Welcome Back to the "Old" Uganda

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again.
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

Once you visit east Africa it is easy to fall for the place.

And while tourists come and go mainly through Nairobi - and limit their visits to Kenya and Tanzania - the biggest part of it is no postcard view. East Africa, after all, is a pretty tough neighborhood - to the north in Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia - there is not so much the rule of law as the rule of the AK-47 assault rifle. And around the hub of Lake Victoria, both Rwanda and Burundi continue a long, slow burn of tribal hatred unabated since the genocide which so embarassed the United States by our inaction in the wake of the "Blackhawk Down" abandonment of Somalia by then rookie President Bill Clinton. And though recently we have seen attacks by resurgent Somali "terror pirates" and are outraged by it - their motive is ideologically driven - fueled by reaction against the "hammer" of foreign policy-by-cruise missile during the Clinton years. Through this Uganda has been a rehabilitation "project" based on the possibility that a once failed-state (as it was during the genocidal civil war years under Idi Amin and Milton Obote in the 1970's and 80's), can re-emerge to take its rightful place among its more prominent and successful neighbors like Kenya and Tanzania. And what a project it is. As the United States Agency for International Development (U.S.A.I.D.) indicates:

Uganda's budget is highly dependent on donor assistance, with donor contributions expected to finance over half of the national budget this year. The World Bank is the largest donor to Uganda. Other multilateral donors include the United Nations Development Program, UNAIDS, United Nations Children's Emergency Fund, and the European Union. The United Kingdom is the leading bilateral donor to Uganda and focuses on justice, agriculture, environment, education, health, and public administration. The United States is the third ranking donor to Uganda, playing a key role in donor coordination as chair of sector working groups addressing conflict in northern Uganda...

Over half the Ugandan national budget comes out of the pockets of taxpayers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom - and that is after a reduction over the last three years by half in the direct budgetary assistance to the Ugandan regime. The glaring nature of problems associated with Uganda's governance, while ignored by the news media, have been "signalled" with increasing directness by our government for several years. As U.S.A.I.D. reports:

The disturbing rise in inequality over the past six years indicates there are serious underlying structural problems, with the benefits of economic growth going disproportionately to the wealthiest 20% of the population. Uganda's 3.4% population growth rate continues to erode economic gains, deepen poverty, and negatively affect other achievements in the social sectors.

So why is this? Uganda allows equal opportunity for all its citizens, right?

Hardly. The first clue comes, appropriately, from the United States Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook:

(O)nly one political organization, the Movement... [President MUSEVENI, chairman] is allowed to operate unfettered; note - the president maintains that the Movement is not a political party, but a mass organization, which claims the loyalty of all Ugandans. Note: the constitution requires the suspension of political parties while the Movement organization is in governance; of the political parties that exist but are prohibited from sponsoring candidates...

In addition to the cronyism and ban on all but rudimentary political opposition organizations, the government of Uganda has been mounting a quiet war on independent news media as well.

For years the independent press has been on tenterhooks, and in recent days the leading daily newspaper in Uganda has once again come under threat of closure by the regime.

In addition, the leading independent radio station in Uganda was taken off the air for a week this past August in punishment for reports made about the national government - and their most well known radio personality has been charged with sedition for (from the shockingly audacious language in the charges) "uttering words with the intention to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite dissatisfaction against the person of the president."

That makes me a purveyor of sedition as well, without doubt. Put me in prison, won't you, because I openly did "excite dissatisfaction" against the president of Uganda.

All of this points to a state of affairs where timid donors and a kneecapped media are unable to adequately express either the full context or gravity of the situation in Uganda. Now the arrest of the leading opposition presidential candidate on treason charges completes the picture. The riots in the streets are thrashing cries from a nation drowning under the oppression of their government. Where are independent outside journalists? Those courageous enough to ask the tough questions without fear of reprisal - digging into the situation hinted at by U.S.A.I.D. - a situation made clear in the Soviet-style actions taken against indigenous media by the Ugandan government. Right now those in charge in Kampala are betting on a two-pronged strategy: their recent foray into professional public relations counsel handling the media and pay-for-press documentaries on CNN, combined with Euro-American boredom about "mundane" corruption in far-flung Africa - means their hold on power will outlast the current focus on actions taken against their rivals.

Right now brave Americans are fighting and dying in Iraq. Are we going to let our boys fight and die for democracy in Iraq, and then let someone like Museveni pull the rug out under democracy - while we not only sit there and watch it happen, but are paying for it as well? It is precisely because of the principle of democracy, and impact its deprivation has on human rights and progress among the community of nations, that Saddam Hussein had to go. It is time to examine the case against Yoweri Museveni as well - in order to help stabilize east Africa and in order to make real progress against extreme poverty and disease in that region.

Urbane Update: Be sure to view this video report from Lindsey Hilsum of Channel 4 in the UK - it is crucially important to note that the international diplomatic community was present in great number at the courtroom. That is an important signal about due diligence into these charges (which includes both treason for some kind of involvement with Lord's Resistance Army terrorists, and an allegation of rape involving the daughter of a friend - the date of which predates the last election in Uganda, which is very curious). Why Human Rights Watch is so quiet about Dr. Besigye's arrest is unfortunate, but not a surprise.