Pendulum of change swings toward Government and Social Policy in Africa
The Noble Doctrine of "We the People" : A perspective
There is no controversy over the fact that we are in a post-modern age otherwise called post-modernism, which marks the progressive outcome of human civilization dating as far back as the 17th century. There is a great expectation that people who have captured the spirit of post-modernism have a different mentality and attitude towards life. First and foremost the characteristics of post-modernism are what makes it very amazing and unique for further exploration. Africa has hardly been a measuring rod for excellent social policies, which is one of the main reasons why I am articulating this. I believe that social policy is the bridge between Government( public servants) and the civil society( the citizens being governed)
The existence of unbelievable communication networks through advanced technology and science of human interaction has defined this age. This has landed the world into what others call globalization on one hand and global village on the other. Those who stick to “globalization” perpetuate corporate greed through the unrestrained practice of owning shares in most of their unethical investments anywhere in the world while those who see the world as “a global village” emphasize the doctrine of both shareholders and stakeholders through the universal principles of human dignity.
In fact it is a period during, which reasonable and civilized people have resolved to distinguish themselves from beasts and primates by behaving themselves like real human beings with a soul and conscience. No doubt around the 17th century the founders of America emerged with the noble doctrine of “We, the People” in order to underscore the importance of community and society as the constitution of every government. So how can the global village be transformed into a caring or beloved community with respect to “We the People”?
The pendulum of change will swing towards a comprehensive Social Policy as a measure necessary to raise the standards of living among our people in Africa. As we suggested the other day, why should we be talking about social policy? Why should we focus on public policy? Why do we have institutes of Public Policy like the Humphrey Institute in Minnesota, JFK Kennedy School of Government, Rutgers University and Seton Hall University within the United States of America?
A government that is insensitive to the social needs of the people creates a statusquo of resistance to change. What we mean is the lack of social policy as a consequence of colonial and neo-colonial practices in Cameroon and Africa leads to domination, enslavement, oppression, inequalities and exploitation of the majority by the minority corporate ruling class. A perfect diagnosis of the problem has made it possible for us to explore the importance of Social Policy as one of the indicators of fundamental change.
“We, the people” own the government and if we cannot hold government officials accountable, then why do we come together as a nation with people from all walks of life and backgrounds? If the government does not know that the people own them and that without the people they would not be any government, then where are we heading to in the 21st century after more than 450 years of the violation of our human and civil rights of our people in Cameroon and Africa?
It is important that all Cameroonians and Africans join the new train for truth, justice and liberty for change because Cameroon is off the rail and is heading to a crash but we are able to avert any disaster and put it back on track. This must be a new decade for change because now we know what we want from a democratic government. Thom Hartman in his book “What Would Jefferson Do? A Return to Democracy” notes;
“The major innovation of the founders was the idea that the government is us. It is owned by us, run by us for the benefit of us, exists solely because we continue to approve of it, and is 100% answerable to us”
Therefore, if the government knows very well that they have not been democratic then they should quit deceiving our people. Just because people appear sometimes powerless or helpless or ignorant should not be grounds for oppressing them. The worst crime that a government can commit against the people is to take advantage of their innocence whereas they never wrote an application to be born and to become citizens of their own country. To come to think that anybody would be guilty for making our people who are entitled to own the government, natural resources and mineral wealth suffer in any form or shape in this world is totally unacceptable. Again Thom Hartman notes that;
“There are somethings we all own together referred to as “the commons”, this include the necessities and commonalities of life: our air, water, waste/sewage systems, transportation routes, educational system, radio and television spectrums, and, in every developed nation … health care system. They also include those things held in common trust for us by our government: the nation’s parks, and forestland, the mineral wealth and grazing rights under and public lands; our beaches, sky, waterways, and ocean. But the most important of the commons in a democracy is the government itself. We’re supposed to own our government and it is meant to be solely responsible to us, the individual voters and not to corporate special interest. And make no mistake it is democracy that some want to replace with corporate aristocracy”
It should be noteworthy that any government in a nation that claims to be democratic should be the function of the civil society. That means they derive their constitutional powers to govern from the people who empowered them to lead them. Therefore, “We the People” must never allow the government to bully, intimidate, threaten and scare the people worse still torture, arbitrarily arrest or kill the people. Once we discover that the government is violating the dignity of the people they claim elected them into government, we have a moral and direct obligation to stop such irresponsible citizens (government) from such abuses of our people.
This pendulum will not stop swinging like the tie of a restless social policy advocate because of the forces of our common humanity and the common things we own together. Our common humanity is the desire for people to attain their livelihood in life through involvement and participation in the civil society. To the extent, which they become stakeholders in their societies and communities, by birth, right or privileges they must be educated to organize themselves in appropriate ways (under better governance and rule of law) so that the resources of the community, society or country are tapped into for the good of everyone at home and abroad.
If the President of Cameroon is always rushing to France to meet their colonial masters to help them form a government or reshuffle the government, then the President and government is not owned by us the people. We, the People must question ourselves about why our government would hate us that much? The Pendulum for change desires a government that will be owned by the people and not by some foreign corporate individuals who look down on us and dehumanize us with their unjust and most often no social policies. I declare this period in history to be one in, which we must build nations and uphold governments with social policies directed to empower and improve on the lot of “we the people"
The Pendulum of Change Swings to Social Policy to be continued
Jonathan Awasom
Jonathanawasom@yahoo.com
Done on this day of February 5th, 2010
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