Why Rwanda subscribes to consensual democracy

Author: Gad Ntambara

• 2023-03-31 05:18:00

When Rwandans began agitating for independence against Belgian colonial rule, political parties started being formed.  

Intriguingly, since many Rwandans considered independence an achievement worth celebrating, Gregoire Kayibanda and other elites issued a public manifesto demanding a continuation of Belgian rule until the Hutu were better prepared to assume a role in political affairs.

Needless to say, this was the work of the Belgian colonialists who were focused on sowing the seeds of ethnic division.

In June 1957, Kayibanda and his colleagues mentored by Msgr Perraudin formed the Hutu Social Movement. The latter, in 1959, became the Party of the Hutu Emancipation Movement (Parti du Mouvement de l'Emancipation Hutu—Parmehutu). Without going much into detail in the formation of other political parties like UNAR, and APROSOMA, it is evident that the formation of political parties started on a wrong footing of ethnicity.

In 1959, there was widespread persecution and massacre of the Tutsi, all over the country.

Those who survived went into exile in neighboring countries and beyond.

Since the colonial masters were the architects of the divide and rule policy, they were behind the Tutsi massacre. The real numbers of people killed could not be established as several scholars believe that the killings constituted a genocide that was never recorded.

Fast forward; the regimes that took over after independence continued with the politics of ethnic discrimination which culminated into the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

With the prevalent legacy of genocide ideology, and its architects still spread all over the world, post Genocide Rwanda chose to guard against divisive politics and ensure inclusivity to enable unity of all Rwandans, reconciliation and sustainable peace.

Rwanda's current leadership, after wide consultations, decided to find an alternative to confrontational politics which had sunk the country into genocide against the Tutsi where more than a million innocent souls were killed in 100 days.

The Government of national unity conducted wide national consultations among Rwandans from all walks of life, including politicians and civil society members. The purpose was to recreate a sense of community and belonging among all Rwandans devoid of any form of discrimination and ethnic divisions.

Later, a National Consultative Forum for Political Organizations (NFPO) was established, with the idea of promoting permanent consultative mechanisms among political parties and organizations, based on the spirit of the Arusha Peace Accords.

The NFPO works as a platform where political organizations recognized in Rwanda meet and discuss the country’s problems and national policies, with an aim of consensus building and national cohesion. The aim is to build a better Rwanda.

The choice of consensual democracy is a home grown approach. It took into consideration the political history, context and aspirations of the Rwandan people to build a united country that is free from any form of violence.

Some critics accuse Rwanda of not subscribing to Western democracy. However, what they intentionally ignore is the fact that there is no one size fit all type of democracy.

Each country, or nation, is different, and at liberty to choose what works for it with the will of the people, so as to deliver peace, unity and progress.

Again, there are critics of the Rwandan model of democracy who say that it is not vibrant, that it stifles opposition and that the elections are boring because they do not see confrontation between political parties as seen in many countries. The Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994 was caused by bad politics of division. Rwandans have agreed to leave behind such bad politics so as to ably build a new nation.

Political organizations decided to embrace mature politics, which could be difficult for the critics to comprehend because they just hear about genocide but have no clue about its real effect on Rwandan society.

Rwandan political organizations come together and agree on a minimum agenda that does not compromise the unity of the Rwandan people, and shuns genocide ideology.

Since 1994, Rwanda is a peaceful country that has moved from an almost failed state to one of the emerging economies on the African continent.

The unity, stability and accelerated development seen today in Rwanda is attributed to the strong pillar of consensual democracy as well as transformational leadership under President Paul Kagame.