Posted on Tue, Dec. 21, 2004
Uganda illustrates struggle in melding African tradition, democracy
BY LAURIE GOERING
Chicago Tribune
KAMPALA, Uganda - (KRT) - Eighteen years ago, Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni seized this nation devastated by endless war and set
about transforming it into an African success story.
He privatized failing state industries and brought runaway inflation
under control. He spurred Uganda's economic growth rate to a
sustained 6 to 7 percent a year, a level considered key to making
strides against poverty. Since 1992, the number of Ugandans living
below the poverty line has fallen more than 10 percent.
Just as important, Museveni soothed festering ethnic divides that
once tore apart the country, stemmed a threatened AIDS epidemic,
doubled the number of children in primary school and gave women a
guaranteed share of political seats.
Then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called him a "beacon
of hope" for Africa, part of a new generation of leaders committed to
solving the continent's problems. President Bill Clinton paid him a
visit. Western aid donors, eager to support an African success story,
poured money into Uganda.
Lately, however, nearly everyone has begun to wonder whether Museveni
is really a revolutionary democrat or just another African Big Man.
Though he once promised to serve no more than one term in office,
Museveni's allies are pushing to change Uganda's Constitution to
allow the president a fifth term, along with controversial powers to
dissolve parliament.
Allegations of corruption in the administration - including vote-
buying in parliament - are growing. Half the university graduates
cannot find jobs. Economic growth is slowing. This year, donor
nations and international lending agencies that provid e 52 percent of
Uganda's budget rejected Museveni's plans to increase defense
spending at the cost of poverty-eradication programs.
"Uganda is a good study of a democratic process that has come to a
halt and is being pushed backward," said Augustine Ruzindana, a
member of parliament and former ally of the president.
"Museveni used to be very idealistic and had the public interest at
heart," he said. But now "it's becoming evident he is not strong
enough to resist the temptations of power."
Africa, at the start of a new century, is struggling to remake
itself. Its leaders, trying to ease the continent's persistent
poverty and other glaring problems, are sorting through deeply rooted
cultural traditions, colonial-era legacies and the new demands of a
globalized world, searching for African answers to Africa's problems.
In the process, they are redefining what it means to be an African
success.
Part of that involves resolving the conflict between African
tradition, which often allows popular leaders to rule for life, and
the continent's widespread desire for Western-style democracy, with
presidential term limits, regular changes of leadership and checks
and balances on the power of the top executive.
In parts of Africa, democracy is gradually getting the upper hand.
Sam Nujoma, the longtime president of Namibia, and Mozambique's multi-
term president, Joachim Chissano, both are stepping down after
elections in November and December. South Africa's Nelson Mandela
showed the most restraint of all, leaving office in 1999 after only
one term despite his overwhelming popularity.
But across much of the rest of the continent, leaders have been
notoriously reluctant to leave office. Togo and Gabon have had the
same presidents since 1967. Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe remains in
office after 17 years because of vote-rigging and intimidation of the
opposition in the most recent presidential elections. Kenya's Daniel
arap Moi stepped down in 2002 after 24 years in office, but only
under heavy international pressure.
In Uganda, Museveni, 63, faces a decision that may determine his
legacy. Whether he runs for re-election in 2006 is likely to
determine whether he goes down in history as a democratic visionary
in East Africa or, as his top adviser puts it, "just another African
leader who wanted to go on and on."
"If he were to stand, he would jeopardize his chances of stepping
into Mandela's shoes," said John Nagenda, Museveni's senior adviser,
who has urged him not to run again.
Still, "every country has the right to change its constitution if it
wants to," he noted. "Whether it's a good idea, that's debatable."
In rural areas, where 85 percent of Uganda's 26 million people live,
Museveni is still a popular hero, credited with rescuing the
devasta ted country from the dark days of dictators Idi Amin and
Milton Obote.
A rotund, charming man with a populist knack - Museveni has been
known to ride one of Uganda's ubiquitous small motorbikes to campaign
rallies while opponents arrive in limousines - he took 70 percent of
the vote in the last presidential elections in 2001, though Amnesty
International and a handful of observer countries, including Kenya
and South Africa, criticized the government for intimidating
opposition voters.
In much of Uganda, "people think there's nobody out there who could
do a better job than him," said Onapito Ekomoloit, Museveni's press
secretary. "There has been no figure who in any way compares with the
president."
