
Author: Moses Khisa. PHOTO/FILE
In making their case for why they were fighting to capture power, Uganda’s current rulers made lofty promises in the famous 10-point programme. Four decades later, it is a story of failed promises and unfulfilled hopes. Uganda is in a bind.
As I argued last week, political order remains elusive. We have had rhetorical declarations about how it is impossible to take Uganda back to its bloody past or how no one can play around with the country’s security and stability. The truth is, Uganda’s current political status quo could disintegrate quickly and unexpectedly.
The foundation on which today’s political system and socioeconomic superstructure sit is at best shaky, at worst treacherous. In the previous, somewhat theoretical, discussion of the foundations of political order, I alluded to the centrality of sequencing and timing – it matters what comes first, when it happens, in thinking about the different pillars that buttress a stable and enduring political order.
A strong state, a robust rule of law system, and credible institutions of accountability are the core components of political order.
Different countries weaved these three together and arrived at an equilibrium with varying sequences and temporalities.
Arguably, countries have done better when they start with a strong state, then follow that with developing elaborate rule of law mechanisms that define property rights, promote commerce, and make possible adjudication of disputes, after which they embrace institutions of accountability – for example, the democracy format.
For poor countries struggling with countless intractable problems, it is not a strong state or rule of law or accountability institutions that need to come first, rather it is the forging of a nation as a political community that must form the nucleus. It is a crucial foundation.This is where the current rulership has spectacularly failed – the failure to produce a deep sense of national identity and integration that makes possible a shared aspiration and common belonging.
In a country as socially fragile as Uganda, without durable political integration, social conflict and devastating violence remain on the cards, likely triggered at any time. Without horizontal comradeship and shared solidarity, inter and intra-ethnic animosities remain latent and potentially explosive.
Ethnic political mobilisation is the default modus operandi. The ethnic other is a convenient enemy. As a colonial creation and political contraption, this has been Uganda’s political history, and the current rulers had the perfect setting and set of circumstances in 1986 to embark on engineering a true political community – a nation.
Nation-building is a protracted process, often characterised by strides and setbacks. It can entail blood and iron, bargains, and compromises. In the case of the National Resistance Army that brought Mr Museveni to power, there was the loss of innumerable human life in the name of a national cause. Yet, four decades later, it is difficult to point to what the NRA and the National Resistance Movement government have done that is reassuring about nation-building for the long term.
Today, many Baganda are more likely to extend unqualified allegiance, reverence, and appreciation to the King of Buganda than to the Constitution and government of Uganda. The Bakonjo might be ready to pick arms on behalf of the Obusinga bwa Rwenzururu (despite its newness and somewhat artificiality) against the Ugandan national army.
As the social cleavages and conflicts in Uganda have been on display long enough, one would have expected the current rulers to know better that there are no easy shortcuts around the Uganda question – the national question. Tanzania next door offers instructive lessons in what it means for a people to have an unbreakable bond of national common belonging.
It is no coincidence that in a region defined by large-scale violence and devastating conflicts, Tanzania has held steady and stable. It is about the nation-ness. With this in place, other pillars of political order gradually come on board however long it may take.
Tanzania is on a viable path. It is impossible to tell the future, but one can bet on Tanzania to forge forward in developing the different pillars of political order building on the foundation of the nation. In the aftermath of the 1994 tragedy in Rwanda, President Paul Kagame and his ruling political organisation have pursued an ambitious national engineering project to reimagine and create a Rwanda nation. It is an experiment laden with complications, contradictions, and controversies, but they have earnestly tried it and achieved some commendable results.With a national spirit and the question of national belonging settled, it is possible to pursue processes of building efficient state systems, the rule of law, and institutions of accountability.
The national foundation is also necessary for pursuing socioeconomic transformation as recently witnessed in a range of Asian nations whose development agendas had the invaluable fuel of national pride and shared identity.It is in this regard that I turn to my past emphasis on Project Uganda. Until we get the ‘Uganda-nation’ to work or be made to work, nothing else will, long term.
The law, the judiciary, the state, bureaucracy, democracy et al, shall all remain alien or at best mere bland simulacrum.