Opinion,
By Dak Buoth,
Nairobi, Kenya.
January 11th, 2019(Nyamilepedia) — In the 2016 US Presidential elections between the first female presidential candidate, Madam Hillary Clinton and the incumbent President, Donald Trump, so many people in and outside the United States were expecting Hillary Clinton to win at the time.
For instance, prior to the poll, renowned and revered Cornel University Literature lecturer, and 1986 Nobel Prize winner, Professor Wole Soyinka went as far as saying if Donald Trump wins the presidential elections he would throw away his US residency green card and leave the country, which he did. He soon left for South Africa immediately after the Donald Trump was declared winner. Soyinka had no plan to return as long as Donald Trump is the President of that country.
As often said, ‘‘in elections, perception is everything’’. At the time many people thought Hillary would become the winner for the following reasons, one, several media houses and commentators had predicted Hillary’s win. Secondly, the immediate former US President supported and campaigned for her, and thirdly, because she was former US first lady and then outgoing secretary of states supported by two Presidents, Bill and Barrack. And therefore because of these and other reasons, Madam Clinton and supporters were very confidence that she will thrash her rival, Donald Trump.
From the above mentioned nothing work well for Hillary at the time. Her loss to Donald Trump can be attributed to these and other factors too. At time Media like social critics and commentators never claimed to be right on anything they said or reported.
When I look back, it seems Hillary and company forgot that the ‘Democrat’ was left as a divided house compare to the Republican Party house that was intact.
I learned that, unlike the Republican Party, the democrat was a party majority of who are the Americans from the other parts of the world such as Africa, Asia, South America and Europe. And believe it or not, the bad deeds done by Obama around the world during his tenure had made many democrats’ supporters voted against Hillary Clinton.
In other words, many Americans who were disappointed by Obama administration transferred their ire on Hillary. Numbers of people are of the opinion that President Obama left Northern part of Africa if not Africa in general on the flame and fire. And as at now, the rest of the world is in serious turmoil too partly because of his political blunders. This is not to say that he has not left good legacy, no. In my country, South Sudan for example, we applauded him for the roles he played in making sure our country became independence on 9th July, 2011. In fact Hillary had suffered from the disease incumbency. One’s close proximity with someone in power is never short of shortcomings, and this is what some candidates and politicians don’t analyze objectively with a view to sit or stand at the right side of history. More often than seldom, those who are endorsed by the outgoing Presidents to cover their ills failed to consider an endorsement as factor for defeat.
Sometime, the endorsement of an individual by the incumbent is more like a curse other than a blessing for one reason or another. The current President of Kenya, his Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta was a living victim of an incumbent’s endorsement. You would recall in 2002, he was publicly endorsed by then outgoing President, Daniel Moi when the latter steps down same year. And after his endorsement Uhuru faced humiliating defeat from then President, Mwai Kibaki. He had to change his tactics and abandoned Kanu. He retracted and started coming from behind like ordinary Kenyans for him to resurrect and thrive in 2013. Had he not formed his own Political parties, TNA and Jubilee in 2013 and 2017, he would have found it impossible to ascend to Presidency through endorsement of President Moi.
Another example of the victim of endorsement was Dr, Grace Mugabe who was toppled before the sunset in Harare, Zimbabwe. In early 2017, Dr Grace tried to misuse President Mugabe’s influence to purge other senior members of the ZANUPF so as for he to penetrate on the seat of presidency. Therefore in the case of Hillary it would have been good if President Obama had not come out clearly to support her in the said election. If Hillary had won that election, it could have appeared that it was Obama himself that won again for third term in office.
I have realized in most societies, both developed and developing countries, people like to associates with the underdogs. Nonetheless, if you come to the political race pretending to be a giant like goliath, the victims will team up against you, and they will knock and bring down before afternoon hours approaches.
By then many political spectators were undermining the strength of Donald trump who was viewed as mere business mogul but a political greenhorn, irrespective of his bold political slogans dubbed, ‘America first’ and making America great again’’. But in the end, people including my close Friends in the US were surprised and they did not believe what became the outcome, and they just have to learn to live with the Trump who trumped.
