Bobi Wine has garnered a huge following among Uganda’s youth
Ugandan security forces may be readying clampdown on opponents
Kagulanyi RobertPhotographer: Joel Saget/AFP
His life has been threatened and he’s been charged with treason,
but a Ugandan pop-star-turned-politician is on a mission to do what no
one else has managed for more than 30 years: topple the president.
Robert
Kyagulanyi, known by the stage name Bobi Wine, has emerged as the
biggest threat to President Yoweri Museveni as a hugely popular figure
among the majority of the nation’s people: the young, a third of whom
are either unemployed
or not receiving an education. His loose movement of supporters from
across the political divide is proving to be a conundrum to Museveni,
who’s had little trouble in the past routing traditional opposition
parties.
“We know that people power is stronger than the people in
power,” Kyagulanyi, 37, said in an interview at his home in the capital,
Kampala. “We are not into this for formality. We are into this to
change our country.”
After growing up in the slums of Kampala, Kyagulanyi
headed to the nation’s premier university, Makerere, to earn a Bachelor
of Arts degree. He gained prominence as a self-styled “ghetto president”
singing about the plight of ordinary people and later won a seat in
parliament.
Wearing
his signature red beret, Kyagulanyi and his German Shepherd welcome
guests into his home, about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) from central
Kampala. A manicured garden surrounds the house with palm trees along
the walk and driveways. Guests including fellow musicians and lawmakers
wait in a tent to meet with him.
Opposition Crackdown
Seated
in a brown armchair with the words “People Power” emblazoned on the
headrest, Kyagulanyi is straight-faced when asked why he thinks he can
unseat Museveni, whom he compares to former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin
and ex-Libyan leader Moammar Al Qaddafi.
“President Idi Amin declared himself life president, he did
not die president,” he said. “Qaddafi was seemingly invincible. He did
not die a president.”
Robert Kyagulanyi gives an interview at his home.
Photographer: Melanie Stetson Freeman/Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images
Museveni
seized power in 1986, following years of political upheaval including
Amin’s bloody dictatorship, and restored multiparty politics almost 15
years ago. But in recent years, advocacy groups like Amnesty International
say he’s presided over a deterioration in the East African nation’s
human-rights situation. Opposition leader Kizza Besigye has faced
repeated arrest and beatings by the authorities in the run-up to
elections over the past two decades.
As Uganda’s 2021 general election approaches, there are signs
that Museveni may be preparing to intensify a clampdown on his
opponents. The government raised its security budget 75% this year to
almost $1 billion, to be spent on equipment and training.
‘Security for All’
State Minister for Internal Affairs Obiga Mario Kania said it’s not true that the government targets its opponents.
“Uganda secures all its citizens,” he said.
The authorities have arrested Kyagulanyi several times in the past year. He’s been charged
with treason, after his supporters allegedly threw stones at Museveni’s
convoy, inciting violence and disobeying lawful orders. Last year,
Kyagulanyi received treatment in the U.S. for injuries he said were
sustained while under arrest.
“President Museveni and his regime
don’t see their strength in convincing people any more; they see their
strength in coercing,” Kyagulanyi said Aug. 13. “Today is a year since
the assassination attempt on my life. Since then many people have been
arrested. Others have disappeared. Many have been killed.”
Traditionally
an agriculture-dependent nation, Uganda is on the cusp of becoming an
oil producer from fields owned by companies including Tullow Oil Plc,
Total SA and China’s Cnooc Ltd. The start of output has been repeatedly
delayed, and a final investment decision that had been expected in 2018
was postponed over different views on taxation between the government
and the companies. Kyagulanyi blames Museveni for the hold-ups.
‘Contradictions, Scandals’
“Uganda’s
slow move in the oil sector is not slow out of caution; we should have
benefited from the oil yesterday,” he said. “The contradictions and
scandals emanate from the fact the nation is under the control of one
person. Literally it’s not the Ugandans that own Ugandan oil, but
Museveni and his cabal.”
Under his rule, Kyagulanyi says he would ensure government
institutions are put at the forefront of negotiating and managing the
oil industry, along with other strategic national projects. He also
envisages the government providing more support for commercial
agriculture.
Robert Kyagulanyi performs as ’Bobi Wine’ in Busabala in 2018.
Photographer: Isaac Kasamani/AFP/Getty Images
Any
prospect of him winning the next election will require more robust
policy proposals, along with possible alliances with other opposition
leaders like Besigye, said Jared Jeffery, an analyst at Paarl, South
Africa-based NKC Africa Economics.
“Kyagulanyi certainly knows how to put on a show,” Jeffery
said. “We have argued previously that he still needs to formalize his
People Power movement into a coherent organisation that stands for
something more than deposing Mr. Museveni and has a roadmap to attaining
it.”
Even if he succeeds in his quest to oust Museveni, Kyagulanyi could return to his artistic roots one day.
