I was not surprised to read the article "I sacked Agoa girls - President" which appeared in The Monitor of March 22, 2004. This is a confession by the president that discloses the fact that most developing and less developing countries have failed to strike a balance between the need for foreign investment and the guarantee of the rights of their citizens including labour. As countries in the "west" become stricter on labour standards, most trans-national corporations have found it hard to abide by those standards.
This is because it increases their costs of production thereby reducing their profit margins. Such corporations are now taking advantage of the less developed countries, which are hungry to attract foreign investment.As a result such countries have bent not only their tax laws but also the labour laws to attract such foreign investments. The corporations are granted tax holidays with the effect that they produce at low costs thereby out competing the local companies. The foreign corporations are allowed to treat the labour force the way they wish.
This includes working long hours, in some cases up to 18 hours a day, working under poor conditions of work, working without any contracts, and being underpaid. These developments have been encouraged by the "west" by requiring poor countries to create what have been referred to as "Export Promotion Zones" (EPZ). The purported purpose is that these areas should host companies that produce for the export market.
The President's statement on the Agoa girls is evidence that the Ugandan Government is commitment to the attraction of foreign investment even when this is at the expense of their own citizens. The President should know that striking by the labour force is a right that is recognised by any civilised society.
It is not indiscipline for a person to demand that they treated with dignity at their work place and that they should be paid a reasonable wage consonant with the work they do. Let the President assure Ugandans that the rights of the workers will be protected and that he is not attracting foreign investment in return for patronage.
Christopher Mbazira
University of the Western Cape
South Africa
Your sentiments are right on!!
Unfortunately, Mwami Mbazira:
In Uganda we have a Yampara "government" whose interest is to line up the pockets of the so called "foreign Investors" ( most of whom are really opportunist) who are after making a quick buck......... Before the natives suspect what is happening!!!
Matek
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
