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Ear to The Ground
By Charles Onyango-Obbo |
Which Museveni will Bush meet; the NGO leader, or president?
July 9, 2003
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Did US President George Bush tell or not tell President Yoweri Museveni during our man�s recent visit Washington to forget any plans to cling on to power beyond the present legal two terms? The press, in this case The Monitor in its long thankless role as the pesky torchbearer who shines the light where the government would rather have darkness, said Bush had. The government, beginning from the good Foreign Affairs minister James Wapakabhulo, to several eminent state scribblers, swore that Bush couldn�t � surely � have told Museveni that. Well, let us hear it from Bush himself. He says he acknowledged Museveni�s wonderful works, especially in the fight against Aids, then elbowed him in the ribs about straying off the democratic path (mine, not Bush�s words). The Monitor was right. And what an easy goal! Of course, not many people are impressed. The pro-government elements hold that Museveni is a strong ally of the Americans. Both they, and the cynics who hold that the American Establishment doesn�t genuinely support freedom anywhere in the world any more, think that Bush�s anti-third term noises are mere posturing. However, both sides could be wrong. Is there a possibility that the US is changing its practice of canoodling with strongmen as long as they are pro-Washington? The US might be shifting, even if it is doing so to protect its changing global interests. We have seen very acrimonious verbal skirmishing between US Secretary of State Colin Powell, and the autocratic Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The Americans are piling pressure on South Africa to lean on Mugabe, who�s wrecked his once prosperous nation, to go back to the village and grow maize on the land he has grabbed. I cannot remember when an American government last called on an elected African leader, even one who had stolen elections, to step down (if for nothing else, because it would mean condemning some of their best friends whom we all know but will not name). Bush demanded more forthrightly that Liberia�s warlord President Charles Taylor relinquishes power and �go into exile� � the same thing he demanded of Iraq�s Saddam Hussein. Taylor is now packing his bags. The US can afford to tell Mugabe and Taylor to go home, and to wag a finger at Museveni over his third term plot, because the price of doing so has fallen dramatically. The fear past US administrations used to have that a leader who was unhappy with them would run into the embrace of the communist bloc, is of course long gone. More importantly though, in recent years, the civilian opposition, rebels, and governments in Africa all fight for the backing of the US in particular, and the West in general. The conduct of African leaders has also encouraged the US. A visit to America by an African ruler is the highest endorsement, and presidential functionaries will crow about it until the next visit � even if it�s five years away. Thus while the US is busy haggling with its NATO partners to exempt its servicemen from what it claims could be politically motivated prosecutions in the International Criminal Court, Museveni eagerly signed them the waiver on his last visit. Of course, the Americans are smart enough to notice that there was no debate of the issue inside Uganda. Uganda�s case, however, has some peculiarities. Bush is coming to Uganda as the backdrop for him to tout his $15bn aid to fight Aids in Africa and the Caribbean. Uganda and Senegal have had Africa�s most successful campaigns against Aids. Ten years ago, Uganda had one of Africa�s highest Aids infection rates, and the disease was laying waste to areas like Rakai. Today infection rates have fallen to lows of below 6 per cent. While perhaps the Museveni government does not deserve all the credit in the fight against Aids (initially it took a narrow tribal view on the disease), it deserves every commendation for its boldness and creative energy in tackling the scourge once it opened up. However, that is also Museveni�s undoing. In terms of what he has to show off, he has become a one-issue leader � the Aids president. Nearly all international conferences where Museveni is invited to are because he�s an example on how to fight Aids. Museveni needs to lay indisputable claim to being a political reformer, and regional peace builder the way he has with Aids. By failing to win on these two fronts, and clinging only to his anti-Aids/HIV thing, Museveni has allowed himself to become more like the head of a big NGO, than the president of a nation. He only invites people � including the Americans - to lean on him to open up the job for someone who can fill the vacuum he has created. Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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