Mr. Golooba,
Just a point of information: having neither a Phd nor an MD I am not a "Dr." of any sort. If you insist on using a title before my name then "Mr." or "Mw." would be quite sufficient.
Briefly, I somewhat agree with your position with regards to Museveni's failure to institutionalize change, political or otherwise. Actually it is more of a refusal, than a failure. This is because like other autocrats the world over, 'personal' politics serves him (rather than the country) better. With clientism he can count on psycophants to mindlessly defend his regime, as did his mentor Obote.
And yes, I too, give him credit for his efforts -- however they are motivated -- with regards to the AIDS/HIV pandemic.
If and when time allows, I'll attempt a more complete, but commonsense articulation of why I think UPE is a "White-Elephant", as "USE" is doomed to be, and why I think that the benefits technical education would be more beneficial to Uganda. My only missgiving about such an effort is that about it is that the general readership of these fora might be 'bored' with it, to the extent of simply yawning ...
----- Original Message -----
From: Frederick Golooba - Mutebi
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 8:52 AM
Subject: [FedsNet] Of paper mills, graduates, etc.: Comment on Ssemakula's posting
Dr. Ssemakula,
I agree with a lot of what you say about UPE and Makerere [I studied UPE in its early days and recently taught at Makerere]. However, I don't entirely agree with your comments about Museveni and the economy.
First the economy. Museveni has little to do with running it. Indeed, it is in the management of the economy that Museveni probably directly interferes the least, thanks, it is said, to the capacity of the likes of Tumusiime-Mutebile to resist undue interference. Under his administration, the economy has done pretty well by all standards. It is widely accepted that Uganda has some of the most competent technocrats of any ministry of finance on the continent. They have done a good job on the whole.
Of course there are those that point to increasing poverty as evidence of the poor performance of the economy. Well, one of the ironies of economic reform of the kind Uganda has been undergoing for much of Museveni's tenure is that, while overall macroeconomic performance improves, the ordinary man and woman in the street and in the villages suffers a great deal. I have been to many parts of rural Uganda in recent years and seen the grinding poverty amidst pockets of prosperity. Yes, the circumstances of many have worsened. But others have never had it so good, and I am not talking only of the 1986 millionnaires and their minions and relatives with their hands in the public till.
Is Museveni a lousy administrator? In my view,only in the sense that he delegates very little and therefore ends up being over-stretched and losing sight of much of what he pretends to be taking care of. However, there are indications that where he keeps his eye over things constantly or much of the time, he does well. A good example is Uganda's fight against HIV/AIDS. During my last visit to Uganda [October 2002 - Jan 2003], I participated in DFID-funded study of the governance aspects of Uganda's anti-HIV/AIDS campaign. It's many years since I made up my mind that both the Movement and Museveni ought to make way for 'normal politics'. So I went into the study with a great deal of scepticism about the man and what he represents.
At the end of it my respect for him and his abilities had been greatly enhanced. The vast majority of people we spoke to, and not just Movement hacks and apparatchiks, left us in no doubt that without his personal involvement [examples of what he has done abound], the country would not have achieved as much as it's touted for as a success story.
Did the study change my views about the Movement and whether or not Museveni ought to stay on? Nope. One other thing it revealed was the serious failure by Museveni and the Movement to institutionalise change. Much of what has been achieved over the last 17 years stands threatened by the man's departure, unless the country gets a very competent successor. Whatever the case, whoever steps into his shoes will have a very difficult time.
Golooba.
