As Rwanda and DR Congo exchanged verbal blows at the United Nations Security Council last week — with the former’s ambassador Eugene Gasana referring to the latter as a “cry baby” and Congo’s Ignace Gata Mavita calling the former “arrogant,” the strategic Rwanda Governance Board (RGB) was gathering minds to discuss how to revitalise the long-slumbering Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL).

Besides brain-stirring topics — such as the refugee problem and why all current CEPGL presidents were at one time refugees — and how to end armed rebellion in the region, delegates also shared ideas on some of the most contentious issues in Africa’s “transitional democracies,” such as “political space.”

On Prof Elijah Mushemeza’s contention that for sustainable peace countries should attack causes of instability, like constrained political space and rights, Dr Golooba Mutebi wondered whether there isn’t an appropriate time to open up political space instead of “falling into the trap” of Western powers blindly.

In simple terms, “political space” refers to the freedom and ability of actors to discuss, support or criticise policy without being caned and to associate, organise and mobilise support for issues of interest without fear of extra legal incrimination by the government or its agents.

In its common usage, it has been assumed that the custodian of “political space” is the state or the elite controlling government and the referent other actors within the system.

However, while government has historically been critical in crafting the meaning of political space on which sustainable peaceful societies revolve, with the diminishing state the “international community” and its associated NGOs are playing a disproportional role, unlike in the past, something that is ignored.

Take the nascent nation South Sudan or the Central African Republic (CAR), which are under international pressure to democratise and hold elections on winner-takes-all one-person-one-vote basis. The same with the CAR — where the recently sworn-in Transitional President Catherine Samba-Panza is required to organise elections this year.

This has been the approach with all “post-conflict” countries; they are all pressured to organise elections despite lacking the requisite software.

Don’t these unfortunate geographical spaces require “political space” to first think through their problems and how to resolve them? Don’t they require a transition period to imagine the political and electoral system appropriate for their context? Methinks they do!

A related belief, which isn’t empirically correct in all contexts, is to think of civil society organisations (CSOs) as innately good and as guardians of civic culture and democracy.

As experience has taught us, unless CSOs set out to promote harmony and civic culture, they can actually promote conflict. This is why, just as the Habyarimana regime discriminated against Tutsi and organised their extermination, there are a number of CSOs that did exactly the same.

Postponing free speech

If any state on the continent is to be sustainably peaceful and stable, it’s the responsibility of the elite in government to ensure the citizenry freely comments on policy and practice, groups organise without fear and political groups sell their programmes without fear of persecution.

Opening up political space should never be tied to a date but should be gradual, starting from within political parties, for it’s impossible to give what one doesn’t have. This is something we have learnt from regimes such as Col Gadaffi’s and Habyarimana’s — that remained dwarf on this indicator even after decades in power — postponing free speech doesn’t pay.

Had Habyarimana been confident of his MRND’s ideas and allowed them to be measured alongside others, there would never have been a reason to kill to protect a political establishment.

Even today, while there are issues that should be put outside the realm of politics, there should be no policy or practice that should not be debated.

In fact, RPF should initiate free debates where it would discuss and defend the political system based on the programmatic appeal it has helped to put in place, power-sharing, Ndi Umunyarwanda, etc. It is this kind of debate that will cement individual ownership and belief in these ideas.

Dr Christopher Kayumba, PhD, is a senior lecturer at the National University of Rwanda and Managing Consultant at MGC Consult Ltd. E-mail: [email protected]; Twitter: @ckayumba