It is shared values that entrench common markets
By AHMEDNASIR ABDULLAHI
Posted Saturday, July 3 2010 at 17:44
The East African Community (EAC) entered a critical phase on July 1. A common market with an estimated combined population of 130 million heralds a new dawn for the five-member countries of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
The East African common market protocol is a milestone. It allows for free movement of persons, labour, services and the right to establish residence in any of the five countries.
Despite the optimistic garb clothed with this historic event, the EAC has a soft underbelly that will soon be exposed by a number of underlying factors. In the process, the shallow and sandy foundation the EAC was built on will, to the detriment of all, be exposed.
The East African Community is a community of what shared values? What are the common denominators these five countries share? What is the political, economic and social status of these countries?
The East African Community and the various milestones that define both its history and character have collectively been conceived principally driven by the executives of these countries. Whereas it is true that political leadership at the top is very important in driving unions of countries, the EACs situation is very peculiar. In other situations like the European Union, the citizenry, through referenda, have a say in the evolving process of the union.
In any democracy, sovereignty lies with the people and advanced democracies give their citizens a chance to reject the political theorisation of their leaders. For unions, whether economic or political, to be internalised by the people of a given region, the same must be driven by a democratic component. This is absent in the case of the EAC.
The biggest drawback that faces the community is that the entire process is being driven by the collective political benevolence and temporal chemistry of the five presidents. That is the glue that holds the community together. The cause of the demise of the community in the late1970s seems to be completely forgotten.
Another drawback is the absence of a set of common values and governance that bind the five countries. These countries have their own diverse histories. In terms of democracy and governance, they are at different epochal stages of progression. The only meaningful common denominator is the periodic elections they hold every five years.
Kenya is the most stable democracy among the five.
Despite the mayhem of 2008, Kenya is decades ahead of both Tanzania and Uganda in terms of liberal political system and democratic space and culture. Tanzania is labouring under a false sense of stability that usually comes with a de facto one party state. The electioneering process that we usually witness in Zanzibar and Pemba is a clear testimony of the suffocating grip the ruling party has over the country.
Uganda, despite the bravado of its strong man, resembles the opaque and despised Moi regime of Kenya. Rwanda and Burundi are under reconstruction after a calamitous period of instability.
An equally important factor that will undermine the union is the absence of common institutions and sets of laws. For a proper integration of a union, member states must share institutions that are underpinned by a set of common values and laws. These institutions will, in the process, have a regional jurisdiction and apply a common set of laws across the region. For instance, the Community needs to have a common court that has jurisdiction over certain subject matters like human rights or other governance issues of concern to member states.
The EAC fails to address the bottlenecks that will hamper a viable integration process. Apart from Rwanda, corruption and other institutional weakness are prevalent in the five countries. These countries dont have strong internal mechanisms to redress these malaises. They also share an incompetent and corrupt judiciary. An inefficient and lethargic bureaucracy is also a defining feature of these countries. The absence of common foreign and even regional policies is another drawback.
Integration and a common market is more than five presidents meeting in Arusha and parting their backs on an illusionary integration.
The writer is a former LSK chairman
Daily Nation:*- Opinion*|It is shared values that entrench common markets
Those italics lines in red makes me laugh every time! If democracy is what we see in Kenya i bet we better have none! The gurts the stereotypic Kenyans have to claim they are decades ahead democratic while till today people die out of political motivated reasons just because they oppose the ruling parties or just because of tribal politics!
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