In the previous article in this serialised narrative, we took note of how the new constitution gave excessive powers to President Juvenal Habyarimana’s MRND’s party and its leader. MRND and its organs became omnipresent in the entire life of the people and the country. This was to boomerang on the regime, as we shall see in this piece. The legislature was linked to the executive. The judiciary was undermined in favour of the executive with the suppression of the Supreme Court. Article 81 of the Constitution provided that the President of the Republic was the Custodian of the Independence of the Judiciary. The clauses made MRND the centre of all power. The central government undermined democracy as consolidated power replaced the separation of powers. Before long, MRND became an extraordinary machinery of propaganda expressing the wishes of its founder up to the remotest corners of the country as a result of its organs. These ranged from the National Congress via provincial committees, congresses at the district level extending to sectoral committees and then assemblies and committees at the parish level. To consolidate its power and its grip on the country, the MRND regime resorted to two methods of rural mass mobilisation and recruitment of supporters in the entire country. These were community work (Umuganda) and facilitation (gushyushya urugamba), both of which were inspired by the Salongo and Sakayonsa bands from Zaire’s MPR party of President Mobutu Sese Seko, who was an ally of Habyarimana. Communal work and facilitation were political instruments geared at controlling the population and ensuring support to the regime. During the facilitation process, the founding president, Habyarimana, was idolised, praised and glorified with slogans like “Prezida fondateri, Ramba, Sugira, Sagamba, Tera imbere, Turagushyigikiye!” The slogans were echoed everywhere during such functions. The president became a cult leader of sorts. The politics of controlling the population to ensure its allegiance only brought about rivalry. In 1980, a conspiracy against Habyarimana led by Major Theoneste Lizinde and his associates flopped. The coup plotters were tried by a tribunal which sat in Ruhengeri. They were condemned to death on July 14, 1982 and put in the Ruhengeri prison. President Habyarimana pardoned them by changing their capital punishment to life imprisonment. Lizinde and many of his associates remained in prison until January 23, 1991, the day they were set free by an attack on their prison by the RPF-Inkontanyi. Luzinde and Biseruka joined their liberators’ struggle. The 1980 aborted coup resulted in a split of the holy union of the July 5, 1973 putchists, among them was Habyarimana. The division was between people from the northern part of the country (Ruhengeri and Gisenyi provinces) in general. In particular, members from Habyarimana’s region occupied the best positions in the country in all fields, both in the private and public sectors. Ethnic and regional balance The First Republic of President Gregoire Kayibanda, was established along lines of ethnic discrimination against the Tutsi. The Second Republic of Habyarimana was made up of Hutus who originated from the central and southern parts of the country. The policy established regional quotas according to ethnic groups. The quotas were based on the criterion of proportional representation according to population as far as education and employment in the public service and private sector were concerned. MRND radicalised the process. In speeches, Habyarimana, its founding father, such as on August 1, 1973 and during the 4th MRND congress on June 29, 1983, said: “It is understandable that admission to different schools will take into account the social, ethnic and regional composition of the Rwandese society.” The so-called policy of “ethnic and regional balance” prevented the best performers from joining the education field, the army, the police and other posts which they deserved or wished to join. The policy marginalised the Tutsis as well as the Hutus from other districts apart from Gisenyi and Ruhengeri. Internal contradictions and reneging on promises made the Habyarimana regime unpopular. In the forthcoming pieces of this serialised narrative, we shall see what will transpire as a result of these policies.
