Why Rwandans should decide own political future

It has officially been set that next week Rwandans will vote in a referendum on the revised constitution, and only the people’s vote will decide whether the proposed constitutional amendments will be adopted or not. Referendum is entirely for ‘the people’ for the purpose of the country’s future. To be precise, this is a constitutional right vested upon all Rwandans both in the Diaspora – who will vote on December 17 – and those within the national boundaries – who will carry on the exercise on December 18. The set dates have put an end to anxiety that has been surrounding the decision of the people on presidential term limits. Different propagated stories have been making headlines, including foreign media who have relied on incongruous critics while giving their inaccurate reporting about the whole debate. These people have made the debate part of their daily news mostly blowing it out of proportion. They appear like fault finders with no better knowledge of Rwanda more than its inhabitants. They talk big as though giving a directive, unfortunately disregarding our independence and sovereignty. They hide behind the notion of democracy to drive their motives and brand in their own way, something they have often practiced in all African countries. What an irony to allow external forces to suggest to us what to do? It must not be them to arrogate themselves that role, for often, they do not have enough knowledge to decide anything for us. They have little or no idea about our people’s needs, experiences, values and interests, historical trajectories and the wounds of our memories. If foreign intervention is good, then African countries should be the most prosperous countries in the world because we have had the greatest dosages of that. In contrast, dancing to the tunes of western masters has always been pointed out as a factor that derails African economic progress. We have many countries in Africa being pressured to appease the West most of which have ended up in political disarray. Examples go beyond tens of numbers across the continent. Until this trend is halted, our great nations will still remain where they are, economically dependent from one decade to another. What is usually considered in the West as the democratisation of Africa is almost a “re-democratisation” process in which Africans should evoke or draw from their own indigenous political systems. Traditionally, Africans practiced their own forms of “democracy”, all parties were to arrive at a consensus where everyone got involved. Being that all parties agreed to the final decision, all parties were duty bound to respect and enforce what they had agreed to, and thus the peace was kept and people got along with each other. A well-developed, indigenous African society or organisation, combined with active citizens is the only crucial thing for building our democracies. As the late Nigerian political scientist Professor Claude Ake once said, “there is a democracy where people have some real decision-making power over and above the consent of electoral choice, a democracy that places emphasis on concrete political, social and economic rights as opposed to a liberal democracy that emphasises abstract political right, a democracy that puts emphasis on collective rights as it does on individual rights, a democracy of incorporation’. The western-sponsored democracy and democratisation is culturally biased and insensitive to African indigenous political initiatives. They must not assume that we are innocent bystanders in the face of the external impetus for democratisation. The role is ours and if we fail to do it they are the same people who will be first to ask questions as to why we fail. The mantle is autonomously in our hands. We cannot be heartily independent if we incline to subdue ourselves to the stamp of approval of foreign governments every time we go to the polls. The future does not belong to democratic models imported from outside, but to those rooted in our people. It all begins from us; participation of our people in building our democracy from within is the most crucial thing. We can only achieve this by championing initiatives that enhance the ownership of the process of evolving home-grown political and government philosophical frameworks for democracy. As Francis Fukuyama, the renowned Political Scientist, once observed, “the actual historical roots of different institutions often seem to be the products of a long concatenation of historical accidents that one could never have predicted in advance”. Yes, it is acknowledged that a country is not isolated from global phenomena. However, suggestions are in order but decision making is within the citizens’ mandate. Rwandan citizens, for that matter, will vote in the referendum not influenced by others but by their convictions. It is them who build the country both, in their own ways and with their own visions. They have done it and will continue doing so for the good of the present and succeeding generations. oscar_kimanuka@yahoo.co.uk

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Why Rwandans should decide own political future