State ineffectiveness in DRC
Rotberg (2003), explained what “failed
states” mean, and he simply explained it as a state
that cannot provide positive political goods and services for its citizen and
these political goods are obligations and expectations that entails political
culture and social contract. Security is the most important political good,
and its absence indicates state failure. State failure in DRC has been
identified as one of its features since its establishment in 1885 as a modern
state, from the time it was Congo Free State under Belgian King Leopold II to
present day DRC under Kabila. Ineffectiveness of the structures of the state
and the violence inflicted upon the people of DRC dates back to colonial period
under the brutal rule of King Leopold II. King Leopold set foundation for the
horrors that haunts modern day DRC, the country was used as an extraction field
where mass violence and human rights violations was taken as an appropriate
measure against the natives. According to Ntalaja (2011), politics in DRC have
never risen above the image of plunder, use of force and disregard for human
dignity be it under the rule of ruthless European King, a Congolese dictator of
regional warlords.
DRC’s
failure can be capture in four major steps and manifestations; first, under the
name of Congo Free State, the country was a personal property of Belgian King
Leopold, a property that was meant to generate revenue and benefit the King and
Belgium. Slavery was used to extract resources, mainly rubber, and the state,
the land was nothing more than an instrument of wealth generation and
accumulation of wealth for the king and his beloved Belgium, leading to death
of over 10 million native Congolese, causing an international outrage, (Ntalaja
2011). Secondly, following this international outrage, the country was given to
Belgium as a colony from 1908-1960, even with the departure of King Leopold and
formal administration of the colony by Belgium, Africans’ dignity and value as
human-beings were undermined and they were prevented from democratic
participation in the management of the country’s public affairs.
Thirdly,
institutional decay, corruption and underdevelopment came to characterise the
country under the dictator Mobutu who ruled from 1971-1997. Self declared king
of Congo, he not only changed the country’s name to Zaire, but he also ruled it
as his personal possession, a machine used for enrichment coupled with human
rights violations and massive corruption. By concentrating power in the hands
of the few corrupt officials loyal to him, professionalism was taken out of
state structures like army and tribalism, and corruption flourished weakening
the state, paving way for Rwanda and Uganda to invade, occupy, and plunder and
in the process toppling the dictator himself. Fourthly, under Laurent Kabila,
the country was informally under the control of the Ugandans and Rwandans.
Furthermore, just like his predecessor, the new president conferred status on
military heads and officials on unqualified individuals, and going as far as
getting a Rwandese as chief of staff, showing the influence of Rwanda on the
country. Just like Mobutu era, the security apparatus of the state
disintegrated as it was run by unqualified, corrupt, tribalist individuals. He
was later assassinated by his own bodyguard, (Ntalaja 2011). DR Congo, thus was
a never a so-called normal functioning state. It was never capable of
fulfilling its functions like any other states effectively. According to the
Institute for State Effectiveness[1],
the following are the major functions of an effective state:
·
Upholding rule of law
·
Monopoly of use of force
·
Control of public administration
·
Regulate and oversee market
·
Define social contract and run effective
infrastructure
However, DRC
fails in all of the above. This is a country that is listed as the second most
failed state in the world by the fundforpeace.org,
for the year 2012. The violence that characterises the state and the erosion of
the state’s power and authority in the eastern provinces has not been turned
around by the Joseph Kabila’s rule, just like his father before him, the
country is in shambles. He came to power
promising to end political impasse in the country and implement Lusaka
Agreement on ending war and promote dialogue in 1998, and as the war ended in
2003, security situation in eastern DRC did not change, (Ntalaja 2011).
Lack of
control over market and territory by the government saw increase in lucrative
trade in the minerals in the mining provinces of Kivus. This attracted militias,
and with them came horrors of sexual violence and slavery inflicted on the
population. While these militias like CNDP[2],
FARDC, and FDLR are important actors in the conflict, the major problem resides
in the weakness and incapacity of the state of DRC, it failed and continues to
fail in maintaining a national army that is effective and capable of protecting
the citizens against the militias, and instead its faced with mutinies,
corruption in recruitment and finally poor leadership. Interestingly enough, the
present day DRC army is predominantly made of former rebels. Ntalaja, (2011),
points out that by recent incorporation of FARDC into the national army that is
already composed of former rebels the government has established a precedent
where they simply make peace by absorbing adventurous rebels. Additionally, he
clarifies that this incorporation makes it hard to raise an effective and
disciplined army especially if the top officials and officers are corrupt,
incompetent and fails to pay them regularly.
