BY PUMULANI NCUBE

Great Britain, the oldest parliamentary democracy held its first live public debates for its three candidates aiming to become the next prime minister of the United Kingdom.  The debate club conclusion after the three debates was that other than the sometimes subtle differences that the three parties had, it didn't matter who became the prime minister because either way the UK would be in good hands.  The Debate Club under the auspices of African Democratic Institute has a primary objective of enhancing democracy through debates at all levels of society.

Based on the UK debates, there are a few rather obvious standards that the African continent should strive to emulate.  Firstly the debates were carried out in atmosphere free from intimidation, secondly the debates were relevant to issues worrying the man on the street and lastly but not least all parties had a well articulated election manifesto far removed form the cult of party leaders bigger than the party which has become prevalent in Africa.

It is our hope that the debate clubs will get us to a place where we debate constitutions that will last for the centuries as opposed to constitutions that safeguard a generation of politicians and entrench the power of the incumbent government.  The American constitution was crafted in 1787, with approximately 4400 words, it is more than two centuries old and yet enough visionary thought was given to protect the rights of ALL the citizens.  One example  of how a culture of open, frank and constructive debate can enhance our democracy is the case of 3 similar laws that were enacted at independence in 3 countries namely Ghana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

At independence these countries legislated or took over draconian state of emergency power legislation that they believed would protect them against the so called counter revolutionaries.  All seemed well with these laws until these same laws were now being used against the population to suppress any opposition to the failing state.  Another well documented example of debate missed is the case of Rwanda.  The Belgians out of their guilt conscience decided that the Rwandese should abolish identity documents identifying people along ethnic lines.  I'm told one of the ethnic tribes decided to keep legislation because they were the majority this would guarantee them absolute majority because of their numbers.  Because of ethnic identity the history of that country will never be the same.

President Barack Obama rightly observed that Africa had enough strong man what Africa needs are strong institutions.  There is a tendency in Africa to get intoxicated with politics.  In the pursuit of political power we should never get to a point where it intoxicates us.  As observed by Claude Ake when addressing the annual conference of the Nigerian Political Science Association in 1981 when he said "We are intoxicated with politics: the premium on political power is so high that we are prone to take the most extreme measures to win and to maintain political power".  Until we meet at the next debate session at a debate club near you, spread the word, about the ADI Debate Club enhancing democracy through debate.