ugnet_:

[Mulindwa Edward]

Invaluable lessons from Moi By MUTAHI NGUNYI President Moi has always compared elections with the traditional art of wooing a girl. And although his wooing methods go back to the 1940s, in the last two elections he has ended up with the girl. But now he wants her inherited by Mr Uhuru Kenyatta. The only problem here is that the girl has apparently refused to be handed over like a bag of maize to Mr Kenyatta. She wants the new suitor to engage in some form of political seduction. But since this was not part of the deal, it seems to have posed a problem! The art of political seduction teaches us that a suitor must create pain, stir anxiety and arouse disaffection for seduction to happen. The argument here is that a satisfied and happy person cannot be politically seduced. This is so because desire is not awoken through pleasant sensation; it is aroused by a wound. Even in love matters, Cupid's arrow has to pierce through the tender heart and create a wound for romantic magic to happen. For Mr Kenyatta to woo the girl, therefore, he must evoke feelings of pain, anxiety and unhappiness. He must manufacture a wound he can open and re-open; a need that only he can fulfil. But the problem, however, is that President Moi is part of the wound in this girl. And Mr Kenyatta cannot open wounds without poking and injuring the president.  In the alternative, Mr Kenyatta can decide to forget about political seduction. Since he has the money, he can opt to rent the crowds. In this way, he does not have to recite poetry to the girl, make her laugh or woo her through kind gestures. All he needs to do is engage her through a `contract' and have her respond at his behest. Although this might seem outrageous, it is the apparent path Mr Kenyatta has taken. I attended his rally at Uhuru Park on Monday, and at the risk of sounding biased, my observation was that his crowd was `rented'. It was rehearsed, mechanical and choreographed compared to the Narc crowd at Nyayo stadium, which was spontaneous and natural. Unlike President Moi who believes in the traditional virtues of wooing a girl, the Kenyatta campaign has no time for such virtues. If they can rent the girl, why bother wooing her?  On its part, Narc's seduction strategy is not any better. While Mr Kenyatta has chosen to `rent' support, Narc has chosen to use the `pain strategy'. They have opened the wounds afflicted on Kenyans by the Nyayo regime and have created a sense of inadequacy in us. This has stirred a feeling of discontentment, lack of adventure, and boredom with the Kanu government. Out of this, they have created a problem to which they are the only answer. But like the Kenyatta campaign, the Narc strategy is not about the girl. It is about the suitor. The only difference here is that Narc is at least making an effort to woo the girl. Similarly, if Narc forms the next government, they are likely to deal with the `pain', even if they are forced to use painkillers instead of going to the root causes. But if Mr Kenyatta comes to power on a `rented' crowd, what he will have is a `government by handouts'. He will not be obliged to deliver and he will not owe us anything other than `handouts'. After all, he will have bought his position.  The difference between these two groups and how President Moi has wooed the girl has to do with charm. A charmer focuses attention on the other person, but a bore draws all attention to himself. For the last couple of months, these two groups have done nothing but talk about themselves and how they will change our lives. To the contrary, President Moi's seduction strategy has been about the girl and not himself. This has been manifested in three distinct ways.  First and foremost, he has flattered the vanity of his target very effectively. The president has this way of making the target feel more superior and smarter than him. And as they say in the theory of war, when two forces contest, the one with a yielding tendency naturally wins. In other words, his capacity to boost the vanity of the target and to appear weaker than `her' makes it easier for him to win her over.  Secondly, his ability to be vague and unreliable makes him an exciting suitor. In the art of political seduction reliable people are said to be bores. This is so because the moment people feel that they know what to expect from you, your spell on them is broken. An exciting suitor therefore thrives in mystery, hence giving the target a thrill punctuated by surprises. And this is how President Moi has dealt with the country for the last 24 years. He has thrilled us, and literary toyed with our minds. To date, we are not even sure that he will hand over power. And although we do not like his unpredictability, it has kept us in suspended terror. This is probably why we have remained wooed by the man! The third aspect is best described under the victim theory of seduction as illustrated in the book Rusputin: The Holy Devil by Rene Fulop-Miller. Under this theory, a suitor who seems weak, vulnerable, enthralled and miserable has a better effect on his target than one who looks confident and sure. Such a suitor is able to make his actions look more natural and less calculated. And by playing victim, he is able to transform the target's sympathy into love. Playing the `victim' is a strategy President Moi has used repeatedly to politically seduce the nation.  Those who watched him as he accompanied Mr Uhuru Kenyatta to County Hall on Monday must have noticed that he was playing `victim' – deliberately or not. He was portrayed on TV looking lonely and dejected. This was made worse when the ECK Chairman Mr Samuel Kivuitu was shown handing some literature to Mr Kenyatta and Musalia Mudavadi, but literary throwing the same at the president. And then came the Uhuru Park rally and the `rented' crowd decided to walk out on the President as he gave his address. The fact that these events made him look like a `victim' elicited sympathy and fondness from most Kenyans. Whether this was deliberate or not, the sympathy can be used to woo even the most vindictive of persons. This is not intended to celebrate President Moi's devious politics. The idea is to show how he has used charm to woo and retain the girl by focusing on her. Unfortunately, he has not transferred these skills of political seduction to Mr Kenyatta yet. And what is worse is the fact that the president is not letting Mr Kenyatta woo the girl. This is probably why Uhuru has decided to use money and rent the crowds out of frustration.  Mr Kibaki is as reliable as they come. However, reliability can be a boring streak in the game of political seduction. Talking economic recovery is also not seductive and Mr Nyachae and Mr Kenyatta should hear this as well. What the girl being seduced is interested in is the sincerity of the suitor and President Moi is the model here. Although the man has been wrong on many accounts, he has been sincerely wrong! Mr Mutahi Ngunyi is a political scientist with Consult-Africa, a research and consulting firm.        The Mulindwas communication group "With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"