Multi-party politics antagonistic and divisive

"I have sometimes been accused of being against democracy because I have said that the people’s involvement in governance must go beyond the ballot-box, and because I have expressed concern about the tendency of multi-party politics, especially on our continent, to become antagonistic and divisive, to foster a cynical kind of expediency which owes more to prospects of the next election than it does to the long-term interest of the people, and makes politics too dependent upon which group has more money.I am more concerned about the essence of democracy than about the outward forms of democracy. We must infuse those forms with the spirit of the people. They must own democracy, they must feel a part of it. That is the only way democracy can thrive on our soil. Let me also say that I believe that my concerns about partisan politics are valid". Jerry Rawlings, former president of Ghana, Witswatersrand University, South Africa, Sep. 2005