The Rwandan Dream and the world we live in

Following discussions at the 13th National Leadership Retreat and the way President Paul Kagame is deeply focused on delivering for Rwandans, one could not stop thinking about Rwandan choices and contrasting them with the current Republican and Democratic primaries in the United States. The greatest tenet of the United States democratic system is that Americans make choices and, for better or worse, the world respects those choices. During the current election cycle, the Republican front-runner Donald Trump has made statements which come across as offensive, naive and out of depth. For example, last week he declared to CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Islam hates America and drew little distinction between religion and radical Islamic terrorism. Also as part of his immigration plan, Trump proposes to build a wall along the Mexican border and intends to make Mexico foot the bill. Unsurprisingly, this weekend the rhetoric culminated into clashes between Trump supporters and protestors. Trump supporters believe they are losing their country while protesters fear he is leading America into a dark path. Either way, Trump’s vision for America under the campaign slogan, ‘Make America Great’, seems to be appealing to some Americans and polls suggest he is leading. However, rivals in both parties have renounced Trump’s tactics of capitalizing on anger to sway voters. Presently, much of the Republican Party establishment is pouring millions of dollars in No-Trump ads but polls suggest this may have minimal impact. Commenting on the turbulent Republican primary, President Barack Obama was of the view that politicians should be focused on making America better without encouraging violence against Americans. However, if Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, Americans will allude to the fact that this is democracy. The philosophical underpinning of the argument is that differences are sorted out at the ballot box. Indeed, the world and reasonable people will respect the will of the American people and move on. More broadly, even in situations where people disagree with the candidature of Trump, principles of democracy will take centre stage. Irrespective of the negativity, Trump’s rivals in his party have committed to support him if he wins the Republican nomination. In other words, ultimately democracy is about the will of the people and who citizens believe is best placed to deliver. Make no mistake, I have nothing against Trump or any of the candidates aspiring to be President of the United States because basic tenets of democracy speak to the fact that democracy is about the will of the people. However, the standards of democracy should be applied equally everywhere, whether in America, Rwanda or any other part of the world. This, unfortunately, does not seem to be the case. Even when you have controversial candidates such as Trump, electing them is called choices, but in countries like Rwanda, when the majority of people overwhelmingly choose to continue with President Kagame’s visionary leadership, this is called something else. Last year, when we had a peaceful referendum and Rwandans voted to pave way for President Kagame to continue steering Rwanda to greater heights, some in the Western world used unnecessary labels to describe our democratic process. To the contrary, if we had let Rwandan choices be determined from the outside, the will of the people would have been usurped. There is no doubt Rwanda is on an impressive developmental trajectory and delivering of public goods remains the main priority. Indeed the 13th leadership retreat deliberately focused on reaffirming Brand Rwanda as the overarching theme. The theme could not have come at a better moment, considering that Brand Rwanda is increasingly taking shape. Our brand as a country with high levels of efficiency for competitiveness, dignified people with unshakeable values, forward looking leadership with great aspirations is well established. This is in stark contrast with 21 years ago when our brand was that of a failed state with minimal to zero hopes of survival. Evaluation of last year’s leadership retreat resolutions shows that over 80 per cent was achieved. However, beyond the retreat resolutions, Rwanda also achieved nearly all MDGs; Rwandans successfully exercised their right to self determination; Rwanda successfully hosted CHAN 2016, Rwanda was elected as a member of the African Union Peace and Security Council, and the President was elected as the second Vice President for the African Union. In essence, things look good and one could not be more proud to be Rwandan. Naturally, one would have expected the leadership retreat to be a recital of the country’s remarkable progress but this was not the case. Despite the progress, the President, throughout his engagement, reminded leaders not to be complacent but strive to deliver more results by confronting challenges. In sum, the delivery spirit is what will continue to ensure Rwanda becomes more prosperous and challenge the naysayers. The writer is an Investment/International Law Lawyer and a commentator on national and regional issues. rkarugarama@yahoo.com

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The Rwandan Dream and the world we live in