By: Winstanley R Bankole Johnson
Over time I have come to understand it as a natural trait for diplomats to “double speak”. That is to say like coins, there’s always two sides to their nature irrespective of the size of the country or mission they represent. The frontal or face side of diplomats is what their statements and demeanour appear to represent in the early days of their assignments. Their “flip” or other (or is it their true colours?) side invariably emerges in the weeks leading to the end of their duty tours.
Antics
One vivid example of this two-tone, diplomatic double-speak character was in a former World Bank Country Representative named Atto Mensah. In the early days of his assignment there was not a word of comfort the erstwhile APC government had wanted to hear to assuage them the country’s economy was on track that he did not utter. Occasionally he would deceive them with ubiquitous semantics that even his handlers at Bretton Woods would have difficulty understanding, such as: “Sierra Leone is on the right trajectory…..and all that was required was a small nudge in fiscal management to enable real sector yields to aggregate the necessary variables that will definitely project the economy into achieving a single digits inflation rate by the next Quarter” – Whatever that meant!! But long applauses would follow.
Such utterances punctured the occasional exquisite banquets, dinners and lunches galaxy arranged in his honour or when his principals visited and during which depending on the gullibility of the Finance Minister, Traditional Chieftaincy titles and National Insignias were recommended and lavishly bestowed on and or awarded to him, implicitly to guarantee a sustained positive profiling of our country to the international community as a choice business destination. But three weeks to the end of his duty tour, Atto Mensah became uncompromising. Those palliative narratives disappeared completely and his true colours or diplomatic “flip” side of the
“two-tone double-speak” emerged. By the time Atto Mensah handed us over to his successor a Raj Singh (?) the economy of this country urgently required life support.
We are now accustomed to those antics particularly at every change of Resident Representatives (UNICEF; UNDP; World Bank; European Union) or accredited Country Emissaries. A recent example of that “two-tone diplomatic double-speak” emerged at the auditioning of the outgoing US Ambassador Maria Brewer by Radio Democracy 98.1FM on Monday 8th February instant.
Bombshell
Ambassador Brewer had been through that path many times before, but on that day you could discern ecstasy among her hosts, more especially after her last visit there to discuss this government’s success at making the MCC Compact. Evidently Radio FM98.1 and the Ambassador are very parley. That was easily discernible from the condescending and pliant fluidity of their conversation. Since Maria’s arrival in-country (and as is usual with every diplomat) there was not a word of comfort 98.1 Staffers had wanted to hear from no less a source than the American Ambassador to boost the credentials this government to the international community particularly in areas of Human Rights and Freedoms, Access to Justice and Corruption, that she did not utter. But three weeks to the end of her duty tour and with her successor named, the other (or flip) side of the Ambassador’s two-tone diplomatic double-speak trait emerged at almost ten minutes to the end of the 8th February auditioning, when she let out four bombshells, each impactful to have left every pro-government agents dumbfounded and much chagrined:
- She publicly acknowledged strides of the erstwhile Ernest Bai Koroma administration for laying the foundation for first clinching the US$44million MCC threshold, and without which this Bio SLPP administration would never have become Full Compact eligible within the first two years of their incumbency. Up to Monday 8th February, such an acknowledgement, even though complimentary to governance continuity and stability was taboo. In fact listening to the MCC Madam N’Daye one day on the same radio frequency recently she squarely blamed our country’s inability to have scored above the 13% of the overall 20% aggregate for all the indicators on APC legacy issues. So thank you very much Ambassador Brewer for revealing that!!
- She informed (nay cautioned) her hosts (not most of us who already knew that) that winning the Compact does not translate to an automatic access of the bulk amount at a single drawdown, nor is it (citing neighbouring Ghana) even a guarantee to access the full amount without a country meeting all the benchmarks. In that regard if it took Sierra Leone nearly three (3) years to access the full US$44Million threshold, I will leave it with readers to contemplate how many years it will take us to access the full US$400Million Compact Grants after the first tranche drawdown date.
All seasoned corporate executives should know that the only reason why drawdown of a Compact value to any African country is effected in tranches and against “conditionalities” is to instill higher levels of fiscal and governance disciplines in them – particularly in areas of Good Governance, Investing in Peoples, Economic and Judicial freedoms and Control of Corruption so that they can ultimately shake off their perennial dependency syndrome and begin to look seriously inwardly for value-adding economic integration initiatives that they can use to be addressing their social needs using own resources.
