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OLD MAN�S CORNER:
By F.D.R. Gureme |
Mr President, sir, retire honourably
June 10, 2004
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A sophiscated official recently asked why I �no longer� wrote; clearly missing erstwhile Sunday Vision�s �Old Man about Town.� I wondered why he was unaware that, for four years, I had featured in Tuesday�s The Monitor. �I don�t read Monitor!� Why? �It is anti-government.� Of seemingly high acumen; he avoids reading genuine criticism! Remember: �Okukunda akugambira nk�okwanga; okwanga akugambira nk�okukunda.� or, �He who loves you speaks to you as if he hated you; he who hates you speaks as if he loved you.� Thus criticism is devotion; flattery is treachery! I have witnessed flattery destroy past leaders: Sir Edward Mutesa, his archenemy, Dr Milton Obote, fearsome Idi Amin, academician Yusuf Lule, deadly Paul Muwanga�. Flattery is now consuming well-read Yoweri Museveni, bent on destroying the constitution and, almost certainly, Uganda with it. Rulers forget that fear and hate are bedfellows. If Museveni was the �Kagutason� I knew till his true-colour appearance in 1989, when the National Resistance Council extended its tenure five years, he should have recognised three types of courtiers: the typical civil servants doing as they are told; and being resourceful enough to defend the indefensible; the intelligent who fear and intensely hate him; but relish their salaries sustainable at his pleasure: aware that his obsession with the �third term project� is jeopardising Uganda, but remaining silent; and the �relatives-in-laws-and-friends� from relative obscurity to stinking wealth; who, on account of ruthless self-interest, keenly urge him to stay on to protect them from jail or exile. Fear of jail for obvious reasons; and of exile for two reasons: the loot stashed on secret accounts in Switzerland � no longer being unrecoverable; and, like van Brink, being subject to extradition for trial � Family members may genuinely love him. Otherwise courtiers love themselves: but are intelligent enough to secretly despise but ostensibly applaud his stratagems. Clearly therefore, the President has very few real friends �who would speak to him as if they hated him;� apart from individually articulate patriots who criticise him through newspapers. There are also cowardice, poverty and love of limelight: that glue �unlike poles� together: the likes of M/s Bukenya, Nsibambi, Tinyefuza, Nyombi Tembo, Nsaba Buturo, Mbabazi, Mukula. Some occasionally whisper: �He has gone nuts!� What, if he brags of struggling for 32 years, reputedly sleeping four hours a day on the average and disdainfully rejecting holidays; and leaning on the likes of Maj. Kakooza Mutale; and (oh Uganda!) draggling the presidency by gleefully riding a motorbike decorated with dried banana fibre normally associated with death and night-dancing witchcraft. He is a fast reader, who previously scanned leading newspapers by breakfast time. Today they are reportedly summarised: obviously in a way not to displease him; rendering the summaries worthless. I would rather the President scanned the papers. If he did he might have imbibed Onyango Obbo�s retroactive analysis last Wednesday; chewed on erudite Kintu Nyago�s characteristically placid analysis (Tuesday); mulled over Henry Ochieng�s Saturday�s graphic synopsis of recent events; pondered Sunday�s Humphrey Rugambanengwe�s satire �Help Mhoozi�� and Allan Tacca�s �African donors�: all in The Monitor. Of course he will, I hope, have read Dr Kizza Besigye�s (last Thursday Monitor) concise and accurate analysis: �I See Constitutional Crisis In Referendum,� But there is already a crisis. The staged district leaders� chorused a demand for the third term, the degrading brawl between our Inspector General of Government on the one hand and Solicitor General (Attorney General in-waiting?), arch-hatchet-man Maj. Mutale and State House on the other, do not only suggest a crisis. They portend anarchy! If IGG Tumwesigye had the resentment or courage of Kategaya, Bidandi Matembe or Ruzindana, he should have quit, and been applauded. He has already been atrociously insulted. He should resign before he is scornfully fired. The President clearly realises the depth of his unpopularity; the reason his elite Presidential Guard Brigade is said to match the army. Mystery surrounds the �Reserve Force� commanded by his brother. All is vanity: foolproof security being impossible. Presidential security and incontinence are already too heavy on the taxpayer. Should he manipulate �third� term, these would be many times more burdensome. Thus it behoves him, as a patriot, to listen to the hitherto courteous donors, halt �third� term manoeuvres and the engineered bedlam, confirm his 2006 retirement and engage in genuine dialogue, to avoid instability and bloodshed - NOW! Contact: 077 401173 |
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