Time for some contentious issues

People in the world of business and economics often work on “what if” analyses. It is all about looking into various scenarios and options to investigate what might happen if given actions or projects could be explored differently to realise the same results using various analyses of risk factors.

My ‘what if’ approach to the East African Asians leaves me with some probing questions, some of these will not be popular, depending on the background of the reader:

What if……

….The East African Asians had demonstrated more unity at the time they experienced hardship? There were fragmented communities and joined at best by religious or cultural allegiances.

….The leadership had been more vigilant and less concerned about their own safety when the community was threatened?

….The Ugandan Asians had tried to block Idi Amin’s threats with a display of common solidarity? People argue that Amin was trigger happy and any attempts to regain respect would have been futile. Really?

….The Asians had maintained a policy of stronger alignment with the British colonial authorities before independence?

….The Asian leadership had worked closely with British Government after independence to prepare a more cohesive platform for managing their relationships with African governments?

….The East African Asian leadership which was largely faith based had tried to win support from their own professional sons and daughters many of whom were historians, psychologists, lawyers and politically aware and sometimes, more capable?

….The faith based leaders had worked more effectively through cross-denominational strategies?

….The professional Asians who could not work with faith based leadership had taken more initiative whilst recognising the deficiencies in the traditional leadership?

….These patterns of fragmented leadership have been replicated in the countries where East African Asians have gone to settle?

The faith based leaders were modest in their aspirations and provided the essential religious and community infrastructure for their communities. They led their institutions mostly quite effectively and in the absence of support from younger and more qualified professionals, they performed remarkably well. They achieved what they had set out to do- to provide places of worship. Perhaps it was unrealistic to expect more from them.