By Hoccas Siwel
It was during one of ousted incumbent U.S. president Donald Trump’s irrational and frantic efforts and calls to usurp the people’s voice that voted him out of the White House, when he called on U.S. National Guards/soldiers stationed at the U.S. Capitol to prevent further invasions of that august space by right wing extremist groups that, a window into how Americans view and respond to the presidency and the occupier of the White House, the president, was opened to the rest of the world, including Sierra Leone.
Asked if he would obey the president to in effect stand against the election result by siding with him and keeping him propped up in the Oval Office, a soldier said he was there to protect the Constitution of the U.S. against foreign and domestic terrorists, which sadly included the president, as he was so presenting himself.
In a nutshell, the soldier was saying that his allegiance is to the country, the constitution, and the institution of the presidency, and not necessarily a transient president.
Meanwhile, in Sierra Leone, where we have a long and sustained culture of incoming presidents replacing the top and other critical brasses of the military, police, the judiciary, and other security, law, and civil servants with their own appointments, the aforementioned groups, time and time again, act in allegiance to the man that appointed them, the president, against the people they all swear to serve and protect.
What obtains here is that because the top brass of the military, police, courts and civil service are appointed by presidents, they use them to further their agendas that go against accepted norms. Working in the interest of the president and not the people whose taxes pay their wages, they oppress and intimidate the populace at the behest of, and to protect a leader who has the country’s arsenal at his disposal.
Soldiers and police officers are used to prevent the people from protest actions aimed at highlighting our leaders’ excesses, assault tax payers, intimidate and extort us, with the courts used to jail people using lengthy pre-trial detention as a tool of oppression.
During the civil war rebel factions made it a concerted effort to capture and kill soldiers and police officers for their acts of brutality against the people in the execution of their duties aimed at propping-up the government. In Sierra Leone the people already view the police force as the most corrupt public institution, followed by Parliament, the Office of the President, and the judiciary. Today, there is an obvious strain in the relationship between the people and these very critical state actors meant to maintain and uphold the law.
The people are afraid of them, which is a very unnatural relationship between groups of people that need each other – they need us to help them further the aims of law, order, and justice; we need them to protect us against any and all threats to our safety, security, and the pursuit of happiness, including our presidents.
Today, people are still afraid of the police, soldier, other civil servants, and especially the court, that either jail them or have them in prolonged detention that renders them as political prisoners. Police and state brutality continue unabated, and are very much trending. Officers must ensure that a culture of peace, safety and security prevails across the country, while courts must ensure justice in all its fairness.
What these officers fail to realise is that presidents come and go, and that we, the power behind the presidency, remain. Who would they turn to when the president is out of office? The continued violence against police and other security actors, including against each other, as reported in the media, points to this obvious vacuum in trust that has resulted from their actions against the public. With respect for police and other officers of the law including the courts and soldiers at an all-time low, conventional wisdom would necessitate changes to your relations with the people, which must start with you.
Public officials must amend their ways for the people to start seeing them as defenders of the constitution and other laws of the state, not defenders of leaders who use them as buffers between them and the population they swear to serve. You are being used to hold us back while they loot the state, of which you don’t benefit. You should know that you are also victims, as you and your families are denied of critical services and benefits that our public officials fail to deliver, using you to prevent us from democratic actions against them. We are not your enemies, but fellow victims.
We are using this space to call on elected and appointed public officials to show obligation to the state and constitution, as any action against the people on behalf of government, is action against self. When the new regime comes in, you will be on the receiving end.
You are there to keep the peace and security of the state, for all, not a select group. You are umpires between the powers that be and us, the power behind them, as they navigate the development high seas.
We need to be assured of an end to preventing us from exercising our constitutional rights to free assembly and peaceful protest highlighting government excesses without being required to get a permit from you thereby defeating the purpose; an end to the assaults, false accusations and jailing, and insults against tax payers who pay you; soldiers must stop intimidating, extorting, and assaulting us; the courts must render fair justice without resorting to locking us up by perverting the aims of justice against us, your fellow citizens.
Your obligation should be whatever seeks the best interest of the people, not the parties or presidents who appointed you to check their powers. You must start seeing violence against any of us as a crime against us all, including yourselves.