Post by Bozur on Nov 24, 2005 2:17:10 GMT -5
Letter From Uganda
By Fits and Starts, Africa's Brand of Democracy Emerges
By MARC LACEY
Published: November 23, 2005
KAMPALA, Uganda, Nov. 18 - One way of judging the repressive nature of an African president is by standing in the center of that leader's capital city and calling him awful names.
Vanessa Vick for The New York Times
To some, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is a dictator, to others a new type of leader.
Agence France-Presse - Getty Images
As Uganda holds its first multiparty vote, the opposition leader Kizza Besigye, at right during his trial, is in prison.
By that measure, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda could be worse. He is being called a dictator, a thug, a power-hungry autocrat and even harsher things than that these days, and for the most part he is taking it, not trying to round up or eliminate all those who dare speak ill of him, which has been done in this country in the past.
On top of that, Mr. Museveni has been rather adept during his 19 years in power at rebuilding Uganda's tattered economy. He has won widespread praise for his early and activist leadership when it comes to combating AIDS. An erudite man, he speaks passionately of his desire for a modern, robust and, most of all, peaceful Uganda and he sounds very much as if he means it.
But Mr. Museveni, billed during President Clinton's administration as one of Africa's new generation of enlightened, democratic leaders, has proved himself something far less grand than that. He and others like him - notably, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Paul Kagame of Rwanda - have disappointed those who were hoping for Western-style democracy to emerge in full flower in 21st-century Africa.
But if they have fallen short of that goal - a naïve one, they say - they have succeeded in holding together troubled countries with undeveloped democratic institutions and traditions. If that has occasionally meant resorting to ugly and authoritarian methods, so be it, they say. That's African-style democracy, something the West would not understand.
With a long tradition of tyrants in its midst, Africa does seem to have improved its leadership, even as television images from the eastern precincts of the continent recently seem to show a region in crisis. Mr. Museveni, however flawed, is nothing like the murderous Idi Amin or even Milton Obote, another Ugandan strongman of the past. Mr. Meles, Ethiopia's hard-line prime minister, is a far cry from the dictator he ousted, Mengistu Haile Mariam. Mr. Kagame, despite his tight grip on his country, did quell the ethnic slaughter in 1994 that was orchestrated by the government he replaced.
But such leaders, promoted by Washington and other Western capitals as Africa's saviors, are increasingly seen as mere mortals. "I don't think Museveni was ever the leader the world thought he was," said Proscovia Salaamu Musumba, deputy president of the Forum for Democratic Change, a major Ugandan opposition group. "It was an illusion."
The corruption is less blatant than it was with their predecessors, most here agree, the jailing of opponents far less prevalent.
"They are better than the ones before, but in their burning desire to remain in power they are the same," said Ted Dagne, an Africa analyst with the Congressional Research Service in Washington. In what he called "a policy blunder from which we have yet to recover," American policy on Africa has focused too much on personalities, Mr. Dagne said.
Perhaps the most prominent, and ambiguous, of those personalities is Mr. Museveni. While Uganda is preparing to hold its first multiparty presidential elections since he came to power 20 years ago, the government jailed the country's main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, last week, accusing him of treason. Mr. Besigye returned to Uganda from exile last month to huge enthusiastic crowds and declared himself a candidate for the 2006 elections. Now he is off the campaign trail and in Kampala's maximum security prison.
Uganda's press, feisty and independent, frequently earns the wrath of the president, which happens in democracies the world over. But Mr. Museveni sometimes oversteps. His government has demanded that The Monitor, an independent paper, apologize and retract an article suggesting that Mr. Museveni offered the job of army chief to his younger brother, who declined, before settling on someone else. Government sanctions loom if the paper does not comply.
The government has also put pressure on the paper to fire a reporter, Andrew Mwenda, who already faces sedition and other charges for reports that got under Mr. Museveni's skin. The police also entered the paper's printing plant the other night, objecting to an advertisement raising money for Mr. Besigye's legal defense.
But Uganda at least has an independent press, a far cry from Eritrea, where reporters are in jail or in hiding and no voice other than that of President Isaias Afwerki is heard. He, too, was once one of Washington's favorite sons.
African presidencies are no longer the lifetime positions they once were. In Kenya, Mwai Kibaki defeated the ruling party in 2002. In another display, 15 former African heads of state convened in Mali several months back to discuss the important role that retired leaders can play improving Africa from outside of government.
Mr. Museveni should be on the verge of joining that group. But with his second and supposedly last term coming to a close, he pushed to have constitutional limits on his tenure lifted, allowing him to run again in elections next year.
The question remains whether there is such a thing as African democracy. It's not a complete oxymoron. Rigging elections, while still part of the landscape, is becoming a cause for embarrassment, done surreptitiously. Putting up with criticism and dissent is increasingly seen as part of the job. For every leader who clings to power, there are others who go when it's time to go.
Africa's heads of state do face extraordinary challenges, such as the scores or even hundreds of ethnic or tribal groups within their borders, as well as long histories with violent struggle. They have earned the right to define democracy for themselves and their countries - so long as they don't scrap democracy in the process.
"I believe he has been and still is a new generation of leader," said John Nagenda, a top adviser to Mr. Museveni. "But the almighty Americans are not going to decide the type of democracy in Uganda, no matter what they label him."
