Useful idiots -Kagame, Mwenda and Rwandese elections Posted on June 4, 2011 A week ago Doreen posted a link to the BBC documentary “Useful idiots”! The phrase ‘useful idiots’, supposedly Lenin’s, refers to Westerners duped into saying good things about bad regimes. Am afraid Andrew Mwenda’s most recent article reminds one of the phrase useful idiots and appears to describe him perfectly! On first reading the reports of Kagame’s phenomenal victory, my first thoughts were that this cannot possibly be true. Not in any freely democratic society. If anything sounds like it is too god to be true, then it has got to be too good to be true. This massive win with a 93% majority more than a decade after coming to power following one of the most fractious of civil wars has got o be a miracle! But I am not a believer in miracles. I much prefer to see real proof and evidence. I struggle to think of any truly free thinking society that has returned a leader with a 93% majority at an election! In reality the only countries where leaders are returned with such large majorities are not banners for democracy. One thinks of people like Mobutu, Sadam, Ghadafi, the North Korean regimes and Cuba. There is no doubt that Kagame is a strongman who exerts total authority over his government and country. There is also no doubt that he has had more success in some areas than one has come to expect from out leaders particularly if one comes from Uganda. Quoted examples include austerity measures, clamping down on corruption, police discipline, clean streets, housing etc. A long time ago a Rwandese friend of mine who was an insider and soldier in the RPF told me that in Kagame’s army, he was the boss and the only boss. He brooked no dissent and handled it with ruthless finality! His soldiers knew it and none dared cross him . There are plenty of things to be admired about Rwanda. But there are lots of things about which one should be apprehensive. One of those is the personality cult built up around Kagame. Leaders should come and go. But wnenever a leader shows signs of being the only institution in the land, one should smell trouble! examples abound of leaders who having come with a revolution, ate up or got eaten up by the revolution. As a matter of fact, revolutionaries seem to have the unfortunate knack of believing that the country cannot live without them and continue to remain at the helm long into their senility like comrade Mugabe or till prolonged incubence and corruption and their evils sons kleptocracy and impunity bring them down. One thinks of people like Mobutu, and Obote who did not know when to bow out gracefully to enjoy their spoils including stolen wealth! Mwenda is a strong critic of Museveni. As a matter of fact, he rarely ever gives Museveni credit for anything. it is therefore surprising that he has always presented without question the story of a successful and peaceful Rwanda. That in a country that less than two decades ago a million people got massacred within 100 days and where a significant part of the population lives in camps outside its borders and an overwhelming majority of major government and military positions are held by a minority that constitutes only 15% of the population Kagame could get a 93% of the vote begs an explanation. An artcle such as the one Mwenda just wrote begs the question of balance. It smells of roses. If Kagame’s minsistry of propaganda had written this story, it couldnt have come out better. regardless of the facts and the details, if this had been in Uganda, Mwenda would have written a story looking for loopholes and weaknesses in the rosy picture! this in itself suggests bias if not outright compromise of his journalistic integrity. As an African I love to see success stories. I also hate it when western journalists comment on Africa from positions of ignorance while making unqualified statements and conclusions. But the wish to see a success story in the middle of such hopelessness should not blind us to facts. Fact -Kagame is one of the longest serving rulers on the continent. He has no obvious retirement plan. like museveni, his son just graduated from Fort Leavenworth and got his pips. He brooks no criticism and controls dissent. opponents are dealth with with ruthlessness. He also has an advantage that blinds those who would criticise him. He can make his accusers back down with guilt by showing them the skulls -a tactic Museveni has employed for years. A tame opposition, culled in advance and a tightly controlled society are not exactly a democracy. Finally what is this literary gimmick of suppressing opposition to ones views by labelling them lazy elites? Methinks that all of the praise that Mwenda has received has gone to his head just like it did with Timothy! If one is confident in their views they do not have to try and brow beat and bully those who may have a different view! There is no doubt that Kagame has done some good things in Rwanda. As a matter of fact I wish Uganda could borrow some leaves from Rwanda. If Rwandese can overcome all of their differences to give Kagame almost 100 % of the vote almost 2 decades since he came into power they must better than Ugandans or for that matter most other people in the world notwithstanding their unique experience in comparison to the rest of the world.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 02:52:59 +0000
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