Says Actg. Gender Minister

Believes Women Know the Tricks Now

But What Good Is There For 2005 Polls?

Democracy, its proponents say, is the rule of the majority. But the question advocates of good governance in Africa have been asking is, "Which majority: the enlightened or illiterate?" And because Africa is short on the former, the continent has been haunted by bad governance and civil wars that rocked communities and decimated whole tribes and regions. In Liberia, the problem is even compounded by patronage politics, epitomized by vote buying. Exiled former president Charles Taylor used this method to his advantage in 1997 and wooed the polls only to have his hands filled by bush insurgency. Now many are saying that will never happen again. But that brings an even bigger question, "How will that help the 2005 polls in the fact of mass poverty, limited civic education, and widespread mistrust of politicians in general?" Ora Garway reports.

The Acting Minister of Gender and Development, Madam Lorpu Kandakai, has indicated that those who hope to win the October 2005 elections by using rice or other material enticement to win votes will get the shock of their lives when the moment of reckoning comes.

"Politicians are fond of using rice as enticement for votes, but the Liberian women are aware of this cheap and dangerous politicking enough and will not therefore accept anymore the rice for vote situation," Miniser Kandakai told the a rally of the International Rural Women's Day, last Friday, at the Ministry of Gender and Development when she deliberated on the topic: "Biodiversity for Food Security; Women Farmers are Ready." She said besides ensuring that no politician will be allowed to "fool the people with rice" as was the common practice in the past, the women of Liberia were prepared to participate at all levels of politics.

The Gender Minister did not say how that would affect the character of electioneering politics in the next polls given that even the women candidates in the 1997 elections did not act differently from their male counterparts, but noted that women voters would not vote on the basis of contributions of the candidates, and how much bags of rice or dollars thrown out there to win votes.

Claiming that Liberian women are aware of the rice-for-vote trick that was used by politicians in the past to woo their support, she said any candidate contemplating using rice to fool the people instead of articulating tangible reasons for seeking office will be rejected by the people.

During the 1997 general and presidential elections, most politicians, especially those who were former warlords, played on the people by promising them rice and money, especially the rural and destitute women and children of voting age, recalled one observer.

According to him, the destitute condition of the people at the time of the 1977 elections rendered them gullible and susceptible to patronage politics thereby selling their votes for bread without considering the consequences of what they were doing to their future and the future of their children.

Whether this is a lesson well learnt and would be well applied at the next polls is not known, but Minister Kandakai said, "We stand ready to distinguish the sheep from the goats by examining our candidates from head to toes, by looking at their contributions in the society." According to her, such a scrutiny would help prevent the reoccurrence of the situation whereby disgruntled individuals would circumvent the rule of law.

"Coup d'etat did not help us, not even the war which only pushes rural women farmers into refugee and IDP camps," she said without further comment.

She then called on rural women to reflect on the challenges, constraints, and contributing impact of their labor on their lives as women and custodians of the soil and the society in general.

While analysts think the observations of Minister Kandakai calls for celebration, they believe the observations will have little or no impact on the ensuing elections unless major steps were taken to improve the standards of living of the people and educate the electorates - both women and men - on the danger of trading votes for bread.

In their view, any attempt to tip the balance in favor of one sex, mainly in the name of liberation, would defeat the process of ridding the Liberian electioneering politics of tricksters and mischief makers and of strengthening the electorates to meet the challenge of making the next polls not only competitive but credible.