{{ Part I.}}
The political home work given to RPF cadres on 8th February 2013, was one of the many issues if not the main issue deliberated on, in RPF leaders’ retreat held this least weekend (13th – 14th June 2015. Ever since the home work was given to the same cadres two years ago, Rwandese political panorama has since changed fundamentally with regard to the debate so much so that, the issue at this very meeting was not as intriguing as it was when the home work was handed to the same cadres. There was no confusion, misinterpretations of facts and issues at hand. The hundreds of cadres who gave their hearts out on the issue were reading from the same scrip. Amend the constitution and No change come 2017.
{{No Request for Third Term.}}
President Kagame has never asked for third term unlike what some media outlets has purported to imply, otherwise the current debate would not arise in the first place. He is on record several time that he will respect the constitution. But a constitution is not a mere document but rather the will of a people. It is not stone cast nor a commandment, it is a will that changes with the circumstances and can be amended accordingly.
And although he has not at this point in time accepted this will despite huge demands for him to do so, if he does he will not be violating the constitution. He will be acceding to the democratic rights and the will of Rwandese and by so doing respecting our constitution. Period. Any misinterpretations to the contrary is mere emotive assertions and diversionary, and taking Rwandese for granted. In fact, given the exemplary performance of President Paul Kagame, if he did request for third term, it would have been handed to him to him on a gold platter by Rwandans. This time round however, it is we Rwandese asking him to keep delivering on all fronts economic, social transformation and stability that is unprecedented in a post conflict country.
I sometimes wonder why critics of our will and wish never take a minute to comprehend our context, and end up bundling our country with other countries that are neither post conflict, nor post genocidal.
{{Moment of Truth }}
So in the recent senior RPF meeting, our context was explained by each speaker, and emotionally so for this is to do with the lives of all of us Rwandans. As argued in this column and ably commented on by RPF leaders, our context from genocide against Tutsi an event that has defined new Rwanda from economic to social as well as political has informed our political home work. The model President Kagame used to fix fundamental problems associated with genocide are unconventional and out of academic text books on reconstruction. But as has been put many times, this is work in progress.
{{Real Fears}}
As outlined above, RPF leaders in the above meetings pin pointed out the real fears we as a people have, fears that are born out of heinous past, and the highest probability of these fears crystallizing in the near future.
First, the fear of recurrence of genocide is real given that perpetrators of the same (FDLR) are protected by some external parties for reasons known to them. They have made it very clear that, switch leadership, and these terrorists will cross borders with unimaginable consequences. They have openly confessed to the effect that, it is only Kagame who tamed them, and can tame them. This fear was supposed to have allayed by defeat of these by multinational force in DRC which defeated M23, but we now know the truth. They serve interests of external parties who have fought our model, and are not about to relent. Which Rwandese can allow these to prevail. President Paul Kagame is the only guarantor of our security amidst serious national threats and we Rwandese are aware of this.
Secondly, there is the fear that, the reconciliation process now under way will regress on his departure with consequences we can’t afford to underwrite as a country and a people. Research has shown that, it takes no less than three generations for an optimum reconciliation model to have irreversible impact. But such reconciliation depends on the moral authority of a leader in power at the time. Such moral authority is neither transferable, negotiable, or learnt/imitated/imputed. It is inherent in the person of the leader in power. Reconciliation model has direct and clear impact on the economy, social set up, and political direction all of which leads to stability or even perpetual instability depending upon the success of this model is in place.
In our case, President Kagame’s model of reconciliation has worked beyond remotest expectations for both parties to reconciliation trusted his model. But this model is work in progress that would certainly leave with his departure from office, two years now. The fears of a change in model as a result of change in leadership (without transferability of moral authority) with serious and irreversible consequences on our economic and social transformation has all informed our decisions. No externally party can all these fear, given that they have lost their moral authority in 1994, and still do in various post-conflict countries.
Thirdly, there is real fear that, the new Rwanda which is a handiwork of President Paul Kagame will regress irreversibly on his departure from office with social as well as political consequences attendant. His economic model (supply economic model) is dependent on moral authority, ingenuity, and charismatic leadership that he and he alone hold at the moment, and this (like for reconciliation) is neither transferable, negotiable, imputed or imitated.
