What democracy and racial tolerance look like: Lessons from Africa; role for the Caribbean

I wrote recently that I would be watching developments in Kenya very keenly in 2008 (see previous post). In the Caribbean we have had a long tradition of peaceful changes of government. As mainly black peoples we have had a longer experience with voting than in many countries. We respect democratic decisions as reflected by voters, and there are very few examples of a population contesting the election results and new governments take up office with the minimum of problems. Even in Jamaica, where there is a recent history of civil violence, this has never touched on changes of government. Yesterday's elections in Barbados will, I believe, be another example of this tradition.

In sub-Saharan Africa, by contrast, tribal and ethnic disputes often play out at the ballot box. One group, whether a minority or a majority, can be in power for many year. When in power ethnic/tribal groups tend to favour each other. o when the time for change comes, those in power often do their utmost to hold on to power, knowing that if the opposition win they will tend to practice the same form of favourtism, which can have a brutal oppressive side for those who are the wrong tribe.

Kenya, after many years of being ruled by a president and government mainly of one ethnic group, the Kikuyu, was on the brink of seeing a president of another tribe, the Lou. A lot of evidence including early results suggests that the Luo candidate, Mr. Odinga, actually won. But, somehow, president Kibaki kept power, albeit by a small margin of votes. The results have been called into question by international observers. Initial protests led to a small number of deaths in the various disturbances. Now, a few weeks later, the number of deaths has risen to 600. Racial lines have been drawn clearly, and now a dreaded term is rearing its head, "ethnic cleansing" (see BBC report).

Kenya has moved rapidly from being a model of democratic change and recent economic reforms to edging towards being another African "basket case". The Justice Minister, Martha Karua, has indicated to the BBC that she suspects Mr. Odinga was "planning mayhem" if he lost and went further by saying that Mr. Odinga "calculatedly planned ethnic cleansing". These allegations have been denied.

We in the English-speaking Caribbean have little or no notion of the kind of ethnic divide that could lead to this kind of accusation. The worst that we experience are the flare ups and sometimes clear ethnic political preferences between citizens originating from Africa or the Indian subcontinent as seen in Guyana and Trinidad. We have also been able to uphold democratic traditions because almost everyone agrees to play by the rules and respect the ballots. We know that governing parties play around with constituency maps. We know that all parties find ways to create fictitious voters or other mechanisms to favour them in an election. We sometimes see a sort of "tribalism" of one party favouring its supporters heavily, as is often evident in Jamaica; some argue that the urban violence in that country is thinly disguised tribalism. But although to my mind the campaign in Barbados was really quite mild by political standards, many local felt it was amongst the most acrimonious they could recall, but no one would have expected anything but good behaviour by the mass of the population, whatever the result.

If there is something that the Caribbean can give to offer it could be the gift of how to work within a political democracy. It may seem fanciful, given our size on the world stage. But like our over achievement in certain art forms such as music, and in certain sports such as athletics and cricket, perhaps we can become over achieving ambassadors of democracy. I remember vividly stories of Margaret Thatcher being sought as national leader by several countries once she lost power in the UK. Maybe in a different way former PMs such as P.J. Patterson and Owen Arthur could develop a role in spreading the word of democracy. If former UK PM Tony Blair can become a Middle East "moderator" some of our political stalwarts can find similar posts in international affairs.