Harnessing Africa: Is Neoliberalism working for Africa?

NEOLIBERALISM

The global news of black African youths in their prime being traded in an open slave market in Libya was a harsh reality. The resurgence of slave markets is probably another failure of neo-liberalism. Where liberal democracy and liberal rights should be the mainstay of a liberal society we find its proponents subverting liberal democracy by funding military dictatorships.

Modern day slave trade is a moral crisis that reveals the contradiction of lack of liberal rights in a liberal market situation. Human trafficking of disadvantaged women and children alone grosses US$150 billion annually, with sex trade generating US$99 billion, according to a 2014 International Labour Organization figures.

The skeleton of the slavery era spanning over three centuries still dangles in our closets. Despite attempts to whitewash global social inequities arising out of that abuse with offers of ethereal affirmation and liberal rights, limited democracy suffocates any progress.

 Slavery is reproduced and packaged in different forms - debt bondage, colonialism, imperialism and arms race - these conditions have transformed Africa into breeding ground for slaves. There are no specific safeguards against the vice under this monster - neoliberalism. Free market philosophy has come with its demand for unregulated labor, and it comes with increasingly precarious and demeaning exploitative jobs.

The costs associated with the hyped development under the so-called free-markets undermine the underprivileged, underdeveloped and under-resourced population setting them up for a tenuous situation for harnessing into slavery.  According to Credit Suisse, in 2017, the global richest 1% owns 50.1% of global wealth, signifying a rise from a 42.5% in 2008. Moreover, this wealth distribution and location demonstrate how the global south is peripheral – dispossessed.

In the meantime, the states are diminishing at an alarming rate, retaining a thin political authority over the liberal markets. Most of these states are captives of, and operating entirely on institutional economic framework prescribed by IMF/WB. One of their star performers (victims) – Uganda - for instance,  mediate slavery of its own people through state registered agencies that export  under-developed human resources for cheap house-help labour to Asia and Caribbean.

 The African economies seem to work only for the few transnational corporations and its turncoats - the corrupted state agents who conspire to exploit and plunder the continent.

More Africans have lost customary property – land. Many now strive to trade their labor cheaply to foreign investors, without union privileges. The World Migration Report 2015 establishes that Africa has the highest rural to urban migration where migrants poverty, discrimination, crowding, diseases, and exclusion, and so forth, form inelastic urban facilities and services.

How else could the proponents of neoliberal policies in Africa explain the high migration rates – the mass preindustrial migration from rural to urban centers? Or, the high unemployment rates, alcohol/drug abuse, and suicide among Africa's youthful population?  Are these also indicators of economic development, or under development?

  

The resurgence of slave markets may be a strong indicator of the chaotic and devastating nature of neoliberal ideology that undermines state authorities in preference for liberal markets.

Hundreds of indigent Africans flee and drown frequently while crossing the oceans to seek for decent jobs in Europe or America. Many are denied work visa on racist and inhuman grounds such as lack of previous record of travel, or inability to demonstrate strong ties to home country to guarantee their returns.

These are ridiculous visa conditions given that the very economic policies are breaking families, forcing people off their land and property, and harnessing their labour for cheap exchange.

Neoliberal policies in Africa needs a comprehensive evaluating quite urgently. The harsh realities of this economic policy seem to outwear its benefits in Africa after nearly 30 years. Africa is facing severely masked under-development socially, economically and politically. The challenge is that liberal markets without liberal rights and liberal democracy cannot flourish in Africa.

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Muntu cannot be a Museveni spy

CONSPIRACY

Competitions tend to bring the best and the worst among contemporaries, but, attaching the spy claim on Muntu will hurt FDC the most. FDC adherents must stop labelling Muntu an NRM mole. Such labelling highlights the success of the propaganda machinery of the establishment to sow discord within the party.

Gen. Muntu is above the pettiness of spying for the NRM. When FDC opened its doors for membership, it expected that the establishment would infiltrate its ranks and files with informants. That is what a sitting regime does. There are many in there, but Gen Muntu is definitely not one of them.

We should know that negative words hurt when hurled at you, even if you ignore them. The label of spying cast against Gen Muntu socialises him in two contradicting worlds – a persistent false image against his legitimate dedications.

To reduce Muntu's to such pettiness harms the Party as it requires constant self-validating before the party supporters. Gen Muntu is not an ordinary citizen to start with. His past and present engagements with the regime are not matters of secrecy, speculation or awe. Gen Muntu, like all those honchos in FDC, have their roots in the very system that they are committed now to dismantle. Those historical ties, are both their fortunes and baggage to carry simulteneously.

In honesty, it is easy to sell Gen. Muntu as a spy for CIA, KGB, Mossad, Chinese, Mi5, Rwanda, EAC, and so forth. Spying for Museveni is an oxymoron. One would rather contract-spy for Salva Kiir at that point!

FDC as a great potential with properly nurturance. It continues to attract credible political actors with diverse experiences and high levels of maturity. FDC has held itself together in part because of these men and women who value above all, the institution before individuals. This is a rare trait in existing politics of Uganda.

We have seen those who, because of strong tribal and inane sense of entitlement, hurriedly left FDC to nurse their ambitions elsewhere. Those hopes to flourish quickly evaporated and now they have to constantly hug, and massage the fingers of the tyrant for a living.

The lessons are visible – we can no longer build a tribal based political party with a narrow ethnic-based mobilising ideology; more so, depending entirely on urban based elites to galvanize the revolutionary sentiments abound in Uganda is itself, politically suicidal. Gen. Muntu might have quickly reflected on these lessons and correctly returned to the fold. Let FDC embrace and trust Muntu fully, as a priceless asset! Those undemocratic elements aspire for the "third way" politics, the ultra-hybrid politics of sitting on the fence, should try their luck.

Gallantry espoused by men like Gen. Muntu afford FDC integrity and a renewed sense of purpose. The triumph of a mature liberal democracy resides in tolerance of such diversity for the maximization of transformative ideas. It is shameful for FDC MPs from Gen Muntu's camp who have accused Dr. Kizza Besigye of being a dictator, when, in essence, they themselves, exhibit every trait of the same malady, including poor loser culture. Such elements undermine the most vital aspect of their Party structures – the election and transition processes.

Most importantly, the body and the soul co-exist, and so, the new FDC President, Eng. Patrick Amuriat should embody the physical presence of FDC, while Gen. Muntu becomes the conscience - the soul. One tactician, the other a strategist. Enough room exists for both individuals proffer. The Party needs a leader with a finishing instinct, in as much as a philosopher to engineer the structures. Only through their combined efforts shall the structures materialise. The Party shall then become stronger and appealing for the treacherous task of liberation.

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