Politics, The Rwandan Way

In the three decades or so of my ‘short’ life, I have had the blessing to be trapped in the shenanigans of one hotly contested presidential election in Kenya (1992), two equally contested presidential elections in Uganda (2001, 2006), and many others between, before the 2010 Rwandan presidential elections that will be decided tomorrow. I say ‘trapped’ because in those three elections, I was basically like a rabbit caught in the headlights, confused about my identity, my political leanings, yet I was in the thick of things of ideological debate and supposed political discussion, thereby concealing my actual distrust of the political machinations of the day. In those three elections, I did not vote. In the first, I was too young to vote, barely at eleven years of age, yet I would be found at this or the other rally, trying to understand human nature. The second one, I did not register because I was not sure if I wanted to vote. In the third, I tried to participate but did not vote, although, my political voyeurism saw me at one polling station during the counting of votes, supposedly – to obtain a true ‘feel of things.’ I say these things, not because, I want to reveal my past personal failings, but because in barely three years of living in Rwanda, I have in an interesting form of metamorphosis from the aloof politico-intellectual animal who distrusts politicians and loathes those who yell blindly in their favor to an individual who understands that politics in not just a tool of power, but a forum in which if handled properly can change the well being of a nation. In Rwanda, I have come to understand that good unselfish politics can transform a nation. For example, any observer should by now know that President Paul Kagame will be the next president of Rwanda, come August 10th. Yet, the same man is traversing the country, with the determination of a liberation fighter and the buoyancy of a politician who is eager to show the people what good politics can do. President Kagame, even with his sterling development record, his role in changing the destiny of Rwanda for the better and his unwavering commitment to making Rwanda and Rwandans better, still has the hunger to talk to the ordinary rural citizen to tell them that he or she has the opportunity to live in a much better condition that he or she lives today. In short, Rwanda brings a specific decency and honour to politics that elsewhere is rare or perhaps absent. No wonder, the international press cannot understand the political process in Rwanda. I am amazed when my friends in Kenya and Uganda ask me how the political campaigns are going and they cannot believe when I say this is the smoothest political process that I have ever gone through. Last week, a taxi driver in Zanzibar was eager to hear my opinion on what they have heard from the BBC about Rwanda and after he wondered why there was so much hullabaloo. In other east African countries, elections are a time of tensions. Yes, security forces come out in a show of force like in Rwanda although they are most likely to act in favor of one side than the other. Today, I know that when I sit at Che Venant, a popular evening meeting point in the centre of Kigali, the soldiers standing stoically next to us or the helicopter hovering above is there to make sure that, ordinary people like us are safe. The campaign motorcades of various political parties look like exuberant citizens on a way to a party – no foul language, no hurling of abuses about other candidates, no defacing of other candidates posters. At best, the happy crowds look like soccer fans on their way to an important match. I don’t really know what good politics, but in Rwanda, I can now say, that politics begin to make some sense. In 1992, I will never forget listening to an aging politician called Martin Shikuku calling the then President Moi, who for all his faults was a demigod in the eyes of many Kenyans, derogatory names. For some time I thought, a good politician must abuse his rival in order to appear strong in the eyes of the voters. When I first experienced a presidential election in Uganda in 1996, I thought the election was dull because there was no name calling, and the opposition appeared timid. But with much hindsight I now understand why political violence can happen in Kenya – these young men and women grow up knowing that sometimes you have to be violent to express your political opinions because that is what politicians say. Today, after the catastrophe of post-election violence in Kenya, the referendum process has been perhaps the most peaceful; election process in decades. In Rwanda, am amazed when a mayor resigns because of a ‘small corruption’ investigation. What many out there do not understand is that it takes some nurturing for a certain political culture to take root. They would like to see Rwanda as a dictatorship because there are no very popular and credible opposition to the Rwanda Patriotic Front. What they do not understand that the political circumstances in Rwanda dictate that naturally, people will identify with President Kagame because of some bold decisions that he took that nobody else had the courage and moral decency to take. The international press likes to interview opposition politicians in Africa to good effect, but in Rwanda, any unknown element who says any unbelievable white lie against the president’s record will suddenly become an ‘opposition leader.’ They want to create a Tsvangirai, or a Besigye or a Raila where one does not exist and indeed in the international press you would think the two newspapers that were closed recently were national mouthpieces rather then salacious tabloids that they are really are. For the first time in my life, I feel like I need to vote although I cannot, so I can imagine why groups of vuvuzela blowing patriotic Rwandans would feel. It is because; politics is a matter of honour in Rwanda, not because it comes naturally but simply due to the way the politics have been conducted in the last sixteen years. Rwandans know how low bad politics can sink a country, and so are eager to use politics to instead help the country and respective citizens to gain useful value. I do not expect others to validate the political process in Rwanda. Rwandans do need that validation in order for internal processes to hold water. The international community, for that matter, is one of the major failings in the catastrophe that Rwanda went through, so as much as Rwandans would raise questions about its international portrayal, they should not really care. That Rwanda has made various strides in the economy and in socio-cultural transformation, is without doubt and that is more important. But Rwanda’s political make-up is still fragile because of pre-genocide Rwandan elements in the Diaspora, supported by external forces are angry that the Rwanda Patriotic Front has by all accounts outdone itself in changing the country. These forces cannot play a free hand in national politics because of their heinous crimes and so they are bound to play all kinds of underhand games just to prove the RPF is not right for Rwanda. That would be easier said than done especially in the Rwanda, in which they cannot recognize from the shell that they abandoned. As before, tomorrow, I will not vote just like the old days. For the first time, I believe that my vote or anyone’s will matter at the end. Ends