Post by Omar Nassir Ali on Nov 11, 2005 7:33:13 GMT 3
Who will survive the referendum?
By Omar Nassir Ali
Let us psychoanalyse the 29th October, 2005 pre - referendum Kisumu riots in perspective, examining both sides of the coin to identify the apple of discord and ascertain the truth without being swayed by oblique logic and raw semantics.
For a moment, let us shelve sympathy, empathy and apathy to be realistic in our painstaking assessment of our preliminary spasms to chart the way forward against formidable obstacles. But, is this nation jinxed? Who or what is the jinx and who is jinxing who, to create such cataclysmic imbalance in society? And, do we have a grasp of our psychohistory to forestall the shape of things to come?
The recent sanguinary melee in Kisumu, pitting hundreds of delirious, slogan - shouting, stone - throwing, impulsive, irate youth against a combined force of bruised and electrically irked riot police and the para - military General Service unit only served to vulgarize a city long associated with hospitality, erudition and civility.
Such dastardly furors hardly do any justice to a region long stuck in a quagmire of terminal poverty without a beacon in the dark tunnel of ceaseless discords.
It is hence most disillusioning to watch flamboyant Raila Amolo Odinga and Raphael Tuju flex their political muscles in public - though the former outweighs the latter - trapped in a compulsive political madhouse, reflecting negatively on the future of some of the best intellectuals in the country. And divided as we are, who will restore the balance in this nation ravaged by sectarian hegemony, if the leading lights cannot embrace entente cordiale?
Who then will win the laurel in our pendulous politics and impending phyrric referendum battle that stinks more of a cataclysm than rosy days ahead? The guess is yours, as calloused plebeians, slyboots, truculent factotums, bona fide stake - holders as well as the cuckoos - in the nest, bruise each other on bitter - sweet campaign trails. There is no bonhomie here, no culture of human rights, as all is swallowed in a political maelstrom.
The country has been astir since President Emilio Mwai Kibaki sealed the fate of Kenyans on the schematic Wako Constitutional Draft. Suddenly, the nation is agog, experiencing an obscene spurt of formidable billingsgate, daring -do, shenanigan, gerrymandering and- jiggery pockery amongst the Walala hoi and the Walala hai.
Plagued activists mushroom everywhere, alive like flowers in new bloom, to cash in on heaven sent wind fall, - whooping billions in campaign dough for the eating, creating an artificial economic boom. Equally, another couple of billions create instant pot - belied millionares amongst those masquerading as civic education providers. Not quite a shrewed way to invest public funds. There is total lack of candour, where the purse is everyone's armour.
Who or what do we believe? NARC or KANU or Sic Transit Gloria Mundi (Zero) or are we daft? Who does not know that three years of internal wranglings by factions of NARC legislators never gave Kibaki time to be in his mettle. Beleaguered by bellicose protégés, he could neither think straight nor act decisively. And, deliberately rendered a lame - duck, his chances of exercising good governance was constantly bungled.
But who cares? The clocks tick. Hearts pound and as the November 21st 2005 D - day approaches for the eleven million plebeians to fix their kismet on the national referendum, billious, hysterical politicians tumble into jim - jams, dancing sparrow dances. The youth are charged like thunder and lighting bursting from black nimbus clouds. A nation's socio - economic ambience is transformed into a melodramatic hub.
Transparency fades into opacity and good governance is left hanging in midair like an acrid midst.
Latent ambitions suddenly ignite. Even dead woods rise shelved acrimonies surface. Old wounds are reopened. And, oblivious of passions that forestall reason, cynical subjects forget that a country saturated with hatred would be spiritually dehydrated, when jingoists, ideologues and rabble - rousers, all in the name of the hoi polloi (masses), rise like the phoenix from the ashes of modern decadence - futile lecturers on human rights - to stake their claims to the sovereignty of a seguestered society caught fast in the dilemma of transition.
Meanwhile, in the midst of things, our amorous, spendthrift legislators, reputed connoisseurs of candle - lit thingytail parties revel, savouring prime liquours, unable to alter the nation's grotesqueries, invulnerable as Hydra.
In the class of the affluent beyond expectation, those amnesiac hardly remember that we live in hazardous times characterized by different types of confusion: ideological, identitarian, confusion of values, power, greed and socio - economic priorities e.t.c.
For indeed, how many care that a nation is trapped in artificial prosperity, grinding poverty, intolerance, indifference and hypocrisy, all compounded by burgeoning insecurity, domestic terrorism, xenophobia and dog - in - the manger policies?
In a dog and cat game, fragile alliances are renewed and dubious bonds of comradeship formed. Factional ambitions spread like wild fire and raw violence of intimidation is unleashed upon defenceless, peaceable, unoffending civilians, now reduced to mere April fools. Excessive fanaticism, paranoia and schizophrenia suddenly surface, exposing the utopia of the individualist in its nudity. Our nation no longer cohesive, creates space where dogs obligingly ate dogs?
