Report on the Public Debate about Democracy in line with International Day of Democracy in DRC
Report on our first public dialogue on the state of Democracy as a tool for Peace and Development in the North- Kivu the Democratic Republic of Congo
Our Project the Citizen’s Coalition for Electoral Democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo held its first Public Dialogue today in commemorating the International Day of Democracy during a public dialogue in Goma.
Background information
We realized that democracy is at risk in DRC and that has opened rooms for all forms of violence and conflicts at community, provincial and national level. Violence has been the only form of expression and imposing one self, access to power and exercising power has been based on corruption and intimidations at all levels, and the freedom of thought and expression is missing in various forums. As the result people have opted for the use of force and this has marginalized so many especially the week, demonstrations and other forms of popular expression have been also violent and in different cases reason and logic have ceased to exist.
The First Public Debate on Democracy
The activity took place in COJESKI Meeting Room and brought together various people from the communities in Goma on Wednesday September 18th, 2024. We were the only ones in the whole country who organized this activity in commemorating the international day of democracy which made us so perplexed about the situation in this country.
The objective: This activity focused only on one thing which is vivifying discussions among people about democracy and how best we can promote it as a value to solve different problems,
Observation: Democracy engagement is dying in this country and has left a place to violence and wars including other negative practices, for the last 30 years we are at war up to now because people want power and we have not yet put measures in place to propose a new way to manage the country as well as community affairs. This project seeks to propose democratic approach as only ways to access and exercise power and for us democracy is also the supremacy of reason and logic among others principles.
Before the debate
A meeting was conducted internally by the project which observed the gap, then ideas were put together in order to start a discussion on this topic, and the International Day for Democracy came to spark the series of activities which we intend to embark on in various communities. A flyer was then made and it was the only strategy used to mobilize the public, it was shared in various social media, which provoked debates in WhatsApp Groups and that was the first objective we intended to achieve. Then we also had an interview with Bora FM Radio in which Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos was the special guest for 10 minutes and clearly explained interesting things about democracy.
During the debate
The debate started at 9:50 am with the Panelists who came on time mainly: Ivan Simwerayi from the Ruling Coalition in power, Germain Mirhonyi from the New Dynamics of the Civil Society, and Espoir Ngalukiye from Assemble pour la Republic the opposition Party. The event was chaired by Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos, the Coordinator of COJESKI North Kivu.
As usual, we observed the low turn up of women and girls, but also the participants did not respect the time which is a general habit of people here. Questions are still being asked how best we should involve women in social events and help them to take part only three (3) women participated. Among other challenges also there was expectations from the participants to get transport and cocktail which were not provided, and above all participants raised issues of the time and suggest that such activities should be conducted in evenings and more importantly as information session in various places.
Part one of the debate:
This part focused on what is Democracy, how is it lived here in the province and what should we do to promote it in case we need it. Each Panelist had 15 minutes to give his presentation about the situation.
The Moderator of the Session Mr. Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos, started with a history point of view about democracy, efforts made by other nations to make it work, how it started in DRC and the current state of the situation. In DRC democracy started by political parties as only a means to access to power but not as a means to have peace, and up to now democracy has suffered that reality, people hear about it when there are elections.
The panelists then came in starting from German, Espoir and then Yvan.
It was observed that the word Democracy did not exist in our cultures and history in DRC however there were so many traditional and cultural practices by people which had resemblance with democratic principles, therefore democracy should not be perceived as white man practice imposed to Africans and to Congolese as some participants argued. On the question of keeping a positive dictatorship, it was also agreed that the issue is not about the word democracy but the issue is the content and once we look into the content especially the use of power then there is no need even to talk about dictatorship and it was observed that over the years democracy was wrongly introduced to people and there is need to help people to clearly understand well what democracy means and that requires the depolarization of democracy.
For many people in DRC democracy is only during one month of electoral campaigns, and when there is debate on controversial issues like homosexuality, at the community levels there is nothing remaining to base on, even groups, the civil society, the religious institutions, the private sector among other, do not even have elections as the basis of power and accessing to power, in political parties the office bearers are appointed rather than being elected. While the current regime in DRC has made progress about democracy we still lack community ownership and popularization of what democracy is to everyone.
The first session ended by the note that we must work hard in order to create opportunities where people may be capacitated about democracy and this is the work of the Civil Society, Political Parties and the Government.
Second part was about questions
A total number of 13 questions were asked to the three panelists and focused on the responsibility to promote democracy, the lessons we can learn from others countries, and how to overcome the current challenges especially in the situation of DRC. The participants observed a population which ignorant, and group of people that holds power, and yet people do not know how best they can work in order to change the situation. More discussions focused on the whole electoral process in DRC, and on the members of the Parliament, the President and the leaders of opposition who are in total slumber currently instead of empowering the people.
The third part focused on answers
These answers discouraged the number of political parties and encouraged reforms within the parties through democratic principles based on reasons and logics, freedom of thought and freedom of speech at all levels which are highly compromised, it is not about the many civil society groups, political parties, religions and, associations, it is about the values which people stand for and how best people advocate for these values internally. Issues about the challenge of the constitution and the commercialization of politics in order to buy the conscience of people, tribalism and unfair competition were among issues people have to work upon, and more importantly people have claim back their power from bottom to up.
The fourth part was on concluding remarks
For the Panelists democracy is one among the tools we can use in order to advance development and peace in our country especially when people are fully knowledge about their rights, duties and responsibilities to make it work, efforts should be made to amplify more the debate among people with immediate effects to reduce the commercialization of politics, to encourage the civil society to get involved in sharing knowledge with people at the community levels and to promote a class of people that can seek accountability.
The Panelists committed to remain available for other opportunities once called upon and to get also involved in democratic activities at each levels especially within their parties which up to now are not a foundation of democracy.
Lesson lent
We observed that there is a high level of ignorance among people about ignorance and therefore the priority should focus on empowering stakeholders such as Political Parties, the Civil Society, Private Sector, and local leaders in their diversity,
We observed that it was also important to change the timing for such debates and organize them generally in the afternoon,
We also observed that today’s debate was highly intellectual and should also focus on common person,
We also observed the involvement of the media especially social through provocative posts in social media, much as it is also necessary to engage with traditional media,
We observed the need to have funding in order to make the discussions more attractive and well planned,
We also observed that Information Session may be the best strategy to use in order to empower communities,
The Public Debate ended at 12h30
