Saturday 31th Marchl 2012 | H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
His Excellency the Vice President of the Republic of Uganda; Right
Honourable Speaker of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda; Right
Honourable Speakers & Heads of Delegations to the 126th IPU; The
President of the IPU; The Secretary General of the IPU; His Lordship the
Chief Justice of the Republic of Uganda; Rt. Honourable Prime Minister
of the Republic of Uganda; Members of Diplomatic Corps; All Delegates to
the 126th IPU Assembly; Invited Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen.
I greet you all. On behalf of the Government as well as the people of Uganda, I welcome you. This part of the world is unique. It is one of the only three spots on the whole globe that is right on the equator, but with a high altitude. This place where we are sitting today has an altitude in the range of 1,150-1,320 meters above sea level. Some parts of Uganda go up to 5,000 meters above sea level and you find permanent snow right at the equator. In terms of climate, it is, therefore, very comfortable. If you choose not to use the air-conditioning and the house has the right architecture, you do not have to cool or warm the air artificially. You just enjoy it as it is.
Coming to the issues of Democracy and Parliament, we should remind ourselves that Democracy was practised even in the ancient primitive communal societies. It is an egalitarian form of government in which all the citizens of a nation, together, determine public policy, the laws and the actions of their state. It requires that all citizens, meeting certain qualifications, have an equal opportunity to express their opinions.
At some stages in human history, direct democracy was practised, where the whole voting population would take decisions without going through representatives or delegates. You could find direct democracy in band societies like those of the Khoi-san peoples of Southern Africa (the misnamed Bushmen). These were small bands of 20-50 people. Decisions were taken by everybody, by majority decisions. It seems to have been the same practice in the ancient Greek City States. Decisions would be taken by all citizens in the assembly, which set the laws of the City State.
The modern version of democracy is Parliamentary democracy where representatives of the people decide, for given periods, on behalf of the voting population and the rest of the people. In our country, the President (Executive) and Parliament run public affairs on behalf of the people for a fixed term of five years. The President runs the Executive branch of government and he/she is accountable to Parliament (the Legislative branch). The Parliament legislates on Bills brought by the Executive, mainly. However, Private Members’ Bills can also be legislated on.
In Uganda, the constitution is supreme. Both the President and Parliament must conduct their mandates according to the provisions of the constitution. The third arm of Government is the Judiciary - these interpret the provisions of the constitution if necessary and dispense justice to the aggrieved citizens by adjudicating on all cases whether civil or criminal.
In the case of Uganda, however, the people reserve the right for themselves to directly intervene in a matter by a referendum, if necessary. Therefore, our constitution hybridizes elements of Presidential democracy, Parliamentary democracy and direct democracy. It is one of the most democratic constitutions I have ever known because it also provides additional space for special interest groups, e.g. women, youth, workers, disabled people and soldiers. This is all on top of the 238 constituency members of parliament. The women members of parliament are also directly elected by all the voters in the district, just like the constituency members of parliament, district chairpersons, mayors and sub-county chairpersons, etc. The members of parliament for the youth, people with disability, soldiers and workers are elected by electoral colleges that are themselves directly elected.
The word democracy comes from a Greek word called demokratia. Demos means people and kratos means power. Therefore, it means people’s power. Apart from the ancient primitive communal societies, such as the Khoi-san, some of which, still exist today, that were, as already pointed out, practicing direct democracy, the Greeks started using this word (demokratia) around 503 BC. This was following a popular revolt in 508 BC. The ideas of representative democracy were crystallized during the European Middle Ages (around 1400 AD), the Age of Enlightenment (1650-1700 i.e. the 18th century), the French Revolution (1789), the American war of Independence (1775-1783) and earlier on in England. In 1215, some English barons forced King John Lackland of England to sign the Magna Carter, which protected the citizens from some of the King’s actions. The word Parliament comes from the French word: Parler which means to speak. The first elected Parliament was De Montfort’s Parliament in England in 1265. Only a small number of people participated in electing this Parliament.
