Africanists Concerned About Slipping Museveni Legacy in Uganda

The following news story by the Bureau of International Information Programs of the United States Department of State reports on a Conference held on June 2, 2005 by the Woodrow Wilson’s International Center for Scholars on the checkered nature of the leadership role played by President Museveni in Uganda and how recent decisions taken by Museveni have hampered Uganda’s democratic development.

Washington -- Cracks are beginning to appear in one of Africa's greatest political and economic success stories, Uganda, with the man who guided the nation from the brink of disaster in the mid-1980s, President Yoweri Museveni, jeopardizing a bright legacy with "faltering" leadership, Africanists claimed at a June 2 panel discussion.

The discussion featured former U.S. Ambassador to Uganda Johnnie Carson, Ugandan Minister for Internal Affairs Ruhakana Rugunda, and Joel Barkan, professor of political science at the University of Iowa and specialist in East African politics. It was sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) at the Wilson Center in Washington.

The panel was moderated by former Congressman Howard Wolpe and drew a high-level audience that included former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen and former U.S. ambassadors to Uganda (Michael Southwick, Nancy Powell), South Africa (Princeton Lyman), and Ethiopia (David Shinn). Ugandan Ambassador Edith Ssempala and Rwandan Ambassador Zac Nsenga also attended.

Ambassador Carson addressed the topic "An African 'Success' Past its Prime" and called President Museveni "an astute and remarkable" leader who brought peace and a measure of prosperity to Uganda, which earlier had been one of Africa's most notorious "killing fields."

Through acts like welcoming back more than 70,000 Asians expelled from Uganda during the murderous regime of President Idi Amin and returning their property, Museveni proved he is "one of the most influential and intelligent leaders on the continent," Carson said.

Museveni also "recognized the devastating impact HIV/AIDS was having on his country and was the first major African leader to speak publicly about the dangers of the HIV/AIDS virus to the continent. He mobilized his entire government to combat this threat and he established Africa's first nationwide prevention effort," the diplomat added.

But that sterling legacy is being undermined, Carson said, by Museveni's need to control the political process, his failure to tackle corruption -- "a cancer eroding donors' ability to help Uganda" -- and an inability to bring an end to a long-term insurgency in the northern part of the country.

Carson, who is now senior vice president of the National Defense
University and formerly served as U.S. ambassador to Kenya and Zimbabwe, stated, "There is no doubt that Museveni's initial reforms, many of which I witnessed on the ground, set the stage for Uganda's economic revitalization, its renewed political stability, and its early efforts to re-establish strong democratic institutions."

However, he warned, today "Uganda's march toward full democracy is on the threshold of becoming unglued as President Museveni and those around him seek to alter the country's constitution to allow him to run for a third and perhaps even a fourth or fifth presidential term.

"How President Museveni deals with issues like presidential term
limitations, the expansion of multiparty politics and the LRA [the rebel Lord's Resistance Army] violence in the north will depend on what type of legacy he wants to leave behind for himself and for Uganda: one in which economic growth, democratic progress and political stability prevail, or a nation that is faced with a new round of destabilizing political challenges and continued civil conflict in the North," the U.S. diplomat said.

"Although many will suggest these are national decisions, in reality the decision is his [Museveni's] [and] the outcome will surely affect all Ugandans and perhaps others as well," Carson told the panel.

Joel Barkan called Museveni "a brilliant leader, who now risks
squandering his own legacy to his nation" by refusing to abide by the constitution and relinquish power after two terms in office. The fear, he said is that Uganda is slipping back into "a big-government regime" that risks becoming another "African tragedy."

With official corruption on the increase and evidence of the use of
strong-arm tactics to cow political opposition, Museveni is tarnishing the Ugandan success story and diminishing his position as a leader throughout Africa and among his supporters in the donor community.

Ugandan Minister for Internal Affairs Ruhakana Rugunda defended Museveni from what he viewed as superficial attacks on a leader attempting to guide his nation through a difficult political transformation -- from movement to party politics. This task is a not an easy one, considering the political turmoil the nation has undergone over the past 20 years, he said.

Rugunda explained that Museveni's bid for a third term in 2006, which would require a change in the constitution, was an issue that has been debated intensely over the past two years. "We trust the will of the people to work," he said, noting that "there are constitutional provisions that call for the impeachment of the leader if he's not performing well."

He also dismissed the issue of corruption on his personal knowledge of the president, whom he has known since they were both university students, and on policy grounds "because the fight against corruption was one of the main reasons why we waged war to liberate Uganda."