Some among the most
knowledgeable observers of the African politics, rightly argue that the DRCongo
is “a vast, organized scam”.
Here is a sobering
truth that only mature Congolese would swallow: There Is No Congo. This
was the statement made by one of brilliant minds in America, Mr. Jeffrey
Herbst. As Jeffrey Herbst and Greg Mills put it in Foreign
Policy, "The Democratic Republic of the Congo does not exist." The
authors attacked the idea that "one sovereign power is present in this
vast country" of "67 million people from more than 200 ethnic
groups," arguing that any international efforts "predicated on the
Congo myth" are "doomed to fail." From mineral-hungry
colonialists to the unqualified son of a Che Guevara colleague who became
president, the authors detail Congo's slide into "ungovernable
fiefdoms" built on "repression and patronage."
A question to a Congolese reader: was Mr. Jeffrey
right or wrong in his assertion? Well, it depends on what Congolese you are; a
rational or emotional Congolese. Chances are, you are emotional Congolese like
almost everyone else in Congo because seldom are rational Congolese. Why say
this? Simply because a rational person think and act rationally, intellectually
and objectively. Emotional person always bases his/her actions based on
emotions. Given the choice, an emotional person will opt to jeopardise his and
country’s future because of emotional choices rather than calculated, educated
and benefit oriented actions.
No reasonable Congolese (except the ruling elites) will deny that
Congo is not a failed state. Every Congolese including the ruling class, will
rightly tell you that they wish, want and hope for Congo to be peaceful, and
prosperous country. But the irony is that very few Congolese are willing to
have Congo experience what any other failed state go through in order for it,
to be a real state, in the real sense of statehood. Moreover, the sad fact is,
not only have Congolese proven incapable to rule and govern their large and
rich country, they are even incapable to choose what is good for them and their
own people in their own country! I know that sounds harsh and even insulting,
but maturity oblige that truth be not only told but also heard!
In 2009 when the then USA Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited
Congo, here is what Pierre Englebert, wrote: “ Congo
is a tragedy for reasons that many know well, including the 5 million who have
died from conflict since 1998, the thousands gang-raped by soldiers and rebels,
and nearly 2 million who've been displaced from their homes. Add to that a
population of more than 60 million citizens suffering from the state's chronic
inability to provide safety, dignity, and anything close to development.
Progress has been painfully slow. A so-called democratic transition, six years
of postconflict intervention, billions in foreign aid, and some 20,000 UN soldiers
have done little to end the violence”. ( The Christian Science
Monitor, AUGUST 10, 2009 by Pierre Englebert)
Englebert, a
professor of African politics at Pomona
College, further explained by stating that, “A major reason for this
tragedy is that Congo's governance resembles a racket. Its politicians and
administrators are mostly corrupt, getting rich from keeping their state
dysfunctional, and promoting local violence to serve their interests.
Throughout the country, people in positions of state authority systematically
dominate and extract resources from those below them, all under the guise of
sovereign power.”
The
following are some of the reasons why Congo is a failed State and as such must
be broken into pieces:
No sense
of statehood
Throughout
DRC’s history, the ruling elites have antagonized ethnic groups by supporting
regional militia groups who massacre people, plunder resources, sowing
confusion, fear and insecurity in the process. No sense of statehood could
possibly arise out of an exploitive system that continues to this day.
One
characteristics of a failed state is lawlessness. In lawless Congo, rebel
leaders are accustomed to making deals with the government and remain
untouchable. Some warlords have run for president, while other political leaders
such as Yerodia Abdoulaye
Ndombasi have been
vice-president. Yerodia was nominated and installed by Joseph Kabila while
publicly encouraging the Congolese population to kill ethnic Tutsis. Even now he is one of the respected
dignitaries in the country: a genocide promoter! No real state will allow such
a thing! But, hey, that’s jungle, oops! Rather, Congole.
1. No sense of citizenry
or patriotism. Congolese are not only
known to hate their fellow Congolese due to tribal diversity, but they also
known for their lack of patriotism. Here I am mean love the country. Average
Congolese including especially leaders are ready to sale the country for less
than $500. Without guaranteeing a sense of belonging and security for all its
citizens, Congo should not anticipate or expect any guarantee of peace.
2. IRRESPONSIBLE
GOVERMNENT: Congo must take responsibility for its failures. Millions of
innocents have lost their lives because of possible
genocide, civil wars and underreported outbreaks of diseases due to lack of clean
water and basic infrastructure.
