Gang of Four meet after 26 years
Jun 16, 2004
TWENTY-SIX years later in May 2004, all the four met again, at Speke Resort Munyonyo. They joked, laughed and had tea together.
By Joe Nam
TWENTY-SIX years later in May 2004, all the four met again, at Speke Resort Munyonyo. They joked, laughed and had tea together.
Prof. Edward Rugumayo is now Uganda’s Minister of Trade, Omwony Ojwok-Minister for Economic Monitoring, Prof. Dan Nabudere runs the Africa Study Centre while Prof. Yash Tandon is the director of SEATINI (The Southern & Eastern African Trade Information & Negotiations Institute).
Make no mistake, a leopard never sheds off its spots. The gang, all of who are now past 50, still have their guns cocked and ready, and are in the midst of a new and complex war.
They rallied Ugandan dissidents against former president Idi Amin at Moshi in 1979. Now, they have taken on the world super powers in an intricate trade war on behalf of the sleeping giant –– Africa.
“We will do our part to defend our continent and strive for our people to get a good deal,†says Yash. The fighting is centred around the phenomenon called globalisation.
This movement which began as early as the renaissance period in 1450 and gained momentum during the industrial revolution and eventually spread to Africa in the 19th century through colonialism. It produced a powerful business class in Europe and the United States who are determined to control the world’s wealth and its people by any means.
They are the owners of the world handful of trans-national corporations and have their tentacles spread in all nations through share capital, subsidiaries, concessions and franchise.
They run a world wide empire which operates in disguise, through governments, international organisations and business entities.
For the first half of the 20th century, this movement was held back by Russian Communism.
Then the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. One powerful enemy was out of the way, and the next enemy was the nation state, which is presently being systematically tackled.
This club hates the state because the sovereignty stands in it’s way to total control of the production process, the market and profits.
That is why the state has been tricked that it is not ‘a good business man ’ and must give way to the private sector, but remain to create an ‘enabling environment’ for business. The state has been persuaded to sell all her assets at dismal prices.
This club promotes freedom, individualism and democracy but their definition of this is different. Freedom of the individual is pushed for because it is easier to use, dispose, bribe or reward an individual compared to a group.
When communism collapsed, the club needed a new economic regime that would guarantee the safety of their property anywhere in the world. Only the state can offer such guarantee. No time was therefore lost to create a mechanism to ensure this.
The World Trade Organisation was created to handle this aspect and rounds of trade negotiations were soon underway –– first in Uruguay in 1994, then came Seattle in 1999 and Doha in 2002, then last year at Cancun in Mexico.
If as an African history scholar, you gritted your teeth at the stupidity of Lobengula, King of the Ndebele, Lenana chief of the Masai and the four regents of Buganda for signing away their independence to imperialists, hold your breath.
It is happening again under your very nose. Only that this time it is being done by the African Trade and Finance Minister clad in three piece suits not hides and skins like the chiefs of old.
In line with Anglo-American tradition, domination must be exercised through signed consent of the dominated, for the purpose of reference. That is why astronomical amounts of money are being spent to finance trade negotiations summits.
Expensive hotel bills, air tickets and per-diems of African ministers and trade negotiations delegations are fully paid for by the US or the EU, just to get an agreement signed. Part of the tactic has also been to hide the killer clauses in the articles of agreement in codes of complicated legal jargon which takes days to decode even for the best negotiators.
Even then, time is not allowed. When it comes to negotiations, everything is rushed quickly. negotiators of African Caribbean and Pacific countries who show exceptional aptitude at negotiations are sidelined or isolated.
President Yoweri Museveni has been under pressure to recall Ambassador Nathan Irumba, one of the astute African negotiators based in Geneva.
Although Professor Edward Rugumayo was heading the African ministers delegation to Doha in 2002, he was locked out of the negotiations room where 20 African ministers were locked in from midnight until 5:00am to extract a signed agreement.
Yash Tandon says African countries have the power to say NO to what is not in its good interest. “Cancun was a victory for us because the advanced nations did not get what they wanted, we took a stand on a number of issues including that the US and EU must waive off subsidies to it’s agricultural sector to allow Africa’s agri-exports to their countries.â€
Cancun talks collapsed to chagrin of the advanced nations, and for SEATINI’s role in that, the German foreign minister ordered a German foundation which was funding SEATINI to suspend its assistance ‘immediately’ and for good.
