The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
This skepticism of the popular demands must have consolidated in me as a child when I read the story of Jesus Christ. In the Bible he is presented as a virtuous person, seeking to save the world. Then I would read and reread the chants of the majority shouting: “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.” When I was ten, I read about the ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, who suffered a similar fate as Jesus. Plato presents him in virtuous terms – as the noblest and best human being that ever lived. Socrates always questioned common assumptions and certainties, a factor that irritated many Athenians and led that city’s democratic assembly to sentence him to death. This turned my dislike for majority positions into scorn.
Now let me revert to the subject of popular anger in Uganda; although it is understandable, it is not grounded in reality. One needs to read Samuel Huntington’s classic, `Political Order in Changing Societies’, to understand the dynamics behind Uganda’s political temperature today. Before Huntington, conventional wisdom in political science circles had always held that the poorer people are, the more they are likely to be politically disgruntled. Therefore, policy makers believed that governments should promote economic growth in order to achieve better economic security for citizens, which would lead to stability.
Using statistical evidence, Huntington turned this argument on its head. He argued that as the economy grows, it tends to produce many new social forces that seek to become more politically active (political participation) in ways that impact on government. According to Huntington, economic growth leads first to heightened inequality (an argument originally made by the Nobel laureate in economics, Simon Kuznets). Yet economic growth also stimulates social mobility for many people, which leads to heightened expectations that cannot be met at an early stage.
Heightened inequality in the context of overgrown yet “unrealisable” expectations causes social frustrations. This leads many people to seek political participation. Yet for Huntington, weakly institutionalised polities are easily overwhelmed by these new groups which enter politics (participate) on their own terms. This gives rise to praetorianism in which “the wealthy bribe, the students riot, the workers strike, mobs demonstrate and the military stage coups.”
I recently visited my former school, Mbarara High, and found many cars parked outside the administration block. When I walked into the staff room, I asked teachers which event was being held at the school. They said none and asked me why? I said there are many cars outside; so who are these visitors? They told me all those are teachers’ cars. In fact one teacher joked saying: “if you don’t own a car you cannot teach here”. Now I was at Mbarara High from 1989 to 1991 and not a single teacher, not even the headmaster, owned a car. The richest teachers used to ride bicycles.
There is a lot of evidence to show that Uganda enjoyed unprecedented economic growth and that this is widely shared. In fact Uganda has one of the best Gini Coeffecients in Africa at 0.395. The Gini measures income distribution where zero is perfect equality and one is perfect inequality. The only democracy in Africa with a better Gini than Uganda is Malawi. Uganda has a better Gini than Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia, Benin, Senegal, Kenya, South Africa, etc.
It seems to me that Uganda is suffering from the Huntington problem where rapid growth has produced many new social forces with overblown expectations that far exceed the ability of the economy to satisfy them. Ugandans are angry, not because Museveni has failed but because he has been very successful. Therefore, if the anger against him causes Museveni to be defeated in an election, it would not be a tragedy of excess but a tragedy of contradiction.
****
amwenda@independent.co.ug
****
editor@independent.co.ug
Mwenda wrote: ” For that, many people accuse me of having been bribed by Museveni. I am still waiting for my cheque!” This statement is too simplistic for Mwenda. Being compromised (rather than bribing) is a better rendering. And compromising does not need to be in terms of money. It can take, like in this case, availability of access.
Yoga – that is a good one!
Thanks for the compliment. I did it so as to save Mwenda from developing the illusion that when he pretends to be simplistic, we shall just swallow. We are surely not that simplistic either.
I am on this page to deal with those who insult Andrew they can attack him in other social medias but not here.
Uganda has gone thru 3 pharses of change(i) Amin’s regime where people just prayed for soap,salt and Sugar(ii) Obote and Amin’s regime combined where Ugandans prayed for peaceful sleep then M7’s regime where we are spoilt for choice.So what makes M7’s regime complicated?its coz Ugandan have been exposed to good social,economical and political lifestyles that they cant afford.
Its of course not normal for Ugandans to have forgotten where they came from.
The elites pretend that they are suffering(They think that govt should sponsor their lavish lifestyle) most times, their anger is misguided actually they are just redundant.Recently Simon Kaheru wrote an article critcising Ugandans for letting Europeans name some of their streets after them aren’t streets like Princess Anne Drive,Luthuli venue in Bugolobi well organsied?even new Estates like Aright in Bwebajja have streets with foreign names How come streets named after Ugandans resemble them Interms of Disorganization?
Recently i attended a burial in Wakiso (Buganda)(Which is relatively not so remote) what i witnessed was shocking i realised some Ugandans have a long way to go .when the truck carrying food arrived at the venue the villagers began qeuing for food without even giving respect to the Bishop with his holy robes. how come people from the North & Western ug dont fight for food(meat) is it coz they are used to cows.
A lower Gini is associated with low economic growth and development. So having a low Gini as Malawi suggests that both countries Uganda and Malawi are poor economic performers.