UN General Assembly
1995

were grossly mismanaged — to say the least. This is why not a single hospital or high school had been built after 30 years of independence. It was deliberate policy to keep our people ignorant and, therefore, no serious attempt was made to build a television station or, at least, to improve the national radio station so that it could be heard all over the country. Can this, in all honesty, be called democracy? And, to perpetuate themselves in power, the authorities of the former regime brought in truck-loads of foreigners to vote for them during elections. In the absence of an independent electoral commission it was easy for them to indulge in such malpractice. The Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council Government has since adopted a Programme of Rectification and Timetable for Transition to Democratic Constitutional Rule by July 1996. Mindful, however, of the fact that democracy and development are inextricably linked, we have also drawn up a development agenda focusing mainly on the social sectors. The two programmes, contained in one document, were formally submitted to our