Universal male suffrage was first achieved in France in March 1848 following the February 1848 Revolution. Universal suffrage was first achieved by New Zealand in 1893 where both men and women could vote. As democracy was beginning to flourish in the 1920s in many countries that were not under colonialism, the great economic depression of the 1920s brought disillusionment with democracy. Fascist forces and dictators emerged in many places in Europe and South America providing strong but undemocratic governments, which people thought could ensure economic development and prosperity. It was only in fascist Germany and the Soviet Union (run by the Communists) that tremendous growth in the economy took place under conditions of lack of liberal and competitive democracy. Unfortunately, the German fascists used the great economic surge in Germany to launch the 2nd World War. This was intended to re-divide the world in order to create colonies in favour of Germany away from the older colonialist countries as well as to conquer other European peoples so as to create “lebensraum” living space for the “superior” German race. The Soviet Union created tremendous growth for about 70 years. In the end, however, it suffered internal upheavals as you all know.
One of the most interesting examples is that of India. A huge population of 1.1 billion people living under continuous liberal, competitive, multi-party democratic governance for the last 65 years and also realizing socioeconomic transformation of great magnitude. India seems to show that it does not have to be either competitive, liberal, multi-party democracy or socio-economic transformation. Without being dogmatic, India seems to show that you can have tremendous economic growth, the acrimony of competitive politics notwithstanding. China has undergone tremendous growth in the last 63 years under her own system, headed by the Communist Party.
What seems to be clear is that democracy or any other system without growth and socio economic transformation is at risk. In one of our dialects, there is a proverb, which says that the close relationship between a cow and a human being is because of the milk the cow gives man (obuzaare bw’ ente n’amabeere).
Democracy, to sustainably thrive, must deliver on socio-economic transformation. In Uganda, we lost development time because of primitive dictatorships and civil strife. When macro-economic stability as well as safety of person and property were restored, the economy had a very low revenue base. Depending on external loans and grants was helpful but not decisive as far as socio-economic transformation was concerned. With improved tax revenue, we are beginning to fund capital projects using some of our little money for the railway, the roads, scientific innovation and energy – these sectors and factors are indispensable precursors to socio-economic transformation. If you only deal with governance issues but you do not deal with these strategic factors which stimulate socio-economic transformation, that democracy is not likely to thrive. This is equally what happened in the 1920s when democracies had to relapse into fascism in Europe and Latin America. In Africa, we have seen a number of failed states, partly linked to this problem of failure to undergo socio-economic transformation and, merely, continuing with what we used to call ‘enclave economies’ in the 1960s. These were small islands of modernity in a given country surrounded by a sea of backwardness. Here in Uganda, we have identified the following strategic stimuli that are indispensable for socio-economic transformation:
1. Private sector-led growth – freedom for the private sector to invest, bring in capital and take out dividends without restrictions. It is for this reason that Uganda’s economy has grown at the rate of 6.5% per annum for the last 25 years, other existing strategic constraints notwithstanding.
2. Infrastructure development, especially electricity, the railway, roads, ICT, etc.
3. Human Resource development through universal education and health care.
4. Value addition, instead of exporting raw materials. With the latter you end up getting only 10% of the value of the final product and also exporting jobs to those who do the final processing. When Uganda exports coffee, we normally get one American dollar per kilogram. The same kilogram processed in London fetches fifteen American dollars. Hence, Uganda donates to UK about ten American dollars in every kilogram exported.
5. Export-oriented growth gives additional synergies to the economy by accessing wider regional and international markets – rather than just concentrating on import substitution.
6. Regional integration gives our producers a bigger market but also gives us a bigger negotiating clout with other big markets in the world.
7. Democracy to enable the people to determine who leads them and whether the people approve his/her vision and programme.
8. Sovereignty and independence in decision making so that whatever the Government decides is in the interests of the people and not in the interests of external players to the detriment of our own people.
Out of 160 present members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, some countries had undergone socio-economic transformation by the time of the 2nd World War; some have undergone socioeconomic transformation since the 2nd World War up to today; others, including Uganda, are still struggling to undergo this socio-economic transformation.
