Netters, Something so very interesting indeed.................... Read on! Obote, Ssemo have at last defeated M7 Oct 29, 2003
On Monday after court, Chief Magistrate Frank Nigel Othembi brought the proceedings on the âchopper storyâ to an end with a wise crack.Acting Military Intelligence Chief Col. Noble Mayombo had just been on the stand testifying against The Monitorâs Frank Nyakairu, (formerly Monitor news editor) Wanyama Wangah and myself. Earlier, Noble had said he knew the three of us well, particularly Frank and myself. And that we had sat down for drinks a couple of times, and I had bought him lunch on a few occasions. Therefore, his testimony bore no ill will. Picking up on this, Othembi said he hoped that Noble and I would still be able to have lunch.We laughed. Even though Noble might be a hammers and nails man when confronting what the Movement calls âsubversive elementsâ, he is the most intelligent and articulate functionary of the Kampala regime today. He has a great sense of humour too. If you are the type who likes a spirited enlightened debate about day to day politics in Uganda, you would miss out a lot if you were not on talking terms with Noble.Outside the court, we jumped into the political fray â particularly the question of the third term. Noble then quipped about how the Movement âremains the only alternative to the Movementâ. His argument was that the political parties in Uganda still do not offer a better leadership than the Movement, and that the dissident Movement factions like the Augustine Ruzindana-led âMalwa Groupâ, and the splinter Movement organisation, Col. Kizza Besigyeâs Reform Agenda, were more credible than the Democratic Party (DP) of Dr Paul Ssemogerere or Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) of Dr Milton Obote. He then joked about the need to reform âReform Agendaâ to rid it of ânon-nationalistâ elements.While Noble seemed to be joking about it, he was actually much closer to the truth. The UPC, if the views of Obote on Andrew Mwenda Live on October 9 are anything to go by, does not think the two term limit that President Yoweri Museveni is campaigning to lift is important. Obote believes that as long as there is a multiparty parliamentary system and free elections, the party that wins power should have the right to choose who should lead it as president. That imposing a term limit would be to take away from the party through the law, what it had won through a popular vote.The DP too is inclined to support the abolition of term limits. The position of the Malwa Group is based on the philosophy that precisely because under a multiparty you can have a party dominating power for decades, as Chama Cha Mapinduzi has done in Tanzania for nearly 40 years now, democratic renewal can only come from changing the leader. If one takes the case of Kenya, the country and the Kenya African National Union (Kanu) would have done better if Daniel arap Moi had been forced by term limitations to step down from leadership after 10, instead of 24 years.What is happening is that the Movement is moving closer to the UPC position and DP position, not the other way round. For example, it is known that the Movement is trying to find a loophole in the constitution so that when the amendment to the constitution scrapping term limits comes to the House, it is by show of hands or queues â NOT SECRET BALLOT. Parliament Speaker Edward Sekandi has been called and told to come up with some good advice that would get rid of secret ballot.Many people believe that in an open vote, many Movement MPs would fear to confront the President and Cabinet, by rejecting the lifting of the third term. However, that is only one aspect. The other is that several multi-party MPs would also be reluctant to defy their leaders who would have agreed with the Movement on a presidency for life, and thus seem to be against a return to pluralism that they have spent the last 17 years campaigning for.The Museveni government will not be the first to deal with the thorny issue of passing a controversial constitution change through Parliament. In 1966, after the UPC government attacked Kabaka Freddie Mutesaâs palace and effectively abolished kingdoms, Obote needed to have a republican constitution in place. Parliament was summoned, and the MPs arrived to find it surrounded by heavily armed soldiers and tanks. They were told they would find copies of the new republican constitution in their pigeonholes. The constitution was passed without debate in less than five minutes. The same thing might still happen. The constitution amendment will be marked by high security purportedly to protect MPs who will âsupportâ it against the âenemies of Ugandaâ who might attack them for their decision.But even more striking, is that the Movement-Museveni should today argue that there is no need for term limits under a multiparty system because a party has a right to choose its leader. Until now, the Movement always ridiculed UPC for keeping Obote, and DP for having Ssemogerere as party presidents for life, and pointed to that as one reason the two organisations were unworthy to rule.Effectively then, Movement-Museveni has now adopted the official UPC-Obote positions on leadership. Museveni and his men have become like Ssemwogere and Obote. DP and UPC have won.Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]  2003 The Monitor Publications ----------------------------------------------- "President Museveni has reached a stage where he is incapable of differentiating between the demands of the people and his own interests." Dr. Apollo Milton Obote. Michael Bwambuga. __________________________________________________________________ McAfee VirusScan Online from the Netscape Network. Comprehensive protection for your entire computer. Get your free trial today! http://channels.netscape.com/ns/computing/mcafee/index.jsp?promo=393397 Get AOL Instant Messenger 5.1 free of charge. Download Now! http://aim.aol.com/aimnew/Aim/register.adp?promo=380455 N¬±êï‰Ç²,µçhžØ^"wèr‰§zÜ(®Hm¶Ÿÿà "ú ¢g(º
