Mobutu's Totalitarian Political System
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Mobutu's Totalitarian Political System

An Afrocentric Analysis

Jean-Louis Peta Ikambana

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Mobutu's Totalitarian Political System

An Afrocentric Analysis

Jean-Louis Peta Ikambana

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About This Book

Mobutu's political system, inaugurated in 1965 and lasting more than three decades, met all the characteristics of totalitarianism. This study shows that the failures and misdeeds of Mobutu's system were clear evidence that it lacked an African-centred vision and did not put the interests of the African people of Congo (formerly Zaire) at the centre of this political project.

In this study Mobutu's political actions in the 1990s - mostly as they related to the National Sovereign Conference - are critically analyzed and found to be a deliberate attempt to obstruct the momentum of democracy for the African people of Congo. From an Afro centric standpoint, this obstruction is evidence of Mobutu's attempt to impede the search for harmony and peace by the Zairian people, and to reject the African-centred truth that without Ma'at (harmony) there is no understanding and no possible restoration of balance.

Mobutu's Totalitarian Political System will be of interest to students and scholars of ethnic studies, political science and international relations.

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Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2006
ISBN
9781135861506
Edition
1

Chapter One
Introduction

The Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire, is the third largest country of the African continent. Initiated by the Berlin Conference of 1885, its borders were established arbitrarily during the period 1885 to 1894. The history of the country dates from the 6th century a.d., when in approximately 500 a.d. Woot, the Nyani, established the Kingdom of Kuba. A succession of Western European incursions followed until the late 19th century, when Belgium’s King Leopold II established the area as a personal fiefdom. Finally, almost a century later, on June 30, 1960, the Congo achieved independence from Belgium.
Immediately after becoming independent, the country was plunged into five years of civil war. On November 24, 1965, Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu WazaBanga led a military coup that overthrew the Congo’s first elected government. He put in place an authoritarian presidential regime that was overwhelmingly supported by Western countries, including Belgium, the United States, and France, for strategic and economic reasons. Between 1970 and 1980 Mobutu ruled the country as a dictator, strongly supported by an ideological machine orchestrated by the one- party state. In the early 1970s the country experienced a brief period of economic stability, thanks to its countless mineral resources, including diamonds, uranium, gold, and copper.
President Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu WazaBanga ruled the Republic of Zaire from November, 1965 until May 17, 1997. He was overthrown May 17, 1997, by a long-time political opponent, Laurent Desire Kabila, who immediately declared himself president. Political scientists who have studied political systems have classified Mobutu’s system as a dictatorship. Following thirty-two years with Mobutu as head of state, Zaire, not surprisingly, was internationally known as one of the poorest countries in the world.
People do not tolerate constant political chaos without an immediate revolutionary goal, and a nation cannot survive ongoing political and economic instability without perceived benefit. Lack of rule of law and constant political instability have never led a nation to a democratic system; on the contrary, these two factors can only lead a nation to its destruction.
In 1990 after thirty-two years of single-party rule, Mobutu was forced to accept the idea of a multiparty system as a result of international turmoil generated by the fall of the communist bloc and an increase in internal opposition. On April 24, 1990, the former Republic of Zaire (renamed Democratic Republic of Congo) engaged in a political process aimed at democratizing its institutions. This process was perceived as fundamentally and urgently necessary in light of the failures and misdeeds of the political system of the Second Republic inaugurated by Mobutu’s coup d’etat in 1965. Mobutu’s system led the country to chaos, its institutions to failure, and its leaders into discredit and made the majority of its citizens the butt of indescribable social and economic ridicule. To repair these failures and redirect their national life, the majority of Zairian citizens requested and obtained from Mobutu’s system the organization of a national forum, the National Sovereign Conference (NSC), meant to develop the framework for a new national social and political structure that would ultimately lead the country into the Third Republic and democracy. However, the process was never completed because President Mobutu decided to disregard all decisions made by this sovereign forum. He deliberately impeded the outcome of the reform process.

MOBUTU: AN AFRICAN POLITICAL PHENOMENON

Western political literature and analyses view political systems as ranging from democracies to monarchies to totalitarian dictatorships. From this perspective, Mobutu’s system has been classified as a military dictatorship. However, a close Afrocentric look at the elements of this regime reveals that it is a totalitarian system. Mobutu was an African political phenomenon whose regime contributed to the dehumanization of the Zairian people through state crime and the obstruction of democracy.