“We are not starting a revolution,†says Omwony-Ojwok. “All we are demanding is that considerations of natural justice and humanity play at trade negotiations. It must be a win-win situation between the advanced and developing nations.â€
TWENTY-SIX years later in May 2004, all the four met again, at Speke Resort Munyonyo. They joked, laughed and had tea together.
Prof. Edward Rugumayo is now Uganda’s Minister of Trade, Omwony Ojwok-Minister for Economic Monitoring, Prof. Dan Nabudere runs the Africa Study Centre while Prof. Yash Tandon is the director of SEATINI (The Southern & Eastern African Trade Information & Negotiations Institute).
Make no mistake, a leopard never sheds off its spots. The gang, all of who are now past 50, still have their guns cocked and ready, and are in the midst of a new and complex war.
They rallied Ugandan dissidents against former president Idi Amin at Moshi in 1979. Now, they have taken on the world super powers in an intricate trade war on behalf of the sleeping giant –– Africa.
“We will do our part to defend our continent and strive for our people to get a good deal,†says Yash. The fighting is centred around the phenomenon called globalisation.
This movement which began as early as the renaissance period in 1450 and gained momentum during the industrial revolution and eventually spread to Africa in the 19th century through colonialism. It produced a powerful business class in Europe and the United States who are determined to control the world’s wealth and its people by any means.
They are the owners of the world handful of trans-national corporations and have their tentacles spread in all nations through share capital, subsidiaries, concessions and franchise.
They run a world wide empire which operates in disguise, through governments, international organisations and business entities.
For the first half of the 20th century, this movement was held back by Russian Communism.
Then the Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. One powerful enemy was out of the way, and the next enemy was the nation state, which is presently being systematically tackled.
This club hates the state because the sovereignty stands in it’s way to total control of the production process, the market and profits.
That is why the state has been tricked that it is not ‘a good business man ’ and must give way to the private sector, but remain to create an ‘enabling environment’ for business. The state has been persuaded to sell all her assets at dismal prices.
This club promotes freedom, individualism and democracy but their definition of this is different. Freedom of the individual is pushed for because it is easier to use, dispose, bribe or reward an individual compared to a group.
When communism collapsed, the club needed a new economic regime that would guarantee the safety of their property anywhere in the world. Only the state can offer such guarantee. No time was therefore lost to create a mechanism to ensure this.
The World Trade Organisation was created to handle this aspect and rounds of trade negotiations were soon underway –– first in Uruguay in 1994, then came Seattle in 1999 and Doha in 2002, then last year at Cancun in Mexico.
If as an African history scholar, you gritted your teeth at the stupidity of Lobengula, King of the Ndebele, Lenana chief of the Masai and the four regents of Buganda for signing away their independence to imperialists, hold your breath.
It is happening again under your very nose. Only that this time it is being done by the African Trade and Finance Minister clad in three piece suits not hides and skins like the chiefs of old.
In line with Anglo-American tradition, domination must be exercised through signed consent of the dominated, for the purpose of reference. That is why astronomical amounts of money are being spent to finance trade negotiations summits.
Expensive hotel bills, air tickets and per-diems of African ministers and trade negotiations delegations are fully paid for by the US or the EU, just to get an agreement signed. Part of the tactic has also been to hide the killer clauses in the articles of agreement in codes of complicated legal jargon which takes days to decode even for the best negotiators.
Even then, time is not allowed. When it comes to negotiations, everything is rushed quickly. negotiators of African Caribbean and Pacific countries who show exceptional aptitude at negotiations are sidelined or isolated.
President Yoweri Museveni has been under pressure to recall Ambassador Nathan Irumba, one of the astute African negotiators based in Geneva.
Although Professor Edward Rugumayo was heading the African ministers delegation to Doha in 2002, he was locked out of the negotiations room where 20 African ministers were locked in from midnight until 5:00am to extract a signed agreement.
Yash Tandon says African countries have the power to say NO to what is not in its good interest. “Cancun was a victory for us because the advanced nations did not get what they wanted, we took a stand on a number of issues including that the US and EU must waive off subsidies to it’s agricultural sector to allow Africa’s agri-exports to their countries.â€
Cancun talks collapsed to chagrin of the advanced nations, and for SEATINI’s role in that, the German foreign minister ordered a German foundation which was funding SEATINI to suspend its assistance ‘immediately’ and for good.
“We are not starting a revolution,†says Omwony-Ojwok. “All we are demanding is that considerations of natural justice and humanity play at trade negotiations. It must be a win-win situation between the advanced and developing nations.â€