Yet after Museveni's many years in office, enthusiasm for him is
beginning to flag. In a poll published in August by the Monitor, an
opposition newspaper, 69 percent of responding Ugandans said they
prefer to kee p the nation's constitutional term limits in place,
which would prevent Museveni from running - and, everyone agrees,
winning - in 2006.
The problem is finding someone to replace a president who has
determinedly thwarted the emergence of rivals. As part of his effort
to heal Uganda's ethnic rifts, Museveni banned political parties,
which he believed split the country on tribal lines, and called on
opponents to join his National Resistance Movement. The result,
nearly 20 years later, is that Museveni has no real political
opposition.
The handful of old parties that remain despite the ban on their
activities are widely discredited, and the government has so far
failed to follow through on promises to register new parties,
including splinter groups from The Movement, as Museveni's
organization is known. The president also has not groomed a
successor, a clear sign, critics say, that he has no intention of
stepping down.
"That Museveni wants to run indefinitely is a foregone conclusion. He
sees himself as the only man with a vision," said James Rwanyarare, a
spokesman for the Uganda People's Congress, an opposition party that
nonetheless sports a life-sized painting of Obote in its downtown
Kampala offices. "But the only way for government to work is through
institutions, not just an individual. The answer for Uganda is to
have politically viable institutions."
An increasing number of Ugandans believe that Museveni, with his
conviction that only he can solve Uganda's lingering problems and
hold the nation together, is now a threat, rather than an asset, to
Uganda's democratic institutions and its long-term democratic
prospects.
Uganda's media are among the continent's most vibrant, quick to
criticize the president for his failings. Its judicial system has
made key decisions against the president's interests, and its
parliament often engages in spirited debate. But proposed
constitutional changes - including the lifting of term limits and new
powers for the president to dissolve parliament if it disagrees with
him - threaten those institutions, critics say. Uganda's headlines
are full of allegations that the president's allies are buying votes
in support of the changes.
"Indications are the constitution will be amended, whether we like it
or not," said Sheila Kawamara, a Ugandan member of the East African
Legislative Assembly - a multi-country parliament with largely
advisory powers - and a women's rights activist. "With all due
respect, it's a strike against democracy."
Critics say the central problem is that Museveni, after many years in
office and many accolades, has come to believe only he knows what is
best for the country. Even Nagenda, the president's adviser, notes on
his Web site that Museveni's strength of convic tion "has led him to
find it increasingly hard to brook opposition" in recent years and
that he has become "increasingly hard-line, personalizing the issues
of (opponents) and refusing to recognize that they reflect genuine
grievances."
"He's so convinced he's made good decisions (that) he's confused the
state's interest with his interest," added one diplomat in Kampala.
Part of the difficulty in persuading Museveni to accept change is
that aid donors and other international backers, who embraced the
president as an African star in the 1990s and who still provide much
of Uganda's funding, now find it somewhat embarrassing to suggest he
is less than a democratic hero.
"They were looking for the great African success story, and this was
it," said Charles Onyango-Obbo, a Ugandan opposition journalist
repeatedly arrested and charged with bringing the president's name
into disrepute. Now "it has become very hard for them to say he was
wrong without putting their own credibility on the line."
Donors eventually cut off aid to the corrupt government of President
Moi in neighboring Kenya, accelerating his decision to step down. But
in Uganda "it's hard in the position we are in now to go back to the
Kenya model," said one diplomat from a donor nation. "This is not a
failed state. This is not a dictatorship."
Critics say that if Museveni stays in power another term, he could
well drive his frustrated opponents toward Uganda's traditional
method for removing presidents - the military coup. Since Uganda
became independent in 1963, every one of its presidents has left at
gunpoint.
"If he succeeds in manipulating the constitution and breaking down
the separation of powers, a lot of people will say the only way to
change now is through violence," said Aggrey Awori, a parliamentarian
who faced Museveni for the presidency in 2001 and plan s to run in
2006.
Other critics see a more benign scenario. Even if Museveni wins in
2006, they say, young voters - a growing proportion of the
electorate - will eventually stop him from becoming president for
life, as long as elections are free and fair.
A growing proportion of young voters, thanks to the president, are
educated, and "if you can read and write, you can reason," Kawamara
said.
They also grew up in good times, and the president's stories of the
bad old days, before he saved Uganda, no longer resonate, she said.
She, like a growing number of Ugandans, thinks it's time for the
country's old hero to go.
"He loves his country and has a vision and has brought it far," she
said. "But there are many people out there who have the same ability.
When you stay too long, you burn out. It's just human."
---
� 2004, Chicago Tribune.
