A fall from Western grace

AFP

January 9, 2006

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“Some spoke of how they were taken away in mass round-ups in Addis Ababa and how they suffered appalling beatings at the hands of the security forces. Witnesses spoke of seeing people tortured and killed at Dedesa camp in west Ethiopia, where about 50,000 people were detained.” – The Observer commenting on the nationwide crackdown following the defeat of Meles Zenawi in the May 15 elections (January 2, 2006).

NAIROBI — Less than a decade ago, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi were extolled in the West as paragons of a “new generation” of African leaders: ex-guerrilla chiefs turned enlightened free market reformers and democrats.

Today, those reputations are in tatters and the spigots of Western aid that once flowed to their governments are being twisted down amid growing concern that each is backtracking on his commitments and reverting to the African “big man” tradition of trying to stay in power for life.

While questions about leadership and misrule have long hounded Africa, the falls from grace of Museveni and Meles are particularly worrying not only for the high hopes pinned to them but for apparent misreadings of their intentions, analysts say.

“The international community was desperate to find a success story in Africa and was quick to embrace any regime that showed any semblance of this,” Ugandan political commentator Andrew Mwenda said. “In the process, they were duped into thinking that, at last, we were witnessing a change in Africa.

“If they were really serious, they should have seen that these leaders were one and the same as the past generation of leadership on the continent,” said Mwenda, a frequent critic of Museveni.

His view is shared by others, including diplomats and some officials, in the two countries.

“The notion of the ‘new generation’ of democrats was a misconceived idea based on the analysis of inexperienced diplomats and the eagerness to wipe out the influence of East European ideology and Soviet influence at the end of the Cold War,” a Western diplomat in Ethiopia said.

“The notion was not based on the reality on the ground,” he said on condition of anonymity, echoing comments from a Ugandan finance ministry official who has watched Museveni with growing unease.

“When the former guerrillas discarded their camouflage and began sporting three-piece suits, the West took them at face value and showered them with fresh credit and bilateral aid,” the official said.

Meles took power in 1991 when his rebel forces ousted the remnants of Soviet-backed dictator Mengistu Haile Miriam’s regime and embarked on an aid-propelled development and economic reform campaign that, coupled with a gradual easing of political restrictions, earned worldwide admiration.

Museveni seized power in a 1986 coup, pledging to rid Uganda of decades of conflict and misrule at the hands of the likes of Idi Amin. He quickly became a donor favorite and won plaudits for among other things, an anti-HIV/AIDS program that was hailed as a model for Africa.

Both were showered with billions in international aid.

But as Museveni enters his 20th year at Uganda’s helm this month ahead of February elections, he has come under fire for repealing presidential term limits, and the candidacy of his main rival – who faces treason, terrorism, rape and weapons charges – may be nullified ahead of the polls.

In Ethiopia, Meles, now in his 15th year in power, has drawn criticism for a massive crackdown on dissent after deadly unrest that hit the country after disputed elections last May. A total of 131 opposition figures and journalists now face trial on treason and other serious charges.

Although donor concern about both men had been building, the tipping point for many came in November, when Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was arrested just three weeks after his return home from four years of exile and the mass detentions began in Ethiopia.

Since then, more than $73 million in direct European assistance to Museveni’s government have been shunted into non-governmental humanitarian aid projects and the European Union has threatened to do the same with $375 million for Ethiopia.

Mwenda says the West “has reaped what it sowed” by concentrating on grand promises by top leaders at the expense of nurturing democratic values at the local level.

Ethiopian economist Sosna Abie agreed, saying that democracy cannot be imposed from outside and that donors would better concentrate their efforts with the people.

“Good governance and democracy should involve the people from the grass roots if it is to materialize,” she said. “Saying it, uttering democratic phrases and making promise after promise, do not make you a democrat.”