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Correcting historical distortions is not sectarianism

Those who have benefited from historical distortions such as the Hamitic Myth in the Great Lakes region are trying to use all instruments to maintain the status quo. Batutsi and Bahima – and their Bahororo and Banyamulenge cousins – who have dominated Bahutu and Bairu for over six centuries with the support of Europeans originally from aristocratic families since colonial days have come back to power through the barrel of the gun with external assistance. Their numerical inferiority and unpopularity do not allow them to get and sustain political power by real democratic means – winning elections at gun point and/or banning popular parties under the pretext of being sectarian is not democracy as we understand it in the sense of free and fair electoral processes from registration, to campaigning, casting ballots, counting votes and announcing results in a transparent and inclusive manner.

To hang onto power, they are therefore resorting to military might and expensive intelligence networks, giving quality education to their children at home and abroad at public expense, dividing tactics that have created so many non-economically viable, almost tribal-based districts, controlling strategic ministries, impoverishing the majority ethnic groups by denying them quality education, healthcare, food and nutrition security, character assassination and intimidation and aligning themselves with foreign powers that in turn are using them to advance their interests in the Great Lakes region in ways that are contributing to instability, economic distortions such as focusing on illegal natural resource exploitation and massive abuse of human rights.

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NRM government must tackle youth unemployment

Rising youth unemployment including university graduates and the associated poverty and hunger are approaching dangerous and potentially explosive proportions. It is now clear that market forces and the invisible hand that have guided Uganda’s economy since 1987 are unable to generate enough jobs.

The Great Depression of the 1930s which was marked by massive unemployment, poverty and food insecurity contributed to the Second World War with deadly human consequences. John Maynard Keynes, the British economist, realized that in times of economic distress fiscal policy – government increased spending – should be used as a tool to manage the economy.

Until the Great Depression, the assumption had been that the economy was self-regulated and the invisible hand of the market forces left to its own devices would automatically raise economic output and employment to optimal levels. Keynes who disagreed with this approach argued that during times of economic distress, the drop in aggregate demand for goods and services could cause further economic contraction and raise unemployment which the invisible hand could not handle. He suggested that it was government responsibility to kick-start the economy by borrowing and spending on public infrastructure projects – roads, schools, hospitals etc – so that the funds spent would raise economic growth, create jobs and reduce unemployment.

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Burundi – the political contours of a troubled nation

Introduction

The Republic of Burundi, independent since 1962, has suffered serious inter-ethnic tensions between Hutu and Tutsi peoples since they met in the Great Lakes Region around the 16th century. Yet very little is known about Burundi. Consequently it does not get the attention and assistance it deserves.

Until the PALIPEHUTU-FNL rebel group laid down its arms and joined the government of national unity in 2008, Burundi and her people went through phases marked by Tutsi domination (who constitute 15 percent of the total population) and exploitation of Hutu (who constitute 85 percent of the population), political assassinations, military coups, genocides (1972 and 1993), economic sanctions, civil wars, negotiations, elections and forming a national government and finally in 2008 ending of all hostilities.

Since 2000, the people of Burundi are trying to forgive the past and forge new relationships among all peoples for a peaceful, prosperous and stable country. They held successful elections in 2005 and formed a government of national unity. They are now in the process of another round of elections later this year. The situation is still fragile and Burundi and her people need all the support they can get. Before we offer help and especially how much, it is essential that we have an idea about the political history of this country and the magnitude of the challenges.

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President Museveni endorses the institution of intermarriages

I was very pleased to learn that while attending a wedding function in Uganda the President endorsed the institution of intermarriages which I have been promoting in my writings and speaking engagements for quite sometime now.

In societies – in time and space – that are relatively stable there have been intermarriages both ways – both ways in the sense that men from different ethnic groups marry women from different ethnic groups thereby ending ethnic exclusieness. It has been reported that societies in northern and eastern Uganda, Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro and northwest Tanzania are relatively stable because two way inter-ethnic or inter-tribal intermarriages have taken place there.

In Southwest Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Eastern DRC where intermarriages have been one way (Bahutu and Bairu men marrying Batutsi, Bahima, Banyamulenge and Bahororo women whereas Batutsi, Bahima, Bahororo and Banyamulenge men are not marrying Bairu and Bahutu women) there has been constant conflict that contributed to the tragic events of 1972 and 1994 in Burundi and Rwanda respectively.

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DRC – A country created for ruthless exploitation with impunity

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – the third largest country in Africa (2,344,885 sq.km) after Algeria (2,381,741 sq.km) and Sudan (2,505,813 sq.km) – is potentially the richest on the continent. Paradoxically Congolese people are among the poorest on earth. According to many Congolese, the principal cause of this paradox is to be found in colonial and post-colonial ruthless exploitation of Congo’s vast human and non-human resources. Ruthless exploitation of Congo with impunity began with the arrival of Portuguese and Arabs. The hunt for slaves and ivory using European weapons resulted in constant armed warfare within and among different ethnic groups and depopulation of vast areas with serious political, economic and social consequences.