Congo
has failed to protect its citizens, remaining shamefully hostile to some of its
own people, the Congolese Tutsis.
Resentment of Congolese people of Rwandan ancestry, Banyamasisi
and Banyamulenge who have endured cyclical episodes of genocidal
persecution, are at the heart of eastern Congo’s instability. In 1998 thousands
of Congolese Tutsis were lynched across the country. In 2004, about 162 Banyamulenge
were killed and over 100 injured in the Gatumba refugee camp in
Burundi. The perpetrators boasted about the killings in international media and
nothing was done to bring them to justice until now. But the international
community usually led by France, has always been roaring like a lion every time
searching for any suspected Tutsi fighter to bring to so called “justice”; even
if he led the fight for self defense against militia genocidaire. Hate speech
and have driven violence against the Tutsi population has increased since the 1994 genocide which killed around 800,000 tutsis in Rwanda by the same militias
killing alongside government supported Mai Mai in Eastern Congo.
3. Systemic
Corruption: In Congo corruption has become a culture and a
virtue. Everything runs and moves on corruption. Corrupt people are rewarded
for being so corrupt. Thieves run government institutions without ever being
questioned for their corrupt deeds. Corruption begot poverty, which in turn
begets conflicts and wars. One of the outside observers, Adam Hochschild rightly describes it well in the New York Review of Books on the
"unimaginably horrifying" culture of widespread rape and forced labor
by warring militias in "the world's largest failed state." Hochschild
explained that oppression has been "considered the right of armies"
from the colonial Belgian occupiers through today.
4. Congolese are EXCELLENT
IN SCAPEGOATING.
If there is
one thing that every Congolese knows better than anyone else in the world, is
shifting blame to someone else. It’s never their fault that the country is in
such a mess. With this fundamental failure, Congo has excelled in externalizing
the blame to outsiders. Rwanda, Uganda, and the “International Community”. They
have become victims in the art of scapegoating. They take proud in not taking personal responsibility, which is a
proof of immaturity! Asking
Congolese government or civil society to take responsibility for its (Congo)
failures is unfortunately too much to ask, and yet it is the only mature way of
beginning to change.
POSSIBLE
SOLUTIONS:
If the
people of Congo are going to even dream of having a peaceful and prosperous
country, they must be willing to make a real change that must be fundamentally
different from what has been tried before. It is one and one thing only:
CONGO
MUST BREAK UP INTO SMALLER, MANAGEABLE COUNTRIES, AND RECONCILIATION OF THE
PEOPLE.
There will
be no peace and progress without reconciliation.
Unless
competing tribal rivalries are reconciled, corrupt leaders will continue to
benefit from the lack of a national identity. The army is dysfunctional,
soldiers are not paid and often do not have enough to eat. Worse, the army
has no regard for the citizenry it is sworn to protect. Without emotional,
tribal, or national connections, there is no motivation for the army. It has
proven impossible to govern Congo the way it is and it is doubtful another
“neutral international force” can do the job when 20,000 MONUSCO troops have failed.
In addition
to reconciliation, some of the international experts interested in the
region, especially on two large and especially troubled regions of Congo, the
suggest the splitting into politically manageable entities as follow: "It
is time to ask," they wrote, "if provinces such as the Kivus and
Katanga (which are themselves the size of other African countries) can ever be
improved as long as they fall under a fictional Congolese state." They
also argue that the international community should work with local forces to
develop infrastructure. "Deal with whomever exerted control on the ground
rather than continuing to pretend that Kinshasa is ruling and running the
country," they advised.
Hochschild blamed "ethnic warlords and their backers…" who exploit
the country's massive natural resources to fuel endless civil wars, abetted by
a government of bribe-seeking bureaucrats. "Government as a system of
organized theft goes back to King Leopold II, who made a fortune," he
wrote. He recounts being approached by a stranger in the streets offering to
sell him uranium for $1.5 million.
Truth be
told: SELF-DETERMINATION OR
SECESSION IS THE ONLY SOLUTION FOR THE PEOPLE OF KIVU. There you have it.
The question is are the people of Kivu, rational enough, reasonable enough and
objective enough to have the courage to fight for self-determination, or they
would all die being emotional and driven by hate and bigotry?
At the end of the day, it all boils down to people’s ability and right
to choose.