DEMOCRACY IN THE AFRICAN CONTEXT

An African-centered approach to democracy not only enhances its chance of success, but also emphasizes its relevance to the well-being of the African people of Zaire.
In light of the above-mentioned theoretical and operational difficulty, a conceptual clarification of the macro and micro factors relevant to the present study seems necessary. The following definitions are simply operational and should not, therefore, bear any preconceived universal value.
A democracy—from the Greek democracia (demos = people; cracia = government)—is a political system that allows governance of the people by the people. It is characterized by the participation of citizens in the decision-making process and guarantees individual freedoms, respect for minority groups by the majority, and the protection of the rights of minority groups. Most importantly, a democracy allows the citizens of a nation to freely elect government officials who might best serve their interests. An Africa-centered democracy is a political system that allows governance of the people of Africa by the people of Africa, putting their interests and wellbeing at the center of decisions affecting their lives.
Obstruction of the democratic process occurs when any facts or actions are aimed at impeding the normal occurrence of different stages that lead to the creation of a political system of government for the people by the people. Thus, any facts or actions that impede the normal occurrence of the different stages leading to the creation of a system that puts the interests and well-being of the African people at the center of the decision-making process constitutes obstruction of an Africa-centered democratic process.
The National Sovereign Conference (NSC)—The NSC was an extra-constitutional forum organized by the central government to serve as a national consultation arena in order to establish the foundations of Africa-centered democratic institutions in Zaire. The forum was intended to be a gathering of all Zairian social classes, public institutions, central government, civilian society, religious groups, and political party representatives.
The failure of the NSC is an example of the obstruction of the democratic process. It resulted from a lack of application of the major objectives agreed upon by all participants of the extra-constitutional forum and a lack of promoting the interests and well-being of the African people of Zaire.
Totalitarianism—Totalitarianism is a philosophical, political, and/or ideological doctrine that confines the totality of national life within a monolithic power style and vision of the world. African totalitarianism is defined as any political system that does not promote the interests and well-being of the African people.
John Friedrich in his 1965 treatise established the following characteristics of a totalitarian system:
  • An exclusive ideology;
  • A one-party system in charge of the ideology and usually led by a powerful dictator;
  • Well-developed and well-equipped secret police to track down opponents and assure the execution of the leader’s orders and the application of the ideology; and
  • Monopolized control of the mass media, operational arms and all social, cultural, political, and economic organizations.
Mobutu’s regime tended toward totalitarianism in that its leaders were observed acting according to methods appropriate to a system that confines the totality of national life within a monolithic power style and vision of the world and fails to promote the interests and well-being of the African people of Zaire.

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE NSC

The major achievements of the forum were aimed at promoting the interests and well-being of the African people of Zaire and were unanimously adopted by all NSC participants. These achievements included:
  • A re-examination of the national historical successes and challenges since the independence from Belgium;
  • a thorough re-examination of all public institutions;
  • an elaboration of a new national constitution;
  • an elaboration of new structures and institutions; and
  • the establishment of a transitional government, parliament, judiciary body, election commission, and college of governors in charge of leading the country to democracy.
The citizens of Zaire became aware of the issues affecting them, the quality of their lives, their interests, and well-being and recognized violations of their fundamental rights and the mishandling of national wealth by government leaders.
Failures and Misdeeds of the Political System
In 1982 Dahl wrote that a political system is any persistent model of human relations that to a significant extent involves power, leadership, or authority. He went on to state that a political system is a set of interdependent roles and/or interactions that allow the legitimate allocation of resources in a society. Failures and misdeeds of political systems will include the incapacities and pernicious results of a structured set of activities related to the conquest, exercise, and conservation of power in a given society. In Mobutu’s system, these failures and misdeeds included actions that did not promote the interest and well-being of the African people of Zaire.

STATE CRIME

Authors such as Barak (1991), Tunnell (1993), and Kauzlarich (1995) have made it clear that a crime can be perpetrated by the state just as well as by an individual citizen. They have defined a state crime as harm illegally or legally organized and inflicted upon people by their own government or the government of others. These harms are acts committed by the state that, although not defined as criminal, result in significantly harmful social consequences. Harmful acts include illegal or socially injurious omissions or commissions by an individual or group of individuals in an institution of legitimate governance that are executed for the consummation of the operational goals of that institution of governance. In this context, in an earlier 1992 work on the sociology of criminology, Kauzlarich defined Domestic-Domestic Government Crime (DDGC) as criminal acts that occur within the state’s geographic jurisdiction in violation of the criminal or regulatory code of that state.

