Kagame's actions speak for themselves

Recently, I struck up a conversation, for nearly an hour, with the Director of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on the sidelines of the UN Meeting of Experts at its Headquarters in New York, during which we discussed a number of Rwanda’s achievements under the leadership of President Paul Kagame. He’s a Singaporean, and compared President Kagame’s leadership with that of the late Lee Kuan Yew, who was the first Prime Minister of Singapore from 1959 to 1990. Known as the Father of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew is remembered for fighting for self-government from British colonial masters, subsequently leading Singapore to independence. He [Lee] built a nation from nothing during our most difficult years. The UN diplomat further noted that Lee built up a strong defence capability to protect their sovereignty, a vibrant economy which created good jobs, a sound education system and excellent infrastructure, housing and environment. Besides, he transformed Singapore from a Third World to First World country. As for Rwanda, first, the discussion reflected on the RPF liberation struggle that halted the Genocide, while international community stood idly by when people were dying. In addition, immediately, after the end of the liberation war and capture of power by RPF, the government prohibited revenge for whatever reason. At that time, the society was polarized, fragmented, and people had the feeling of revenge between victims and perpetrators. But the first announcement made by the government, in which the incumbent was Vice-President and minister for defence, was to strictly prohibit revenge, whatsoever. In fact, that was the beginning of the road to the long process of reconciliation. In other words, as a matter of principle, people weren’t allowed to have the right to take the law into their own hands. Most recently, Rwanda has made remarkable achievements in various aspects, including administration of justice, infrastructure development, security, doing business, investment climate, open government data, human development, good governance, right to education, women empowerment and gender parity, least level of corruption to name but a few. Most of these strides have been realised as set out in EDPRS 2, a programme designed to improve the quality of life and high ambitions of the future. At this rate, President Kagame’s government is largely focused on rural areas by designing development projects that can enable people to climb out of poverty. The above achievements, however, spring from a dynamic and visionary leadership that puts people’s interests first and foremost. Of course, the strides made have been dependant on none other than President Kagame, who is regarded, both internally and externally, as the ‘architect’ of what Rwanda is today. I just wish to elaborate on some of Rwanda’s most tremendous achievements in recent years: women empowerment and parity, fighting corruption and promotion of information communication technology. Gender equality has been widely recognised not only as a fundamental human right but also as the necessary basis for achieving world peace, prosperity that benefits all and social, economic and environmental sustainability. Thus, today, women promotion and empowerment is one of the prime focuses of President Kagame’s leadership. The government has tremendously promoted women and girls equal right to education, medical care, succession, a decent job and representation in political and economic decision-making processes which drives to sustainable economies and social justice. For example, Rwanda has the highest proportion of women in parliament, with 64 per cent. Women aren’t only in parliament, but also in various official capacities of this country. Fighting corruption is one of the key commitments of this country. In essence, major anti-corruption approaches have been set up. First, law enforcement (e.g. Office of the Ombudsman, public prosecution, courts, police etc) have tried to ensure that people comply with laws. As a result, it has significantly helped to reduce the level of corruption. As a matter of fact, suspects are held accountable without fear or favour, we have witnessed where some state officials were arrested and eventually lost their positions. The slogan is zero tolerance to corruption. This achievement has recently been reaffirmed by corruption perceptions Index 2015 published by Transparency International on January 27, 2016, which showed that Rwanda improved the score by 5 and comes among 5 least corrupt countries in Africa and the first in East African Community. Last but not least, the current government has proactively promoted penetration of ICT virtually in all circles of life. The prime objective of ICT is to accelerate socio-economic development and to improve the quality of life. Today, many Rwandans are proud that they obtain government services electronically, and this has changed, dramatically, the way of life. However, I have one burning appeal: I have been doing research in the field of IT law (e.g. data protection) but there’s a serious lack of IT law or policy that accommodates data privacy protection, Open Government Data, Data Protection Authority (for data protection remedies). For instance, ICT bill has been in the Parliament for not less than five years, but hasn’t been finalised. What is missing? ICT can be better enjoyed with a proper legal framework. The writer is a lecturer and international law expert.

Opinions

Kagame's actions speak for themselves