By Alex B. Atuhaire
September 29, 2003 - Monitor
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KAMPALA - Former President, Milton Obote, has accused President Museveni of trying to manipulate the constitutional review process to rule for life. Obote, who was twice deposed by the army and who now lives in exile in Zambia, said that, based on the Cabinet's proposals to the Constitutional Review Commission, Museveni is "totally incapable of separating the demands of the people from his now infamous selfish wants. "What emerges is the singular deception which runs to conceal his equally infamous desire to deceive so as to be the Tsar of Uganda under a dictatorship until his death," Obote said in the document dated September 25. Obote protests against the lifting of the term limit on the presidency before providing for competitive multiparty elections, similar to those in countries like Britain, India and South Africa. "The Cabinet proposal puts the cart before the horse because the two terms [limit] in the Constitution refer to one Party (Movement) elections which is to remain and is outside of multiparty democracy and multiparty competitive elections on which the proposals are silent," he says. He adds: "Museveni and his docile Cabinet are again proposing the entrenchment of dictatorship under which he is to be President for life". The Vice President, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, last week presented Cabinet's proposals to the CRC headed by Prof. Fredrick Ssempebwa. But Obote said: "it's most oppressive and unusual for a Government to appoint a Commission, which has to submit a report to it and later make proposals to same Commission for the proposals to be in the Report. "What Museveni's Cabinet has done, is first to totally remove every independence which the Ssempebwa Commission ever had and secondly to be most definitive on matters which are personal desires of Museveni and dictatorial without also being definitive on the demands of the people on matters such as multiparty democracy and Federo". Obote adds that Cabinet's offer of a federo system to districts willing to co-operate is not genuine. "Federo cannot be firm if provided on the basis of the Cabinet proposals. On the other hand, if the Museveni dictatorship now accepts Federo, why be shy not to emulate the UPC and negotiate the Terms of Federo with the people who want Federo," he says. Obote ends his statement by painting a grim picture of the politics of the country. "Under the NRM dictatorship, Uganda has been disintegrating and the Cabinet proposals, should they be part of the Constitution, will hasten the total demise of the Republic of Uganda," he says. |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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