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Why patriotic Congolese have misgivings about decentralization

The Congolese people that want to keep the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as one country have expressed misgivings about the idea of decentralization. While they are not totally against decentralization as such, they reason that decentralization presupposes the existence of a strong central state with viable institutions. In any state a certain amount of centralization is essential for the effective functioning of a large entity, be it a corporation or a state. On the other hand, over-centralization produces undesirable outcomes such as inefficiency and red tape. When this occurs decentralization is recommended in which minor decisions are made on lower levels of administration.

Since its creation as a state in 1885 in the wake of the Berlin Conference on the partition of Africa among European countries without waging war against one another, no efforts were made neither by king Leopold II who owned Congo Free State as a private property until 1907, nor by the Belgian government that assumed colonial responsibility for Congo from 1908 to 1960 when the country became independent as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, nor since independence as Zaire and now again as DRC since 1997.

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Examining the evils of ethnic politics

All of us are familiar with ethnic groups, ethnicity, tribal groups and tribalism. Before tracing their application and impact in a political economy context, let us define ethnicity which is more commonly used than tribalism.

Ethnicity relates to a situation associated with a cultural, linguistic, racial, ancestral and religious groups or a combination of them within societies. Ethnicity has its roots in migrations, wars and other disturbances that trigger major population movements resulting in interaction with other groups in unequal relationships.

Because of this background, ethnicity is characterized by cultural prejudices, social discrimination and exclusiveness of its members. Generally, ethnicity finds expression in political domination, economic exploitation and psychological expression. The intensity, nature and forms of ethnic expressions are determined by the strength and cohesion of the ethnic leadership, courage, determination and nature of the underprivileged classes and the degree of foreign influence in a particular society.

In a multicultural setting where ethnicity is practiced social harmony becomes difficult to realize. It often results in violent conflicts for example in Burundi, Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo. Also ethnicity can lead to endemic political instability such as in Uganda, Spain, Sudan, Nigeria, Belgium, etc or even a breakup of countries such as the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

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Museveni’s end of 2009 address suffers from obscurantism

During his first inaugural address in 1986, Yoweri Museveni denounced the philosophy of obscurantism, a situation where ideas are deliberately obscured. Because NRM and its leadership were not interested in the politics of obscurantism, they, like good doctors, would diagnose correctly the ills of Ugandan society before announcing corrective measures. He touched on Uganda’s core development challenge when he condemned Uganda leaders who travel in executive jets while 90 percent of Ugandans have no shoes.

After a careful and comprehensive analysis, NRM recommended solutions to Uganda’s economic and social ills in a ten-point program in which, inter alia, production for domestic and external markets would be balanced and Uganda would be metamorphosed into an integrated, self-sustaining and independent economy.

On January 26, 1990, President Museveni announced a major economic policy shift that abandoned the popular ten-point program in favor of the Washington Consensus based on market forces and laissez-faire capitalism. He embraced export-led growth that diversified into non-traditional exports mostly of foodstuffs traditionally grown for domestic consumption.

The president and his government did not tell the nation that the shift was dictated by donors as a condition for financial and technical assistance. The government opened the country to all stakeholders with new ideas knowing full well that many of them were experimental and may undermine Uganda’s development prospects.

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Understanding slavery & slave trade

Slavery is an institution or a practice in which people own other people directly or indirectly. Ownership has an element of belonging. You belong to me and therefore I own you because, for example, I protect you or, in some cases, because I employ you. In return, the owned person submits to or accepts to be dominated by the owner and works hard as a slave.

A slave is a helpless victim to or of some dominating influence. A slave is also a contemptible person. Contempt is an act or mental attitude of despising another person and a contemptible person is an individual who deserves to be despised. To despise means to regard some one as inferior or worthless.

When someone from one ethnic group brags that he is worth 1000 people from another ethnic group, he is saying that members of the latter ethnic group are inferior or worthless. The inferior people become helpless victims in the process – hence slaves.

Slavery is an old institution with roots in pre-historic times (before writing was invented). Slavery reached its peak in Greece and the Roman Empire and declined during the middle Ages. The colonization of the New World (North and South America) resulted in a resurgence of slavery and slave trade.

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Towards economic and social delivery for all Ugandans

The National Resistance Movement Organization (NRM) has already declared that it will win 2011 presidential and parliamentary elections not only convincingly but also with a larger majority than in 2006 because it has delivered. While hosting the Commonwealth Conference, election to the United Nations Security Council for two years, discovering oil, ending the war in northern and eastern Uganda and winning approval to hold the 2010 AU Summit in Uganda are noble deliverables, their value should be assessed in the context of meeting conditions for economic and social development for all Ugandans as called for in Chapter IX of the United Nations Charter. Chapter IX states in part that higher standards of living, full employment, conditions of economic and social progress and development are among the principal goals of the United Nations of which Uganda is a member.

On reading NRM’s economic and social criticism of Obote II government one gets the impression that the drafters were fully aware of Chapter IX. It is therefore important to remind ourselves of what the criticism was and the extent to which NRM government has implemented corrective measures to deliver the desired economic and social results since it came to power in 1986. We shall examine the criticism contained in vol. I no. 3 of October/November 1981 and vol. II no. 5 of December 1984 which were published by the NRM secretariat in 1990 in a book titled “Mission to Freedom”.

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