If you haven’t had the chance to read Hans Christian Andersen’s classic ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, I suggest you do as soon as you can.
The story, published in 1837, is a tale of two swindlers who sell to a vain emperor magical clothes that can ‘only’ be seen by the wise and competent. None of the emperor’s courtiers (nor the emperor himself) could admit that they could not see the clothes that the swindlers were providing the head of state because they didn't want to be thought of as a fool.
That is, until one day the emperor dresses up in his 'magical' clothes, which can only be seen by the wise, and alongside his cortege, takes a stroll into town. As the townsfolk watch their emperor sashay past them, as naked as a new-born, they watch uncomfortably. It is only when a small child, truthful as only innocents can be, blurts out, "but The Emperor is wearing no clothes”, is the collective idiocy lifted.
This story came to mind as I discussed the very latest HRW (Human Rights Watch) report on Rwanda, ‘Join Us or Die: Rwanda’s Extraterritorial Repression’, with some colleagues.
The report, made up of anonymous sources, wild allegations, and crazed rhetoric, can only be taken seriously by someone who not only believes that the Rwandan government has access to unlimited finances and human resources, but that they would spend those resources on people who, if we are to be brutally honest, are barely surviving wherever they are. I mean, anyone with a lick of sense understands that a middling Rwandan Uber driver in say, Canberra, with a YouTube channel, is as threatening (and distracting) to the Rwandan state apparatus as a mosquito is to a blue whale.
In cahoots with some of their media partners across the ‘liberal’ world, Human Rights Watch created a few negative headlines with their nothing-burger of a report. But because the nothing-burger was released with the world’s attention everywhere else except the Great Lakes Region, it was ‘DOA’ (Dead on Arrival).
As I pondered the report’s total lack of impact, I came to the realization that its fate was due to more than just its poor timing. Rather, there was, and is, something happening that was much more fundamental, both for us here in Rwanda as well at Human Rights Watch (and their acolytes).
The fact of the matter is, these groups have neither armies to invade or funds to splash around. Their ability to influence and punish is predicated on two things; their ability to sway the Western public through traditional media sources, and their ability to sway political leaders to act at HRW's behest. And of course, HRW’s ability to influence these politicians is directly proportional to the interests the politicians have in the countries HRW has set its sights on.
How do I know this? HRW has penned countless reports on Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and China, but not a single aspect of daily life in those countries has suffered. Why? Because of two main factors. Firstly, those countries (the governments and the citizens) are not only self-confident, but self-reliant as well. Secondly, they are full members of the international community; able to project not just military power, but soft power as well.
Since the RPF took over in 1994, HRW confidently meddled in Rwanda’s internal affairs knowing fully well that the country was neither self-reliant nor able to project itself. And because of that weakness, HRW’s reports could influence how the world interacted with the RPF-led government. That, happily, is no longer the case.
Fewer and fewer people globally look at Rwanda through HRW's lens.
Today, Rwanda’s tourism offerings are more likely to appear in an American newspaper than ever before (we can thank Visit Rwanda for that). And with Rwanda playing its small part in supporting peacebuilding across the African continent, it is able to tell its own story and project its own soft power.
By hosting the Trace Music Awards and BAL, by building a 45,000-seat stadium, by pacifying Cabo Delgado, by becoming the home of IRCAD Africa and partnering with BioNTech, by providing shelter for at-risk Rwandans, and by building friendships across the world, we are sucking the air from HRW’s lungs. And once that air is gone, there is nothing left. We are discovering that they are just an emperor with no clothes.
The writer is a socio-political commentator