Uganda illustrates struggle in melding African tradition, democracy
BY LAURIE GOERING
Chicago Tribune
KAMPALA, Uganda - (KRT) - Eighteen years ago, Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni seized this nation devastated by endless war and set
about transforming it into an African success story.
He privatized failing state industries and brought runaway inflation
under control. He spurred Uganda's economic growth rate to a
sustained 6 to 7 percent a year, a level considered key to making
strides against poverty. Since 1992, the number of Ugandans living
below the poverty line has fallen more than 10 percent.
Just as important, Museveni soothed festering ethnic divides that
once tore apart the country, stemmed a threatened AIDS epidemic,
doubled the number of children in primary school and gave women a
guaranteed share of political seats.
Then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called him a "beacon
of hope" for Africa, part of a new generation of leaders committed to
solving the continent's problems. President Bill Clinton paid him a
visit. Western aid donors, eager to support an African success story,
poured money into Uganda.
Lately, however, nearly everyone has begun to wonder whether Museveni
is really a revolutionary democrat or just another African Big Man.
Though he once promised to serve no more than one term in office,
Museveni's allies are pushing to change Uganda's Constitution to
allow the president a fifth term, along with controversial powers to
dissolve parliament.
Allegations of corruption in the administration - including vote-
buying in parliament - are growing. Half the university graduates
cannot find jobs. Economic growth is slowing. This year, donor
nations and international lending agencies that provid e 52 percent of
Uganda's budget rejected Museveni's plans to increase defense
spending at the cost of poverty-eradication programs.
"Uganda is a good study of a democratic process that has come to a
halt and is being pushed backward," said Augustine Ruzindana, a
member of parliament and former ally of the president.
"Museveni used to be very idealistic and had the public interest at
heart," he said. But now "it's becoming evident he is not strong
enough to resist the temptations of power."
Africa, at the start of a new century, is struggling to remake
itself. Its leaders, trying to ease the continent's persistent
poverty and other glaring problems, are sorting through deeply rooted
cultural traditions, colonial-era legacies and the new demands of a
globalized world, searching for African answers to Africa's problems.
In the process, they are redefining what it means to be an African
success.
Part of that involves resolving the conflict between African
tradition, which often allows popular leaders to rule for life, and
the continent's widespread desire for Western-style democracy, with
presidential term limits, regular changes of leadership and checks
and balances on the power of the top executive.
In parts of Africa, democracy is gradually getting the upper hand.
Sam Nujoma, the longtime president of Namibia, and Mozambique's multi-
term president, Joachim Chissano, both are stepping down after
elections in November and December. South Africa's Nelson Mandela
showed the most restraint of all, leaving office in 1999 after only
one term despite his overwhelming popularity.
But across much of the rest of the continent, leaders have been
notoriously reluctant to leave office. Togo and Gabon have had the
same presidents since 1967. Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe remains in
office after 17 years because of vote-rigging and intimidation of the
opposition in the most recent presidential elections. Kenya's Daniel
arap Moi stepped down in 2002 after 24 years in office, but only
under heavy international pressure.
In Uganda, Museveni, 63, faces a decision that may determine his
legacy. Whether he runs for re-election in 2006 is likely to
determine whether he goes down in history as a democratic visionary
in East Africa or, as his top adviser puts it, "just another African
leader who wanted to go on and on."
"If he were to stand, he would jeopardize his chances of stepping
into Mandela's shoes," said John Nagenda, Museveni's senior adviser,
who has urged him not to run again.
Still, "every country has the right to change its constitution if it
wants to," he noted. "Whether it's a good idea, that's debatable."
In rural areas, where 85 percent of Uganda's 26 million people live,
Museveni is still a popular hero, credited with rescuing the
devasta ted country from the dark days of dictators Idi Amin and
Milton Obote.
A rotund, charming man with a populist knack - Museveni has been
known to ride one of Uganda's ubiquitous small motorbikes to campaign
rallies while opponents arrive in limousines - he took 70 percent of
the vote in the last presidential elections in 2001, though Amnesty
International and a handful of observer countries, including Kenya
and South Africa, criticized the government for intimidating
opposition voters.
In much of Uganda, "people think there's nobody out there who could
do a better job than him," said Onapito Ekomoloit, Museveni's press
secretary. "There has been no figure who in any way compares with the
president."
Yet after Museveni's many years in office, enthusiasm for him is
beginning to flag. In a poll published in August by the Monitor, an
opposition newspaper, 69 percent of responding Ugandans said they
prefer to kee p the nation's constitutional term limits in place,
which would prevent Museveni from running - and, everyone agrees,
winning - in 2006.
