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Museveni exposed
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
Ugandan
President
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Narration
Political developments in 1997 helped focus attention once again on Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, touted by many observers as a new kind of African leader. The Ugandan president could boast of a revitalized country that was enjoying political stability, a growing economy, and improving infrastructure. Uganda also was said to be the only African nation having success in battling AIDS. The president, whom some called an African Bismarck, had achieved success with a mixture of one-party rule and private enterprise, coupled with a willingness to interfere in the conflicts of neighbouring countries, especially when doing so improved Uganda's security and furthered his goal of regional integration.
Museveni was born to cattle farmers in 1944 in the Mbarara district of southern Uganda. He attended missionary schools and graduated from the Ntara School in 1966. He then studied political science and economics at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanz. (B.A., 1970), where he was chairman of a leftist student group allied with African liberation movements. When Idi Amin came to power in Uganda in 1971, Museveni returned to Tanzania, this time in exile. There he founded the Front for National Salvation, which in 1979 helped topple Amin. Museveni held posts in transitional governments and ran for president of Uganda in 1980. When the elections, widely believed to have been rigged, were won by Milton Obote, Museveni formed the National Resistance Movement. The resistance eventually prevailed, and on Jan. 26, 1986, Museveni became president of Uganda. He won election to the post on May 9, 1996, and in legislative elections a month later, backers won control of the National Assembly.
Although as a young man he had espoused Marxism, Museveni came to believe that free enterprise was necessary for economic development. On the other hand, he rejected multiparty democracy, arguing that such an arrangement in a poor African country degenerated into tribal politics. At the same time, he allowed a free press, even though it was frequently critical of his policies. Museveni also advocated that Africans look to themselves, not to the West, for solutions to their problems, arguing that their principal conflict was no longer with colonists but rather with corrupt rulers. Perhaps his most controversial policy was to support rebels in other African countries, including Laurent Kabila.
Kabila charged that under Mobutu's rule the country had been sold out to international capitalists who sought to plunder Zaire's resources. In August 1997 he pledged, "We came to rebuild the country. We will . . . halt the intolerable interference of foreign powers in our internal affairs." Kabila publicly stated that his model for Congo's future was the one fashioned by Museveni, who as president of Uganda had turned around the economy by embracing capitalism. Regional support was swelling for the new Kabila government, but international bodies raised several reservations.
Museveni also supported Tutsi exiles fighting against the government of Rwanda and a Sudanese group, headed by a former schoolmate, fighting the Islamic fundamentalist rulers of that country. Museveni's goal, he proclaimed, was to achieve regional integration in both politics and economics, and he justified his support for opponents of corrupt regimes as necessary to bring about such a union.
to be continued...........
Note: This is the first uncompleted draft. Suggestions welcomed at Powers.
