Ugandans are so like the Japanese. Even Japanese names sound like Kiganda ones. Kato or Nakayima can belong to either country. But our similarity to the Japanese goes beyond names.

You know that the Japanese produce many quality goods that they export worldwide. But they reserve the best quality for their own domestic consumption. They export the lower quality stuff – which is also very good, so that leaves everybody happy.

Their main achievement are in manufacturing and technology. In Africa, our main activity is politics, and politicians are the most important members of our societies, with Uganda being no exception.

While the Japanese have Toyota and Sony, Ugandans have NRM and FDC. And like the Japanese, who export good quality manufactured goods but keep the best quality at home, so do we, when it comes to politicians. We assign the good politicians the best to jobs at home and the average ones, we send abroad to interact with the rest of the world, alongside real diplomats.

Currently, we are in the process of identifying which good politicians to send to the East African Legislative Assembly in Arusha. After selecting the best legislators for the National Assembly, we have been looking for some good ones for Arusha. And again it is an NRM – FDC affair plus some smart politicians from smaller parties who have quietly aligned themselves to the big NRM.

To the nine seats for Uganda, NRM will send six good legislators, the opposition FDC will send two and the so-called independents will send one.

All the nine are good legislators, I believe. The process of selecting them has also been rather smooth by our standards. The final legislators from Uganda will be confirmed by the national assembly, however, and it is already being said they have been bribing party members for weeks with cash and sodas.

To secure their parties’ nomination, they have gone through a typical process of name calling, reserving the harshest insults for their competitors. It is hard to determine which party has the most foulmouthed – they are all ours and once in Arusha, they will put their party colours aside and speak with one voice as Ugandans and East Africans.

If it weren’t for this Japanese mentality of exporting the good and keeping the best at home, we would have picked from among some distinguished Ugandans who have rendered commendable public service and have accumulated experience and exposure. We have a number of such people who are already personally established and are not looking for a well-paying job to enable them to build their first house.

One serious contender for her party’s nomination was 25 years old, was just completing college and has chaired a couple of school associations. A very good young person, no doubt, possibly better than some other contenders who keep losing their party nomination for national assembly races, but the appointing authority hasn’t found enough ambassadorial slots to fit them in. Whatever the case, Uganda is sending some not-so-good people to Arusha.

Joachim Buwembo is a social and political commentator based in Kampala. E-mail: [email protected]