Tenacious Authoritarianism-Uganda’s Violent Elections Revealed Age and Class Division | Middle East and Africa
INA pool A group of boxers and nightclub guards in the hall of Kampala, the capital of Uganda, are discussing the election. They were recently taken to meet a military general. T-Ruling party, national resistance movement shirt (NRM), And fight violent opposition supporters on the street. They thought the total wasn’t enough.Then there was the famous champion boxer who publicly supported NRM He was shot by security guards at night in rumors that he had fallen with a former patron. Security guards say politicians look down on the poor in the city. “When they see them in a cannabis-sucking ghetto, they don’t think they’re useful,” he complains. “But they find themselves useful when it comes to elections.”
Ugandans went to poll on January 14th and the results were economist I went to the press. Authorities will almost certainly declare the victory of Yoweri Museveni, who has been president since 1986. However, the election was defined by the rise of Robert Cagranie, a 38-year-old musician who faced arrest and well-known as opposition candidate Bobi Wine. , Interference and shooting on the campaign trail. Like a grumpy boxer, he quarreled in the ghetto when he was young and sometimes sparred himself in the ring. His popularity has pushed the gap between generations and classes to the fore and brought about the shortcomings of an economic model that has brought about growth but little work.
These trends are not unique to Uganda. In the 1980s, under pressure from international lenders, many African governments enacted market-supporting reforms. Over time, the economy grew due to debt exemptions and soaring commodity prices. However, few countries have graduated from agriculture or mining and moved to more productive activities such as manufacturing. Many young people have found uncertain jobs in providing services, such as selling used clothing and riding motorcycle taxis. Often an informal job (see graph).
Former Marxist Museveni fought for power shortly before the end of the Cold War. He quickly embraced the legitimacy of the new market, privatized state-owned enterprises, highlighted shilling, and opened the door to trade and foreign investment. During his 35-year tenure, poverty has diminished, growth has averaged 6%, and inflation rarely reaches double digits. However, the proportion of Ugandans working in the industry is declining. Today’s economy creates formal jobs in just one-tenth of the 700,000 young people who reach working age each year.
The rest is agriculture, weird work, or trivial trade, and they do as well as they can. Many have emigrated to Arab countries to work as security guards or maids. In towns and cities where the population has grown seven-fold under Museveni, fraudulent puncture wounds are sharpening. Residents of Kamwokya, a poor district of Kampala, simply stroll down the hills to find the city’s most attractive shopping malls. Mr. Wein grew up on an unpaved street, styling the “President of the Ghetto” himself with a song praising a powerful person. “We will be able to accurately express what is in the hearts of the poor,” he sang.
This new politics is typically urban, but it’s flowing into small markets where dealers bring goods and ideas from the city. Dissatisfaction is often local. Farida Kange, a wine activist in the eastern part of Budaka, said she was furious that the government had driven them out of the wetlands and started rice cultivation there after the collapse of the cotton co-operative. Such candid dissent is disturbing to some older Ugandans who remember past instability and civil war. “People who have never been educated cause this kind of turmoil,” says Chairman Aksoferi Karegnet Kulany. NRM Elders League in the mountains of Kapchorwa. “They want a shortcut to get things done.”
At Mr. Wine’s party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), The Hustler rebellion has found a common cause in the middle class section, such as recent graduates. However, the established opposition has retired all at once only in the central Buganda region, where Kampala is located. NUP..The· NRM Politics is still saturated in villages where it is difficult for other parties to organize. Lauben Bamwesigye, a western farmer, says he hears Mr. Wein’s message only when young people come from town on Christmas. “They came, preached the gospel, and came back,” he jokes.
Mr Museveni is supported by the rich, who are looking to him to protect their interests. Many large companies are owned by foreigners and Asians in Uganda and are grateful to the man who welcomed them after being expelled by the dictator Idi Amin. Critics say that close ties between politics, security and business are increasingly controlled by Mr. Museveni’s ethnic groups, especially brokers from his own family who award contracts, control access and acquire resources. It is said that it has been done. In 2018, a former Hong Kong politician was guilty of paying $ 500,000 to Samktesa, the Foreign Minister (and the father of Mr. Musebeni’s daughter-in-law), to secure benefits to Chinese companies by a U.S. court. I was sentenced. Ugandan officials have denied that the payment was a bribe.
The state is also a conduit for foreign aid. Even if the covid-19 bailout flowed into the budget, the spending marked as “classified spending” flowed out of the budget. Much of this money was sent to the military and Cheong Wa Dae.
Intensifying repression is straining old relationships. The United States is valuing options to reduce aid in the event of more violence, and parliamentarians are seeking sanctions on some security ministers. Tibol Nagy, a senior African diplomat in the United States, expressed concern on January 12, after Uganda blocked access to social media platforms a few days before the vote. However, Museveni presented himself as a stable fortress and sent thousands of Ugandan troops to Somali peacekeeping missions. “Maybe we’re a little overwhelmed by the collapsing areas,” thinks Kampala’s western diplomat. “What if Museveni collapses?”
In many African countries, not only in Uganda, where young people oppose the sclerosis system, the choice between stability and justice is a mistake. Economic dissatisfaction has fueled the move from Senegalese Yen a Mare hip-hop activists to South African Economic Freedom Fighters left-wing populism. In Sudan and Mali, street protests helped defeat the president. Bad leadership isn’t the only problem. Changes in trade and technology make it difficult for the Industrial Revolution to succeed. Meanwhile, a frustrated Fester.
Mr. Museveni rescued Uganda from the “deep ditch” when he was young, says former Minister Milia Matenbe, but now has a “complete attachment to power.” He relies more on money and violence than ever to save it. Ugandan security forces shot and killed at least 54 people in November during protests caused by Mr. Wein’s brief detention. Victims were motorbike drivers, chapati sellers, carpenters, mechanics, etc., almost all fighting in the city’s informal economy. Two days before the vote, an armored car passed through Kampala, soldiers looked through the turret, and a helicopter hovered overhead. Museveni has been fighting brutal despots, Messianic rebels, foreign warlords and Islamic extremists for life. His last war is in the ghetto. ■■
This article was published in the printed Middle East and Africa section under the heading “Ghetto Counterattacks”.
Tenacious Authoritarianism-Uganda’s Violent Elections Revealed Age and Class Division | Middle East and Africa
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