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New Vision (Kampala)
OPINION April 7, 2004 Posted to the web April 7, 2004
Sseezi-Cheeye Kampala
THIS is a critique of Andrew Mwenda's attack on President Yoweri Museveni's stand that peasants make decisions published in the Sunday Monitor of April 4, 2004. Before I go into that, let me take this opportunity to introduce my newly acquired credentials.
When President Museveni appointed me Director of Economic Affairs in Internal Security Organization (ISO), February 2002, one of the top leaders in ISO, tried to undermine my appointment by wondering what qualifications I had to head such an important office. I immediately enrolled to do an on-line BA,(Economics) with a university in the USA. Against that background I felt provoked into correcting Mwenda's distortions.
l His main thrust is that while President Museveni �xteriorly romances the peasants, internally, he is at home with the middle class which, according to Mwenda is the only class which champions economic development.
I quote: "In last year's state of the nation address, the president said that development is occasioned by the movement of people from rural to urban areas, and therefore their transformation from being peasants to industrial workers".
Then Mwenda poses a question, "If Museveni wants to transform Uganda into an industrial society, which classes and interests does he need to ally with: peasants or industrialists?"
Peasants are one of the many categories of class social formation. The peasants, like students, workers, or owners of means of productions (employers) keep progressing, graduating into higher classes with time. The peasant is not a stagnant group of people.
The peasant as a social being does not live in isolation. He too, interacts.
His views and decisions affecting him are shaped by the concrete realities on the ground in conformity with the expectations of the larger society he lives in.
Before taking a decision the peasant consults those he believes to be in the know, just like students or workers consult their leaders before they can do any thing as a group.
If Mwenda, himself could be represented by a lawyer, in the courts, why does he believe that a peasant can take a major national decision, mechanically and in isolation, without consulting the people he believes to be in a better position, to explain complex issues?
It is impolite and childish to put words in Mr Museveni's mouth and twist them to imply that he said that peasants make decisions in isolation.
-What I found amazing is the manner in which Mwenda sweepingly glosses over issues in his desperate attempt to misinform the public about international economic affairs.
I quote "Let us look at examples that President Museveni often quotes: Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore etc. Which achieved rapid industrial transformation.
What distinguished the ruling elite from these countries from their contemporaries in Vietnam and mainland China was that they did not take populist positions of the peasants or the masses"
My contribution on this is that every country develops according to its peculiar historical conditions, which may not easily be repeated elsewhere.
My position is that Mwenda's sweeping examples are misleading. On page 689 of "From Third World to First" Lee Kuan Yew, who led Singapore for 31 years wrote, "The story of Singapore progress is a reflection of the advances of industrial countries. It would be interesting to know what type of peasants Mwenda is referring to in the case of Singapore.
Mwenda is a self-styled impressionist who manufactures distorted economic information, which, if not corrected can negatively impact on the national economy.
l Mwenda alleges that President Museveni has allied himself with "commission agents, predatory bureaucrats, mediocre political hangs-on, retrogressive religious clerics and thieving military and security officials."
This is unfortunate. Thieving military and security chiefs are now before court martial. We know what happened to governments which did not take disciplinary actions against thieving Army Generals and Intelligence Chiefs. Mwenda believes the army and security services are not doing anything.
The army and the security services are doing their part, maybe not too well, but well enough to keep the security of the country and private property for a good 17 years.
We know successive savage and short-lived regimes which were swept from power because they did not have one percent the quality of our army and intelligence services.
-Mwenda is of the view that Mr Museveni's wrong choice has shaped the pattern of resource allocation and the character of resource allocation. I quote "Thus instead of resources flowing to industrialists for investments, they flow to commission agents."
Mwenda spent a lot of his time researching the subject he intends to write about. He should shed more light on what he means by "resources flowing to industrialists for investments."
As far as I know, Government has done extremely well in ensuring that resources flow to the private sector for both investments in industrial areas and service sector as well.
For example, there are two economic policies which government has tirelessly and emphatically implemented and which, in return has opened the tap of resources to flow in the pockets of private and industrial sector inclusive.
The first one is the excellent management of macro economics, which manages aggregated economic activities.
The main concern is to guide the country, navigate round economic storms. When a country is following correct economic policies, the sky is the limit.
Liberalisation of education is one good example of a wonderful macro economic planning. In 1974, only 360 students graduated from Makerere University.
This year more than 10,000 students will graduate from more than five universities. This influx in education means flow of money into the pockets of the private investors, as well.
Pastor Kayanja, the leading player in the "Spiritual Industry" will soon buy a private jet. Don't take that for granted. I know an African country where the spiritual industry is restrained claiming that it is used for political agitation. Liquidation of 200 UTC buses gave birth to 200 privately owned buses. The second policy which helps the flow of resources to private sector, industrialists inclusive is the positive multiplier effect.
Under this policy, Government follows a policy of spending it's increased income on equally increased public expenditures, which lead to increased income, not only to Government but to private investors as well.
A good example: By paying for government offices accommodated in private office blocks Government has encouraged increased construction of office blocks by private property owners.
-Mwenda wants the public to believe in the alarmist figures he has in his head.
I quote "Government spends sh 400 billion per year on 67 ministers, 71 Presidential advisors, 148 Resident District Commissioners, and 304 MPst." The fact is that Government spends about sh350 billion a year on public administration which include about 200,000 civil servants.
To twist this figure to read sh400b for only 590 people is just madness, since this would mean that each one of the 590 people on Mwenda's imaginary list earns sh677.9 million a year, or sh56.4 million a month. I leave this to more intelligent Ugandans to judge if they know of any Minister, MP, Presidential Advisor or RDC who earns sh677.9m a year, either as salary or as operational allowance.
-Mwenda wants President Museveni pressured into allowing political parties access to the peasants. I believe introducing political parties is not as urgent as some agitators want Ugandans to believe. In the first years of political formation of a country the people need to be governed along politics of national inclusiveness, as long as it is felt necessary.
The Founding Father of the Great United States of America, President George Washington, ruled for nine years under Movement politics. President Washington did not belong to any political party and his Vice President, John Adams was a federalist.
-In conclusion Mwenda advises Justice Kenyeihamba on how to deal with the peasants and by the same token, how to defeat President Museveni.
Relevant Links
East Africa Uganda
Before Mwenda can think of marketing Justice Kanyeihmba, he should take time to check records. Lastly, I personally don't take Mwenda to be a political or economic analyst. He is just a demagogic agitator.
The views are mine in my capacity as an Information Economist, and not that of Internal Security Oragnisation (ISO)
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