Uganda must walk its own democratic path
PAUL Collier in his book Wars, Guns and Votes says ‘Democracy, does not seem to enhance the prospects of internal peace. On the contrary, it seems to increase proneness to political violence.’
Eva Mwine
PAUL Collier in his book Wars, Guns and Votes says ‘Democracy, does not seem to enhance the prospects of internal peace. On the contrary, it seems to increase proneness to political violence.’
Collier goes on to say of the West, that ‘In promoting elections, the rich, liberal democracies have missed the point. We want to make the bottom billion look like us, but we forget how we got to where we are. We did not do it in a single leap: dictatorship to liberal democracy.
We have to be realistic in expecting that these societies could, in one step, make a transition that historically has been made in several distinct steps’.
As we continue the strenuous trek up Democracy’s mountain, Uganda is running the final furlong to the 2011 general elections bruised and battered by the recent party primaries.
Wallowing in the murky memories of the electoral fraud which characterised the primary elections will not take us forward; these are the teething problems of infant democracy, and although they are emasculating and destabilising they can be overcome.
The NRM primaries in particular were no small feat, considering the vastness of their grass root cover and the inadequacy of their operational budget; even in its failings a significant accomplishment was made. Immense navigational force can be drawn from the histories of the world’s most mature Democracies.
Forgery, ballot stuffing and wolokoso (rumours) are not a preserve of Ugandan electoral politics but rather, they are engrained in the histories of many modern democracies.
In 1968 Margaret Thatcher, in a desperate bid to polish up the image of the Conservative Party, made a public statement in which she referred to the early history of British Democracy; she remarked thus: “There are some things that have improved over the years, bribery and corruption, which have now gone, used to be rampant.â€
But as we study and learn from foreign history, we must recognise that many of our challenges and circumstances require that we swallow Democracy’s prescriptions following a ‘Uganda-specific’ dosing.
In the context of today, for example, how should the leadership of the NRM handle the phenomenon of ‘NRM Independents’ (born of the crisis of confidence in the internal electoral process)? Should they deal them the firm hand of disassociation, thus growing the textbook ‘Party’ while weakening the grass root ‘resistance’ movement?
How should the NRM address the opposition’s strategic infiltration of its leadership positions (specifically, the blue boys in yellow)? Should their false claims of ‘loyalty’, take precedence over the authenticity of village level intelligence networks that continue to protest the endorsement of these people? Is it really prudent to force a population still so freshly defiled by electoral fraud and irregularities into a legalistic straight jacket?
In this delicate season of fledgling parties, weakened by the prevailing ideological drought, the onus is resting on the NRM to re-anchor national politics to the ‘people’s cause. All this should be done under the broader ideological umbrella of changing the Eurocentric thinking that has disorganised African society for too long.
PAUL Collier in his book Wars, Guns and Votes says ‘Democracy, does not seem to enhance the prospects of internal peace. On the contrary, it seems to increase proneness to political violence.’
Collier goes on to say of the West, that ‘In promoting elections, the rich, liberal democracies have missed the point. We want to make the bottom billion look like us, but we forget how we got to where we are. We did not do it in a single leap: dictatorship to liberal democracy.
We have to be realistic in expecting that these societies could, in one step, make a transition that historically has been made in several distinct steps’.
As we continue the strenuous trek up Democracy’s mountain, Uganda is running the final furlong to the 2011 general elections bruised and battered by the recent party primaries.
Wallowing in the murky memories of the electoral fraud which characterised the primary elections will not take us forward; these are the teething problems of infant democracy, and although they are emasculating and destabilising they can be overcome.
The NRM primaries in particular were no small feat, considering the vastness of their grass root cover and the inadequacy of their operational budget; even in its failings a significant accomplishment was made. Immense navigational force can be drawn from the histories of the world’s most mature Democracies.
Forgery, ballot stuffing and wolokoso (rumours) are not a preserve of Ugandan electoral politics but rather, they are engrained in the histories of many modern democracies.
In 1968 Margaret Thatcher, in a desperate bid to polish up the image of the Conservative Party, made a public statement in which she referred to the early history of British Democracy; she remarked thus: “There are some things that have improved over the years, bribery and corruption, which have now gone, used to be rampant.â€
But as we study and learn from foreign history, we must recognise that many of our challenges and circumstances require that we swallow Democracy’s prescriptions following a ‘Uganda-specific’ dosing.
In the context of today, for example, how should the leadership of the NRM handle the phenomenon of ‘NRM Independents’ (born of the crisis of confidence in the internal electoral process)? Should they deal them the firm hand of disassociation, thus growing the textbook ‘Party’ while weakening the grass root ‘resistance’ movement?
How should the NRM address the opposition’s strategic infiltration of its leadership positions (specifically, the blue boys in yellow)? Should their false claims of ‘loyalty’, take precedence over the authenticity of village level intelligence networks that continue to protest the endorsement of these people? Is it really prudent to force a population still so freshly defiled by electoral fraud and irregularities into a legalistic straight jacket?
In this delicate season of fledgling parties, weakened by the prevailing ideological drought, the onus is resting on the NRM to re-anchor national politics to the ‘people’s cause. All this should be done under the broader ideological umbrella of changing the Eurocentric thinking that has disorganised African society for too long.