It is the culmination of thirteen years of brain storming, soul searching and cross - fertilization of minds often lacking synergy, yet tirelessly yearning for a constitutional break - through, marking a melancholy track of time, so as to witness the ultimate fruition of an exercise that would appear much akin to a Hobson's choice.
Euphoria is in curvilinear motion. Drums are beating. People are eating. Constitutional experts are up in arms. And of course, it is an all embracing bogey in the annals of this country's psychohistory that has had, in two decades, a poignant metamorphosis of power palaver, rancour and shocking carnivals of corruption. Who then will psychoanalyze this nation undergoing transmutation? When no one cared? When no one cares?
In human rights parlance, so - called vanities of ethnicity, class, colour or creed are dissolved in law, defined and explained as the shield against the tyranny of the single leader or the more dangerous threat of an arbitrary majority.
But then, how are dictators made? We often forget that one cannot circumvent a process by a single wish or indeed by a single thought. Yet, volatile propaganda activists will compel a nation to degenerate into the wilderness of tribalism, racism, religious intolerance and class distinction, all founded on raw ambition for power, ethnicity and personality cult, without even batting an eyelid.
This pites group against group, with each group or sub - group demarcating its own turf boundary and its own spokesman as clan competes clan for top - echelon positions in government or state corporations, irrespective of merit or experience, and at the expense of efficiency and effective service delivery.
And, though the constitution is an exigency for a nation's rapid socio - economic take off our apathy and cynicisms are catastrophic for a nation aiming to contain diverse societies (communities) in a single formula, striding along the path towards shared prosperity and social peace.
But then, what is social peace, if not constructively handled social tension through social dialogue and collective bargaining instead of social unrest and anarchy. No, democracy cannot be implanted. It has to evolve in an indigenous way, peacefully.
In this scenario, formidable advocates of a putsch, or a coup d'etat would seem highly ectopic in a nation largely heterogeneous and without economic tendrils to hold it together.
This argument holds water, especially when the legislature holds sway in most of our day - to day concerns.
In a nut - shell, parliament manifests the cultural diversity of the nation, represents the will of the people and exercises their sovereignty. Like a fruit, a constitution cannot be harvested in a hurry. It takes time between sour green to ripe sweet.
This is a time of reckoning for all Kenyans to remain united in space, function or other interests and sharing perspectives that bind them together for some common action as co-navigators in development, to ultimately savour the nectar of a constitution that would be pragmatically egalitarian, utilitarian and humanitarian. Nothing more or less would fit the bill.
By Omar Nassir Ali
Let us psychoanalyse the 29th October, 2005 pre - referendum Kisumu riots in perspective, examining both sides of the coin to identify the apple of discord and ascertain the truth without being swayed by oblique logic and raw semantics.
For a moment, let us shelve sympathy, empathy and apathy to be realistic in our painstaking assessment of our preliminary spasms to chart the way forward against formidable obstacles. But, is this nation jinxed? Who or what is the jinx and who is jinxing who, to create such cataclysmic imbalance in society? And, do we have a grasp of our psychohistory to forestall the shape of things to come?
The recent sanguinary melee in Kisumu, pitting hundreds of delirious, slogan - shouting, stone - throwing, impulsive, irate youth against a combined force of bruised and electrically irked riot police and the para - military General Service unit only served to vulgarize a city long associated with hospitality, erudition and civility.
Such dastardly furors hardly do any justice to a region long stuck in a quagmire of terminal poverty without a beacon in the dark tunnel of ceaseless discords.
It is hence most disillusioning to watch flamboyant Raila Amolo Odinga and Raphael Tuju flex their political muscles in public - though the former outweighs the latter - trapped in a compulsive political madhouse, reflecting negatively on the future of some of the best intellectuals in the country. And divided as we are, who will restore the balance in this nation ravaged by sectarian hegemony, if the leading lights cannot embrace entente cordiale?
Who then will win the laurel in our pendulous politics and impending phyrric referendum battle that stinks more of a cataclysm than rosy days ahead? The guess is yours, as calloused plebeians, slyboots, truculent factotums, bona fide stake - holders as well as the cuckoos - in the nest, bruise each other on bitter - sweet campaign trails. There is no bonhomie here, no culture of human rights, as all is swallowed in a political maelstrom.
The country has been astir since President Emilio Mwai Kibaki sealed the fate of Kenyans on the schematic Wako Constitutional Draft. Suddenly, the nation is agog, experiencing an obscene spurt of formidable billingsgate, daring -do, shenanigan, gerrymandering and- jiggery pockery amongst the Walala hoi and the Walala hai.
Plagued activists mushroom everywhere, alive like flowers in new bloom, to cash in on heaven sent wind fall, - whooping billions in campaign dough for the eating, creating an artificial economic boom. Equally, another couple of billions create instant pot - belied millionares amongst those masquerading as civic education providers. Not quite a shrewed way to invest public funds. There is total lack of candour, where the purse is everyone's armour.