Personally, I believe Donald Trump had trumped fairly, and you will concur. If at all Trump didn’t won fairly as claimed in some quarters, I am sure the trio, Hillary, Bill, Barrack and the likes won’t tolerate election fraud and or irregularities. They could have run and rush to court to challenge the results owing to the fact that America unlike other countries has a reputation of being the father and mother of democracy where rule of law prevails. More importantly, elections like other games and gambling are characterized by surprises. No one have monopoly over elections outcomes. In any case, real proponents of democracy normally expect the best and prepared for the worse in any election that they participated in. And nobody except tyrants can go to the election exercise knowing he will win by rigging and so on and so forth.
This now bring me to the just concluded historical elections in the Democratic Republic Congo, (DRC) formerly known as Zaire. History has been made for the first time since 1960 when Zaire became independence from Belgium. Probably, by 18th January 2019, the Congolese populace will witnessed the peaceful transfer of power in the country that Patrick Lumuma fought for. In this poll, main opposition Leader, Mr Martin Fayulu lost by surprise to the President-elect, 55 years old Mr. Felix Tshisekedi alias Fatshi. Of course every candidate in an election must be surprise by the election results because there is no magic to know what transpire in the election period. The Online Aljazera news had indicated the latter garnered 38.57 percent of the vote, while Martin Fayulu scored 34.8 percent. Mr Fatshi is 25 years old in the politics, and he is the leader of the Union for democracy and social progress, (UDPS) founded by his late father, Etiene in 1982. Felix Tshisekedi thoroughly campaigned on the platform to fight and reduce poverty and corruption in the country.
What elicited this great surprise from Martin Fayulu and others was the earlier media reports that he was going to win against Emmanuel Shadary, Kabila’s preferred successor.
A week before the date of the aforementioned elections, both local and international news media were running and singing Martin Fayulu’s name, saying he was the only candidate with muscles to defeat outgoing President joseph Kabila’s handpicked candidate, who is none other than former interior minister, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary.
However, unsurprisingly Shadary became distance third in these elections. Of course, the defeat of Emmanuel Shadary was very close to obvious because he was blessed by the benevolent dictator, Joseph Kabila who had been running the country to the path of ruination since 2001.
Though his name, Emmanuel mean God with us, yes, indeed God was not with him and Joseph Kabila alone. This time God was with the Congolese people who yearned for peace and development. As I said above many thought and expected Mr Martin Fayulu to emerge the winner based on the media reports saying he was going to win. But, they now got surprised to hear that Fatshi became the ultimate winner. The Congolese had a trust for Fatshi as man with thick skin. The trust and confidence that Congolese had on his late father was transferred to him. I also got convinced when I read that ‘‘Tshisekedi was first elected to parliament in 2001 as representative for Mbuji-Mayi, the country’s third largest city. But Tshisekedi never accepted his seat as he did not recognized his father’s election defeat to President Joseph Kabila, who ruled the DRC since 2001’’. Soon after the results were announced, Mr Martin Fayulu held conference In Kinshasa, to dispute and denounce the results, terming it an electoral coup. He vowed to challenge the outcome in the Supreme Court. And because of this hurdle, the swearing-in of the president-elect might not take place on 18th January, 2019 as early announced pending the determination of the possible appeal case in the Supreme Court. Nonetheless, there is no reason to worry anymore for the matter is left in the safe hands of the Congolese oppositions to battle it out in court of law.
And as we all wait for the court to make its final determination on the same, the Congolese should exhibit extra calm and patience, while putting in mine that democracy is not an event but a process.
Finally, I would like to take this early opportunity to congratulate the Catholic Church in DR Congo for without it this historical democratic victory would have not been possible.
The Catholic Church alone had send out 40, 000 observers to monitor this elections. Fore sure I had never heard this anywhere else. It is huge task worth praising every now and then.
As matter of fact, the great job done by the Catholic Church in DRC has made all catholic faithful proud. They have done and showed very good example to other churches that are sleeping on duty. They really deserve to be praise and call the children of God.
I felt very happy the day I learned that the Catholic Church in DR Congo has three major roles which they guard very jealousy: one, to preach the word of God, which is one other than the Bible. Secondly, to managed and governed the church in a good manner, and thirdly, to tell the truth and stand ready to die in defense of nothing but the truth as well as the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms of the worshipers and Congolese people at large.
Now the truth has set them and the Congolese people free, congratulation to all Congolese patriots who made this victory a success.
The Writer is the chairman of Unity State community in Kenya; the views expressed here are his own: and he can be reached for comments via eligodakb@yahoo.com
