Knowing we deserve better is a great thing

If you have heard Hon Norbert Mao speak, whether at a funeral service or graduation ceremony, you will admit that there is a good connection between a head and mouth that rarely goes wrong. Like him or not, this is something you give to him without a grudge. Strangely, that has never translated into votes when matching towards State House.

Last week Hon Mao was quoted to have said ‘we deserve better’ in reference to our democracy, challenging citizens to look beyond pressuring the President. He put the performance of our country’s democracy at a meagre 50 percent – a five out of 10 grade.

I believe there are people who think that Hon Mao is being generous, perhaps a three out of 10 would come close to reflecting our actual status of democracy. In some areas, maybe even two out of 10. Still, we can stay with the 50 percent, trusting that it comes from a person who has been in the kitchen, therefore an authoritative grade.

Most people never really know that they deserve better. They stay in a bad situation for years. One wonders how many Ugandans think that they deserve better or know what that better looks like. It has to take someone like Hon Mao reminding them, that they deserve better. 

For instance, once free primary education was introduced, and many problems showed up, we heard that we were at least better than those countries where such free education was non-existent. Better to have seen the inside of a classroom than not, it seemed to us.

We were reminded that we should in the interim focus on the quantity, the fact that all children can go to school, and not the quality. That would be a matter of time. Literate people are good for democracy, as they make informed decisions on who to vote et cetera.

As such, it is difficult to tell people, that we deserve better in education. Two decades later, we feel that we deserve better. If people think you have any ability to get someone a job, you have probably been approached several times over someone who graduated with a degree perhaps years ago, still trying to find a job. They hope you know people who know people that make people get jobs. Perhaps that has nothing to do with Universal Primary Education (UPE), but it is related.

If you lead an organsiation you have probably engaged with some graduates who are seriously a product of an education system that is now saying we deserve better. Some of those problems we ignored are now showing up in institutions of higher learning and at the workplace. Again, don’t mind the quality yet, as long as many can go to university. Looking at education holistically, we can safely say and join the chorus that we deserve better.

If you have relatives who are sick, have been given treatment they should not be on in the first place, or plainly failing to even tell what is wrong with them while paying an arm and a leg for it, and you have watched hundreds of people flock to medical camps that are given for free, you must accept that we are doing badly, that we deserve better from health services.

If you have a job that you work very hard at but pays you so little and treats you badly, but you continue to hang in, waiting for when there is an opportunity for something better, sitting in your office and using the office Internet to look for jobs abroad and everywhere else, you should know that you and your country deserves better.

If you have been robbed and reported to the police but they have not even done the basic thing of showing up to see the scene, you must understand that you are on your own. It is time to install a security camera, to do your own investigations and just give the police what to work with. Then you appreciate that for sure you and your country deserve better.

We deserve better roads beyond the major ones, better districts that should deliver services to the people, cities that are not just in name but actually meet the basics of a city, municipals that do not shame us when we say they are and services that are worth paying for.

We deserve better in more than just our democratic processes and outcomes. The challenge is if we collectively know that we deserve better. Knowing that we deserve better is great, and at an individual level, a turning point to not accepting rubbish to pile up in your backyard. Maybe we should have a public perception survey on what we deserve looking at specific sectors. The exhibitions were telling in those areas targeted, and we could use other methods to see what we deserve and what it may take to move us beyond a pass grade of 50 percent.

Ms Maractho (PhD) is an academic.
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