THE OSWALD HANCILES COLUMN President Ernest Koroma Gets Serious To “Run Sierra Leone Like a Business” standardtimespress.org/artman/publish/article_4533.shtml Posted by OSWALD HANCILES COLUMN on Mar 18, 2010, 10:09 Ernest Koroma Gets Serious To “Run Sierra Leone Like a Business” From now on, when Ernest (as we fondly and lovingly call the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, H.E. Ernest Bai Koroma) raises his muscular left hand from his Hercules-type body and waves to the ordinary people in our country, they are almost certain to wave back more excitedly, lovingly, trustingly – no matter what tribe or region they hail from; or, what political party they belong to. Ernest is morphing into becoming more and more of ‘The People’s Man’. One of the local newspapers that is generally perceived to be pro-SLPP (maybe, because its publisher/editor, Sorie Fofanah, was (is) very close to President Koroma’s predecessor, the SLPP’s President Tejan Kabbah and family), THE GLOBAL TIMES, published in its March 15, 2010 edition President Koroma’s words that he “is in a hurry to develop Sierra Leone”. There has been great hope that the economy of Sierra Leone will boom shortly with the re-opening of the iron ore mines in Tonkolili by AFRICAN MINERALS (at 5 billion tones, billed as the largest iron ore deposit in Africa); the bio-fuel farms in the North that would soon produce bio-petrol; the perking of optimism with the discovery of marketable deposits of petroleum in our territorial waters….All of these positive news have been eclipsed in the local press recently by unrelenting disclosures of festering rampant corruption in the public sector. The elderly opinion leaders among the citizenry know that we have always had our mineral wealth being exploited. This exploitation has not translated into sustainable wealth, or peace and political stability. The normally jaded Sierra Leonean elite – as regards belief that there would ever be truly significant reform in the public sector, a minimization of corruption - would not be unduly impressed with news of mining companies being reopened. There is a consensus among the citizenry that all the positive economic news would come to naught if cancerous corruption is not excised from our body politic. So, when just within a few days there is news that former health minister, Sheik Tejan Koroma, has been convicted of corruption charges, and on Monday, March 15, former marine resources minister, Afsatu Kabba, has been indicted on corruption charges, a surge of optimism cruises through the length and breath of our impoverished land that for once there is a President who is ready to side with the ordinary people against the unrepentant predators who have for fifty years masqueraded as political leaders. . If the APC bigwigs would fathom the Yogic quiescence of Ernest, and sense that steely firmness that gloss his toothpaste smiles to the masses, and would listen, really listen, as their APC Leader Ernest listens to them…..Ha!! It will be henceforth be survival logic for the APC minor leadership to listen to Ernest. Ernest has vowed to “run Sierra Leone like a business”. Running Sierra Leone like a business would mean, automatically, instilling a culture of efficiency, predictability, fair playing field for all – and curbing corruption dramatically in the public sector. It appears as if Ernest’s first two years was like political honeymoon for those fervent political supporters of his who helped to empower him – his turning a blind eye to their political shenanigans. Now, the honeymoon is over. The model that President should be emulating (or, could be ‘fallahmarkata-ing’) could be Singapore. Singapore is ranked No 1, in 2010, as “the world’s easiest place to do business” in - that is ahead of Hong Kong, China (No 2), United States (No 3), and United Kingdom (No 4). In terms of skilled labour at the global level, Singapore is No 2, with only Switzerland ahead of it at No 1. Singapore is first in the world for having the best protection of intellectual property (It appears as if nearly all the governing elite in Sierra Leone are oblivious of the need for potent Intellectual Property laws in the country; and they are completely unperturbed that the recently burgeoning industry in the country – our indigenous music industry – is being crippled by pirates, with the absence of Intellectual Property laws). .Singapore is ranked 4th in the world and 1st in Asia for having the least corruption in its economy. At about the time of the Independence Era of the 1960s in Africa, Singapore was almost at the same developmental level as ‘rich West African countries’ like Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria. Singapore is smaller than Sierra Leone in geographical size, but, Singapore’s population of about 5 million is almost like Sierra Leone’s. Also, English is the formal language in Singapore as it is in Sierra Leone. What has been the secret that all the rich West African countries have GDP per capita income that average $500 today, and Singapore’s GDP per capita is about a staggering $40,000!!! I now quote profusely from a speech of Verghese Mathews, a former Singapore ambassador to Cambodia, who is now a visiting fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Matthew says:” We can say this from our own experience – that capital and private funds will flow to where it serves the entrepreneur best, that is to countries which are least corrupt and most transparent. “… I will give you an example. We have in Singapore an entrepreneur who does CD-ROMs for Microsoft. He could have done them much cheaper anywhere else in the region, or elsewhere, because our costs are comparatively high. But he still decided to do it in Singapore because he is confident that the particular Singapore company will not pirate his software. He is confident of that. Moreover, he realizes that if that company does pirate it, than he has immediate access to a legal process that will ensure that the culprit is brought to book….”Hear Ambassador Matthews again: “(It) was not like that for very long. When we became independent (from Great Britain, 31st August, 1963), there was a whole load of corruption… I would like to quote to you (words) from my former Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kwan Yu. ….He said, in his autobiography, From Third World to First, ‘When we took office in 1959 we set out to have a clean administration. We were sickened by the greed, corruption and decadence of many Asian leaders. Fighters for freedom for their people have become plunderers of their wealth….’”. (Ha!! As if Lee was speaking of nearly all African countries there!!!). Ambassador Matthews places success in the fight against corruption squarely in the doorsteps of President Koroma: “(Singapore’s success has been possible because) … there is no escaping that the most important elements will be the commitment, the dedication and the tenacity of the government ….”Of course, I won’t be so naïve as to argue here that waging war on corruption alone by itself will make Sierra Leone into ‘the Singapore in Africa’. There are other variables which President Koroma must urgently address. What I often term as the Civil War Mentality in our politics is what John Idriss Lahai, a Sierra Leonean doctorate degree student in a university in Australia (and, a former Kamajor militia during our civil war), in his posting onthe Freedom of Information cyberspace forum, posted on March 16, 2010, at 1:55 a.m., put in what could be too ungloved a language on why he would bridle himself from praising President Koroma on his recent anti corruption-inspired moves: “The president can only get my commendations if he ends ethnic and regional considerations for political appointments. (President Koroma) has put much emphasis on ethnic and regional (northern) consideration which has re-built and reinforced a network of hierarchies and patronage not just in the public and private sectors, but in people’s relations to one another”. President Koroma also needs to attract, and harness, the best and the brightest among Sierra Leoneans, and give them a fair playing field for them to ‘play businesses in. The President needs to create an environment wherein some of the most qualitative brains in the world would gravitate towards Sierra Leone – that is likely to be through not only promoting the country as one in which the Rule of Law is supreme, but, effecting such a state within the country. The lazy and the unimaginative among the educated elite are almost always the ones who prop all the worst vices in our society, and kindle the tribal logic as their only means of upward mobility. Running Sierra Leone like a business, President Koroma has to ensure that ‘Product Sierra Leone’ becomes one of the most competitive in the global market place through focusing on enhancing the capacity of the most vital ingredient in any country – its human resources. Yes, one secret which the opposition SLPP would not like to see being replicated in Sierra Leone is this: The People’s Action Party (PAP) in Singapore has dominated the political process and has won control of Parliament in every election since self-government in 1959. With Ernest successfully trouncing the monster of corruption, and stimulating sustainable wealth, ensuring that wealth creation and distribution would become egalitarian, there could no stopping ‘the APC being the PAP of Sierra Leone’
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 01:40:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015