Socio-economic transformation, in the modern context, means a society metamorphosing from a feudal, peasant one to one of a middle class and skilled working class. This social metamorphosis cannot take place without concomitant economic metamorphosis in the mode of the economy. Both cannot take place without addressing the strategic stimuli just enumerated above. May I conclude by pointing out that, for the first time in human history, we could be heading towards universal prosperity. In all previous periods, we had unbalanced development in the world i.e. some few centres of opulence and development in a few corners of the globe while poverty and under-development prevailed in the rest of the world. In the last 30 years, for instance, hundreds of millions of people in China, India, the Middle East, Brazil, Indonesia and, to some extent, Africa have got out of poverty and joined the middle class. This has had dramatic effects on the demand of a wide range of materials for the construction sector as well as other inputs into industry and food.
To take one example, the price of steel was US$ 200 per tonne twenty years ago. The price of steel is now US$ 1,000 per tonne. Why? It is because more human beings are staying in cement, concrete and steel supported houses instead of staying in straw huts. Is this bad for the human race? Only the evil hearted parasites would say it is bad. On the one hand, more and more human beings are living in better shelter. On the other hand, the prices of raw materials have gone up to the benefit of the producers of those raw-materials. However, those societies that have been living cheaply at the expense of others will have to adjust. Possibly, new raw materials and new sources of energy will have to be identified. Nobody should have nostalgia for the discredited past five centuries where certain human groups were prospering at the expense of others. I believe that it is possible and beneficial for all to have universal human prosperity. What is true of steel is true of sugar, copper, petroleum, etc.
Depending on raw-materials is, of course, dangerous for countries because, as technology advances, new raw-materials may be found, rendering the old raw-materials redundant. That is why, in Uganda, we aspire to building an economy that is integrated, independent and self-sustaining. Nevertheless, universal human prosperity (as opposed to the, hitherto, unbalanced development) in the world demands a restructuring of the production patterns as well as the lifestyles in the whole of the human society. We may have to examine whether, for instance, it is sustainable, for every family to own a car (sometimes five cars in one family) or it may be wiser to develop efficient public transport systems. In the days of acute unbalanced human development, it was easy for societies in a few corners of the globe to have a profligate lifestyle because global resources were only servicing those opulent areas. Can the whole of the human society afford that profligate lifestyle sustainably or should we all adjust?
Coming to the theme of this Conference, ‘Bridging the gap – Parliament and the People’, it is obvious from what I have said above, that using every ounce of the means of each Parliament to cause socio-economic transformation where this has not happened and continuing to consolidate it where it has happened is the real basis of ‘closing the gap’. If there is no socio-economic transformation in our countries, where shall we sustainably get the means of ‘closing that gap’? Yes, we can engage in some activities of Public Relations with the people such as rallies, talk shows, attending religious functions, attending funerals and many others. However, in the end, “we shall know them by their fruits”, as the Bible says (Matthew 7:16). It is the transformation of the people’s quality of life that will close that gap. As far as Uganda is concerned, the 68% of the homesteads that were in subsistence farming according to the 2002 Census figures must engage in small scale, high value commercial agriculture for food and income security. We are about to end the problem of the electricity deficit that has plagued us since 2005. This deficit must never occur again. There is no danger in having too much electricity as was erroneously claimed some years ago to our detriment.
Ensuring that investors in Uganda are assisted in every possible way so as to expand our GDP, create jobs, increase our export potential and widen the tax base is the real ‘closing the gap’. Who are the wealth creators in Uganda? Is it the Government (Legislature, Executive or Judiciary)? Or is it the private sector? If it is the private sector, then, all the actors (Executive, Legislature and Judiciary) must facilitate them effectively and promptly. Countries are sovereign. Genuine businesses are also sovereign. A business can decide to come into Uganda or not to come. It is the duty of all actors to persuade businesses to come into Uganda. This is the base for ‘closing the gap’. I thank all of you for coming and I wish you a happy stay in Uganda.