The violence
and continued conflict in DRC arose primarily from the failure to establish a
functional stable state. Unlike Charles Tilly’s War-making and state-making’s
central core arguments, the conflict in DRC is far from that, rather it
resembles organised crime involving the entire central African states. The nine
countries involved conspired in one way or another to plunder resources, and
the most fascinating part was collaboration of private, public and military
interest, Niemann (2005). Unlike European states that went through wars to
emerge to what it is today, DRC and other former colonial states in Africa did
not, the border were drawn by European and weak states were maintained and
preserved because of international norms that grants and upholds juridical
sovereignty. Thus, because of these norms of equality of all states and the
right to preserve them, the future of DRC as a state capable of effectively
controlling its territories, securing its citizens and commanding a disciplined
army depends on how the international community will respond to the situation,
through assistance as well as DRC’s elites and civil societies desire to leave
behind divisive politics and work together.
Despite mineral abundance and reserve DRC has
been characterised by vicious cycle of violence and underdevelopment that has
seen the country ranked 186 out of 187 measured by United Nations Human
Development Index. From modern day DRC to former governments under Mobutu, the
state was seen as a wealth machine rather than a tool for the development and
betterment of the society at large. And this has led to development of
governance crisis as a lot is taken from the citizenry and little of services
if provided in return. According o Ntalaja (2002), the origin of DRC’s parasitic
like nature as a state is rooted in colonial history and it is a country under
neo-colonial rule today.
Congo’s independence from Belgium might have
rendered the country independent, free and sovereign, however according to the
Kwame Nkurumah, a former Ghanaian president and one of the pioneers of
neo-colonialism asserts that countries, especially former colonies are now
under different form of colonialism; he offers a definition of the term,
neo-colonialism as,
“A State
which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward
trappings of international sovereignty. In reality its economic system and thus
its political policy is directed from outside. (1965, pg 1)
In
essence, Nkurumah argues that neo-colonisation is where a former colony which
gained its independence is exploited politically and economically, it is a form
of indirect colonisation. An internationally recognised independent state is
controlled in such a way that it changes policies governing social, political
and economic lives of its peoples so that it can be conducive to exploitation
of its resources for profit by Multi-national companies or other states for
that matter.
References:
Vlassenroot
& Huggins, (2005). Land, migration and conflict in eastern DRC. URL: http://www.iss.co.za/pubs/Books/GroundUp/4Land.pdf
G, Prunier, (2008). Africa’s World War: Congo,
the Rwandan genocide and the making of continental catastrophe. Oxford:
Oxford University press
G,N,Natalaja, (2002). The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A people’s history. New York: Zed
books.
Human
Rights Watch (March/1/2001). Uganda in Eastern DRC: Fueling Political and
Ethnic Strife, A1302, available at: http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/3ae6a87e8.html
[accessed 28 December 2012]
P,
Clark (2012). UK Aid to Rwanda: International
Development Committee. University of London.URL:http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmintdev/726/726vw12.htm
[Accessed 25/12/2012]
D, Beswick (2012). Unpacking
Rwanda’s involvement in DR Congo and the international response.
E-International relations: URL: http://www.e-ir.info/2012/12/19/unpacking-rwandas-involvement-in-dr-congo-and-the-international-response/
[accessed 27/12/2012]
G, N, Ntalaja, (Autumn 2004). The International Dimensions of the Congo
Crisis. Global
Dialogue, Vol. 6, No. 3-4. pp. 116-126. URL; http://www.worlddialogue.org/print.php?id=319
[accessed 22/12/2012]
R,Rotberg (2003). When States Fail: Causes and Consequences. princeton
[2]
CNDP, is Rwanda backed militia: Congres National pour la Defense du Peuple,
FDLR, on the other hand is a Hutu extremist group:Front Democratique pour la
Liberation du Rwanda and finally FARDC
: Forces Armees de la Republique DEmocratique du Congo.
: Forces Armees de la Republique DEmocratique du Congo.
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