This & That By Henry Ochieng
Jan 7, 2004
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We enter 2004 on a political high. President Yoweri Museveni�s forces have come out of the shadows and declared it is open season for the campaign to lift presidential term limits as set in Article 105(2) of our constitution. At the head of the pack is the junior minister for Finance in charge of investment, Sam Kuteesa. Notice however, that while the trumpets blow away in praise of the alleged merits of handing a President electoral perpetuity, somehow the crusaders cannot � yet � find it in themselves to say it is all about handing Museveni life presidency. In Ntungamo on Sunday Ms Hope Mwesigye, who is the minister for Parliamentary Affairs went like this: �we are not talking about Museveni but any President ��. Museveni sat placidly by as another minister, this time the man for general duties in Finance, Mwesigwa Rukutana pitched in with oblique references: �If 24 million Ugandans are still seeing vision in a person, who are you to say he has no vision�. Only the na�ve will not see that it will be a certain gentleman leading the nascent National Resistance Movement Organisation (NRMO) post-2006, because as Mr Nyombi Tembo said �when the time comes we shall have to pick the best � if you want a third term we shall give it to you�. The foregoing roundabout deliveries are not unusual in themselves seeing that the best man is himself known to get his message across through parables, riddles and long-winded folklore. We can only hope that his backers will soon overcome the embarrassment of peddling a veteran as the best they can come up with. By his own admission the best man has made it known that he began fighting bad leadership at the tender age of 26. Estimates today place the man at over 60 but in Ntungamo he identified himself among the youth, chastising those ranged against Project Third Term for the fact of their advanced age. He called them �old batteries� and smiled upon the �youth�, who are driving the life presidency vehicle. But at what point does a politician cease being a spring chicken and blunder into the clearly opprobrious waters of seniority, hence becoming an old battery? Because when you look closely you will notice that there isn�t much separating the average age of the individuals occupying either camp. They have generally exceeded Uganda�s life expectancy, which lies in the mid-40s and by some definitions should then all qualify for the old battery class. We will suppose that the best man�s unhappiness at what he thinks are plots to lock out younger people from the national conversation on our future gained currency from recent withering putting-downs of the younger Turks in the Movement as infantile �Johnny-come-latelies�. And from that, gather that he is happier in younger company, because it keeps him a safe distance away from the old battery affliction. On the strength of this alone, the argument against longevity in the seat of highest political office gets stronger. It makes more sense because it can then be assumed that an old battery is no longer possessed of the necessary mental agility and complementary dexterity to grasp issues of national significance. However, if that was true then it must be perplexing that to this point it is not the �old batteries� who have exhibited characteristics of nature dangerous to national tranquility, harmony, unity and prosperity. Instead it is the antithesis of this thinking that increasingly construes what should be higher matters in the narrow and worrisome confines of �I� against �them�. And this may well explain why we are hearing repetitive promises to �deal with them� if they do not �reform�. Deal with them, crush them etc, such michievous statements have so far emanated from one side of the crack. But even as the warnings continue, another presents itself when even after one has been pronounced an old, and possibly dead, battery a window is still left open for you just in case you �reform?� What are the mechanics for resuscitation after �reform�, we must inquire? Or is this envisaged reform defined within the parameters of re-discovering one�s pro-life presidency vocal cords? From another quarter, the office of the Vice Chairman of the Movement, Haji Moses Kigongo left us open-mouthed with that statement reprimanding Resident District Commissioners, who have been insulting �other Movement leaders� � a reference to the attacks against Mr Eriya Kategaya and others by over-enthusiastic state functionaries. In another day Haji Kigongo would have been making a lot of sense. But he speaks as though he has been in hibernation. For if that was not the case, how else could he have failed to notice that utterances of an insulting nature are almost the lingua franca of the best man. Uganda got an early introduction to this taste with that famous �swine� name for past leaders. It may be a sad commentary on Uganda�s situation that while the political purists, if you like, have kept the interested public entertained with a steady supply of quotes like �we can�t amend the constitution because we plan for generations and not for the next elections�, Bageya�s kind refuse to join in a lifting of the level of debate. But again we have to be conscious of the old saying that �politics is not a tea party�. To thrive in it you must be prepared to soil your hands. Time will tell if the Malwa Group is also prepared to descend into the gutter. Contact : 077501436 |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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