cite Cecil phase. The ideas that rational solution is possible in a democracy is close to Niebuhrian Typology: the Christ of culture which is represented by the rational Christian of the Enlightenment and the liberals of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this type accommodate culture to Christ. Sin was regarded as irrationality. This in agreement with professor Tandon that the coup of Oyite-Ojok against Binaisa was highly irrational and highly illegal. Ethics therefore depended on the moral reasoning and on adherence to the ideal goals of peace, community and freedom. The culture-Christian saw their rational gospel in terms of moral law. Loyal disciples were to obey the dictates of the categorical imperative (Kant) to act on moral teachings which could be universally applied to all people. Finally, this Niebuhrian type also had doubts about how God could be the creator of the strange, unfriendly world of nature. They adhered closely to the Christ, Whom they saw as the great civilizer of nature. The democratic position is below this level in practice. It involve the rule of law in such a way that it safeguard individual freedom and liberty. It does this by the impersonal devolving of power from one centre to several centres so that they can work against each other. R.B.Y. Scott in the relevance of the prophet "Many are Christians rather by accident of birth, than from any conscious moral choice and spiritual aspiration affecting the quality and the direction of their living. Others do not distinguish between things indifferent for religion and the weightier matter of the law. Still others place first emphasis on the correct belief and formal religious duties, rather than on conduct pleasing to God in the full range of human relationships. And those who invert the emphasis are often themselves remote from any deep sense that their conduct must be a religious response to the greatness and goodness of God. The prophet make it clear that religion and ethical unity form a vital unity. The prophets' clear enunciation of man's social responsibility before God-a responsibility not only to the neighbour next door but to all his neighbours- is particularly important for the life of the modern man, in the immense collective groups and activities of which he is a part. Since the group is now so large that its relationship to the individual becomes impersonal, he tends to restrict his acknowledgement of moral obligation to other individuals with whom he comes in contact. But his duty is to his people, that is to all his neighbours and to the common welfare is inescapable. The recognition of this will transform the meaning of patriotism and galvanise democracy. The further recognition of collective responsibility before God and the whole family of mankind, is the prime requisite for the ending of the ancient curse of war, and the economic, racial and cultural conflicts which invoke it. Loyal churchman ship is a good thing which unconsciously may be a snare, for it can easily become just a hobby. What is meant to be the instrument for and occasion of religion becomes a substitute for it, and faith is diverted from flath's final object to lesser and more immediate goals. The offering which God require is a life just, merciful, and humble before him. Worship is a token of such a just, merciful and humble life. Religion is according to the Old Testament prophets is a quality and attitude in all of man's activities and a total way of living governed by the orientation of his spirit to God. In other words man's relation to God must be a reality of his actual conscious life in the present, while at the same time it is continuous with his spiritual heritage. Knowing God they say is the beginning of reality. This mean in practical terms that the opportunity to serve God and the ability and mean for it always coincide. Another interesting typology of Niebhr is the so-called-church of the centre-. This hold that Christ above culture. Here the issue is not between Christ and the world but between God and humankind The belief is held that Christ is the way to the fulfilment of cultural aspirations. But unlike the of type the centralist hold that there is more to Christ than that which emanates from culture. This is the perspective that the natural world is grace by its Creator in having positive indications of an ordered grandeur that transcends the world. Because the natural order contain traces of the divine creator, theology can use the gift of reason to discern the fundamental pattern of reality which point beyond themselves to God. Thus culture can lead mankind toward Christ through "natural theology", but faith is required to complete the journey. The chasm which exist between God and humankind is real. A grace added from above (Thomas Aquinas) enables the faithful to move beyond the world to realise their religious goal of entering that transcendent realm where they way encounter God face to face. Knowledge is by divine synthesis between reason and revelation.. The natural reason can discern four virtues: justice, Prudence, temperance, and courage while revelation will add from above; faith, hope and love. Christian who commit themselves to Christ through the sacramental ministry of the Church (which by and large rises above the vices of human corruption) can order their lives toward the supernatural ends for which they were created. R.B.Y. Scott That the deeper understanding of what constitute sin from the prophetic insight is significant. Even today sin is regarded as the transgression of certain arbitrary taboo established by religious custom. But particular acts or failures are sin because of their origin in the alienation of man's spirit from God, and of their consequences in harm done to human personalities and to the common spiritual life. Sin is evil in the soul which reject God's goodness and mercy. Sin introduces a chaotic element into the divinely intended order. In his proud isolation man refuses to yield himself to the life of the community. Where religion affirms and units, sin denies and divides. Its awful power and dreadful responsibility are measured by the divine goodness it frustrates and the divine beauty it mars. The world is ready for the declaration once more of the awful reality of human evil. The nineteenth century myth of inevitable and perpetual progress has been exploded by the impact of two world wars, with their demonstration that autonomous man cannot solve the vast problem of racial and cultural conflict, economic welfare and political order. He is overwhelmed by his own machinery, and by social torrents set loose through his unwillingness to affirm his solidarity with his fellowmen. The judgments of God are manifest in the world today. The time has come to bring home to man that these are right judgements on human sin; that man bear these consequences inevitably, because they are morally responsible beings who have denied their own nature by denying their responsibility to their neighbours. This is so, even though they may have complied with accepted ethics of society; we must now "condemns as sin much that hitherto we have flattered as success." PG 225 last parag. For the reality of sin is present wherever a human spirit is denied its birthright of freedom in the life of the community with God and man. Every form of social order must be judged by its spiritual consequences, and according to that judgement it will stand or fall. Religion must concern it self with the solution of the clamant international, racial, political and economic problems of today in the light of their human consequences. It must examine by ultimate ethical standards the principles and goals of social order, and affirm the responsibility of those who wield power, to God and to the world-wide human family. It must keep to the fore the awful destructiveness of sin which denies this responsibility, for which no humanly devised controls can be finally effective. God created all man equal even though He placed him in different tribal and racial setting. So no matter what tribe or race a man or a woman is, they have the same basic characterisation: in bearing God's image and being male and female. In Moses account of the exodus, the event of deliverance later also become the centre for Jewish cult worship of the Passover festival on a year to year basis. When Christianity was first brought to Acholi area especially in Padibe when the late Obadia Luyira was priest the institution of holy communion was central to the life of the young church. In fact people they told me used to fast for three days before going for holy communion. I was told that they even abstain from sex by consent of both partners. In other word the act of worship and that of deliverance are interrelated. Jesus our Passover lamb has been sacrificed for us. And therefore let us keep the feast. The focus is on the people not the leaders. No man is, they say good enough, imaginative enough, cleaver enough and benevolent enough to represent the views all the people all the tome without missing out on any point. The case with the administration of amnesty has shown this in Uganda. The peace talk should let outside body police the safety of the returning soldiers and make written agreement to be a part of the process of constitutional engineering that remove the feeling of political hegemony on a sector to sector basis and replace it with a proper feeling of political aspiration for all; that befit the dream of a young African nation. The thinktank will also explore area of economic investment which is link to sale budget and market research in Acholi area in tine of the current thinking of federal structure or decentralisation as the case may be. It may also give informed opinion the setting up of NGOs. The following are a listing of opinion leader that shall take part in the think-tank. DONASIANO ONEKA
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