Ambassador's Speeches

Civic Responsibility and Elections

December 14, 2006

SPEECH TO THE ROTARY CLUB ON
CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY AND ELECTIONS
BY
AMBASSADOR THOMAS N. HULL
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE

Ladies and Gentlemen:

I have been looking forward to speaking to you about values that we share.  I am familiar with the principles that Rotary represents, having been made an honorary Rotarian three years ago when I was given the Paul Harris Fellow Award by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International for my “furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world.”   Paul Harris, as you know, was an American who founded Rotary more than a century ago to promote civic responsibility and international understanding.  I speak to you today in that same spirit.

As an American Ambassador, I am responsible for advancing President Bush’s foreign policy of “transformational diplomacy.”  To use the words of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, this concept “is rooted in partnership, not paternalism – in doing things with other people, not for them.  We seek to use America’s power to help foreign citizens to better their own lives, and to build their own nations, and to transform their own futures.”
This policy is especially applicable to post-conflict countries like Sierra Leone where the enormity of rebuilding after a devastating war can be overwhelming.  As we look back at the five years since the end of the war, we can see both progress and lost opportunities, and as we look around us, we can see critical needs remaining, beginning with the extreme poverty that undermines greater progress.  If Sierra Leone is to prosper, if ordinary citizens are to have a decent standard of living, if the country is to have self-respect, then its people must become more self-reliant.

Transformational diplomacy reflects a fundamental American belief in helping people to help themselves.  We believe in giving a helping hand, not hand-outs.  We want to help our partners build and sustain democratic, well-governed states that will respond to the needs of their people.  We have established programs, for example, to promote free trade under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and provide capital for economic take off under the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to help countries help themselves to develop.

Sierra Leone is a country where we seek this type of partnership.  We would like Sierra Leone to become less donor-dependent and more independent.  While recognizing the important role that government must play in transformation, we believe that leaders in the private sector, businesspersons and professionals like yourselves, can play an equally important role not only by driving the economy, but also by setting an example for the country to emulate.  The worldwide motto of Rotary, “Service Above Self,” is particularly applicable to the needs of Sierra Leone.

Rotary and other voluntary service organizations are ideal vehicles for improving the condition of your country.  Every Rotarian, for example, is expected to foster high ethical standards, to recognize the dignity of useful labor, and to apply the ideal of service in your personal, business, and community life.  If more Sierra Leoneans would subscribe to your values, the country would be further along the road to recovery.

When I referred to lost opportunities a few minutes ago, one area where more progress could have been made is in the fight against corruption.  If Rotarians and other businessmen and women would insist on government respecting the high ethical standards that you subscribe to, I strongly believe that more progress might be made on this issue.  Civil society has to be the antidote to government malfeasance, and voluntary service organizations like Rotary should be just as important in the fabric of civil society as those specialized NGO’s that advocate human rights, transparency and accountability, and equal opportunity.

A specific community contribution that Rotary could make along with other civil society organizations would be non-partisan support for the 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections.  Each of you undoubtedly has a personal political opinion with respect to those elections, but as citizens and Rotarians, your first priority should be to ensure that the elections will be free and fair.  As I said elsewhere recently, elections are but one element of democracy, but without them a country cannot be democratic.

I am impressed with the progress of the election preparations to date.  The National Electoral Commission is to be congratulated for their hard-won achievements thus far, and Parliament should be applauded for their courageous support for constituency-based electoral reform despite the loss of seats for some parliamentarians.  However, election day is fast approaching, and there is no time for Sierra Leone to rest on its laurels if the elections are to be credible.

The United States is helping.  Last week I announced USAID and National Endowment for Democracy initiatives through our National Democratic Institute and local NGO’s for civic education in preparation for voter registration and the elections.  I expect to announce soon additional commitments to expand that civic education and to support Sierra Leonean election observers ahead of the elections and on election day.  Nevertheless, the path to free and fair elections is fraught with pitfalls, not least of which will be inevitable attempts by political parties to manipulate the process.  Sierra Leone needs to break with the politics of the past.  The political parties recently signed a code of conduct, and we look to the new Political Parties Registration Commission to enforce it.  The American Embassy through USAID plans to provide capacity building assistance to enable the PPRC to better execute its responsibilities during the electoral campaign.  We also plan to assist Sierra Leone’s mass media to have countrywide balanced and objective coverage of the election.

In this highly charged political environment, what can Rotarians do to help ensure that these elections will continue Sierra Leone’s transformation and not be a destabilizing setback?  First of all you can exercise leadership by adding your voices to the public demand for a level playing field for all political parties.  Secondly you can volunteer, for example by helping the National Election Watch to observe the elections for any sign of election fraud.  While being politically neutral, Rotarians can volunteer in the spirit of community service to support the high ethical standards that you stand for.

I do have one concern about the upcoming election, and that is the proposed referendum on constitutional reform.  Amending the constitution is certainly the prerogative of Sierra Leoneans, but would it not be prudent to have a more deliberative process later that would not complicate and distract from the significant challenges of preparing for the presidential and parliamentary elections?  Rushing the constitutional reform might give the impression of railroading changes despite government’s effort to have inclusive civil society participation.  Might it not be better to hold a referendum on changes to the constitution during the local elections in 2008 when the electorate will have had more time to consider the proposals?

When I think of civic organizations like Rotary, I think first and foremost of volunteerism.  Most cultures around the world recognize a communal responsibility to their own ethnic kin, but few incorporate the concept of a broader civic responsibility through volunteerism to help strangers in the interest of transforming their countries and improving the world.  I applaud you for having embraced the importance of service to humankind through Rotary’s “Four Avenues of Service,” most especially those of community service and international service, and this makes me optimistic that Sierra Leone will indeed be a dependable partner that takes advantage of the assistance that America offers through our transformational diplomacy.

Thank you again for inviting me to be with you today, and for, at times, belaboring the obvious.  I have done so because of the importance that I place on the contributions made through private initiative that do not depend on governments and that are too often overlooked by domestic leaders and the international community in addressing the obstacles to raising the quality of life as countries transform.  In other countries I have seen strong, active linkages with Rotary Clubs in the United States that have produced the type of assistance that can make more people more self-reliant.  In closing, I urge you to identify and develop those types of possibilities to strengthen international understanding and to further the future of Sierra Leone.