Good luck, Rwanda
Aug 08, 2003
Sentiments about the coming big event in our neighbour to the south
WHILE it might seem like traversing a minefield, so be it, but I shall open with a look at the forthcoming presidential elections in neighbouring Rwanda. What a big step this represents there! The perceived wisdom to very many is that there exists a huge chasm between the Hutu and the Tutsi in that country.
Further, that on the whole it is the latter, by a long way the minority, who currently rule the others — not always with their full participation. What’s more it is supposed to be almost sacrilegious to think in these terms, much less to voice them openly.
I have talked about this to Banyarwanda friends who have told me I am spouting rubbish. Am I? That is one of the things which these elections will confirm or otherwise. The background is that there have been cycles of violence in Rwanda for around 50 years, culminating in 1994 when nearly a million Rwandese, mostly Tutsi and many moderate Hutu, were butchered. The Interahamwe who carried out the massacres are still around, although much weakened.
Indeed the main historical victims of the brutalities have been Tutsi. Now in power, the argument goes, are they going to share equitably with the others, who are so numerically superior? For if so how will the Tutsi be protected in future? It seems an almost insurmountable conundrum.
So the elections could not have come at a more intriguing time. Can those in power allow for them to be free and fair? And if so, and the overridingly majority Hutu vote for their own, then what? Will Kagame walk off into the sunset? Difficult to fully visualize this! Needless to say, the best outcome would depend on whether Kagame’s government had behaved so impeccably to all Rwandese, regardless of origin, that the electorate voted neutrally, based only on the capability of the person standing.
This would silence those who have grumbled, myself included, at some of President Kagame’s measures. Our Rwandese counterparts have not been backward, regarding our own President! There will be a thousand outside observers for these elections (one per 6000 people; pro-rata for China: 200,000 observers) to cry fair or foul. Here’s hoping it will be fair, whoever Rwanda chooses.
* * *
Why tell a lie when you can tell the truth? I have spent the last fortnight or so agonising about “Captain†Mike Mukula and what can be referred to as the Teso War. I have put Captain in quotes because Mr Mukula is an aircraft pilot captain rather than a military one in the kind of action under consideration.
But he is not the only Ugandan to do so, so I guess that’s okay. Also I have no problem believing that Mike Mukula is sincere in his taking a month’s leave from ministerial duties to join the militia fighting Kony in Teso. In this, besides, he is setting a good example for others. Where doubts creep in is the way he goes about the whole business. There was the uniform (in which he cut a fine figure; I kept thinking, where are the pips?) and pistol, and bayonet, that he took to parliament. Was horrible Kony expected? Mr Ras’ cartoon showed a leaping Mukula, the bayonet sticking out in front of him as if part of his very body. What a tool! You get the picture; really Mr Ras is a very fine artist. There was also the picture of him, again in uniform (the belt was a bit of a mistake) with General Jeje Odong, not in uniform, at a funeral.
You were left wondering how that went down. To my mind, the words should also decrease, if only because they will, in addition to all the media attention on Mukula, soon incense regular soldiers, who live, and sometimes die, serving their nation.
Theirs, as Tennyson put it of another war, not to ask the reason why; theirs but to do and die. Other militia, such as the Arrow Group, fighting alongside the Ugandan army, are also said to be irritated. If Capt Mukula means to highlight the Kony lunacy visited on Teso, rather than to highlight himself, let his actions reflect this. It adds value. I am sure he is already realising this.
* * *
Wednesday’s Vision blared out in its front-page headline: MUSEVENI OPPONENTS MEET IN UK. With heart all pit-a-patter and hands fluttering like leaves in a high wind, your columnist turned to the story itself. Normality returned swiftly. The list read like a who’s who of discarded substances left out in the rain. Top of the nkuba kyeeyo (manual worker) list was Mr Herman Ssemujju, who (for want of a better expression) was once a self-styled presidential aspirant. Water finds its level, as has Ssemujju.
Among other rent-a-crowd names there were Peter Otai, Kony supporter Nyekorach Matsanga and Madame Joyce Ssebuggwawo, late of the Mengo cabinet. The work she is doing in England seems to have left its mark, judging by her pensive looking photograph. There were others too, but life is too short! Among them, even UPC’s Henry Mayega’s name shone out like a beacon. Need I say more? I could picture the man they were meeting to attack, sleeping easy as a baby! What is the matter with these people; can they muster nothing better? Then there is the financial implication. I understand manual workers earn around three pounds an hour each; if the meeting lasted, say, five hours, that is 15 quid down the drain for those in that line of work. You would have to have a heart of steel not to burst out laughing!
