Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper has said that the concept of democracy will have to be given a second thought.
He said many citizens within the sub-region could be in support of military takeover citing similar civilian and military unrest going on in certain parts of the continent.
The veteran journalist questioned the need therefore for regional groups and authorities to call for the restoration of democracy in Guinea if the concept is not clearly defined.
Mr. Kwesi Pratt was speaking in connection with regional forces deliberating the military leadership in Guinea that overthrew former President Alpha Conde.
Regional bodies are convening to help restore democratic governance in the French-speaking country.
Reacting to the initiative, Mr. Pratt said with all the noise-making, a lot of citizens are happy with the present turn of events.
“In any case, if you look into all of these countries whose leaders are pressuring the new leadership to hand over, many of their citizens are in support of the coup d’etat,” he told Dr. Randy Abbey, host of Good Morning Ghana on Metro Television.
He said research can confirm coup-makers may have more followers than constitutionally elected governments asking if there is any need for punishments, therefore.
“I am sure that if we are to take a survey of West Africa, we might find out the coup leaders will have more support than some of the sitting heads of state in West Africa and yet they are there threatening sanctions and so on,” he said.
Mr. Kwesi Pratt noted that the regional bodies that are asking for sanctions in Guinea must not pretend not to have seen similar happenings in some parts of Africa that demand actions to be taken.
Meanwhile, Kwesi Pratt said “look at the characters of these leaders. Alpha Conde was not the first leader in West Africa to amend the constitution to give himself a third term. They are doing it all over the place. Look at the conditions in Cote d’ Ivoire. How different are the conditions in Cote d’ Ivoire different from the conditions in Guinea?”
Mr. Kwesi Pratt indicated for all the arguments being made, democracy is about what the people want and that must be the center focus.
“All our fixations with democracy, multi-party democracy, and so on, what is the underlying principle? The underlying principle is that the will of the people must prevail,” he noted
Mr. Pratt said trying to make sense of what the people desire even though it may not have met the political standards but upon the evidence of what is seen and heard, the people of Guinea are elated about the overthrow of the Guinean leader.
“What is the will of the people in Guinea Today? Of course, there has not been any empirical process to establish clear, the will of the people but if we have taken all the manifestations we are hearing, statements that are being issued by civil society organizations, by political parties, and by various activists groups, it is clear that the coup has some measure of support,” he said.
The Insight Newspaper boss asked therefore what the sanctioning bodies meant by ‘will of the people’ if citizens of Guinea are happy about the removal of their former President. That, in itself, becomes democratic, he implied.
“If it’s the will of the people which has to prevail, on what basis has ECOWAS or AU or even the UN come to the determination that the coup is not the will of the people and that the military has to give way for Alpha Conde?” he quizzed.
By: Ernest Tetteh Kabu | Metrotvonlone.com | Ghana
