Uganda: A nation dead in a dream

DREAMDEAD

As a pre-teenager, I overheard the utopia of Mr. Museveni rattled to us through our then black and white Tactic television set, courtesy of UTV (Uganda Television). In the 90s, Museveni had a dream. Like every revolutionary theorist, the President dreamt of an industrialized Uganda, moving the economy from a “backward feudal stage” (as he eloquently stated it), to a modern industrialized stage. The 90s paled through a major paradigm shift –i.e. the structural adjustment program (SAP), a neo-liberal agenda that arm-twisted Mr. Museveni into privatizing the economy, devaluing the currency and retrenching workers.  He shelved the Ten-Point program; his agenda of modernizing the country was shelved; politics of survival came to the fore. The most difficult, and yet memorable years of the Museveni’s era were the period 1992 – 1996. The year 1996 was the year that a brilliant vision of modernizing Uganda suffered a natural death – our nation died in a dream.

There is a need for a book, titled: “The Ten Commandments of Failure”. That book will provide a correlation of empirical evidences, to demonstrate how the NRM’s so-called socio-economic transformations blueprint - the Ten-Point Program- became the commandments of failure. Respectfully, Dr. Frederick Golooba Mutebi a former don at Makerere University has already done a substantial amount of work in this field. However, I feel it is inconclusive, and this is where I will work to complete the presentation of this oddity.

A few days ago, I was prompted via my social media accounts about a strong presence of the Special Forces Command (SFC) - a unit mandated with the protection of the president - on Binaisa Road in downtown Kampala. Apparently, the President was there for a full eight hours to officiate at the opening ceremony of a Shs 1.8million (US$534) car washing bay.  Was it really 1.8 millions, billions, or trillions? I went through a deep reflection, and my mind shuddered. This is not the level of “industrialization” that was dreamt of in the late 80s and 90s.

The presence of the President in this neighborhood meant that businesses closed in favor of his personal security. And, such a persistent presence of the dictator in an area can be a real pain the behind. These days, the distance between the President and the people of Uganda is so wide. His security now closes the entire length of Entebbe Road (34kms) when Mr.Museveni isenroute. Imagine what could have happened to the businesses located on the entire length of Binaisa Road and neighboring areas that day. Certainly, one can imagine losing more than Shs 2 million per trader along that lane, and the adjacent lanes.

Such, are the costs of sustaining an illegitimate regime in place.

A washing bay is not an “industry” worth glorifying. Modern washing bays are self-serve and reduce employment, the critical Achilles heel of this struggling economy. The sight of the President of Uganda officiating at a Car-Washing bay in the heart of the City hurts the eyes. In Kenyan, their President was signing a deal with Volkswagen to establish an Assembly plant. Already, Kenya’s industrial prospects are promising. Many bus companies now fabricate their buses in Kenya on an imported chassis. That is tangible industrial progress.

Thirty years after the pseudo-revolution and we are still an economically backward country with traditional plantation industries surviving. I have referred to the NRM so-called 1980-revolution as a “pseudo-revolution” because, it was atypical. Most revolutions have emerged over land related inequalities with associated economic and political repressions or, not a mere excuse of electoral frauds. After all, the Museveni-era electoral frauds records since 1996 are unrivalled in Africa’s history of botched elections.  The regime is founded on obscurantist, false premises and all it can offer is the very opposite of what it promises.  Such inherent contradictions and obscurantism that pervades our politics and development discourses; - that nothing works in our society, and yet the government forcefully says it works.

It is, therefore, comprehensible that the most legitimate era of the NRM milieu ended in the period preceding 1996. After 1996 it was and shall remain a trial and era period that has caused Uganda and Ugandans enormous social, economic, and political nightmares. The professional life has died, hard and legitimate work ceased to exist; the rule of law is perverted, chaos is everywhere, pervading every junction of society; life is a mess and pain, inequalities in income, and health are widely distributed; unemployment among the young people, and lack of employable skills have subdued the youth. Nothing is in its proper order in this country.

The Private sector craze has already subordinated the Uganda economy to foreign investors. The indigenous Ugandans are back to the pre-Idi Amin Dada where the Indians monopolized commerce and trade and pitifully enslaved Ugandans. Such a trend of incremental socio-economic decline is what this article will systematically unveil.

End.

Uganda Parliament's Extravagance

POLINSENSITIVITY

This, by no means is waging of war of words with the Institution of Government called Uganda’s Parliament. This is a transmission of chronic hurt, the widely perceived feeling that the Parliament of Uganda is insensitive, ineffective and overly extravagant without proper justifications.

There are several instances where the Parliament of Uganda has failed Uganda and Ugandans. Some of the failures stem from the political history of Uganda; The low level of civic engagement, and the political environment in which it must act compounds the problems. However, the privileges and the extravagance with which these privileges are expended, leaves the public in utter awe. In essence, this Parliament appears to have abandoned its traditional roles as the primary arbitrator of how economic benefits and resources should be distributed in society.

The glaring inequalities in Ugandan society today, and the rampant breakdown of social infrastructure – healthcare, school system, income disparities etc, show how detached and unconcerned this Parliament is.

Ugandans now feel that Parliament is fused permanently with the Executive branch of government, legislates for the person of the President, and its overall agenda is increasingly becoming diabolically opposed to the common aspirations of the ordinary citizen. It has reneged on its duties to reduce socioeconomic disparities, and ameliorate the impacts of it.

