By Joe Kiarie
In history, autocratic leadership has always been synonymous with mean rulers who exploit their absolute power for personal gains. Yet there are odd cases where tyrants have proved democracy is not all a country needs for economic prosperity.
Popularly known as benevolent dictators, these individuals have used their political power for the benefit of the citizenry, rather than for their own personal gain.
Some have adopted this approach and engineered some of the most flourishing economies worldwide amid international censure over repression.
Since assuming the presidency in 2000, Rwanda President Paul Kagame has received criticism for his perceived authoritarian rule and accolades for rejuvenating the country’s economy in equal measures.
According to The Economist, Kagame allows less political space and Press freedom at home than Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Anyone who poses the slightest political threat to the regime is ruthlessly dealt with. International human rights organisations have constantly accused him of gross human rights violations. They include the mysterious disappearance of his political dissidents, arbitrary arrests, and acts of violence, torture, and police murders.
The existence of political prisoners, limited freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of religion in Rwanda are among other violations Kagame has been chided for. For instance, in 2007, Reporters Without Borders ranked Rwanda in 147th place out of 169 countries for freedom of the press, noting: "Rwandan journalists suffer permanent hostility from their government and surveillance by the security services."
The irony though is that despite all the international criticism, Rwanda has under Kagame been branded "Africa’s success story", having recovered from the continent’s worst genocide to enjoy a thriving economy under an iron fist rule.
Scanty natural resource
The country’s economy has grown at an average of eight per cent since 2001, with wages in key sectors rising by an average of 30 per cent. In a country with a scanty natural resources and where the economy is mostly based on subsistence agriculture, it is perplexing that per capita income has tripled since 1994.
Yet this has been by design and with the Government heavily protecting investors and having made it easier to access credit, start businesses, register property, and trade across borders, it came as no surprise when the World Bank’s Doing Business report rated Rwanda as last year’s world’s top reformer, a fact reflected by the rapid transformation in the quality of life among the country’s citizens.
But while Kagame is still in power, the world’s unrivalled example of national prosperity under a dictator would unarguably be Singapore under former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
When Singapore attained independence in 1965, the country was a war-ruined British port on an island off Malaysia’s southern tip.
With limited space, no natural resources and having a rapidly growing yet poor and uneducated population mostly living in slums and houseboats, the country was in dire need. And with iron fist ruler Lee in firm control, the future looked bleak. But Lee proved pessimists wrong by unleashing an economic miracle.
In the next 20 years, the country’s economy grew eightfold, average income per capita grew more than fourfold and the proportion of families living in poverty dropped to 0.3 per cent.
During Lee’s three-decade reign, Singapore transformed from a low-income developing country to one of the most developed nations in Asia. Average life expectancy in the country is now 71 years, no one is homeless (over 75 per cent of population own homes), almost everyone has a job and the population has entirely stabilised.
Today, Singapore is a clean ‘garden’ city with mirror image skyscrapers, flower-lined super highways and dazzling shopping malls. It is the place where every multinational firm wants to do business. But how did a socialist dictator engineer this thriving market-based economy that is today deemed one of the freest, most innovative, most competitive, most business friendly, and least corrupt in the world?
Lee unilaterally meddled with every single aspect of the country’s life. For instance, he introduced a culture of forced savings that requires all workers to save 25 per cent of their salaries. Employers also withhold 10 per cent of every employee’s salary, which workers can only claim after the age of 55.
This vast forced savings rate is ostensibly one of the secrets of Singapore’s unbelievable economic growth as the money is transferred into a Central Provident Fund with which the Government built roads, schools, hospitals, and houses.
In 1960s, fearing that Singapore’s growing population might overburden the developing economy, Lee Kuan also initiated the Stop at Two family planning campaign and couples were urged to undergo sterilisation after their second child.
Women who exceeded this ceiling would get shorter maternity leave and less income tax relief and also pay higher hospital fees. Mothers who agreed to be sterilised after their second child received a $5000 (Sh450,000) reward while sterilised parents got top priority for public housing and their children were enrolled in get into leading schools.
Anti-social behaviour
Lee has also helped stem out anti-social behaviour by for instance imposing heavy fines on jaywalking, littering, and smoking in public. Gambling is illegal in Singapore while drug trafficking attracts the death penalty.
Yet, after earning a reputation as a vicious dictator, Lee broke all the rules of totalitarianism and finally chose to step down to facilitate a stable leadership renewal; having become the world’s longest serving prime minister.
Malaysia is another key beneficiary of a benevolent dictator and currently boasts of one of the best economic records in Asia.
Albeit autocratic, Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, who served for 22 years between 1981 and 2003, engineered Malaysia’s rapid modernisation and economic growth and initiated a series of bold infrastructure projects. Malaysia’s GDP grew at an average of 6.5 per cent annually between 1957 and 2005, with Mahathir transforming a largely mining and agriculture based economy to a multi-sectoral economy pegged on manufacturing.
