Reflecting on Chogm and chewing gum

By Kishali Pinto Jayawardena

What I found most amusing in the ordinary Ugandan's reaction to the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) held in Kampala last week was exemplified in one resident's remark when, tired of the blaring sirens, closed roads and suddenly exorbitant prices of ordinary goods, she snapped irritably that CHOGM was to her, nothing more than 'chewing gum.'

Whether this was a chance remark or not, the observation was perhaps truer than what its teller intended. As is the case with chewing gum, CHOGM, for impoverished Uganda, was presumably to be chewed upon for a time and ejected without noticeable good effects to the chewer, other than a remarkable propaganda coup for President Yoweri Museveni, its authoritarian and long time ruler. On a previous visit to Kampala in 2000, I had found the country, once referred to famously by Winston Churchill as the 'pearl of

Africa', to remind me remarkably of Sri Lanka in many respects but most in the abundant greenery and the warmth of the African people. This time around, though the greenery was even more abundant given the extensive pre-CHOGM efforts at tarring the roads, cleaning up the city (including pushing the twilight ladies off the streets), painting the Kampala walls and posting welcome signs at every visible point, the traditional warmth had been replaced somewhat by a testiness at the chaos that CHOGM has resulted for the normal Ugandans. There were more serious reasons as well for this discomfort; the tales being spun around, of fabulous amounts of money changing hands to build hotels and facilities for the CHOGM sessions had more than a core of truth to them. And at a different level, the question was as to whether Uganda was the appropriate choice for such sessions, given the complexity of its adherence to the Harare Principles and the basic norms of democratic governance.

Uganda's Record of Governance

The report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Violation of Human Rights which investigated abuses between 1962 and 1986 (including Idi Amin's decision in 1972 to summarily expel all Asians in order to "africanise the economy")cited over 15,000 pages of human rights violations including the use of unlawful and arbitrary detention, the torture of prisoners, poor prison conditions, the rampant existence of corruption, the banning of political parties, the lack of independence of the judiciary, the deprivation of the right to property and the intimidation of the media.

Later, though political power changed and a new Constitution was enacted in 1995 which provided some guarantees of accountability (including the election of the President and the members of the Parliament, establishing a Human Rights Commission and an Inspector General of Governance), the ban on political parties continued. The death penalty was implemented as was the Public Order and Security Act which authorised indefinite detention. Improved constitutional structures proved to be insufficient to promote political stability and rights development under President Museveni's rule. Reports of abductions and disappearances as a result of conflict with armed opposition movements are still common and there is no indication that President Museveni will relinquish his tightly held grip over the country's governance process.

The relevance of CHOGM to Commonwealth citizens

These were, of course, problems that plagued many of the heads of the Commonwealth countries which gathered around the summit in Kampala last week. The clash between Sri Lanka's Foreign Affairs Minister and the country's President over the question of the suspension of Pakistan from the Commonwealth was embarrassing in itself but in the pre CHOGM civil society sessions hosted by the Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and a number of other linked affiliates, deep concern was expressed by lawyers, development practitioners, human rights activists and academics in regard to the increased cases of enforced disappearances, internal displacement and the killing of innocent persons in Commonwealth countries including Sri Lanka and Gambia. Intimidation of the media, the targeting of human rights defenders and the extreme impunity of state actors were also high on the agenda.

The nineteen recommendations forwarded to the Heads of Government meeting included the suggestion that an expert group on policing should be established to develop best practice guidelines on all aspects of policing across the Commonwealth as well as the adoption of information laws in all the countries. Strict conformity to the Paris Principles by members of National Human Rights Commissions who should be independently appointed was a specific recommendation.

These recommendations may be subject to the criticism that they do not set the bar very high in trying to achieve compliance with human rights standards by all Commonwealth countries. However, given the abysmal state of current governance in many of these countries, this was the most realistically achievable result. Despite Pakistan's suspension (which is the least that the Commonwealth Ministers could have done), ultimately it appears that, not only for ordinary Ugandans but also for many of the citizens of the Commonwealth as well, CHOGM was useful only for the purposes of a quick chewing over and an even swifter ejection.