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Poor in Money, but Even Poorer in Democracy

July 12, 2003
 By CHARLES ONYANGO-OBBO






KAMPALA, Uganda
African chiefs, whether the old variety in feathered hats
or the modern kind in military fatigues with Kalashnikovs,
always travel with gifts and rewards. President Bush has
followed that time-honored tradition in his trip to Africa
this week by showcasing his $15 billion pledge to fight
AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean and his $100 million fund
to help combat terrorism and promote development.

But in promising to throw money at Africa, Mr. Bush ignored
the real problem. Misery has become Africa's fastest
growing industry not because rich nations didn't give the
continent any development assistance, and health levels are
primitive not because of a lack of hospitals.

In the 1960's, many African economies were more advanced
than South Korea's. The continent stagnated largely because
corrupt dictatorships took over, and the areas that slid
back to the medieval age did so mainly because of the
ravages of war. To really change Africa, Mr. Bush needs to
offer long-term leadership in two areas: ending the wars,
and helping pro-democracy forces bring honest and effective
government to African countries burdened by oppressive
regimes, even if that means accepting antiterrorism laws
that aren't as strict as he would like.

Yet President Bush's itinerary allowed him to avoid looking
directly at Africa's real problems. Three of the five
countries on the trip - South Africa, Senegal and Botswana
- are safe, relatively happy and well governed.

More typical for Africa is Congo, where a five-year
conflict has resulted in the deaths of more than three
million people. The Bush administration has not helped
American credibility by its reluctance to support an
expanded United Nations peacekeeping force or by its
refusal to contribute troops - a stand that changed only
this week. Similarly, as violence has engulfed Liberia, a
country set up as a home for freed slaves from America, Mr.
Bush has dithered about sending American troops, the one
action that would strongly signal that his administration
is serious about helping to end the conflict there.

To his credit, Mr. Bush also visited two troubled
countries: Uganda and Nigeria, the final stops on this
trip. Indeed, the Uganda leg of Mr. Bush's trip best
demonstrates the challenge facing any American president
visiting Africa today.

Uganda under President Yoweri Museveni has demonstrated
what a poor country can achieve by being smart about AIDS.
The AIDS prevalence rate in Uganda today is below 6
percent, sharply down from over 18 percent 10 years ago.

Still, Uganda has serious problems, including a rebellion
in the north that has endured since 1988. It is also a de
facto one-party state. The Museveni government, though it
says it now backs a return to multiparty politics, is
pressing to have presidential term limits removed from the
Constitution. This would open the way for Mr. Museveni to
run in 2006, although by then he would have been in power
for 20 years.

The last time an American president visited Uganda - Bill
Clinton in 1998 - opposition politicians sought an
audience. Mr. Clinton dispatched the Rev. Jesse Jackson to
buy them lunch, and none of their concerns about
democratization were taken up publicly. Five years later,
the rebellion in the north has spread, and the economy is
worsening. Because of the conflict, the impressive gains
against AIDS are being lost, thousands of children cannot
go to school, corruption is spreading, and the government's
ability to be a stabilizing force in the region has been
greatly eroded. But Mr. Bush, like Mr. Clinton, said
nothing about this.

The Bush administration's wrongheadedness on Africa is also
evident in its stand on terrorism. The United States is
pushing tough antiterrorism legislation, even though some
African governments have used the threat of terrorism as a
cover to pass laws to suppress their political opponents.

A country like Kenya, which has a large pro-Western elite,
demonstrates what has gone wrong. Kenya has paid dearly for
playing host to Western interests. Al Qaeda bombed the
American Embassy there in 1998. Another attack, on an
Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa last year, all but killed
Kenyan tourism.

Today, while revulsion against terrorism in Kenya is high,
there is also resistance to a proposed stringent
antiterrorism law that is supported by the United States
because of the fear it could be misused.

The Bush administration doesn't realize that the rule of
law does not have as long a history in Africa as it does in
the West. In the United States, antiterrorism laws that
strip away some civil rights in the name of national
security will not roll back human rights significantly -
but in Africa they will. Only in the last 10 years have
pro-democracy campaigns resulted in constitutions and laws
that allow press freedom, fair trials, honest elections and
other basic rights.

The roots of these laws are so shallow that a single
antiterrorism law simply wipes them out. This all but
destroys political groups that are seeking to create open
and prosperous societies, and thus take away the poverty
and alienation that terrorist groups feed on.

Still, Mr. Bush's trip to Africa might have been worthwhile
if he had used one of his photo ops to ally himself some
powerful symbol of Africa's struggling democracy. He
didn't. Given the rarity of American presidential visits to
Africa, it's doubtful that he will return to try and do it
right.


Charles Onyango-Obbo is a columnist for The Nation
newspapers in Kenya and The Monitor in Uganda.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/12/opinion/12OBBO.html?ex=1059081334&ei=1&en=750413a4dab6c53e


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