His Excellency the Vice President of the Republic of Uganda; Right
Honourable Speaker of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda; Right
Honourable Speakers & Heads of Delegations to the 126th IPU; The
President of the IPU; The Secretary General of the IPU; His Lordship the
Chief Justice of the Republic of Uganda; Rt. Honourable Prime Minister
of the Republic of Uganda; Members of Diplomatic Corps; All Delegates to
the 126th IPU Assembly; Invited Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen.I greet you all. On behalf of the Government as well as the people of Uganda, I welcome you. This part of the world is unique. It is one of the only three spots on the whole globe that is right on the equator, but with a high altitude. This place where we are sitting today has an altitude in the range of 1,150-1,320 meters above sea level. Some parts of Uganda go up to 5,000 meters above sea level and you find permanent snow right at the equator. In terms of climate, it is, therefore, very comfortable. If you choose not to use the air-conditioning and the house has the right architecture, you do not have to cool or warm the air artificially. You just enjoy it as it is.
Coming to the issues of Democracy and Parliament, we should remind ourselves that Democracy was practised even in the ancient primitive communal societies. It is an egalitarian form of government in which all the citizens of a nation, together, determine public policy, the laws and the actions of their state. It requires that all citizens, meeting certain qualifications, have an equal opportunity to express their opinions.
At some stages in human history, direct democracy was practised, where the whole voting population would take decisions without going through representatives or delegates. You could find direct democracy in band societies like those of the Khoi-san peoples of Southern Africa (the misnamed Bushmen). These were small bands of 20-50 people. Decisions were taken by everybody, by majority decisions. It seems to have been the same practice in the ancient Greek City States. Decisions would be taken by all citizens in the assembly, which set the laws of the City State.
The modern version of democracy is Parliamentary democracy where representatives of the people decide, for given periods, on behalf of the voting population and the rest of the people. In our country, the President (Executive) and Parliament run public affairs on behalf of the people for a fixed term of five years. The President runs the Executive branch of government and he/she is accountable to Parliament (the Legislative branch). The Parliament legislates on Bills brought by the Executive, mainly. However, Private Members’ Bills can also be legislated on.
In Uganda, the constitution is supreme. Both the President and Parliament must conduct their mandates according to the provisions of the constitution. The third arm of Government is the Judiciary - these interpret the provisions of the constitution if necessary and dispense justice to the aggrieved citizens by adjudicating on all cases whether civil or criminal.
In the case of Uganda, however, the people reserve the right for themselves to directly intervene in a matter by a referendum, if necessary. Therefore, our constitution hybridizes elements of Presidential democracy, Parliamentary democracy and direct democracy. It is one of the most democratic constitutions I have ever known because it also provides additional space for special interest groups, e.g. women, youth, workers, disabled people and soldiers. This is all on top of the 238 constituency members of parliament. The women members of parliament are also directly elected by all the voters in the district, just like the constituency members of parliament, district chairpersons, mayors and sub-county chairpersons, etc. The members of parliament for the youth, people with disability, soldiers and workers are elected by electoral colleges that are themselves directly elected.
The word democracy comes from a Greek word called demokratia. Demos means people and kratos means power. Therefore, it means people’s power. Apart from the ancient primitive communal societies, such as the Khoi-san, some of which, still exist today, that were, as already pointed out, practicing direct democracy, the Greeks started using this word (demokratia) around 503 BC. This was following a popular revolt in 508 BC. The ideas of representative democracy were crystallized during the European Middle Ages (around 1400 AD), the Age of Enlightenment (1650-1700 i.e. the 18th century), the French Revolution (1789), the American war of Independence (1775-1783) and earlier on in England. In 1215, some English barons forced King John Lackland of England to sign the Magna Carter, which protected the citizens from some of the King’s actions. The word Parliament comes from the French word: Parler which means to speak. The first elected Parliament was De Montfort’s Parliament in England in 1265. Only a small number of people participated in electing this Parliament.
