The world according to me

I’m going to see Rawlings, J.J.Rawlings. I guess the name doesn’t mean much to most of you, but than most of you never lived under a military regime unchecked by any legal or civil restrains. Ghana did, a few times, and longest under Rawlings.

Still, his story is different from that of most other African dictators. First of all, most people here would probably not call him a dictator, even if enough atrocities had been committed during his reign. But most significantly, he was one of the few dictators who more or less voluntarily handed over power.

Well, that sounds a bit too positive. Let me set it straight. After about nine years in office as military commander, he managed to win general elections, not without some cheating though. I don’t know if his popularity and the power of his party might have even been enough to win him the Presidency on fair grounds. Some say yes, others deny it. But he won and he was reelected after a four years term.

According to the Ghanaian constitution, inaugurated under his chairmanship, there are just two terms in office for a Ghanaian President. So he did the surprising thing and stepped back. His successors never enjoyed his popularity and the opposition leader won the race.

So, now I’m going to interview him and I have no clue where to start. I mean, how do you interview an ex-dictator turned good-guy without complacency, but still polite enough to make him answer your questions? And what do I ask? Why the atrocities, the killing and the lawless period after taking power?

Does it even make sense to talk with him? Maybe he would just keep on propagating his point of view and I get all messed up. Plus, I can’t get the other guy on the phone, Kwame Pianim, now a successful business man, but under Rawlings a long term prison inmate.

People told me, Pianim might have won against Rawlings during the first elections in 1992, even under unfair conditions. He was some kind of martyr for many, a political prisoner so charismatic that he kept on rallying people around him, even in jail. But the Supreme Court declared him ineligible, because of his prison time. Very cheesy.

Labels: rawlings