Every project in human history has at least four phases: the design phase, implementation phase, monitoring phase and evaluation phase. The purpose of monitoring is to ensure that the implementation of the project is on course as designed. When new problems arise they are corrected. When circumstances change fundamentally, it may become necessary to close the project and draw up a new one. An evaluation takes place usually at the end of the project to see whether the objectives were achieved or not and to draw lessons as a guide for future work.
The purpose of an election is to offer voters the opportunity to select their representatives in free and fair conditions. During the campaign candidates propose what they would do if elected to improve the standard of living of their constituents. If they do not deliver, they are voted out at the next elections. Thus, representatives’ primary responsibility is to serve all the people in their constituencies whether they elected them or not. In Uganda, it has turned out that the primary and perhaps only purpose of representatives is to enrich themselves, their families, relatives and friends. Take Rujumbura constituency as an example (no disrespect intended). The wife of the Member of Parliament (MP) is Senior Presidential Adviser and his sister in-law is also Senior Presidential Adviser! There are many others down the line. This is a case of winner-take-all.
To secure reelection, MPs have created or intensified corruption. Politics in Uganda has shifted from the business of persuading voters to corrupting leaders, be they church or community leaders etc. The story of Pajeros and Protestant bishops has been told so many times that it does not need repeating here. It is common to hear voters lamenting that they were advised to vote for a candidate they did not support because the candidate recommended donated materials like iron sheets for a leaking church or cement for a crumbling school or some money on Christmas Day.
In politics there are opponents from different parties. They present different views. In Uganda politics there are enemies: a political enemy is someone who should be destroyed or banished, not defeated and then left alone. Candidates (and their supporters) who lose are taught a bitter lesson so they do not try again or those who intend to contest next time should take notice of what is in store for them. Sometimes they destroy individuals they imagine may pose a political challenge at a future date.
In constituencies where the candidate or MP is a military person the situation is even more difficult. Unlike in many countries, an army man in Uganda is a feared person. He is seen by the people as a man who can save or destroy your life. They command in politics as in the army. In Rujumbura constituency the MP is a Major General who believes he should contest a parliamentary seat unchallenged at the primary level (and possibly at the general level) and decide which other candidates in his party should contest elections in other constituencies or lower levels in his own. Dr. Alex Kamugisha should be congratulated for daring to contest the NRM primary in Rujumbura against a Major General. It is even worse if you have in your constituency (as in Rujumbura) a military candidate who is filthy rich. In these circumstances, education, knowledge and experience do not matter. One wonders whether future politicians should undergo military training first.
When Museveni was campaigning to oust Obote from power, he repeatedly and viciously attacked Obote for practicing sectarian politics. Obote was castigated for favoring Protestants and his ethnic members. As a human being Obote (RIP) was not perfect. But he did not appoint his wife a minister, his brother a minister and his in-law a minister. Museveni has also favored Catholics over Protestants.
Apart from pre-independence elections in 1961 and 1962, there were no other elections in the balance of the 1960s. Yet this period under Obote I realized development success stories that have not been equaled since. There are some Ugandans that do not want to associate any success with Obote. But let us look at the overall record. Put differently, let us look at the forest instead of individual trees.
Obote gave every Ugandan a chance to eat a good meal, get an education and a job and live a healthy life. That is why he constructed roads to open up the country, built schools in rural areas to narrow the education gap between rural and urban areas, built hospitals in remote areas so that patients could access doctors and medicines. Obote supported agriculture through inter alia extension services and cooperatives. Obote supported industries that added value, reduced losses and created jobs. Besides improving quality of life, Obote gave Ugandans a sense of pride and confidence. These commendable success stories occurred in the 1960s in the absence of elections!
Despite tremendous difficulties at home and abroad (western powers still considered him socialist) Obote II government implemented bold programs that raised Uganda’s real GDP growth at an average rate of 6 percent per annum between 1981 and 1984. Had it not been for Museveni’s destructive guerrilla war and withdrawal of support by IMF and World Bank, Obote would have moved Uganda closer to a middle income economy and society.
Under NRM regime, Uganda has had three elections and is preparing for a fourth one in February 2011. One would have expected better results over Obote I when Ugandans did not have elections in the 1960s. On balance, under Museveni’s government, Uganda has moved backwards. Uganda roads are worse than during Obote’s time. Education and healthcare systems are on the verge of collapse notwithstanding hundreds of millions of donor money that have gone into these two sectors. Ugandans are hungrier than ever before as manifested by the level of mother and child malnutrition and insanity caused in part by poor feeding. Agriculture has been neglected in favor of foreign-owned services mostly in the capital city of Kampala where less than 2 million out of a total of 33 million Ugandans live. Industries have collapsed and the few remaining ones are operating far below installed capacity. Under Museveni general hygiene and sanitation are a thing of the past. All Ugandans should be concerned about spreading jiggers which are found in many parts of the country, not in Jinja only. Jiggers represent the worst form of absolute poverty and vulnerability when people give up hope. Jinja which has elected NRM in all the elections has not benefited economically and socially. Should they support NRM in 2011 or another party or just stay at home?
By and large, many Ugandans in rural areas where NRM gets its support are living in sub-human conditions. When teachers have no shoes, students have no lunch and study in dilapidated buildings or under trees and nurses close clinics to moonlight, one surely must wonder why they voted at all! Many Ugandans are beginning to think about not voting because elections have not served the original purpose of electing representatives that serve the interests of constituents. Keeping Ugandans poor appears to be paying political dividends. Free music, cheap alcohol and yellow NRM t-shirts have already converted many unemployed youth into staunch supporters of Museveni instead of turning against him for denying them help when they need jobs. Impoverished adults in the countryside promise to vote NRM when they get a box of matches, a piece of soap and a half kilo of salt instead of throwing NRM out. Museveni who knows that poverty resides in the countryside where voters can be easily bought has directed his team to focus on rural areas.
A comparison between performance under Obote and Museveni shows unambiguously that you do not need elections to do a good job for your fellow citizens. In the end what matters is the leader’s heart and not elections. Obote was not perfect but he had a good heart for Ugandans. He wanted the economic tide to lift all boats, pushing the poor harder to narrow the gap that existed at independence. And that is why he risked his political career and nationalized Uganda’s economy and chased away migrant workers when unemployment among Ugandans was unacceptably high.
On the other hand, Museveni’s heart appears to be different. It is to make people fear him, intimidate and impoverish the many in order to enrich the few mostly along ethnic lines. There is enough evidence to confirm this conclusion.
Obote will always be remembered for making positive contribution as his work is compared with that of Museveni, drawing conclusions that you do not always need elections to serve the people well.
Ugandans need to evaluate the elections project they have been implementing since 1961 and decide what to do next. What do you do when Museveni says “You don’t just tell the freedom fighter to go like you are chasing a chicken thief out of the house”? Will elections chase away such a president or prevent him from employing his family members, relatives, in-laws and friends? Wait and see who will be in the cabinet after February 2011. Frankly elections under these conditions end up a fruitless, frustrating and expensive exercise. This is not how a government wins legitimacy as western supporters of regular elections keep telling us. Instead you legitimize illegitimate and corrupt regimes presiding over failed states.