SIERRA LEONE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE PDL DETERMINED TO PARTICIPATE IN 2012 ELECTIONS
Two points which are clear, and these are, the version of democracy in Sierra Leone’s national body politics since the imposition of the
one party dictatorship rule in 1978 is a mere deception. And second, Sierra
Leone needs a change of the wicked, spurious, ethnic-based, rotten system.
Sierra Leone needs a new crop of leadership that is credible, creative,
imaginative and patriotic, and more especially leaders who are true sons and
daughters of the soil, and who are also committed to the protection of the
interests of all Sierra Leoneans. Sierra Leone urgently needs patriotic, god-fearing, progressive leaders and not demi-gods to save the nation from further public
ridicule and scorn. Sierra Leoneans no longer trust the system-a bogus political
culture in which opulence, immorality, political prostitution, rude tribalism,
dishonesty, nepotism, corruption,, capital flight, disease, mass illiteracy,
hunger, starvation, mal-nutrition, indignities, want and insecurity of life and
legally owned property have replaced decency, social harmony and prosperity in
the country’s national and private life. Those who know Sierra Leone in the early years of flag independence may ask today if there is no capable leadership and political
culture after the death of the country’s first Prime Minister, Sir Milton Margai
in 1964 to lead the nation to prosperity. With the country’s elections approaching to go, the Sierra Leone People’s Democratic League (PDL) is proud to announce its readiness
to participate in the forthcoming elections to be held in 2012. PDL will contest
for all parliamentary seats and the office of the presidency to serve the Sierra
Leonean people and expose the general ills of the system. We have no intention to boycott the elections as our detractors want the public to believe. The PDL will engage the government in Freetown on key election issues ahead of the 2012, though the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma is too reluctant to allow the purification of the present election body to prevent political interference and to conform to democratic norms and political decency. Time and again PDL has stressed that to boycott the elections will do more harm to the nation, because such dishonest action will provide the APC cum PMDC government in Freetown with more power to continue its confused, deceptive and retrogressive policies that rendered life unbearable for the masses of our people. Boycotting any elections now that the country needs change for the good of its people would eventually heighten the state of passive
indifference among the general public. The marginalisation and alienation of the
people is a sign that Sierra Leone is unstable and on the verge of abysmal
collapse, which can only be avoided through active political activism, and
encouraging people to vote in elections and participate in the decision-making
process of their country’s future direction. PDL holds the belief that there is still hope for transformation of Sierra Leone through meaningful participation in the 2012
elections. PDL therefore intends to push the ruling APC cum PMDC oligarchy to
tolerate negotiations for a binding election rule to be put in place. We believe
if a fair, honest, transparent, democratic election is to take place in Sierra
Leone it will highly depend on whether the ruling class is willing to hold talks
on the binding law of election. Our aim is to engage the ruling class in
Freetown in a pre-election negotiation on key subjects such as access to Media
for campaign, the rule of law, human rights, absence of violence, free flow to
international observers, the independent and democratisation of the election
body and a stop to misuse of state apparatus to intimidate voters. In the course of our campaign we will advance the socialist alternative to the rotten system being entrenched by the ruling cabal.
This is historic mission and we cannot afford the luxury of betraying the
conscience of the Sierra Leonean nation in view of the fact that the APC cum
PMDC bandwagon has remained dysfunctional and has fail due to its own
in-fighting, inefficiencies and paralysis. We will therefore call for unity of
purpose among all PDL members and supporters and work towards wrestling power
from the ruling cabal in 2012. We call upon the legal body of PDL to do everything to secure the registration of PDL with the National Elections Body. We also ask the
Information and Mass Mobilisation Bureau of PDL to start a grassroots process of
forming basic committees to boast membership of PDL across the country.
We urge the Sierra Leonean public to shoulder their national duty and prevent fraud by participating in the election process. The way to fight corruption is through the massive participation in the 2012 elections, because it will be an opportunity to energise the people and expose the practices of the APC cum PMDC opportunists who have stockpiled advantage of the deepening negativity and indifference among the people. PDL is an affiliate organization of Green Charter International (GCI), for peace, democratic good governance, human
rights, rule of law, freedom and dignity. PDL stands for Burehism and for the
transformation of the Sierra Leonean society. We fight to replace the wicked
capitalist system with socialism; an economic system based on social need and
environmental protection rather than private profit and ecological
destruction. We seek a New Sierra Leone that functions not as an island but as part of a living, breathing network of humanity. A network that will recognise that Sierra Leoneans and in deed Africans everywhere are part of nature, and that will build a global society that lives within the limits of the earth’s ecosystems. We seek to extend support and solidarity to the struggles of the oppressed humanity, from the Palestinian just struggle in Gaza against Israel’s occupation to the trade Unionists in Colombia, the peace movement in Afghanistan to the benighted indigenous peoples of Australia. God Help Sierra Leone! Sender: MULKU SULAIMAN SALIEU DUMBUYA PDL Deputy Secretary for Information and Mass Mobilisation Tel: 00232-78-237695. |
FREETOWN
August 23, 2010.
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