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Guest Editorial: After Gbagbo, who’s next?
Thursday, 14 April 2011 13:00
The arrest of Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo on Monday ended months of a bloody power struggle and
hopefully marks the start of a democracy taking root under the leadership of Alassane Ouattara. Winner of the November election, Ouattara could finally start governing and restore the Ivory Coast to the haven of peace and prosperity it was a decade ago. Rich with cocoa and coffee, rebuilding the economy is probably the least of Ouattara’s worries.
First and foremost he needs to restore unity to a country that has been wracked by ethnic divisions, thanks to Gbagbo’s decade-old policies that saw the nation split into the Muslim north and Christian south. The power struggle of the past five months, which saw more than 1,000 people killed and more than 1 million displaced, had only strengthened the animosity. A Muslim hailing from the north, Ouattara could convince the skeptical south by forming a national unity government.
With the international community, including the United Nations, the European Union and the Ivory Coast’s African neighbors in the African Union, very much behind Ouattara since his November election victory, he can count on their continued support as he goes through the difficult period of rebuilding the nation. At the end of the day, however, like the just-concluded power struggle, this is a battle that the Ivory Coast people have to fight for themselves.
Reconciliation should be the first order of the day for the Ivory Coast. The new government should also seek the immediate phased withdrawal of French military forces from the country, sent under a UN mandate to protect the lives of civilians and foreigners there. The French forces played a role in dislodging Gbagbo, which is bound to leave a bitter aftertaste among some Ivory Coast people that could raise xenophobic sentiment.
Democracy almost anywhere comes the hard way. The Ivory Coast is no exception. One could only wish that tyrants had more statesmanship in them and make way for democracy rather than fighting the inevitable only to cause greater misery for their own people.
Some, like Soeharto of Indonesia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, did take the highway, but Gbagbo took the hard and bloody way. Either way, the will of the people prevailed eventually. Qaddafi and all other tyrants around the world, you have been warned!
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/
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Comments
Comment
That’s why it’s foolhardy to argue/worry, when fools insist on ruling & harass/ terrorise a community ‘for life’; isn’t it the usual slogan of ‘yaya jammeh ruling for life’? This’ just the beginning, with an end; definitely; Allah's always with the masses.
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