A Political homework: readers’ digest

In series no XVII, I did rest my case with my stone cast conviction that; as an informed Rwandese, I hold very dear to my opinion/conviction that, the best way forward for our country is to maintain/sustain our current political dispensation, and make the best of President Kagame’s exemplary leadership to bear, for our country for more than the current term limits allows him (how many more years would be a subject of debate). Drawing deeply from my experience at home (where I have contributed, albeit in small way, to the development of our country for the last ten years, which enabled me to have a rare chance to see the inside of our running of national duties akin to corporate style of management), uncommon to African governance systems, where the national duties are run in the interest of a few entitled, and the rest settle for spill over from the high table; if any. My conviction is anchored on the fundamental substance of this very debate, and the consequences thereafter. However, a development I least expected at the beginning of these series, is the massive comments/responses I received from readers (Rwandese in the country, in Diaspora, as well as foreign friends and others interested in our country’s development. Thus, readers’ comments (by email) on these series rose from 50s in part I, to over 1,800 in part XVIII published last week. Reading these is no mean task, but worth it nevertheless, for these rich responses contain the hearts of a people whose future depends on the direction our homework takes.ConsensusMost of these readers are in agreement that; at stake, is not the mere consequence of change in the leadership of President Paul Kagame per se, but rather the positive transformational change in the lives of nationals/Rwandans and similarly stability as sustained and uninterrupted levels of development and the resulting confidence/trust in the nationals that a country will keep doing so in the foreseeable future, and can be sustained for the generations to come.That our country has experiences of transformational changes in all sectors of our economy, and by extension in the lives of average Rwandans is not debatable even by the diehard critics of our government, most of whom have not been part of this change, and do not want to accept that it happened, for doing so would be to vindicate the mess they left in our country and with our country. Transformational changes has first and foremost been acknowledged and appreciated by rational Rwandans, and later on put on record by both multilateral as well as bilateral agencies, which have either been party to this change, or watchdogs over the same and have to give reports on such sectors as economy (in particular record poverty reduction levels of uplifting one millions Rwandans out of poverty), social sectors such as health, social security, unit and reconciliation, law and order, orderliness…pick any sector. At stakeSuch changes have been a case study for other Africans and beyond, who have dubbed it many forms including ‘miraculous’, un-African (coordination of our activities and orderliness thereof) name it. But these changes have not been self-propelled (nor given future trended), but rather, there has been causation process responsible for this. Exemplary leadership by President Paul Kagame which has mobilised and coordinated the underlying causation process that has led to the changes we witness is the only explanation. Period. Clearly (to most readers of these series), this then means that; for Rwandans to let President Paul Kagame continue with the transformational agenda (change) of this country, his agenda need not be interrupted (stability) at least within given amount of time so as to ensure that, this change is sustained, for us, and for generations to come. To most of the commentators therefore, it is not a matter of whether we should not change (stability), but how long he can be requested to continue his transformational leadership of our country. This to them, remains the most astounding part of the current homework.Unique RwandaReaders have pointed out that, ours is a unique country (shaped by her past abnormality) and that, subjecting ourselves to experimental democratic niceties will not certainly derive the intended results of our political homework. Certainly not, for this will result into another stereo type African change of political dispensation, but with die consequences than any other African change can anticipate/expect. They agree that, given this background, we cannot expect political issues in Rwanda to be handled as is the case elsewhere. If this is the case, which is absolutely true, we shall also interprete events leading to 2017 different from the way other countries facing the same period would do. They then point out that, the issue of The President leaving or not leaving come 2017 is none issue, because time will come when he will leave office to another Rwandan to carry on. That this only becomes a national issue, and certainly a fundamental one; if such leaving or not leaving is associated with the bigger picture, a picture that is not The President’s making, but one which he happens to find himself in by virtue of the call of duty, which the governance of our abnormal Rwanda. This makes 2017 substantive, so argues readers of these series.Prof. Nshuti Manasseh is an economist and financial expert. To be continued…