FROM UK THE GUARDIAN
Yoweri Museveni: a dictator with nothing left
to promise Uganda
Patience Akumuin Kampala
Sunday 23 February 201400.06 GMT
/http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/23/yoweri-museveni-uganda-dictator-anti-gay
Yoweri Museveni: a dictator with nothing left to promise Uganda
Like any other dictator, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni is addicted to attention. And what
better way to guarantee attention than promising an African utopia, free from
homosexuals, pornography or any such moral decadence imported from the west?
Museveni's
apparent willingness to sign the anti-homosexuality bill – taking all
"scientific" evidence into account – was a simple transaction whose
reward would be another term in power.
No, it was
not a hideous, shameful trade-off that he and his party's MPs did behind closed
doors. Everything was captured on camera and broadcast for all to see. To show
his commitment to the MPs, in the meantime he signed a law that many have
understood to outlaw miniskirts.
Ululation
at the promise to stomp gays and immorality out of the country was followed by
members of parliament pleading, begging, and cajoling the old man. Could he
please run one more term, if only to finish the fight against poverty that he
started 28 years ago, fix the roads whose funds his ministers already spent on
personal projects and put drugs in hospitals his family would not trust to
treat a cold or to deliver a first daughter's baby.
The
highlight was a female MP, Evelyn Anite, kneeling down to present the petition
that endorsed the president as the sole candidate for his party come 2016. In
some Ugandan ethnicities, women kneel for men as a sign that they are
subservient.
When he
came to power Museveni promised to uplift women and spearheaded the enactment
of a constitution that would guarantee equality for all Ugandans. Then, he
recognised that there is no such thing as a pure African culture. That same
African culture he is now "protecting" displaced women from their
land, killed innocent children for having disabilities and mutilated women and
children's genitalia.
Museveni, who is by no means
stupid, recognised that it was time for Africa to look colonialism in the eye, count
her losses and move on. Early in his regime, there was a sexual revolution, the
beginning of genuine recovery from Idi Amin's era, when women were not allowed
to wear miniskirts and intolerance reigned.
But like
most revolutionaries, Museveni lost focus and the benefits of the revolution
started to matter less. Women being undressed on the street for being
"indecent", homosexuals imprisoned and killed are a small price to
pay for another chance to dupe Ugandans.
Instead of
using the power of persuasion he is gifted with to explain to the populace that
culture is dynamic and Africa must find it in her tolerant heart to embrace
diversity, Museveni has sought the easy way out and sided with the populace to
reinforce intolerance from the post-colonial era.
The Bible
and the Pentecostal movement, of which his wife Janet is a devout member, have
come in handy. Museveni and his cronies know that there is no such thing as
recruiting people into homosexuality. The law, which requires everybody to spy
on homosexuals, is unenforceable. But there is nothing left for the regime to
promise.
Roads have
never been built, hospitals have only become worse and even the HIV/Aids
successes have stalled for a while now.
Museveni's
conscience may have died, but even he knows that the slogan of democracy,
equality and good governance that he once used would now look somewhat awkward
on his campaign posters.
An untainted African morality is
more appealing to most – especially the products of government universal
primary education who hit voting age every year. They may find it hard to read
beyond their names, but surely they can imagine an Africa that has something to
offer the world other than disease and poverty – a new morality.
They will
not question the incoherent mumblings about the evils of homosexuality, but
they are ripe enough to begin the cleansing that will finally let Africa shine.
And Africa
is shining, in its own twisted way. From Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda
and now even Kenya with her "emerging economy", the continent is
casting a hateful glare on gays.
But the
thing about glares is that they light up even the darkest corners. If you are
bathing in the dark and it is cast in your direction, you might look up and
find the entire neighbourhood staring at your naked backside.
And maybe,
just maybe, the homosexual witch-hunt is what it will take for Africa and the
rest of the world to see that dictators like Museveni have nothing more to
offer.
