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Andrew Mwenda is a very sober analyst and journalist. "Thank you brother Mwenda"
And the leader to save Uganda from all this rot is Dr Kizza-Besigye. We are lucky to have him. He is going to need all progressives lined up behind him.
Rise to this hour of call by your country.
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I argued in this column last week that the depredations of the HIV/Aids pandemic have generated a commendable response by the aid industry - a massive injection of funds to contain the pandemic. However, because their money is channeled through the state to non-government organisations (NGOs), it has attracted the creation of well over 2,500 NGOs in Uganda - to "fight the HIV/Aids pandemic". This opportunistic response has led to bitter contestation to access aid funds from the state, making corruption and favouritism an inevitable outcome. Why such a perverse form of civil society? The structure of the aid industry actually undermines issue-based civic associations. For example, my friends formed a think tank to do public policy research. They felt that the current policy consensus on free market reforms with their accompanying welfare "bribe" of Universal free Primary Education and basic health care are necessary but inadequate to answer the pressing economic problems of poor nations. It has been difficult for the think tank to get funding from abroad to build its research capabilities because foreign donors prefer to put their money into "projects". Somehow, international donors have a self-serving approach to the problems of poor countries, i.e. of trying to "do things" for the poor - build a borehole here or a clinic there and call this "development". Five decades later, millions remain without access to safe drinking water or basic health care. Blackmail In the process, NGOs face a choice to stick to their original mission and fail to do anything because of lack of funding or opportunistically jump onto the agenda of the aid industry and thereby abandon or adulterate their stated objectives. Many, if not all go for the second option. The political opposition has fallen victim of this trend. Over the last 15 years, the aid industry has created a policy consensus in favour of free market economic reforms. This consensus, sometimes called globalisation, denies the existence of peculiar social and economic conditions in poor countries that may call for specific responses. It presents unrestrained liberalisation, deregulation and liberalisation as the answer to the economic dilemma of every country - rich or poor. In the process, it has denied the legitimacy of local organisations that may seek non-market, or market-distorting solutions to their economic problems. For example, local traders cannot organise politically to defend themselves against being pushed out of business by Asian and multi national capital - because the current policy consensus argues that to be a function of the "free market". Farmers cannot seek better prices for their crops through collective bargaining via the agency of cooperatives, because the "free market" should decide that. Workers cannot seek a minimum wage through trade unions - that should be left to the forces of demand and supply for labour. "Seek ye first thy free market," the dictum seems to say, "and the rest will be added unto you." Disappointing opposition The political opposition in Uganda has failed to transcend this policy consensus, hence its failure to organise an issues-based response, and its tendency to jump unto news events to score political goals. Greed, corruption Incidentally, by de-legitimising civic organisation around production, the "free-market" policy consensus has inadvertently promoted organisation around consumption - and therefore made it easy for the state to bribe individuals. Outside of the state, the structure of aid tends to favour NGOs with a corrupt agenda of accessing aid money. Among local political elites in Uganda, this drive towards politics of consumption is promoting ethnic fragmentation. Elites now imagine, and then articulate non-existent tribal, ethnic or clan tensions to demand an "own" district in order to get access to foreign aid-financed decentralisation. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
OPINIONS & COMMENTARIES
WITHOUT MINCING WORDS | Andrew M. Mwenda
How foreign aid promotes corruption and tribalism
To survive, NGOs (like this think tank) need money, the only reliable source being the international aid industry. However, aid comes when it is already earmarked by its donors for pre-conceived projects. The local beneficiaries can only adjust their agenda to the demands of the aid industry, but cannot shape aid money to respond to local needs.
Of course international and local NGOs, supported by many in academia exposed the harmful effects free market driven structural adjustment reforms inflicted on the very poor. The response of the aid industry was not to change its policy thrust but to give welfare "bribes" through Universal free Primary Education and basic health care.
In fact the only issue the opposition has found meaningful to articulate is President Yoweri Museveni's attempt to crown himself a presidential monarch. But this is also its weakness because it comes across as a "one issue" opposition. I admit that it is difficult to build an issues-based opposition when there are no organised social groups seeking to advance particular interests like labour unions, professional and business associations, farmers cooperatives, etc.
This is what makes it easy for the NRM to use direct cash payments to bribe opposition leaders, and indirectly win over their followers. Assume local traders wanted policies to protect them against Asian (Indian and Chinese) competitors? Also assume farmers wanted subsidised fertilisers and access to affordable credit or workers wanted a living wage. You can bribe one cooperative or trade union leader with cash or a state job, but it is more difficult to bribe an entire cooperative union or trade union or business association. In fact the most effective "bribe" in such a case of a politically organised group would be policy change, thus a shift towards issues-based politics.
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