HOW PRES. SIAKA STEVENS DESTRUCTION OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE JUDICIARY CONTINUES TODAY [PART 1] [Culled from the pioneering SALONEDiscussion forum. This is the first part of a debate that took place on Nov. 23-29, 2014] -----Original Message----- From: Mohm Jalloh [SALONEDiscussion] To: SALONEDiscussion Cc: [Redacted] Sent: Mon, Nov 24, 2014 3:08 am Subject: Re: [SALONEDiscussion] Siaka Stevens Destruction of the Doctrine of Separation of Powers in SL Dear [Name Redacted] Thank you for your reply. Your following objection to my statement in regard to the tenure of Pres. Siaka Stevens as one notorious for the subjugation of the judiciary by the executive branch is frankly astonishing: I will also like to point out a statement by Mohm Jalloh that is unfortunate for it is simply not true This statement : …the non-independent judiciary-a convenient creation of the cynical, self-serving corrupt Pres. Stevens that incredibly continues to exist nearly 30 years after his exit in 1985 -- is an extension of the executive branch. The statement is simple not true. There was a constitutional review in 1991 long after the late President Dr. Siaka Probyn Stevens was gone and the one party system was abolished. The Judiciary is for all intent and purposes independent unless Mohm would like to prove otherwise. This is because there is a surfeit of published evidence of Stevens cynical and systematic stripping of the Judiciarys independence for his purely selfish purposes until it was rendered a mere extension of the executive branch. Accordingly, your unsubstantiated discordant opinion that [t]he Judiciary is for all intent and purposes independent can be most charitably characterized as a bad joke. As always in this our serious SALONEDiscussion forum, lets go to the evidence: 21. Although democratic government was purportedly reinstated with the inauguration of Siaka Stevens and the APC, the separation of powers would in fact suffer a series of devastating reverses from 1968 onwards. The first fundamental blow occurred in April 1971 when Sierra Leone was made a Republic with an executive President. The manner in which this major constitutional change was effected seemed to confirm the demise of both Parliament and the judiciary as institutions capable of averting Stevens drive towards absolute power. Fewer than ten out of the sixty parliamentarians opposed the Republican Bill of 1971. 22. The Republican Bill made changes to the Independence Constitution, with the Chief Justice replacing the Queen as a ceremonial Head of State. Within 48 hours of the creation of the Republic and the swearing-in of Chief Justice Cole, however, Parliament adopted further constitutional changes, transforming this ceremonial Presidency into an executive one. The Chief Justice, who had just been sacked as ceremonial President, then swore in the Prime Minister, Siaka Stevens, as executive President. This extraordinary sequence of events represented a fatal complicity by the judiciary in its own subordination and manipulation by the executive. 23. With such a stranglehold on power, Stevens and his associates arranged for important court cases to be tried by their friends, tribesmen and loyal servants. In the notorious treason trial of Mohamed Sorie Forna and 14 others, from 1971 to 1973, a relative of the then First Vice-President, Sorie Ibrahim Koroma, served as a juror. According to memoirs published subsequently, the trial judge briefed the Vice-President about the progress of the case on a daily basis.16 24. Inevitably, the term of the head of government (now the President) was to be extended without reference to the electorate, despite his original tenure as Prime Minister having been limited to a period of five years. Parliament became nothing more than a rubber stamp institution. In 1970 and 1972, without much debate or scrutiny, Parliament endorsed two decisions by the executive that have significantly hampered the development of the country. First the closure of the Sierra Leone railway, which served as a vital link between the capital and the Provinces, was endorsed by Parliament without reference to the potential economic consequences for the population. Second, in 1972, Parliament blindly approved the abolition of District Councils and elected Local Government. These were archetypal bad governance decisions, for they centralised power and influence in Freetown, whilst suffocating the delivery of resources and services to the majority population in the Provinces. 25. Court cases involving elections under the APC were decided in favour of the APC by a compliant judiciary. Violent by-elections conducted under a state of emergency between 1969 and 1970 led to the loss of 23 SLPP opposition seats. Thus by the time the Republican Constitution was passed in 1971, the APC commanded more than the two-thirds majority necessary to pass whatever bill it deemed necessary. With an executive President and an obedient legislature and judiciary, the creation of a dictatorial system and destruction of state institutions took hold.17 26. The promulgation of a one-party constitution in 1978 unmasked all pretence to democracy and the principle of separation of powers from the Siaka Stevens regime. Chapter III, Section 21 (4) of the 1978 Constitution personalised the office of President - solely for Siaka Stevens - and extended his term of office to seven years.18 In the moment the Constitution took effect, the 11 SLPP members still in Parliament were given the stark choice of joining the APC or losing their seats.19 To their discredit, all of them joined the APC. 27. Powers vested in the President, in relation to both Parliament and the judiciary, were substantially increased under the One-Party Constitution. Chapter IV, Section 34 gave the President the power to appoint an Electoral Commissioner who would be responsible solely to him. Also, the central committee of the party, controlled by the President, was entitled to reject candidates for Parliament even where such people were the choice of the people in their constituencies.20 28. Constitutional provisions also simplified the procedures under which electoral candidates could be returned unopposed,21 a practice that was frequently invoked. Parliamentarians elected in the one-party state were only accountable to the president and the APC party machinery. There was essentially no check on the actions of the executive. In one example that became infamous across the continent, Parliament failed to scrutinise the budget outlay for the hosting of the OAU in 1980, allowing scarce national revenue to be wasted on the megalomania of President Stevens. 29. The Auditor General had been mandated by Constitutions since 1961 to oversee government finances and ensure their outlay in the manner provided for by parliament. However, whilst the institution worked relatively effectively during Sir Milton Margais regime, its capacity to ensure sound financial monitoring gradually diminished from the time of Sir Albert Margai through to the eve of the conflict. As government expenditure passed unregulated, corruption blossomed. The quality of service provision in the public sector plummeted across the spectrum, affecting security and justice just as it affected health and education. Meanwhile other oversight bodies such as the Electoral Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman were rendered equally redundant. 