The Parliament is an extension of society but acts as if it is alien, such that society owes them and must pay, transport, and bury them like Oligarchs.  In normal societies, Parliament would be concerned with mortality and work to reduce it. In Uganda, Parliament prepares for death and events it! Is this a conscious gathering or simply an aggregation of ordinary people on end-of-life mode?

The level of disenchantment is reaching a high crescendo and Ugandans are now debating whether there is relevance for Parliament at all given the cost of its sustenance and return of value.

Since 1992, Uganda accepted to liberalize its economy. Neoliberalism commands that economies open up the markets to allow for private sector players – or market forces, other than government, to arbitrate how the economy and resources are distributed. The more robust these private sector players are, the more government finds opportunity to withdraw its public role.  Minimal government role in service delivery suffices well for advanced economies. Not Uganda’s. We are suffering more from failed policies of liberal markets than benefiting because we lack competent institutions to allow for its self-regulation.

What we now see is that government has prematurely withdrawn from its primary role of financing and delivering requisite social services. The commitment to deliver services has also died. More public resources – money, is now available for political expedience, and lavished with contempt to the most insignificant sector of the economy, and to the most treacherous ends.

Where is the conscience of this Parliament that is unable to realize that Ugandans are suffering? You are a Parliament spending billions on least valuable international trips, expending millions on meaningless medals, spending trillions in buying cars (when that money could be used to kick-start the mass production of locally made energy saving Kiira eV Vehicles); and plan to spend millions on burials.

People now fight to death, sell off their properties, land, household goods; forge academic papers, etc to go to Parliament. These people do not add any value to Parliament, or enhance quality of legislation. They go there to get rich. Parliament is the place nowadays where people die for, just to get rich quick. Little wonder that there is even a lucrative funeral budget already earmarked. Such, is the tragedy of our nation.

The foregoing reality is that the Parliament of Uganda must do a self-reflection. What it does not want to do is to start comparing its privileges with that of other Parliaments, say in Kenya or the UK. That kind of thing is what Ugandans like to do. These countries have varying sizes of the economy that are robust enough and works for its people. In Uganda, MPs should actually be unpaid volunteers because nothing works.

End.

Re-Colonizing Africa

POWERLESSNESS

Tyranny, repression, and sectarianism have persisted in the African continent since independence. These have effectively disempowered the Africans and made them ripe for any possibilities of future re-colonization.  The common discourse is that African states can easily be re-colonized by a small country like Malta, Laos or Moldova should they decide to. Shouldn’t this state of vulnerability become a matter of concern to Pan-Africanists?

This article is to elicit public debate on whether the reproduction of undemocratic African “Strongman Phenomenon” has helped strengthen the African states and continent from foreign aggression, or has made Africa much more vulnerable for physical re-colonization than before. By “Physical Re-colonization” I mean foreign invading forces matching with boots on the African soil to take over the day-to-day administration of any African State, including Uganda.

To make sense of this debate and its relevance, one must discount the existing international laws that bar countries from meddling into the autonomy of another country.  There is a plethora of such useless laws. However, what we also know is that certain countries with money and military might, have not obeyed these laws. They have found their own excuses and reasons to disorganize states such as Iraq, Afghan, Libya, Syria and so forth.  

In addition, the un-ending  quest for vital resources, such as those used in cellphones and computers, as well as the desire for controlling freshwater bodies are predictive of future wars. Such are reasons for re-colonization. Already a failed state like Southern Sudan is begging for foreign interventionist force to put its refugee tents in order. What then awaits Africa in the unfortunate event that those very greedy and insatiable superpowers decide to recolonize the continent or at least, some African countries?

Now, the global order is strife with neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism modes of control. The so-called privatization and forced adoption of two-faced regimes have allowed a co-existence between tyrannical, oligarchic, and repressive regimes to operate alongside complex neo-liberal market systems. This arrangement provides a perfect mechanism that seamlessly fuses foreign interests with the inherent interests of the tyrants – the Strongmen of Africa.

The production and reproduction of the Strongmen Model of leadership in Africa have in essence, lessened the strength of the Africans from organizing and developing internal capacity to resist an onslaught. Since these African leaders enact laws that disempower their masses – such laws that ban the inherent freedom to associate, to assemble, to organize and even to speak freely, the ability of Africans to transcend their predicaments have also declined over the decades. Many Ugandans are unable to demonstrate, or to speak out against state brutality, corruption, sectarianism, or bad governance for fear of repercussions. Such fears mean that they cannot obtain accountability, participate freely in civic discourses, or make a case for regime change because the Strongmen own the means of coercion and uses it viciously to thwart any such potential.

Given the distance between the government and its people, only two possible things could happen in the face of a foreign aggression;

Either – the population would readily and gladly ally with the invaders to alter the repressive status-quo as it was in Libya; or, the population would thaw into submission, without any resistance, to be overwhelmed by a minimal invader’s forces as when the Banyamulenge dispatched Mobutu in Zaire.

We have learnt that the Strongman’s army cannot be professionalized fully. It can only be disciplined in as far as protecting the status quo and is fiercely anti-people. As long as such armies are loyal and aligned to protect the exploitative nature of the Strongman, it is considered “professional”. The strength of such armies is glorified when tested repetitively against unarmed civilians. Such armies usually capitulate in the face of organized foreign invasion.

There is a merit to this debate. Socially and politically conscious Pan Africanists should expound on it.  The African people are very vulnerable right now given their traumatic endurance of the “strongmen”.  We may easily face a re-colonization if status quo is not challenged henceforth.

END.