“Music
is my first love and it will be the last, but this is a calling that I
can’t say no to,” he said. “However, it will be more than a pleasure to
go back and do what I used to love especially in a free Uganda. So as a
former head of state, I will go back to the stage and will fire up the
crowd.”
UP NEXT
Why Netflix’s 'American Factory' Has China Talking
Why China’s Buzzing About Netflix’s Documentary ‘American Factory’
Bloomberg News
Internet users probe questions on unionization, work practices
Film discussed despite Netflix not being available in China
Chinese and American workers at the Fuyao factory in Dayton, Ohio.Source: Netflix
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“American Factory,”
a new Netflix Inc. documentary about a Chinese-owned factory in Ohio
isn’t being screened in China. But hundreds of thousands of people have
seen it anyway, sparking a debate that delves into the relationship
between the world’s two largest economies.
The 115-minute film was widely discussed on Chinese social
networks and spawned dozens of reviews by influential bloggers and state
media, prompting discussions on globalization, cultural differences,
automation and workers’ rights. Netflix isn’t available in China, and a
company spokesperson said there’s no legitimate way to watch it there.
The
documentary, backed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s new production
company, follows along as a shuttered General Motors plant outside
Dayton is bought and converted into a factory run by China’s Fuyao Glass.
The complexities of the issue are evident in the reactions it evoked in
China, a mix of self-reflection and defensiveness as the trade war with
the U.S. shows no sign of ending.
The U.S. levied another round of higher tariffs on Chinese goods on Sept. 1, and China retaliated.
Employees fish on a day off.
Source: Netflix
The
film starts out on an optimistic note, but the clash of working
cultures -- especially over the question of unionization -- soon engulfs
the factory. In the end, the union effort fails, and its Chinese
managers start replacing workers with machines.
The
clash between the American workers and their new Chinese managers in
the film may be rooted in the different business models both countries
favor, a blogger named Liu Run wrote
in a post on popular messaging platform WeChat that was viewed more
than 40,000 times. Fuyao’s management came across as callous in the film
because its success hinged on minimizing costs, rather than investing
in innovation, he said.
“If U.S. manufacturing is high-end, then China’s
manufacturing, overall, is still about medium and low-end assembling,”
he wrote. Automation can’t be the solution, Liu added, asking “if the
U.S. and Germany boost automation, why would anyone come from far away
to invest in China?”
Culture Clash
In
multiple posts and comments, Chinese internet users who’d seen the film
on streaming sites and through using virtual private networks dissected
the differences between the American workers and their Chinese
colleagues.
Chinese workers during American culture training at Fuyao Glass America.
Source: Netflix
In
the film, the former complain about long working hours and express
concern about safety risks and environmental protection -- prompting
them to attempt to form a union. Meanwhile, the Chinese work longer
hours, pay little attention to safety and offer little push-back against
their bosses’ demands.
“When unionization efforts failed, the
Chinese workers seem to be even happier than the managers, do they have
Stockholm Syndrome?” Joe Zhou, who works in the media industry, said on
WeChat. “The answer might be complicated.”
In China, every company has a so-called worker’s union. These
organizations aren’t directly involved in negotiating salaries and
benefits, and their main purview is planning team-building activities
and distributing gifts on holidays. In Fuyao’s case, the union is run by
its chairman’s brother-in-law, who describes the union and the company
as “two gears rotating together.”
State Media
Government-owned
media framed the documentary squarely within China’s protracted trade
spat with America, using it to bolster arguments that the U.S. needs
Chinese investment to generate jobs and that an economic decoupling is
untenable.
Fuyao employees perform a musical number during the company’s annual dinner in Fuqing, Fujian province.
Source: Netflix
State broadcaster CCTV published an article
on its social media platforms pointing out the crucial role Ohio played
in President Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, and that Trump once
promised to bring more jobs to the state.
“However, GM closed
another big plant in the state earlier this year,” CCTV wrote. “More
ironically, trade tensions have led to a sharp drop of Chinese
investment to the U.S., making ‘American factories’ like Fuyao’s one of
the few important lifelines in the region.”
The documentary is playing a “positive role” in helping the two peoples understand each other, Xinhua News Agency wrote in a commentary.
The countries still lack mutual understanding, and compared with the
rhetoric of “decoupling” and a “clash of civilizations,” a film focusing
on cooperation and communication between the U.S. and China is “timely,
realistic and meaningful,” it wrote.
Ultimately, some viewers went away more conflicted than before.
“The
feeling is very complicated. I still appreciate how diligent and
organized our Chinese workers are, but on the other hand, I also feel
empathy for the American workers who are asking for more rights and
protection,” said 33-year-old Zhang Ming, who streamed the movie on a
Chinese website where it was viewed more than 700,000 times.
“I don’t see an answer to these questions,” said Zhang. “Maybe eventually everyone will be replaced by automation.”
— With assistance by Miao Han, James Mayger, and Lucas Shaw
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