12
Leaders
The Economist
September 5th 2020
2
the pandemic, it already knew where they worked and how to
pay them. Nobody in Estonia had to join a queue on a pavement
to claim benefits, as people in other places did.
Other countries, such as Britain and America, have long re-
sisted introducing a national identity system. Some fear that it
would make it too easy for the government to spy on people, or
would be too easy to hack, or would simply be botched by incom-
petent bureaucrats. Feelings run high. Boris Johnson, Britain’s
prime minister, once vowed that if he had to carry an
id
card and
a bossy official demanded to see it, he would “physically eat it”.
However, the pandemic has strengthened the case for a digi-
tal
id
. It would not only make it quicker and easier to access gov-
ernment services remotely. It would also make track-and-trace
systems more effective. If, in an emergency such as the pandem-
ic, health data were linked to work data, governments could
quickly spot when a cluster of covid patients all happened to
work at the same factory.
Worries about privacy and security can be allayed, albeit im-
perfectly. Estonians, who learned a healthy suspicion of Big
Brother during five decades under the Soviet boot, are broadly re-
assured by a data-protection law and continually updated anti-
hacking safeguards that include two-factor authentication. Sim-
ilarly, laws can be passed to stop police from demanding to see
people’s
id
cards. Autocratic regimes will abuse
id
systems, of
course, but democratic governments can be constrained. Esto-
nia’s system records every time a piece of data is viewed, and it is
a crime for anyone, including officials, to access private infor-
mation without good cause. That is a good model.
Creating a digital
id
system is hard and expensive. Yet India, a
gigantic and largely poor country, has managed it. Its “Aadhaar”
biometric system has created digital identities for 1.3bn people.
It has flaws: many Indians who were unable to register have suf-
fered gravely from not being able to access services. But it has
streamlined government services and massively reduced fraud.
If rural Indians can prove who they are online, it is scandalous
that many Brits and Americans cannot.
Digital
id
systems can be introduced gradually, building on
pre-existing platforms. They do not have to be compulsory. If
they are reasonably safe and reduce the hassle of dealing with the
state, people will willingly sign up for them.
7
T
ourists who
gawp at gorillas and foreign businessfolk who
meet in Kigali’s convention centre sometimes call Rwanda
the Switzerland of Africa. It has beautiful mountains, clean
streets, a functional bureaucracy and low levels of petty corrup-
tion and crime. But it differs from Switzerland in ways that casu-
al visitors often miss. Rwandans are terrified of their govern-
ment. They are constantly watched for hints of dissent, which is
ruthlessly suppressed. History is rewritten to suit the present.
Heroes can become “unheroes” overnight.
One such person is Paul Rusesabagina, who as the manager of
the Hotel des Mille Collines saved more than 1,200 people from a
genocidal army and machete-waving militias that were hunting
down members of Rwanda’s minority Tutsi
group in 1994. Although a member of the major-
ity Hutus, Mr Rusesabagina risked his life to
keep Tutsis and moderate Hutus safe. He bribed
militiamen with booze so they would not attack.
When an assault seemed imminent he phoned
contacts in the regime, begging them to order
the killers back. The genocide ended only after
rebels seized the country under the command of
Paul Kagame, who is now in his third presidential term.
Mr Rusesabagina’s courage inspired a film, “Hotel Rwanda”.
America awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, com-
mending his “remarkable courage and compassion in the face of
genocidal terror”. Some compared Mr Rusesabagina to Oskar
Schindler, who risked his life saving Jews during the Holocaust.
Yet in Mr Kagame’s Rwanda, Mr Rusesabagina is now portrayed
as the equivalent of a Nazi fugitive, who must be abducted and
brought home to justice (see Middle East & Africa section).
Although Mr Rusesabagina initially won official plaudits in
Rwanda, too, this changed after he criticised Mr Kagame for rig-
ging elections and spoke of entering politics. Government offi-
cials swiftly (and absurdly) accused him of genocide denial, a
crime in Rwanda. Mr Rusesabagina disappeared after flying to
Dubai. He reappeared a few days later in manacles in Kigali,
Rwanda’s capital. His family says he was kidnapped. Rwanda
says he was arrested “through international co-operation”.
Mr Kagame’s opponents have often met with misfortune far
from home. His former intelligence chief was strangled in a Jo-
hannesburg hotel. A former interior minister was shot in Nairo-
bi after starting an opposition party. But the grabbing of Mr Ruse-
sabagina marks a new level of brazenness.
Rwanda says that he supported armed groups trying to over-
throw the government. There is some truth to this: he once
called for an armed struggle against the regime.
This is a terrible idea, though the government
has produced no evidence that he ever tried to
turn words into deeds. And dissidents in Rwan-
da note that they have few options. Elections are
a sham—Mr Kagame won 99% of the vote in
2017, and could remain in office until 2034.
Peaceful opponents often end up behind bars, or
worse. When Diane Rwigara, a businesswoman,
tried to run for the presidency, she was arrested and jailed for
more than a year on charges of insurrection. A Rwandan court
later said the charges were baseless. Her mother was also held
and the family’s assets were confiscated.
Western governments occasionally tut at Mr Kagame’s
abuses, but they also sell arms and provide aid to his govern-
ment. They see Rwanda as an island of stability in a volatile re-
gion and him as a leader who gets things done. Yet 26 years after
he first shot his way to power, he seems ever less constrained.
His authoritarianism, once deemed by many a necessary evil to
hold the country together, now risks pushing it back towards
conflict. And that, in Rwanda, is a terrifying thought.
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