Who or what do we believe? NARC or KANU or Sic Transit Gloria Mundi (Zero) or are we daft? Who does not know that three years of internal wranglings by factions of NARC legislators never gave Kibaki time to be in his mettle. Beleaguered by bellicose protégés, he could neither think straight nor act decisively. And, deliberately rendered a lame - duck, his chances of exercising good governance was constantly bungled.
But who cares? The clocks tick. Hearts pound and as the November 21st 2005 D - day approaches for the eleven million plebeians to fix their kismet on the national referendum, billious, hysterical politicians tumble into jim - jams, dancing sparrow dances. The youth are charged like thunder and lighting bursting from black nimbus clouds. A nation's socio - economic ambience is transformed into a melodramatic hub.
Transparency fades into opacity and good governance is left hanging in midair like an acrid midst.
Latent ambitions suddenly ignite. Even dead woods rise shelved acrimonies surface. Old wounds are reopened. And, oblivious of passions that forestall reason, cynical subjects forget that a country saturated with hatred would be spiritually dehydrated, when jingoists, ideologues and rabble - rousers, all in the name of the hoi polloi (masses), rise like the phoenix from the ashes of modern decadence - futile lecturers on human rights - to stake their claims to the sovereignty of a seguestered society caught fast in the dilemma of transition.
Meanwhile, in the midst of things, our amorous, spendthrift legislators, reputed connoisseurs of candle - lit thingytail parties revel, savouring prime liquours, unable to alter the nation's grotesqueries, invulnerable as Hydra.
In the class of the affluent beyond expectation, those amnesiac hardly remember that we live in hazardous times characterized by different types of confusion: ideological, identitarian, confusion of values, power, greed and socio - economic priorities e.t.c.
For indeed, how many care that a nation is trapped in artificial prosperity, grinding poverty, intolerance, indifference and hypocrisy, all compounded by burgeoning insecurity, domestic terrorism, xenophobia and dog - in - the manger policies?
In a dog and cat game, fragile alliances are renewed and dubious bonds of comradeship formed. Factional ambitions spread like wild fire and raw violence of intimidation is unleashed upon defenceless, peaceable, unoffending civilians, now reduced to mere April fools. Excessive fanaticism, paranoia and schizophrenia suddenly surface, exposing the utopia of the individualist in its nudity. Our nation no longer cohesive, creates space where dogs obligingly ate dogs?
It is the culmination of thirteen years of brain storming, soul searching and cross - fertilization of minds often lacking synergy, yet tirelessly yearning for a constitutional break - through, marking a melancholy track of time, so as to witness the ultimate fruition of an exercise that would appear much akin to a Hobson's choice.
Euphoria is in curvilinear motion. Drums are beating. People are eating. Constitutional experts are up in arms. And of course, it is an all embracing bogey in the annals of this country's psychohistory that has had, in two decades, a poignant metamorphosis of power palaver, rancour and shocking carnivals of corruption. Who then will psychoanalyze this nation undergoing transmutation? When no one cared? When no one cares?
In human rights parlance, so - called vanities of ethnicity, class, colour or creed are dissolved in law, defined and explained as the shield against the tyranny of the single leader or the more dangerous threat of an arbitrary majority.
But then, how are dictators made? We often forget that one cannot circumvent a process by a single wish or indeed by a single thought. Yet, volatile propaganda activists will compel a nation to degenerate into the wilderness of tribalism, racism, religious intolerance and class distinction, all founded on raw ambition for power, ethnicity and personality cult, without even batting an eyelid.
This pites group against group, with each group or sub - group demarcating its own turf boundary and its own spokesman as clan competes clan for top - echelon positions in government or state corporations, irrespective of merit or experience, and at the expense of efficiency and effective service delivery.
And, though the constitution is an exigency for a nation's rapid socio - economic take off our apathy and cynicisms are catastrophic for a nation aiming to contain diverse societies (communities) in a single formula, striding along the path towards shared prosperity and social peace.
But then, what is social peace, if not constructively handled social tension through social dialogue and collective bargaining instead of social unrest and anarchy. No, democracy cannot be implanted. It has to evolve in an indigenous way, peacefully.
In this scenario, formidable advocates of a putsch, or a coup d'etat would seem highly ectopic in a nation largely heterogeneous and without economic tendrils to hold it together.
This argument holds water, especially when the legislature holds sway in most of our day - to day concerns.
In a nut - shell, parliament manifests the cultural diversity of the nation, represents the will of the people and exercises their sovereignty. Like a fruit, a constitution cannot be harvested in a hurry. It takes time between sour green to ripe sweet.
This is a time of reckoning for all Kenyans to remain united in space, function or other interests and sharing perspectives that bind them together for some common action as co-navigators in development, to ultimately savour the nectar of a constitution that would be pragmatically egalitarian, utilitarian and humanitarian. Nothing more or less would fit the bill.