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Letter to A Kampala Friend
By Muniini K. Mulera In Toronto |
Two Movt whips opposition faces
Nov 10, 2003
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Dear Tingasiga: Two events last week illustrated the two-faced approach President Yoweri Museveni uses in his dealings with legitimate political opponents. The events, one directly orchestrated by the president himself and the other by Ofwono Opondo, the ruling Movement's official propagandist, were targeted at a leading member of the Reform Agenda. On Friday November 7, Museveni addressed the National Press Club in downtown Washington, D.C. The 90-year-old club is the largest and most prestigious in the world with membership that includes national and international reporters. The president, who had been scheduled to speak at 1 p.m., arrived one hour late. He had just been at a meeting with US National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice at the White House, just a few streets from the National Press Club. Some journalists had left then but the president still found the Zenger Room of the Press Club packed with the elite of Washington's scribes eager to listen to him. Seated in the front row was Anne Busingye Mugisha, a Washington-based Ugandan political activist, who had been invited to attend the event by Mr Peter Hickman, the vice president of the National Press Club. According to Mugisha, Museveni, who focused his remarks on the economy, was in good form. "Though he did not address the fundamental problems of a shaky political foundation and the accompanying insecurity that undermine sustainable development, Museveni did a good job of marketing the country," Mugisha told me. "After Museveni answered several questions from journalists, Ssempala noted that mine was the only hand raised in the audience," Anne told me. "So she abruptly declared that the time was up and the President had to leave." "Museveni waited at the door and when I got close, he put his arm around my shoulder as if we were old buddies," a still surprised Anne told me. "He put on his most charming smile and started short-waving in Runyankore asking me what I was doing abroad," she continued. "I told him in Runyankore that I was fighting the evils of his regime. "When I told him that he had not even had a chance to hear what I wanted to ask, he simply laughed and said "No, no, these people must arrange for me to meet and speak with you. I want to see you!" "At this point he was practically dragging me along and I thought I was being ambushed into a private conversation that I had not prepared for," Anne said. "Luckily for me before he could whisk me off to his limousine, some Mzungu interrupted him and I slipped through, only to find I had gone the wrong direction. "When I turned round, Ssempala, who had just denied me an opportunity to ask my president a question in an open forum, and Presidential Press Secretary Mary Karooro-Okurut, were now imploring me to wait because the President wanted to see me. I told them that I would not see the President and I left." Museveni probably did not know that earlier in the week Anne had received an e-mail from Mr Ofwono Opondo, the National Resistance Movement party's director of Information, in which he accused her of being the author of The New Uganda, an electronic magazine that has been reporting the alleged military exploits of a new rebel group in north-eastern and Northern Uganda; of being an active member of the armed rebellion; and of being an ungrateful beneficiary of an illegal presidential appointment to the civil service. To drive his point home, Opondo had issued threats to Anne, whose persistent work in exposing the problems of the Museveni regime to the Americans and the world had annoyed the president and his court. "Your devilish attitudes and actions are galvanising our national resolve to deal with you in a more patient, sophisticated and decisive fashion to your own peril, and for the good of Uganda," Opondo wrote in his missive. "My advice to you is that you are free to engage in opposition politics including armed rebellion but remember the likely consequences," Opondo continued. "You and Reform Agenda will not subvert our country. Whatever the cost we shall need to pay will be paid to deal with outlaws." These threats, issued by the current edition of the president's dispensable spokesmen, reached Mugisha on Tuesday November 4. She promptly shared Opondo's missive with the public via the internet. Three days later the same Anne, whose 70-year-old father was arrested and harassed by the state only a few months ago, was now being seduced by her gentle and smiling President. This is the Museveni regime's approach to serious political opponents. Smear them, defame them, threaten them and harass them. When that fails use seduction and bribery of the individuals. Do not engage in meaningful dialogue with collective groups of representatives from the opposition. This is the Museveni way. Nothing seems to have threatened the regime in recent months like the writings of the brave intellectual 'warriors' who, armed only with their pens and fidelity to the truth, have exposed the nakedness of the post-NRM regime through the pages of The Monitor and the airwaves of the FM stations. Hence the desperate writings and statements by some of the presidential court jesters whose common theme has been the vilification of the messenger while saying very little else of substance. This is what Ofwono Opondo calls a "sophisticated and decisive" response to the challenge by these intellectual "enemies". So you have one Charles Rwomushana verbally assaulting the integrity of Eriya Kategaya and other former senior supporters and colleagues of the President, now called the Malwa Group. You have presidential legal assistant Fox Odoi going after Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala. Some of them, such as presidential political assistant Moses Byaruhanga, have even resorted to outright libel and defamation through the pages of the government-owned New Vision. A meeting between Mugisha and Museveni would have been followed by State House orchestrated rumours of a cash bribe in an envelope and a photo accompanied with a caption about her reconciliation and return to the Movement. That is how they have compromised one or two Reform Agenda politicians. Anne wisely did not allow herself to be used. The only circumstance under which any serious leader of an opposition group should agree to meet with Mr Museveni should be as part of a well-organised conference, with a very clear agenda. Meanwhile, if I were Museveni I would ask myself who my real friends are. Is it the Matembes and Okumus and Kategayas and Ekanyas and Mushegas and Sabiitis and Mugishas and Kazooras and Muleras who tell him the truth in the open, or is it his courtiers who sing his praises in public and tell stories of presidential misdemeanours behind his back? For example, in what he thought would remain a private missive to Anne, Opondo started off by advising her that there were "real and concrete issues of maladministration" she could " take our government, the Movement and president Museveni on". He did not elaborate. He then wrote: "Anne I want you to remember how you and Winnie Karagwa Besigye [Byanyima] got jobs from Museveni without going through any interviews as would be required by the civil service procedures. You both got jobs as foreign service officers at the pleasure of Museveni." Here was Opondo, the most eloquent defender of the president and of his party, accusing him of having engaged in nepotism and corruption by smuggling two Banyankore women into the civil service. With friends like these, does the president need any enemies? |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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