- The Ambassador’s third bombshell was on the rather hysterical and seemingly biased approach of the ACC’s Control of Corruption fight, and her terse comments on the matter reproduced as under speaks volumes:
Quote: “We certainly encourage them (SLPP) to do more in the Anti-Corruption. We can only really judge the Anti-Corruption measures when they turn the focus inwards and not just at the previous administration…….You (meaning ACC) really have to consider: are you truly committed or is it just a way to punish the old guys?” – Unquote
Even as I struggle to rest my case, the implications of the Ambassador’s above comments are succinct: that the fight against graft by the ACC is looking progressively skewed against former office bearers of the erstwhile APC/Ernest Bai Koroma administration. What they had overlooked as mistakes by the ACC in their first year of SLPP in office could not be further tolerated by the US Government and that the ACC had better begin to pull up their boot straps to avoid their actions and utterances under a committed “New Direction” being misconstrued as that of shadow Defense Counsels for corrupt SLPP “Top Brass”.
Competition
Incidentally in the matter of investigations into allegations of corruption in the Office of the present First Lady, citizens are not averse to the ACC making them retroactive to even earlier than 2006. For starters ACC focus is (manipulatively) on the entity and not on the personalities, so criminal indictments are unlikely. The public endorses the ACC Commissioner’s convictions that such steps are necessary to ascertain and correct systemic administrative and financial weaknesses in that office. Further public concerns however are:
- Why this same SLPP government that declined incessant opposition calls for the ToR of the Commissions Of Inquiries (COIs) to have also been made retroactive to the Tejan kabbah era, would suddenly seem to now place so much reliance on historical antecedents when it comes to auditing the offices of Madam Fatima Bio.
- By the clearly ethno-centric policies propagated by this government in the last three years the commitment of the ACC to fight graft through independent and transparent lenses is challenged as it is looking like the Commissioner would go any distance to skew procedures to burnish SLPP image just to discredit APC legacies.
- Contrary to his assertions over the BBC recently, the ACC Commissioner is not sounding as if he is his own man because the more he elaborates on corruption in the First Lady’s Office the greater his PR disaster. I am worried about his reputation after this case.
Nevertheless, the ACC having thus set the precedent to be investigating retroactively even without “prima-facie” allegation evidences, the public is ever watchful of them that if and when more egregious levels of corruption within the Office of the Chief Minister as mooted by the Africanist Press are exposed next week, the ACC would do due diligence to also make those investigations retroactive to the very first Chief Minister of this country in 1957. In the meantime I think the ACC Commissioner should be reminded as a public our interest is in them correcting wrongs so as to make corruption unattractive in all spheres of government – irrespective of which political party get the worst labels of indictments – and not in their attempting to transform corruption allegations in the office of the current First Lady or State kleptocracy into a competition between APC and SLPP. Our greatest desire is that the “Augean Stable” (as exacerbated in under three years of SLPP this government) must be cleansed.
A fourth bombshell released by the America Ambassador relates to Sierra Leoneans in the US awaiting deportation to their home country. Yes – their “Home Country”!! But I will defer that for another piece.
If I have any gripe with outgoing Ambassadors Brewer it is about why she deferred speaking truth to power until towards the end of her assignment. Would Maria Brewer – on whom I understand President Bio bestowed our highest National Award – have helped nurtured good democratic practice, peace and national cohesion among us if she had cautioned, nay guided this present political leadership much-much earlier against blatantly inflammatory, incendiary and hate speeches and physical and psychological high-handedness against opposition party members? Would she have gained more laurels and public acclaim if she had helped this administration resolved all outstanding issues and recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliations Commission Reports, instead of allowing them to attempt to re-invent the wheel via a Commission for Peace and National Cohesion that can hardly see the light of day because the key opposition players with whom “Peace and Cohesion” is necessary are the very ones persistently being harangued by this government?
A valuable lesson I learned from Ambassador Maria Brewer was on the structure of the global representation of US Diplomatic staff: 70% Core Professional Diplomats as against 30% Political Appointees by the man of the moment. Well, Man live by Man as we say. That arrangement engenders both the development of professional diplomatic workforce as well as guaranteeing stability in a Foreign Service. Contrast that with our own country where our diplomats develop running stomachs at every electoral cycle because a total overhaul of their entire cadre is a “sine-qua non”.
How I wish our governments can begin to borrow a few leaves from the structure and composition of the United States Government Diplomatic Staffers.