About a judge, goats and political mischief
This & That By Henry Ochieng
April 24, 2004
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When the President went to ‘open’ the new Wakiso district office block, I knew that was the perfect moment for him to come out with another of his disparaging remarks about perceived political opponents.
He has said he is with the peasants but Supreme Court Justice, Prof. George Kanyeihamba last month alerted us to the reality that rural folk are largely simpletons who are easily manipulated and open to suggestion. George warned that it would not be prudent to leave grave decisions to them. The President has never forgiven the judge for making that observation. So, at Wakiso last week he told the people that Prof. Kanyeihamba should not be sitting on a Supreme Court bench but be somewhere in the lower courts whose main pre-occupation is to preside over cases of goat theft (and chicken theft I presume). This was a follow-up of another earlier salvo where he had claimed that the professor is not fit to be a judge. This is politics and the judge sensibly responded that he is not bothered and continues about his duties unperturbed in all probability. Our President is a man who has distinguished himself as a person partial to the use of colourful language. He added words like ‘swine’ as a description for past leaders, ‘ghost’ for former President Milton Obote and others to the national lexicon. And so it is not surprising when he comes out with goat remarks. Some people might think Museveni’s resort to insulting language shows him up to be a petulant individual. This is not the case. The President is actually speaking the language of the peasants. In many villages when neighbours quarrel, rarely do they confront the substance of the quarrel,, instead there is preference to say bad things about each other’s wives, or children. The philosophy behind this approach is all about demoralising your opponent and removing the fire from his belly. Some men simply cannot stand being publicly humiliated, even when the ‘facts’ of their humiliation cannot stand up to scrutiny. So, we have a President who cleverly misrepresents national issues when he is preaching to an unsophisticated audience. He does not tell the people that the whole debate is about whether they appreciate the import of lifting presidential term limits or the dangers that come with allowing a sitting President the space to run for office eternally in a third world country. It is now up to those who have chosen to stick with the truth to carry their weight with dignity. If it is true that the man at Nakasero intends to give it another go in 2006, life for those standing in his way could get bruising. They will be faced with an adversary who is convinced that his decision is right and in the national interest. The adversary is willing to get down in the gutter and there are signs that some people, even in Parliament are already wavering. At the last listen-in, a fly on the wall whispered that certain MPs are mulling over a trade-off. The deal is to grant Museveni his wish and in return he will look the other way when Parliament unilaterally decides to become a transitional legislature – unelected at that – for five more years. This fly said the inspiration for this mischief came to them after March 3. On that day the Speaker of the Tanzanian Parliament, Mr Pius Msekwa was a visiting speaker at a parliamentary workshop on peaceful political transition at Hotel Africana in Kampala. He said his country spent a whole five years to transit from the one-party state it was to the vibrant multi-democracy it is today. Now, we have exactly two years to the end of this chief executive’s last term in office – and the 7th Parliament’s term. He should not be running again because Article 105(2) restricts one to two consecutive five-year terms. But the incumbent obviously thinks there is a lot of unfinished business on the plate and is positioning himself to be around after 2006 — but under a new pluralistic dispensation. If the Msekwa-inspired proposition gains currency then the country will be witness to some fascinating footwork. We shall be told that to proceed with transition in under two years is not only impossible but irresponsible. These things, we shall hear, have to be done in orderly fashion. The people have to be consulted, the politicians and other such riff raff will tell us. Then while we are still being consulted, Parliament will pull what the National Resistance Council (NRC) pulled in 1989. In that year, the NRC that was a makeshift Parliament, unilaterally extended its term by five years on the pretext that they were preparing ground for the writing of a good constitution. One council member, Wasswa Ziritwawula, was so incensed by this artifice that he resigned and went to form a pressure group, TAP Dialogue. We are going around in circles and the central interests being fed by all this political trading is again that of the politicos. The loss is a national one for we miss the opportunity to test our democratic maturity. But when a group of peasants are being addressed, those patriots who will have tried to warn them about any naughtiness being planned in their name, will be called goats. I do not know a better way to cloud the issue than to tell hilarious jokes about a judge. By the time the people wake up to smell the coffee, as they say, the jokes will not be very funny any more. 077 501 436 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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© 2004 The Monitor Publications
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