Commentary (by X N Iraki) - Progress is about even improvement

Ref: http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143982997&cid=190

Published on March 9, 2008, 12:00 am

By XN Iraki

In a speech that brought furore, former US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld referred to Europe as the old Europe.

It is not clear what his basis for age was. However any independent traveller in Europe will notice differences between US and Europe. It goes beyond architecture, which is alluring and at times breathtaking. An example, the Sacred Family Church in Barcelona Spain has been under construction since 1886. US to a large extent largely tried to improve on European systems. May be such improvements make Europe appear ‘old’. Can we also improve on our borrowed systems?

In the political arena, Americans even did away with royal families, which are surprisingly common in Europe. There is Queen in UK and Netherlands and a King in Spain. After independence they went a step further and improved on the Parliament system. They came up with a presidential system that has stood the test of time. One of the uniqueness of the American political system was the separation of Parliament (Congress) from the presidency (Executive).

American Cabinet members are not MPs. This gives the president a chance to pick the best brains to run the highest decision making body in the country. Currently, our President has only 222 heads to pick his Cabinet from instead of 34 million.

Some have suggested that evidence to show that the US presidential system is better than the parliamentary system, which is common in Europe, is South Africa. They chose the presidential system. We seem to be inclined towards the parliamentary system, perhaps a testimony to British and European influence. Under the parliamentary system, the King or Queen is the Head of State and Prime Minister or Chancellor head of government.

A close scrutiny shows that our system is a hybrid between parliamentary and presidential. When we get into comprehensive Constitution review, we need to purify the system, making it either parliamentary or presidential.

We could even go further and improve on the presidential system beyond America’s system. For example, any time we get political chaos, the provincial administrations calls on elders to arbitrate and bring peace. Could we make elders constitutionally part of our political system? US improved further on the centralised UK system by coming up with states or devolved governments. There is a consensus that we need some devolution in Kenya. County councils do too little, have little money and rarely attract talents. Yet it is at the grassroots, where improvements are needed— from the health system to the farming system. The beauty of decentralised system is that we shall get local "nurseries" to grow the next generation of national leaders. In the US, some of the best presidents have been state governors. This decentralised system disperses both negative and positive energy to all parts of the country. Currently, only national level politics matter, except when Nairobi councillors square it physically. Another major improvement that Americans made was in elections. This is a unique system worthy emulating. A third of American senators are elected every two years for a six-year term. The House of Representatives or MPs have a two-year term. The implication is that there is never a time when the US senate or congress has completely new faces. Such continuity would be a great political asset. Finally, American system has two major political parties that compete on the quality of ideas. The parties are funded by citizens who "own the parties" . Inadvertently, our political accord, denied us such competition; yet monopolies create social fossilisation. The accord should be the first step in improving our political systems. After all, progress is about continuous improvements, not just in politics, but also of our own self. Why else are parallel programmes so popular on our campuses?

-The writer (: xniraki@aol.com) is a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, School of Business