Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people’ -Anonymous If the government is to blame for economic shortcomings this year, the civil society, the media and other non-state actors are to blame too. While the self-appointed opposition are obsessed by ad hominem attacks on the President, NGOs and media report incidents and sound bites. The reporting in Rwanda it superficial and lacking in broad policy accountability; in my own opinion. It is therefore not developmental. But who has the courage and capacity of cramming through hundreds of pages of research and case studies to identify flaws in specific sectors such as the economy, healthcare, education, etc.? Other than daily doses of scandals, fait-diverts or government’s routine work, there is nowhere to turn for sound, sector specific analysis - expect precisely in 100 pager reports from think tanks. This was to be expected in the era of social media, whereas the public isn’t focused enough to read beyond one-pager blogs and 140 character tweets. However, our media ought to serve our context. It is foolhardy for a Rwandan journalist or NGO to mimic their Scandinavian counterparts and cover the same issues, in entirely different contexts. In a past video, President Kagame can be heard urging the public to ‘put pressure on the system’. If anything, he did so, in a rather activist tone in the last weeks. The candor and intellectual honesty inherent to the discussions during the National Dialogue and the Rwandan Patriotic Front’s Congress, both graced by the President were vindicating and empowering. As I listened, I thought to myself, the RPF-Inkotanyi is light miles ahead of our media and civil society in terms of expertise and alertness to the plight of the Rwandan people. The challenges are still enormous, but the sound and thorough soul-searching are true of a reformist and progressive movement that the RPF is. This is vital, especially in Rwanda. It is risky for a ruling party to bury its head in the sand and drink the Kool-Aid. The population’s way of ‘kwigaragambya’ (protesting) is internal. Spies complain that Rwandans don’t pour their hearts out - international experts’ pretentions aside - it is hard to tell when a Rwandan is unhappy with a policy, regardless of displayed dancing or singing zeal. Rwandans practice what is known as ‘infrapolitics’. This has nothing to do with the current or previous government, but with an age-old political culture dating the monarchy era. Since time immemorial, Rwandans practice the ‘hidden transcript’. They would hold a grudge against oppressive local policies and wait for the day when the king will come to visit, then tell him everything the local chief has made them endure. In his thesis, ‘Rwanda a popular genocide: A perfect storm’, Dr. Jean Paul Kimonyo describes Rwandan political contestation as ‘explosive’, rather than ‘expressive’. However, there are other devices to gauge citizens’ satisfaction; chief among them is scientific data. For any administration to last in Rwanda, it ought to listen to the numbers. Both locally and internationally generated. Admittedly, numbers too can be ‘infected’ by politics. Which is why the story of numbers needs to be triangulate with other signals. Take ‘Tour du Rwanda’ for instance; Other than exposing Rwanda’s world class touristic attractions to the world, the Tour is the best snapshot of the Citizens Score Cards. At every stage of the race one can tell the mood of the population. Wherever citizens are satisfied with local policies or service delivery, children and parents are clean, going about their business. But where the population is dissatisfied – say with the land tax, with the ‘Gitifu’, the Reserve Force, RURA, etc., parents might ‘viringita’ their kids in mud and send them to the main road to cheer. They know the President is watching television and they want to catch his attention. Most sensitive are sectors of mass employment, namely: Transport, Construction and Agriculture: land, milk production, etc. These sectors are both economically and politically sensitive. In my experience evaluating Imihigo, the Rwandan way of resisting bad policy is very subtle. They almost conduct poverty strikes, uproot their own crops or refrain from farming. Way forward: To any country ambitioning rapid transformation, focus is placed on three key pillars: Education, Agriculture and Industrialization. While politicians and public servants in ministries are good with daily policy making and service delivery, we need non-partisan task forces in charge of fast-tracking reforms in these three sectors and reporting directly to the Executive Office. They should be led by the most charismatic CEOs to negotiate adequate budget allocations, attract the best skills and reward them the best benefits. This is true for Singapore, it is true for Vietnam, it is true for Ethiopia. Rwandan Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) and city councils ensure safety and standards, but if the set standards are prohibitive, they risk creating monopolies, harm family businesses, cause loan defaults and poverty relapses. To ensure that it doesn’t, they should run frequent satisfaction surveys and reforms accordingly. Churches and administrative structures are very decentralized and hold significant sway among the public. With the poverty graduation scheme (Ubudehe), no single citizen is left unreached; all are registered and followed up through programs such as ‘Akalima k’igikoni’, ‘Umugoroba w’ababyey’i, ‘Umuganda’, ‘Agasozi indatwa’. There is no explanation for lack of awareness. I saw an announcement compelling those who defaulted on SACCO loans to pay back. That’s a quick fix. They defaulted, not because they want to cheat the system but because the intended business venture did not succeed, and that’s where attention should be placed. There are so many things to be said and so little space in one column. The conversation continues. We will make other mistakes and we will learn from them. I am hopeful because the youthful cabinet freshly appointed is less ‘political’ than their predecessors. I also hope that the learning for Vision 2020 will inform Vision 2050, as the saying goes, ‘we do not inherit the past from our parents, it is the future we borrow from our children.’ Twitter: @gateteviews The views expressed in this article are of the author.
