It’s Besigye’s decision
THE REFORM Agenda is demanding talks with government on whether it is safe for their leader Col Kizza Besigye to return to Uganda. They are planning to launch a mass campaign to return Besigye on 21 July if government does not cooperate.
This is absurd because government never arrested Besigye or clamped down on him. His decision to go to South Africa after the 2001 election was purely personal. Therefore his decision to return is purely personal.
Besigye did claim that security agents were trailing him before he went into self-imposed exile. However government denied this and certainly no-one stopped him from leaving the country.
Even if he was being trailed, or having his phones tapped, did this necessitate exile? He would have been much more effective as an opposition mobiliser if he had remained in Uganda. If government had arrested him, he would have become the central figure in Uganda politics, both at home and abroad. As it is, he marginalised himself by quitting the political mainstream for the apparent safety of Pretoria.
Besigye should therefore return home if he wants to remain politically relevant.
The only risk factor is whether or not he was involved with the PRA in Congo. He has strenuously denied it although he still argues that resistance against the government is unavoidable.
If Besigye was not involved in the PRA, he will have a clean conscience. He will know that government can only arrest him on trumped-up charges if he returns.
If he was involved, then he has to decide whether it is provable or unprovable.
Either way the decision to return is Besigye’s alone.
Published on: Thursday, 17th
SOURCE: NEWVISION EDITORIAL