30. Yet perhaps the most flagrant breach of the separation of powers under President Stevens was reserved for the executives control of the judiciary. Section 113 of the One-Party constitution stipulated that the President would appoint the Chief Justice (the head of the judiciary).22 The President also had the right to suspend the Chief Justice or, acting in accordance with the advice of the First Vice-President, any other judge. 31. Judges abandoned their independence to preserve their jobs, as they faced the possibility of arbitrary removal or suspension if they incurred the displeasure of the executive. The provision in the 1978 constitution permitting the President to compulsorily retire judges who had attained the age of 5523 was a potent weapon in the hands of the executive. It was especially so because most of the judges were well past the age of 55 at the time the Constitution came into effect. In its most abusive application the provision was cited to depose two successive Chief Justices of the country, namely Justice C. O. E. Cole and Justice Livesey Luke. 32. The financial autonomy of judges was also far from assured. The determination of their conditions of service was subject to the one-party parliament and any improvement of these conditions required prior approval from the President. The self-accounting system that enabled the judiciary to have control over its income was discontinued. The judiciary thus became wholly financially dependent on the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry provided inadequate resources and the arrangement precipitated the ascendancy of corrupt practices throughout the justice system.24 33. Another act of contempt towards the separation of powers was the merger of the Office of Attorney General with that of Minister of Justice by the 1978 constitution. The Minister, also a Member of Parliament, retained supervisory power over the judiciary, and gained discretionary power in the prosecution of cases. Thus the joint office of Attorney General and Minister of Justice became a fusion of executive, legislative, judicial and prosecutorial powers,25 and it remains just as problematic to the present day. 34. The ruling political class assumed absolute power and carved out a legal position that deprived all its opponents of their basic rights as Sierra Leoneans. The outright supremacy of the executive and its domination of the other arms of government did not alter under President Momohs tenure of office between 1985 and 1992. The one party constitution that destroyed the doctrine of separation of powers was firmly in place, along with the devastating perception on the part of many opponents that only armed rebellion could bring it down. [Emphasis added] Source: Report of The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Volume 3A, Chapter 2 sierraleonetrc.org/index.php/view-report-text-vol-3a/item/volume-three-a-chapter-two I hope you are now aware, if you were not before, that, far from being a joke, Pres. Siaka Stevens sustained assault on the constitution of Sierra Leone for his purely selfish self-aggrandizement --a legacy that continued long after Stevens exit from power (as highlighted in paragraph 34 above) -- has been determined to be a significant catalyst for the vicious and brutal 11-year old civil war that started in 1991 during the tenure of Pres. Stevens cynically hand-picked successor, Pres. Joseph Momoh. In closing, now that I have duly discharged my obligation in regard to your request for evidence of Stevens role in the destruction of the doctrine of separation of powers, I hope you will, in turn, discharge your obligation by duly providing evidence of your claim that my statement that …the non-independent judiciary - a convenient creation of the cynical, self-serving corrupt Pres. Stevens that incredibly continues to exist nearly 30 years after his exit in 1985 -- is an extension of the executive branch. --- is not true. Sincerely, Mohm Jalloh -----Original Message----- From: [Name Redacted] [SALONEDiscussion] To: SALONEDiscussion Cc: [Redacted] Sent: Sun, Nov 23, 2014 1:03 pm Subject: Re: [SALONEDiscussion] How to Stop Pervasive Corruption in Sierra Leone First of all, it is unfortunate that my email responses do not reach the Sierra Leone network or Policy watch from where some dubious allegations about our late President Dr. Siaka Probyn Stevens emanate. I would, however, want to challenge Immodale to provide verification for his source of information that the late President ever said and I quote that Usai den tie cow nar day i for eat. The late President was one of the most gifted politicians in public speaking ever produced in Africa who coated his speeches with riddles and sayings of the wise that can rival great leaders in the world. His was the kind of calculated public speaking, tainted with West African accent, that aroused sentiments of the common man in ways never seen in Sierra Leone or Africa. Sierra Leone kids, in the late sixties and seventies were so impressed that they memorized whole speeches of the President. I submit to you that the late President Dr. Siaka Probyn Stevens said and I quote Usai den tie cow nar day i day eat. The man was so brilliant that he could not have said what [Name Redacted] said because it makes no sense at all. For if a cow is tied to a stationary object, the cows movement in its search for food is inevitably restricted in the area of circumference dictated by the length of the rope which is otherwise the radius. And by the way, it is a total misnomer that the statement from the President was meant to teach people to be corrupt. So the conclusions derived from that false statement by [Name Redacted] is a non starter in resolving problems with corruption in Sierra Leone. It is a lazy way of adding to the serious discourse about eliminating corruption in Sierra Leone. I will also like to point out a statement by Mohm Jalloh that is unfortunate for it is simply not true This statement : …the non-independent judiciary-a convenient creation of the cynical, self-serving corrupt Pres. Stevens that incredibly continues to exist nearly 30 years after his exit in 1985 -- is an extension of the executive branch. The statement is simple not true. There was a constitutional review in 1991 long after the late President Dr. Siaka Probyn Stevens was gone and the one party system was abolished. The Judiciary is for all intent and purposes independent unless Mohm would like to prove otherwise. [Name Redacted] I reserve the right to self declare as APC, defend the APC and promulgate the APC agenda
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 06:26:02 +0000
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