Ends
www.onemansweek.com
Further, that on the whole it is the latter, by a long way the minority, who currently rule the others — not always with their full participation. What’s more it is supposed to be almost sacrilegious to think in these terms, much less to voice them openly.
I have talked about this to Banyarwanda friends who have told me I am spouting rubbish. Am I? That is one of the things which these elections will confirm or otherwise. The background is that there have been cycles of violence in Rwanda for around 50 years, culminating in 1994 when nearly a million Rwandese, mostly Tutsi and many moderate Hutu, were butchered. The Interahamwe who carried out the massacres are still around, although much weakened.
Indeed the main historical victims of the brutalities have been Tutsi. Now in power, the argument goes, are they going to share equitably with the others, who are so numerically superior? For if so how will the Tutsi be protected in future? It seems an almost insurmountable conundrum.
So the elections could not have come at a more intriguing time. Can those in power allow for them to be free and fair? And if so, and the overridingly majority Hutu vote for their own, then what? Will Kagame walk off into the sunset? Difficult to fully visualize this! Needless to say, the best outcome would depend on whether Kagame’s government had behaved so impeccably to all Rwandese, regardless of origin, that the electorate voted neutrally, based only on the capability of the person standing.
This would silence those who have grumbled, myself included, at some of President Kagame’s measures. Our Rwandese counterparts have not been backward, regarding our own President! There will be a thousand outside observers for these elections (one per 6000 people; pro-rata for China: 200,000 observers) to cry fair or foul. Here’s hoping it will be fair, whoever Rwanda chooses.
* * *
Why tell a lie when you can tell the truth? I have spent the last fortnight or so agonising about “Captain†Mike Mukula and what can be referred to as the Teso War. I have put Captain in quotes because Mr Mukula is an aircraft pilot captain rather than a military one in the kind of action under consideration.
But he is not the only Ugandan to do so, so I guess that’s okay. Also I have no problem believing that Mike Mukula is sincere in his taking a month’s leave from ministerial duties to join the militia fighting Kony in Teso. In this, besides, he is setting a good example for others. Where doubts creep in is the way he goes about the whole business. There was the uniform (in which he cut a fine figure; I kept thinking, where are the pips?) and pistol, and bayonet, that he took to parliament. Was horrible Kony expected? Mr Ras’ cartoon showed a leaping Mukula, the bayonet sticking out in front of him as if part of his very body. What a tool! You get the picture; really Mr Ras is a very fine artist. There was also the picture of him, again in uniform (the belt was a bit of a mistake) with General Jeje Odong, not in uniform, at a funeral.
You were left wondering how that went down. To my mind, the words should also decrease, if only because they will, in addition to all the media attention on Mukula, soon incense regular soldiers, who live, and sometimes die, serving their nation.
Theirs, as Tennyson put it of another war, not to ask the reason why; theirs but to do and die. Other militia, such as the Arrow Group, fighting alongside the Ugandan army, are also said to be irritated. If Capt Mukula means to highlight the Kony lunacy visited on Teso, rather than to highlight himself, let his actions reflect this. It adds value. I am sure he is already realising this.
* * *
Wednesday’s Vision blared out in its front-page headline: MUSEVENI OPPONENTS MEET IN UK. With heart all pit-a-patter and hands fluttering like leaves in a high wind, your columnist turned to the story itself. Normality returned swiftly. The list read like a who’s who of discarded substances left out in the rain. Top of the nkuba kyeeyo (manual worker) list was Mr Herman Ssemujju, who (for want of a better expression) was once a self-styled presidential aspirant. Water finds its level, as has Ssemujju.
Among other rent-a-crowd names there were Peter Otai, Kony supporter Nyekorach Matsanga and Madame Joyce Ssebuggwawo, late of the Mengo cabinet. The work she is doing in England seems to have left its mark, judging by her pensive looking photograph. There were others too, but life is too short! Among them, even UPC’s Henry Mayega’s name shone out like a beacon. Need I say more? I could picture the man they were meeting to attack, sleeping easy as a baby! What is the matter with these people; can they muster nothing better? Then there is the financial implication. I understand manual workers earn around three pounds an hour each; if the meeting lasted, say, five hours, that is 15 quid down the drain for those in that line of work. You would have to have a heart of steel not to burst out laughing!
Ends
www.onemansweek.com