By Fits and Starts, Africa's Brand of Democracy Emerges
By MARC LACEY
Published: November 23, 2005
KAMPALA, Uganda, Nov. 18 - One way of judging the repressive nature of an African president is by standing in the center of that leader's capital city and calling him awful names.
Vanessa Vick for The New York Times
To some, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is a dictator, to others a new type of leader.
Agence France-Presse - Getty Images
As Uganda holds its first multiparty vote, the opposition leader Kizza Besigye, at right during his trial, is in prison.
By that measure, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda could be worse. He is being called a dictator, a thug, a power-hungry autocrat and even harsher things than that these days, and for the most part he is taking it, not trying to round up or eliminate all those who dare speak ill of him, which has been done in this country in the past.
On top of that, Mr. Museveni has been rather adept during his 19 years in power at rebuilding Uganda's tattered economy. He has won widespread praise for his early and activist leadership when it comes to combating AIDS. An erudite man, he speaks passionately of his desire for a modern, robust and, most of all, peaceful Uganda and he sounds very much as if he means it.
But Mr. Museveni, billed during President Clinton's administration as one of Africa's new generation of enlightened, democratic leaders, has proved himself something far less grand than that. He and others like him - notably, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Paul Kagame of Rwanda - have disappointed those who were hoping for Western-style democracy to emerge in full flower in 21st-century Africa.
But if they have fallen short of that goal - a naïve one, they say - they have succeeded in holding together troubled countries with undeveloped democratic institutions and traditions. If that has occasionally meant resorting to ugly and authoritarian methods, so be it, they say. That's African-style democracy, something the West would not understand.
With a long tradition of tyrants in its midst, Africa does seem to have improved its leadership, even as television images from the eastern precincts of the continent recently seem to show a region in crisis. Mr. Museveni, however flawed, is nothing like the murderous Idi Amin or even Milton Obote, another Ugandan strongman of the past. Mr. Meles, Ethiopia's hard-line prime minister, is a far cry from the dictator he ousted, Mengistu Haile Mariam. Mr. Kagame, despite his tight grip on his country, did quell the ethnic slaughter in 1994 that was orchestrated by the government he replaced.
But such leaders, promoted by Washington and other Western capitals as Africa's saviors, are increasingly seen as mere mortals. "I don't think Museveni was ever the leader the world thought he was," said Proscovia Salaamu Musumba, deputy president of the Forum for Democratic Change, a major Ugandan opposition group. "It was an illusion."
The corruption is less blatant than it was with their predecessors, most here agree, the jailing of opponents far less prevalent.
"They are better than the ones before, but in their burning desire to remain in power they are the same," said Ted Dagne, an Africa analyst with the Congressional Research Service in Washington. In what he called "a policy blunder from which we have yet to recover," American policy on Africa has focused too much on personalities, Mr. Dagne said.
Perhaps the most prominent, and ambiguous, of those personalities is Mr. Museveni. While Uganda is preparing to hold its first multiparty presidential elections since he came to power 20 years ago, the government jailed the country's main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, last week, accusing him of treason. Mr. Besigye returned to Uganda from exile last month to huge enthusiastic crowds and declared himself a candidate for the 2006 elections. Now he is off the campaign trail and in Kampala's maximum security prison.
Uganda's press, feisty and independent, frequently earns the wrath of the president, which happens in democracies the world over. But Mr. Museveni sometimes oversteps. His government has demanded that The Monitor, an independent paper, apologize and retract an article suggesting that Mr. Museveni offered the job of army chief to his younger brother, who declined, before settling on someone else. Government sanctions loom if the paper does not comply.
The government has also put pressure on the paper to fire a reporter, Andrew Mwenda, who already faces sedition and other charges for reports that got under Mr. Museveni's skin. The police also entered the paper's printing plant the other night, objecting to an advertisement raising money for Mr. Besigye's legal defense.
But Uganda at least has an independent press, a far cry from Eritrea, where reporters are in jail or in hiding and no voice other than that of President Isaias Afwerki is heard. He, too, was once one of Washington's favorite sons.
African presidencies are no longer the lifetime positions they once were. In Kenya, Mwai Kibaki defeated the ruling party in 2002. In another display, 15 former African heads of state convened in Mali several months back to discuss the important role that retired leaders can play improving Africa from outside of government.
Mr. Museveni should be on the verge of joining that group. But with his second and supposedly last term coming to a close, he pushed to have constitutional limits on his tenure lifted, allowing him to run again in elections next year.
The question remains whether there is such a thing as African democracy. It's not a complete oxymoron. Rigging elections, while still part of the landscape, is becoming a cause for embarrassment, done surreptitiously. Putting up with criticism and dissent is increasingly seen as part of the job. For every leader who clings to power, there are others who go when it's time to go.
Africa's heads of state do face extraordinary challenges, such as the scores or even hundreds of ethnic or tribal groups within their borders, as well as long histories with violent struggle. They have earned the right to define democracy for themselves and their countries - so long as they don't scrap democracy in the process.
"I believe he has been and still is a new generation of leader," said John Nagenda, a top adviser to Mr. Museveni. "But the almighty Americans are not going to decide the type of democracy in Uganda, no matter what they label him."