7 September 2010

editorial

Nairobi — Rwanda's President Paul Kagame's denunciation of international critics who are faulting his government's record on matters of freedom, raises more questions than answers.

President Kagame has for a long time been upheld - by the same international forces - as one of the best example of the new breed of African leader who have held their countries together after a turbulent past. Indeed, he has done a great job putting his country back together, rebuilding the society, developing infrastructure, and expanding health and education.

Rwanda is now a great example of a country that rose up from the ashes of its own self-destruction to become a favourite foreign investment destination. It has also attracted a great deal of aid from, mostly, those same Western powers which were indifferent as the country was engulfed in genocide of horrifying dimensions in 1994.

But though the country's economic policies should be emulated by many in the continent, it is not clear whether the criticism levelled at him by the critics - that he is demonstrating all the intolerant tendencies of his strongman peers in Africa who started out well but lost their way - does not have some truth in it.

Some of Kagame's disenchanted Western critics believe that the slow, even modest, progress towards greater freedom of expression, that many countries in the Third World have made in the last 20 years is not happening in Rwanda, despite all the aid and goodwill lavished on Rwanda.

The upshot of this is that African leaders must learn to accommodate dissent and some tenets of democracy while at the same time striving to wean themselves away from total dependency on donors.

That is the only way they can stand on a podium and harangue the international community against interfering in the internal affairs of their countries.