The problem is finding someone to replace a president who has
determinedly thwarted the emergence of rivals. As part of his effort
to heal Uganda's ethnic rifts, Museveni banned political parties,
which he believed split the country on tribal lines, and called on
opponents to join his National Resistance Movement. The result,
nearly 20 years later, is that Museveni has no real political
opposition.
The handful of old parties that remain despite the ban on their
activities are widely discredited, and the government has so far
failed to follow through on promises to register new parties,
including splinter groups from The Movement, as Museveni's
organization is known. The president also has not groomed a
successor, a clear sign, critics say, that he has no intention of
stepping down.
"That Museveni wants to run indefinitely is a foregone conclusion. He
sees himself as the only man with a vision," said James Rwanyarare, a
spokesman for the Uganda People's Congress, an opposition party that
nonetheless sports a life-sized painting of Obote in its downtown
Kampala offices. "But the only way for government to work is through
institutions, not just an individual. The answer for Uganda is to
have politically viable institutions."
An increasing number of Ugandans believe that Museveni, with his
conviction that only he can solve Uganda's lingering problems and
hold the nation together, is now a threat, rather than an asset, to
Uganda's democratic institutions and its long-term democratic
prospects.
Uganda's media are among the continent's most vibrant, quick to
criticize the president for his failings. Its judicial system has
made key decisions against the president's interests, and its
parliament often engages in spirited debate. But proposed
constitutional changes - including the lifting of term limits and new
powers for the president to dissolve parliament if it disagrees with
him - threaten those institutions, critics say. Uganda's headlines
are full of allegations that the president's allies are buying votes
in support of the changes.
"Indications are the constitution will be amended, whether we like it
or not," said Sheila Kawamara, a Ugandan member of the East African
Legislative Assembly - a multi-country parliament with largely
advisory powers - and a women's rights activist. "With all due
respect, it's a strike against democracy."
Critics say the central problem is that Museveni, after many years in
office and many accolades, has come to believe only he knows what is
best for the country. Even Nagenda, the president's adviser, notes on
his Web site that Museveni's strength of convic tion "has led him to
find it increasingly hard to brook opposition" in recent years and
that he has become "increasingly hard-line, personalizing the issues
of (opponents) and refusing to recognize that they reflect genuine
grievances."
"He's so convinced he's made good decisions (that) he's confused the
state's interest with his interest," added one diplomat in Kampala.
Part of the difficulty in persuading Museveni to accept change is
that aid donors and other international backers, who embraced the
president as an African star in the 1990s and who still provide much
of Uganda's funding, now find it somewhat embarrassing to suggest he
is less than a democratic hero.
"They were looking for the great African success story, and this was
it," said Charles Onyango-Obbo, a Ugandan opposition journalist
repeatedly arrested and charged with bringing the president's name
into disrepute. Now "it has become very hard for them to say he was
wrong without putting their own credibility on the line."
Donors eventually cut off aid to the corrupt government of President
Moi in neighboring Kenya, accelerating his decision to step down. But
in Uganda "it's hard in the position we are in now to go back to the
Kenya model," said one diplomat from a donor nation. "This is not a
failed state. This is not a dictatorship."
Critics say that if Museveni stays in power another term, he could
well drive his frustrated opponents toward Uganda's traditional
method for removing presidents - the military coup. Since Uganda
became independent in 1963, every one of its presidents has left at
gunpoint.
"If he succeeds in manipulating the constitution and breaking down
the separation of powers, a lot of people will say the only way to
change now is through violence," said Aggrey Awori, a parliamentarian
who faced Museveni for the presidency in 2001 and plan s to run in
2006.
Other critics see a more benign scenario. Even if Museveni wins in
2006, they say, young voters - a growing proportion of the
electorate - will eventually stop him from becoming president for
life, as long as elections are free and fair.
A growing proportion of young voters, thanks to the president, are
educated, and "if you can read and write, you can reason," Kawamara
said.
They also grew up in good times, and the president's stories of the
bad old days, before he saved Uganda, no longer resonate, she said.
She, like a growing number of Ugandans, thinks it's time for the
country's old hero to go.
"He loves his country and has a vision and has brought it far," she
said. "But there are many people out there who have the same ability.
When you stay too long, you burn out. It's just human."
---
� 2004, Chicago Tribune.
Do you Yahoo!?
Jazz up your holiday email with celebrity designs. Learn more.
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
