International
Someone please help cure Reyntjens of obsession with divisions in Rwanda
The
old Belgian professor won’t take his eyes and mind off Rwanda. Only it is not
the Rwanda that everyone knows that he sees, but one of his imagination, a
carryover from more than three decades ago.
He
insists on seeing a divided country inhabited by people classified in certain
unchanging percentages, its inhabitants unable to live outside those stats. He
just can’t see it another way.
The
poor man is obsessed with Rwanda and this grows with each passing year. But
Rwanda stubbornly refuses to fit his obsession, however hard he tries to bend
it or force it into the shape of his wishes. It will never oblige him. I am afraid this fixation will unhinge or
kill him.
Professor
Filip Reyntjens is at it again, this time with what he calls research on ethnic
composition of various offices in Rwanda. We may ask about this supposed
research: to what purpose? Certainly it cannot be to enrich scholarship and
contribute to greater knowledge of Rwanda and Rwandans because clearly his
interest in the country is far from scholarship. There are other, less
dispassionate motives.
It
is perhaps to reconfirm the views he has held all his life even when the
evidence points to the contrary. But you don’t need research for that. Except perhaps to give his bias academic
respectability.
Or
he wants to prove a point. The government of Rwanda is as bad as the one he
used to advise. Of course, wishing that were the case may make him feel good
but it will not alter the fact that the two are miles apart and cannot be
compared. If he wants to delude himself, let him be. No one will deny him that
choice.
There
is possibly even a more sinister intention: cause division which he so clearly
craves and lend support to Rwandan extremist groups in Europe and other places.
It
doesn’t really matter. Looking for reasons for such behaviour is often futile.
Sometimes hatred becomes its own logic and motive. In this case it has become
obsessive. He seems to be fighting a duel with an imaginary or uninterested
adversary. He might actually be fighting with himself, only he does not know or
refuses to acknowledge it.
Professor
Reyntens shares this obsession with Rwanda with a small circle of like-minded,
hate consumed, delusional and mutually-validating individuals with strong
antipathy towards the country’s leadership. The likes of journalists Judi Rever
and Michela Wrong, academics like Tim Longman, Susan Thompson and others, and
western human rights activists.
They
all have something in common. They do not like the direction this country is
taking and would rather it was the old way, the one they are familiar with.
Many have an axe to grind. They lived in Rwanda at different times in the past
and had some sort of influence which they can no longer exercise in the new
Rwanda. Or they have tried to sell their version of the country to the world
but no one is buying. They cannot find a role and so feel rejected and are
bitter. That may explain why they behave like a jilted lover.
This
ethnic thing with which Reyntjens & co are obsessed is really nonsensical
in the context of Rwanda. Can one talk of a distinctness among Rwandans that
clearly sets some apart from others? Only the reckless or diabolical can
attempt that classification.
The
intention can only be one: to resurrect the race division of the colonial and
pre-1994 period when Rwandans were divided into so-called races. The old
professor is not only fixated on division, he is also averse to the concept of
unity. When he hears ‘Ndi Umunyarwanda’ he gets the shivers and rushes to
division research template to prove that it is not possible.
The
professor lives in a different era from which he needs to be rescued and
brought into the present. He will then realise that employment, election or
appointment to various offices in the public and private sectors is done
differently from what he used to prescribe decades ago.
It
is based on merit, on the knowledge and skills one has, and on technical
ability to perform certain functions, and done through open competition.
Obviously,
in the professor’s time advising the government of Rwanda, these things were
not important criteria for office. Only origin, appearance, affiliation and
official categorisation that had nothing to do with the ability to perform
were.
In
his obsession with ethnicity in Rwanda, Professor Reyntjens descends into the
ridiculous. He goes into the realm of religion and its leadership. Does he want
to suggest that the state influences the appointment of heads of various
religions? Even those appointed by Rome? Or elected by the House of Bishops
like the Anglicans? Maybe this is how it was in his days when church and state
were fused.
Someone needs to tell him: prof, times have changed. Three decades is a long time. A lot has happened and it may be worth your while to keep abreast.
Source: www.newtimes.co.rw