Universal male suffrage was first achieved in France in March 1848 following the February 1848 Revolution. Universal suffrage was first achieved by New Zealand in 1893 where both men and women could vote. As democracy was beginning to flourish in the 1920s in many countries that were not under colonialism, the great economic depression of the 1920s brought disillusionment with democracy. Fascist forces and dictators emerged in many places in Europe and South America providing strong but undemocratic governments, which people thought could ensure economic development and prosperity. It was only in fascist Germany and the Soviet Union (run by the Communists) that tremendous growth in the economy took place under conditions of lack of liberal and competitive democracy. Unfortunately, the German fascists used the great economic surge in Germany to launch the 2nd World War. This was intended to re-divide the world in order to create colonies in favour of Germany away from the older colonialist countries as well as to conquer other European peoples so as to create “lebensraum” living space for the “superior” German race. The Soviet Union created tremendous growth for about 70 years. In the end, however, it suffered internal upheavals as you all know.
One of the most interesting examples is that of India. A huge population of 1.1 billion people living under continuous liberal, competitive, multi-party democratic governance for the last 65 years and also realizing socioeconomic transformation of great magnitude. India seems to show that it does not have to be either competitive, liberal, multi-party democracy or socio-economic transformation. Without being dogmatic, India seems to show that you can have tremendous economic growth, the acrimony of competitive politics notwithstanding. China has undergone tremendous growth in the last 63 years under her own system, headed by the Communist Party.
What seems to be clear is that democracy or any other system without growth and socio economic transformation is at risk. In one of our dialects, there is a proverb, which says that the close relationship between a cow and a human being is because of the milk the cow gives man (obuzaare bw’ ente n’amabeere).
Democracy, to sustainably thrive, must deliver on socio-economic transformation. In Uganda, we lost development time because of primitive dictatorships and civil strife. When macro-economic stability as well as safety of person and property were restored, the economy had a very low revenue base. Depending on external loans and grants was helpful but not decisive as far as socio-economic transformation was concerned. With improved tax revenue, we are beginning to fund capital projects using some of our little money for the railway, the roads, scientific innovation and energy – these sectors and factors are indispensable precursors to socio-economic transformation. If you only deal with governance issues but you do not deal with these strategic factors which stimulate socio-economic transformation, that democracy is not likely to thrive. This is equally what happened in the 1920s when democracies had to relapse into fascism in Europe and Latin America. In Africa, we have seen a number of failed states, partly linked to this problem of failure to undergo socio-economic transformation and, merely, continuing with what we used to call ‘enclave economies’ in the 1960s. These were small islands of modernity in a given country surrounded by a sea of backwardness. Here in Uganda, we have identified the following strategic stimuli that are indispensable for socio-economic transformation:
1. Private sector-led growth – freedom for the private sector to invest, bring in capital and take out dividends without restrictions. It is for this reason that Uganda’s economy has grown at the rate of 6.5% per annum for the last 25 years, other existing strategic constraints notwithstanding.
2. Infrastructure development, especially electricity, the railway, roads, ICT, etc.
3. Human Resource development through universal education and health care.
4. Value addition, instead of exporting raw materials. With the latter you end up getting only 10% of the value of the final product and also exporting jobs to those who do the final processing. When Uganda exports coffee, we normally get one American dollar per kilogram. The same kilogram processed in London fetches fifteen American dollars. Hence, Uganda donates to UK about ten American dollars in every kilogram exported.
5. Export-oriented growth gives additional synergies to the economy by accessing wider regional and international markets – rather than just concentrating on import substitution.
6. Regional integration gives our producers a bigger market but also gives us a bigger negotiating clout with other big markets in the world.
7. Democracy to enable the people to determine who leads them and whether the people approve his/her vision and programme.
8. Sovereignty and independence in decision making so that whatever the Government decides is in the interests of the people and not in the interests of external players to the detriment of our own people.
Out of 160 present members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, some countries had undergone socio-economic transformation by the time of the 2nd World War; some have undergone socioeconomic transformation since the 2nd World War up to today; others, including Uganda, are still struggling to undergo this socio-economic transformation.
