Is
successful Uganda
preparing a return
to the dark ages?
By
Jonathan
Power
TFF Associate
since 1991
Comments to JonatPower@aol.com
April 21, 2005
LONDON - I used to jog down the
back roads of Jinja, the old cotton center laid bare by
15 years of murderous civil war. There was a dirt-covered
sign pointing to a rutted road: "To the source of the
Nile." I would cut through the long grass and the sweet
smell of jacaranda and frangipani, past the long
abandoned Mango Café, and arrive at a sharp cleft
in the hill. There, nestling below, the headwaters of the
Nile burst into view. No wonder, I would think, that
Winston Churchill called Uganda "the pearl of Africa, a
fairy tale land".
But in mind's eye I could see the
future and now it has arrived. Two hotels have grabbed
the spot. And there is a plan, well advanced, to build a
dam to provide electricity for Uganda's rushing economic
development. The country's untamed beauty, preserved by
misrule and war, is being transformed before the
visitor's eyes.
I was last here 17 years ago and my
guide was a young Ugandan doctor who was not complaining
about his salary of $17 a month. After the madness of
dictator Idi Amin and his murderous sequel, Milton Obote,
together with the likelihood of disease from unchecked
sleeping sickness and Aids (Uganda then was the epicenter
of Africa's Aids epidemic,) if you had your life you were
one of the lucky ones.
The rebel leader who helped
overthrow Obote was a young man, Yoweri Museveni. Within
a year he taken power and had purged the army and the
civil service. Random killings were ended. So were
executions. The markets were freed and the plethora of
state companies privatized. The aid donors were invited
back. The power lines were rebuilt, children were
inoculated, drugs were shipped to derelict health centers
and sleeping sickness was brought under
control.
As for Aids, the warning sign in
the Minister of Health's waiting room seemed to work.
"Beware of the sweetness and splendor of sex", it read,
"it could prove hazardous to your health and life".
Uganda now has made more progress in the fight against
Aids than any other African country. The death rate has
fallen sharply - and not just because of condoms but
because abstinence has been encouraged from on high - by
the president and his crusading wife - with telling
effect.
The tourists are back in numbers.
Hotels are sprouting all over and Kampala is barely
recognizable. The Nile Mansions hotel, which once was
requisitioned by Obote's secret police, is being
refurbished. Yet a visitor to suite 305 can still recall
the images of the blood stained carpets and walls of what
was a torture chamber.
No wonder the country is divided
about the idea of Museveni running for another term of
office next year. The fear of going back to the dark ages
is one that Museveni's admirers play on. Nevertheless,
there are a good many Ugandans, including members of his
cabinet, who feel the country should be today mature
enough to emulate its neighbor, Tanzania, whose president
has no doubts about stepping down this year after two
terms in office.
When I put these questions to
Museveni he dismissed them. "It's not one-man rule if
people vote for it." And he points out that he can't run
again unless the constitution is altered and that can
only happen if a democratically elected conference
decides to do it. For Museveni, being president "is not
about a career, as in Europe. It is not a job, it's a
cause."
This reply begs the question, if
the job of president is truly a vocation why did Uganda
overstay its welcome in the Congo after it had driven the
Sudanese out? There are well-documented reports that
people close to him have benefited from the illegal
exploitation of the Congo's mineral resources. His answer
is to say the matter has been referred to the director of
public prosecutions. But he appears to be sitting on the
case.
Western diplomats worry that if
Museveni runs again popular agitation against him could
take to the streets and if the army is called upon to
continuously repress street demonstrations it could rebel
and seize power as it has done before. "Uganda needs to
see what it has never had - a peaceful handover of
power", said one ambassador.
Surely Museveni doesn't want his
country to repeat the experience of Africa's earlier
one-time economic success story, Cote d'Ivoire, where the
country fell apart into feuding factions because
President Félix Houphouët-Boigny decided to
stay president until the day he died, without giving the
opportunity for an elected successor to establish
himself.
If Museveni repeats that mistake
the dam at the head of the Nile might not be built and
the frangipani will bloom unmolested, but the country
will lose its remarkable momentum.
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Copyright © 2005 By
JONATHAN POWER
I can be reached by
phone +44 7785 351172 and e-mail: JonatPower@aol.com
Follow this
link to read about - and order - Jonathan Power's book
written for the
40th Anniversary of
Amnesty International
"Like
Water on Stone - The Story of Amnesty
International"
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