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Letter to A Kampala Friend
By Muniini K. Mulera In Toronto |
Closing ranks in coalition against political mischief
Dec 29, 2003
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Dear Tingasiga: We look forward to the new year with hopeful anticipation, even as we reflect with a purposeful search for lessons learnt from the one that ends this week. It is a long list from which to choose. By its very nature, such a list is very subjective and guaranteed to generate passionate debate. One person's hero is another person's villain. No doubt regular readers will have no trouble guessing which individuals are on my list of nominees for this honour. Justice Julie Sebutinde, a jurist of great courage and integrity who has continued to advance the case for honesty and transparency in government, is a leading contender in my judgment. That she continues to do her work in spite of an evil attempt to assassinate her in October this year is a powerful testament of her great courage, dedication to justice and extraordinary patriotism. Mr Eriya Kategaya and MP Miria Matembe, two cabinet ministers who unequivocally challenged President Yoweri Museveni's barely disguised attempts to succeed himself in 2006, demonstrated the kind of leadership that Uganda needs if it is to successfully resuscitate its comatose efforts at democratisation. While I wish Kategaya and Matembe had resigned from the government on principle rather than waiting to be fired in a cabinet reshuffle, I salute them. Their actions have put on notice those whose agenda is to completely personalise the Ugandan state. Mr David Pulkol, the former Director General of the External Security Organisation (ESO), openly risked the presidential wrath when he spoke out in defence of the people's inalienable rights to discuss matters that affected them. In a public debate in early November at Hotel Africana in Kampala, Pulkol castigated the government security agents who had beaten up a group of Makerere students who had assembled to discuss the issue of presidential term limits. Pulkol, a very smart politician and tireless campaigner for Museveni during the last two presidential elections, must have been fully aware of the potential consequences of his statements. He was not surprised when, barely a month later, the President fired him. MP Augustine Ruzindana, a former Inspector General of Government and one of the quietest politicians in the land, has become one of the most formidable advocates for constitutionalism and smooth transition to a post-Museveni era. Unlike those who still prefer to whisper their opposition to Museveni's Third Term Project, Ruzindana has forcefully challenged the President's scheme. His response to the challenge by Ruzindana, complete with a rather sad attempt to distort the latter's role in the liberation struggle, suggested that panic had hit the king's court. Museveni's latest missive, published yesterday in Sunday Monitor, in which he attempted to dismiss Kategaya's well reasoned comments on the Third Term project, left me convinced that the President was feeling besieged. These then are just a few of the individuals whom I believe have had a positive impact on our country in 2003. They deserve our respect. However, the honour this year should go, not to a human being, but to the issue that awakened the political juices of people like Kategaya and Pulkol and of hundreds of thousands of their fellow Ugandans. While the Third Term Project started as laughable wishful thinking by a few government ministers like Prof. Mondo Kagonyera, Brig. Jim Muhwezi and Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, it soon became very clear that the President himself was the author of the effort to succeed himself. Naturally, Museveni has denied his complicity in the scheme. We did not expect him to do otherwise. Yet the more Mr Museveni pleads his innocence, the less convincing he sounds. The more he declares the matter to be unimportant, the greater its significance becomes. The more he feigns a preference for charting a vision for the country over discussing presidential term limits, the more he reveals his strategy for selling HIS Third Term scheme to his subjects in the referendum that will almost certainly be held on the question. The more he claims a monopoly on having a clear vision for the country, a full eighteen years after the fundamental change of 1986, the more he reveals his contempt for his countrymen, especially his colleagues with whom he has worked for more than two decades. The more he claims to be the solo visionary in the land the more he reveals a very worrisome megalomania. Did you notice that in his missive about Kategaya, the President elevated himself to the ranks of Jesus, Buddha and Muhammad? For example, Jesus Christ served a brief term of three years before he was crucified. His disciples, with whom he had shared his powerful and selfless vision for humanity's salvation in a mere three years, continued his work. To his credit, Museveni is still willing to engage his challengers in a civil debate. The onus is on the Kategayas and Ruzindanas and Pulkols and Matembes and all who would like to stop this attempt to hijack the people's will to meet him head on. The sooner Kategaya and his colleagues join the peaceful coalition of those who are committed to democracy, the better for the country. They certainly ought to be part of the opposition's delegation to the national conference that has been proposed by the President. Meanwhile, the progressive opposition groups such as the Reform Agenda need to actively seek out these homeless ex-Movementists and bring them into the coalition as equal partners. Uganda is at a political crossroads. Our people's wish for limited presidential tenure which they enshrined in Article 105(2) of their constitution may be about to be thwarted by the most mischievous act of selfishness by the President and his courtiers. The manipulation has begun. It was the Issue of the Year 2003. It may very well be the issue that determines the course the country takes in the coming year and beyond. May the Gods of Africa look favourably upon you and our country in 2004. Happy New Year! |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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