Socio-economic transformation, in the modern context, means a society metamorphosing from a feudal, peasant one to one of a middle class and skilled working class. This social metamorphosis cannot take place without concomitant economic metamorphosis in the mode of the economy. Both cannot take place without addressing the strategic stimuli just enumerated above. May I conclude by pointing out that, for the first time in human history, we could be heading towards universal prosperity. In all previous periods, we had unbalanced development in the world i.e. some few centres of opulence and development in a few corners of the globe while poverty and under-development prevailed in the rest of the world. In the last 30 years, for instance, hundreds of millions of people in China, India, the Middle East, Brazil, Indonesia and, to some extent, Africa have got out of poverty and joined the middle class. This has had dramatic effects on the demand of a wide range of materials for the construction sector as well as other inputs into industry and food.
To take one example, the price of steel was US$ 200 per tonne twenty years ago. The price of steel is now US$ 1,000 per tonne. Why? It is because more human beings are staying in cement, concrete and steel supported houses instead of staying in straw huts. Is this bad for the human race? Only the evil hearted parasites would say it is bad. On the one hand, more and more human beings are living in better shelter. On the other hand, the prices of raw materials have gone up to the benefit of the producers of those raw-materials. However, those societies that have been living cheaply at the expense of others will have to adjust. Possibly, new raw materials and new sources of energy will have to be identified. Nobody should have nostalgia for the discredited past five centuries where certain human groups were prospering at the expense of others. I believe that it is possible and beneficial for all to have universal human prosperity. What is true of steel is true of sugar, copper, petroleum, etc.
Depending on raw-materials is, of course, dangerous for countries because, as technology advances, new raw-materials may be found, rendering the old raw-materials redundant. That is why, in Uganda, we aspire to building an economy that is integrated, independent and self-sustaining. Nevertheless, universal human prosperity (as opposed to the, hitherto, unbalanced development) in the world demands a restructuring of the production patterns as well as the lifestyles in the whole of the human society. We may have to examine whether, for instance, it is sustainable, for every family to own a car (sometimes five cars in one family) or it may be wiser to develop efficient public transport systems. In the days of acute unbalanced human development, it was easy for societies in a few corners of the globe to have a profligate lifestyle because global resources were only servicing those opulent areas. Can the whole of the human society afford that profligate lifestyle sustainably or should we all adjust?
Coming to the theme of this Conference, ‘Bridging the gap – Parliament and the People’, it is obvious from what I have said above, that using every ounce of the means of each Parliament to cause socio-economic transformation where this has not happened and continuing to consolidate it where it has happened is the real basis of ‘closing the gap’. If there is no socio-economic transformation in our countries, where shall we sustainably get the means of ‘closing that gap’? Yes, we can engage in some activities of Public Relations with the people such as rallies, talk shows, attending religious functions, attending funerals and many others. However, in the end, “we shall know them by their fruits”, as the Bible says (Matthew 7:16). It is the transformation of the people’s quality of life that will close that gap. As far as Uganda is concerned, the 68% of the homesteads that were in subsistence farming according to the 2002 Census figures must engage in small scale, high value commercial agriculture for food and income security. We are about to end the problem of the electricity deficit that has plagued us since 2005. This deficit must never occur again. There is no danger in having too much electricity as was erroneously claimed some years ago to our detriment.
Ensuring that investors in Uganda are assisted in every possible way so as to expand our GDP, create jobs, increase our export potential and widen the tax base is the real ‘closing the gap’. Who are the wealth creators in Uganda? Is it the Government (Legislature, Executive or Judiciary)? Or is it the private sector? If it is the private sector, then, all the actors (Executive, Legislature and Judiciary) must facilitate them effectively and promptly. Countries are sovereign. Genuine businesses are also sovereign. A business can decide to come into Uganda or not to come. It is the duty of all actors to persuade businesses to come into Uganda. This is the base for ‘closing the gap’. I thank all of you for coming and I wish you a happy stay in Uganda.
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