Considering the miraculous growth of our economy and with limited resources we can talk of, the only resource we boost is governance and efficient utilization of meager resources we are endowed with. And so if the main resource with is exemplary leadership of President Paul Kagame, how can we let go of such resource at this point in time? Considering that, we were a failed state in 1994, and given the momentum of our growth at the moment, we agreed in this very meeting that, it would be bizarre to change the captain of the ship on a miraculous course. Examples of post conflict countries such a Liberia, Iraq, Libya, Somalia etc which still depend on foreign institutions and resources to manage their affairs was very informative.
Fourthly, the unprecedented peace and security we enjoy in the country has depended on his security model, that he and he alone can guarantee for now. It is still work in progress that would be easy to reverse on change of leadership with die consequences to lives and property, investment promotions and through this the growth of our country. The threat to our peace and security as pointed out earlier, is influenced by both internal as well as external factors, some of which we can’t control such as FRLR. These are real fears that have informed our decision, and term limits only serve to heighten these fears and will only make most these real.
Fifth, and perhaps critically important was the fact that, one can get good leaders but great leaders/exemplary emerge once in the life time of a country and leaving such leader to exit when we can afford to avoid it, was not optional.
Sixth, there real fears that some of huge project and which fit in our grand vision would cease to be on his departure. From Northern corridor, Bugesera airport just to mention a few have execution time that far exceeds the so called term limits. And so changing the architect of these would see them stall. Question is, when will some or all of the above fears subside? Not certainly in two years time. They are time variant and some will take centuries to eliminate it from our national conscious.
{{Rwanda’s Real Untold Story}}
The real untold story about our country is not the BBC documentary with highly flawed and bizarre methodologies where those that fell from grace in Rwanda as result of the accountability flaws and are now allies of FDLR were main subjects to this documentary. FDLR and ISIS are similar in that, they are both ideological outfits, the former to exterminate the Tutsis and the later westerners. And so asking allies of FDLR of what they think of genocide and Rwanda in general is akin to asking ISIS what they think of the west.
The answers would not be different. We would have/watch untold story of the west by ISIS. The real untold story about Rwanda is one the world has tried to cover for it is a permanent scar on their conscious. That is, the inability if the west to intervene when millions were killed by genocidal forces and all had to leave Rwanda, so that we finish each other. It did not happened, and although we lost 1 million of our compatriots, RPA now RDF was able to stop this demonic killings of Rwandans by Rwandans. Now the those who watched the horrors of our genocide on their TVs are hounded by the permanent guilty so much so that, they would want to wish it away. They can’t. Genocide and its consequences to our national fabric is with us for generations. This is one of the untold stories, that no one in the west would not tell, for it haunts their guilty.
{{The international community}}
The second untold told story and one we are going to live with for unforeseeable future is the threat of FDLR.
These genocide forces as pointed out earlier is not in DRC by accident. It serves the interest of those powers that were party to genocide and are collectively guilty to the extent that, they have been, and are bedfellows in their extermination intentions. There has been a lot of rhetoric UN Security Council with sanctions that are not executed, condemnations that are window dressing to say the least, and travel bans that end up as travel facilitation by leaders of these terrorists. Besides, there has been miscarriage of justice in some western countries where cases against genocidal elements are drop as simple as for petty criminals. Regional interest have of late tried to sanitized this group and some will continue to do.
UN spends a whopping $ 1.2 billion to maintain 20,000 troops in DRC whose mission it seems is to sustain the FDLR rather fight it. There is no will or willing to do so, and it we don’t expect it anyway. Our fears have been confirmed and endorsed by inaction on the part of international community on the part of FDLR. This is the really untold story, there rest are machinations of genocide revisionists and their cohorts. And so Rwandans are in for a long haul with this genocidal group and their consistent supporters. This as argued earlier has fundamentally informed our home, and will continue to do so.
In this very meeting however, stories of former combatants, refugees, extremist (converted) were told. These are now leaders of the same party (RPF) to which they were ‘eternal protagonists’. All leaders who spoke highlighted the miraculously turn round of our economy against all odds possible. The social transformation that is visible even in the remotest corner of our country was also highlighted so much so that, when all are factored in our national fabric, removing the architect of this successful model is unimaginable. Consequences of the same were argued and scary to hear. And so leaders did the rational thing. Endorse the change of the constitution and request President Kagame to continue with his exemplary leadership that is of envy and a wish to most Africans on our continent. This was democracy at work.
{ {{To be continued… }} }
{Professor Nshuti Manasseh.
Economist and Financial Expert.
Email: nshutim@gmail.com.}
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