Why Africa needs to integrate China's meritocracy into way we choose leaders

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OPINION

By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Populism means basically any political doctrine chosen to appeal to a majority of the electorate. It can sometimes be very bad. For example, the majority of the population could be in favour of a candidate because he’s a celebrity or a good singer, but not necessarily a good leader. Voting someone on this basis is so wrong, and I think that's why some Western countries have suddenly found themselves lagging behind China.

In a time of crisis, populists always gain in power. We have observed that in various countries, particularly in the USA, politics. Populists promise easy solutions to complex problems.

In Uganda and the rest of Africa, even if you have never been involved in politics, if you either have enough money, you’re popular or you're talented in convincing voters to support you, then you have a chance to become a high-ranking elected official. We have seen that with Bobi Wine and other entertainers who have become Ugandan MPs in the last five years.

I was also recently disgusted when the NUP management committee decided to go with singer Mathias Walukaga in Busiro East at the expense of the experienced and well-educated lawyer, Medard Ssegona. Luckily, the Electoral Commission rectified it for us.

Meritocracy

Meritocracy, on the other hand, is the path to success. China is no exception - leaders are groomed and evaluated every step along an intricate path. Basically, if you want to be a leader, you must start from the grassroots level to accumulate rich government work experiences after ascending nine levels of posts.

Strict selection is through meritocracy, family background, and extensive civil services experience, preferably at the provincial level or governing a major city, and preferably served in the armed forces.

Initially, you must be able to make it through the party membership selection processes and be accepted as a party cadre. The majority of new Party members are fostered in universities, and the minimum standards of becoming a Party member are: excellent academic scores, outstanding daily performance, and certain class management experience are preferred. Of course, if you are in other occupations, as long as your performance is excellent and you are dedicated, there are opportunities to become a Party member.

After becoming a party member, you need to become China's public official, that is, a civil servant. When in the civil service, you start from the grassroots level, equivalent to community work in Europe and the United States. Then you climb the ladder of nine levels from county to city, then to provincial level, and then head for the central level. When you finally make your way into the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, congratulations, you now have a chance to be the next state leader of China.

The economic growth rate is not the only benchmark to evaluate competence; the improvement of livelihoods, the income index of residents, and the spirit of pragmatic work are all taken into consideration. Officials who crave lucrative positions or solicit votes will be removed from the list of potential candidates for promotion.

In the case of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, he completed nine levels after assuming 16 major positions with government work experiences in two provinces and one municipality (Fujian, Zhejiang and Shanghai) with a total population amounted to 150 million. It was a 40 + years’ journey: From a Party Secretary of a production brigade to No. 1 leader of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai, and then to vice-president of China, to CPC General Secretary, President of China, and finally top leader of China.

While working in Ningde, Fujian, as a local Party secretary, his footprints covered nine counties. After getting transferred to Zhejiang, he spent about 50 per cent of his work time researching local people's living conditions. He usually got up at six to seven in the morning and worked late until midnight. He travelled around 90 cities and towns of the province in less than two years. While in Shanghai, he also toured all 19 districts and counties.

His fast-paced and vigorous efforts were rewarded with fruitful achievements. Taking Ningde as an example, during his term of one and a half years, the rate of poverty alleviation had reached a record high 96%. While he was in Zhejiang, the GDP (gross domestic product) of the province witnessed a drastic increase from 767 billion yuan in 2002 to one trillion, and 863.84 billion Yuan in 2007. When he became president, he was only 59 years old.

The person who finally gets to be president of the PRC is extremely qualified to be a politician. That is, he is very adept and experienced at politics and negotiating and strategy. In order to rise to the top, he must also be very impressive to his colleagues and peers.

This system of selecting leaders of China is an old and proven tradition. Nobody without experience and some top leadership knowledge could become a leader. It is not possible to just helicopter your way from music to being selected to be a leader. You must start from the entry-level and work your way up, and be willing to take on projects and show your capabilities and leadership qualities.

I wonder how many Ugandan politicians would ever be successful if they were to be selected using this method with the meritocracy system in China.

Compared to the Western style of electing a leader, which we adopted after gaining independence, in China, the possibility that the country will elect an unqualified leader is minimal. Also, the possibility that the leader will become a totalitarian dictator is also minimal since the leadership in China is a group leadership of a minimum of two people or more.

The Chinese care more about whether the captain is qualified to lead the giant ship and let him run safely and smoothly. Political acumen is also needed, or else you can not make tough decisions and steer the whole Politburo or country. They are not looking for "Mr Nice" but a very strong, tough leader who knows a hell of a lot about governance and party politics. This is a complex, super big country.

Moving forward, Uganda and other Africans need to find a way of integrating meritocracy into our politics. We can't keep voting for people based on simply good speeches. I mean, anyone can bluff, right?

‘Democracy’ means ‘government by the people’, where ‘demo’ means ‘people’. Our people need to stop voting candidates out of simply emotions. That's how we are going to stop every Tom and Dick from going to parliament or becoming president.

The writer is a Ugandan living in the UK