We do not need a national army By Harold E. Acemah (email the author <javascript:void(0);>)
Posted Tuesday, April 13 2010 at 00:00 On April 11, 1979, the Tanzanian Peoples Defence Forces entered Kampala and liberated Ugandans from the military dictatorship of Gen. Idi Amin. That year, most Ugandans believed, and with the benefit of hindsight, wrongly, that ‘gun rule’ was finally over. We believed that Uganda had hit rock bottom and we all hoped against hope that things could only get better. Now, 31 years down the road, if there is one thing Ugandans have learnt it is that, we have learnt nothing, at best very little, from our tragic post-colonial era. Uganda’s history since independence in 1962 is written in blood, shed unnecessarily by both civilian and military regimes. It is a tragedy of monumental proportions, considering that our national problems are political in nature and, as such, our problems cannot be resolved by military means. For instance, the alleged rigging of the 1980 general elections, which was the rationale for the 1981 - 1985 bush war and the root cause of Amin’s rise to power, through a military coup d’état in 1971, were political factors. Political problems must be resolved by political means. Sadly for Uganda, election rigging no longer makes headline news but has, in fact, become routine despite the bloody civil war which was fought under the pretext that the 1980 general elections were rigged by the UPC. To the best of my knowledge, no empirical evidence has so far been submitted to a Ugandan court of law to substantiate the allegations made in 1980/81 by the aggrieved principal party. Related Stories - LETTER TO A KAMPALA FRIEND: Kabaka shed tears for all of us<http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/Commentary/-/689364/883884/-/ah1qihz/-/index.html> The notion of an unarmed country is not utopian. Costa Rica in South America, a continent which has had a turbulent history like Africa, abolished its national army. Costa Rica went through a painful period when governments were changed through coups and counter- coups for many decades. However, in 1948, Costa Rica decided to abolish its regular army. The decision to demobilise the national army was spearheaded by the President of the time, Jose Figueras who declared: “The Regular Army of Costa Rica, worthy successor of the Army of National Liberation, is handing over the keys of these barracks to the schools so that they can be converted into a cultural centre.” The founding junta of the Second Republic declared the national army officially dissolved, because “we consider the existence of a good police force sufficient for the security of our nation”. In Costa Rica, 1st December is celebrated every year with pride as Army Abolition Day. All African countries, including Uganda, should strive to follow the progressive and visionary example of Costa Rica and declare their own “Army Abolition Day.” Such a bold step would release, for economic and social development, the colossal resources we squander on expensive military hardware. In most African countries today, expenditure on the military and related outfits consumes the bulk of national resources. Consequently, the most important sectors, such as education, health and agriculture are neglected and deprived of the resources necessary to achieve meaningful economic and social development. Hunger and malnutrition are a direct result of the failure to invest adequate resources in agriculture. Furthermore, the importance and urgency to allocate sufficient resources for the education sector cannot be over- emphasised. After all, knowledge is power, and countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea which were more or less at the same level of development with some African countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda in the early 1960s have made a great leap forward primarily because of the high priority they accorded to education. In my opinion, the desire and time to abolish national armies in Africa has come. It is the patriotic duty and challenge of all peace-loving Africans and genuine friends of Africa to ensure that Africa is demilitarised by 2025. Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez stated in 1988: “Our young people have the right to new heroes, to commanders who silence weapons and practise dialogue. “In these 50 years, in which military barracks have been converted into schools, our symbol has been the teacher who extols intelligence, not the soldier who oppresses his people.” We can surely do likewise. In many African countries today, the primary role of the army is not to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our countries from external aggression. As David C. Korten has argued in his book, Getting to the 21st Century (1990), conventional warfare between nations has become all but obsolete. In too many countries, the army is the primary enforcer of injustice. Global de-militarisation should be a high priority on the agenda for the 1990s. What African countries desperately need today is a paradigm shift in the concept of security. Instead of focusing on military security, we should instead focus on human security which can best and effectively be achieved by addressing the underlying causes of our internal and inter-state conflicts including tribalism, nepotism, even witchcraft, poverty, ignorance, disease as well as the unequal sharing of the national cake. For example, roughly 10 per cent of Uganda’s population controls and consumes 90 per cent of our national resources. How outrageous and shameless can Africa’s ruling elites be? If power belongs to the people, as Uganda’s Constitution stipulates, it follows logically that the people of Uganda should determine their destiny. I propose that at an appropriate time Ugandans should, through a referendum, decide whether we need a national army at all, because the role which all our armies have played since independence has undeniably done more harm than good to the people of Uganda and to our body politic. I believe that a well trained, well paid, well motivated and professional Police Force recruited from all parts of and denominations in Uganda can effectively take care of law and order in our country. *Mr Acemah is a political scientist and retired ambassador *
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