POLITICAL THEORIES AND THE CASE OF ZAIRE IN THE 90s

There are three logical and analytically distinct phases that allow comprehension of a transitional political process as well as the alternative developments these phases may generate:
  1. An authoritarian regime, after its appearance and consolidation, develops certain tendencies and characteristics that allow it to reach a certain level of equilibrium.
  2. A level of equilibrium can be stable or unstable, according to the degree of institutionalization reached by the regime.
  3. Once the regime’s capacity to face internal and system challenges decreases, there is generally a state of unstable equilibrium. This may degenerate into a situation of crises that could ultimately be the precursors of the transformation of the regime.1
Two models of transition are likely to occur: a discontinued or a continued transition. A discontinued transition may lead a regime to two possible developments: (a) resolution of its crises through different political actions, including compromises or the use of overwhelming military force or (b) the beginning of the regime’s fall. In a continued transition, an authoritarian regime tends to build a series of political coalitions that are generally short-term and contradictory, revealing both the regime’s natural conservatory instinct and its lack of commitment toward change. Generally, an authoritarian regime confronted with such dilemmas will tend to introduce gradual but very slow changes until it has completed its transformation. The status quo model theory augments the descriptive model by showing that an authoritarian system usually tends to resist change. Nevertheless, when confronted with an inevitable evolutionary imperative, an authoritarian system would more likely concede some of its characteristics as it tries to maintain the status quo.2
To some authors, the principal causes of transformation from an authoritarian system to a democracy are essentially internal and external crises. Internal causes are those relative to the system’s positive or negative response to its internal survival, including its organizational demands (e.g., gradual loss of power of the system’s ideology, internal fights for political positions, and the like). External crises often are outcomes of the needs of the global society, including:
  • Growing and diversified social demands related to the quality of life and the appearance of new social actors who increase the likelihood of new social and political demands;
  • Gradual loss of support for the political system due to the organizational power of the new social actors and new methods of political demands;
  • Incompatibility between social demands and the ideology of the political system, as well as the system’s loss of moral values, inefficiency, and corruption of its bureaucracy;
  • Beginning of an economic crisis capable of profoundly affecting the system’s capacity to control and ensure the economic benefits of its main actors;
  • Creation of alternate political projects capable of mobilizing and gaining popular support with the potential to redefine political coalitions; and
  • External pressures or interventions.
Several of the authors3 offer an explanatory theory, Theory of the Loss of Legitimacy. This fundamental theory allows us to analyze the transition process from totalitarianism to democracy in two phases:
  1. Any political regime must be legitimate, have popular support, or, at least, must be accepted in order to survive.
  2. When the regime loses its legitimacy, it must regain it to avoid the inevitable self-destruction process (see Figure 1).
i_Image1
Figure 1. Representation of the Theory of the Loss of Legitimacy
Another major theorist, Robert Dahl, distinguishes two major stages that explain democratic changes: (a) liberalization and (b) inclusion. Liberalization is the stage at which a totalitarian political system comes to acknowledge the growing power of the opposition. Inclusion is the stage at which a growing popular demand for rights to participate, control, and eventually oppose government behaviors appears. Five criteria underscore the evaluation of an effective democratic process:
  1. Effective participation, defined as the degree to which citizens are given appropriate and equal opportunities to express their views about decisions affecting them.
  2. Enlightened understanding, defined as the degree to which citizens are given appropriate and equal opportunities to know and approve/disapprove of political leaders’ decisions that may affect citizens’ interests.
  3. Equity of vote, the degree to which each citizen’s vote is given equal chance to be counted.
  4. Control over government plan of action, the degree to which government decisions reflect the sovereign will of the citizens.
  5. Inclusion, the degree to which citizens are included in the decision-making process.
Other political theories include those of Giovanni Sartori and Juan J. Linz,4 who see democratic processes as products of political actors who choose certain strategies leading to changes, including political systems. In a 1981 article, Las democracias, appearing in Manual de Ciencia Política, Morlino distinguishes liberalization from democratization. Liberalization refers to a horizontal process by which political and civil rights are “offered” or “given” to the people by the governing elite in such a way that still allows the elite to maintain control over the society. Usually the governing elite use this strategy to overcome a crisis without any real intention of allowing a full democratization of society. Democratization refers to a process that recognizes complete expression of political and civil rights and the acceptance of special interests organizations, including unions. Real democratization is complete when major democratic structures are in place, including:
  1. Realization and consolidation of democratic compromise by all political and civilian actors involved;
  2. Respect for the legal system by the governing elite and its allies;
  3. Neutralization of the military forces;
  4. Guarantee of the rights of economic groups; and
  5. Participation of political parties and unions.

The Obstruction of Democracy as a State Crime

The second part of this study is related to the analysis of state crime as a form of obstruction of democracy in Mobutu’s political system. Recently scholars in criminology have been taking the lead to openly denounce a social and political plague that is as old as Earth itself, but which has been covered for a long time under the mantle of political taboo. Many scholars, inc...

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