[Ugnet] Opondo, Whatever Museveni Touches Wilts

After the vote to scrap article 105(2) and make President Museveni life president, political momentum in the country was sniffed out. People have lost interest in politics.

The situation is not helped when the likes of Ofwono Opondo are not in Luzira but out and free to demonise and kick ordinary citizens in the teeth. People won't attend referendum ralies.

You took time to write that article (New Vision July 15). It reads great on the surface but a close scrutiny reveals the emptiness of your literature. Obviously, it was intended for educated city folks because poor peasants cannot understand it. I do understand and will defend the victims of your attack.

You assert that the accusers of the NRM's inability to build institutions are non-performing turncoats who were supposed to build institutions but then ran because Museveni's personality did not suit them. The point is not these people: It is Museveni's big-man philosophy. Political parties causing chaos; ban them, he wants a constitution we get one, he wants it changed; so be it, donors want proper democracy; refuse aid. He does not like a neutral Electoral Commission; done. IGG doing a good job; replace him.

Opondo, Show me one institution that can survive Museveni a year after he is gone? Not even the army because he has corrupted and politicised it. Yet this is where he could call home. Besigye, Kategaya, Bidandi Ssali, Muntu and Ruzindana, myself and other ordinary Ugandans can survive after Museveni. Opondo, you cannot because the single most important institution a man can build is ones self-integrity and belief. Kisanja leaders and associates lack this.

I agree that a constitution can be changed. Nevertheless, as American Ambassador Kolker put it to you: "America's constitution has been around for 229 years, made only 27 changes and now serving the 46th President. Your constitution is only 9 years and is making 100 changes under one president".

True statesmen

Great people shape society. Mandela changed his country, but Mugabe, Moi, Mubarak, Gadaffi, Castro and now Museveni have wrecked their countries and turned citizens into hostages.

Museveni's failure to influence society is showing. He no longer relies on sense but coercion and greed. He wants us to carry party cards where we needed none. He wants MPs in open voting where none was required to get laws through parliament. He has divided the country into 72 fiefdoms where he once ruled a whole.

Measures to hang on to power become desperate by the day. This does not seem like a man of the moment but a man of disarray. The problem for the country is that he is not alone. He has you Opondo and the NRM caucus in parliament. You are his personal product. Kategaya, Bidandi Ssali and myself might not be on top but we refuse to do a bad job to make the man at the top happy.

I thought it was not possible to get up in the morning aiming to do a bad job. Opondo, Mwondha and our MPs have made me change that philosophy. Let's pray that the consequences of your efforts are not as bad as those of UPC of the past.

Serving a system

Do not compare America to Uganda. George Bush is serving a system. Even if he does nothing, his people will be fine. Opondo, you are serving a personality that feeds on you. The result is social injustice that is shown by the difference in salaries of teachers and MPs.

Those who cannot stand it flee to America, whereas those who cannot flee suffer in poverty, disease and illiteracy. Ugandans love Americans because Americans do more for Ugandans in one year than you can do in 20 years. We respect President Bush's efforts to pay half your salary. The other half is paid by Ugandans with self belief and integrity.

I do not agree with you that leaders who fail get deposed. The truth is they stay. Mobutu, Gaddafi, Castro, Mugabe, Mubarak, Eyadema and Kamuzu Banda are all failures who were never deposed. They always think of turning the next corner. Obviously, this never happens. Museveni has the same symptoms as these men. We shed our blood and gave him power, support and no opposition.

He then got $12 billion in aid plus trillions in our taxes but has in 20 years failed to transform our country. We have no democracy, no constitution, still in poverty, largely illiterate, with no hospitals, and now stuck with him. If this is success, give me a name for failure.

If Museveni is your mentor and you decided to stay with him, I do not envy you. This mentor has driven you into public acts of disgrace. Is this not the same leader of one of the 10 most corrupt governments in the world? Is this not the mentor with 70 advisors on tax payers' expense?

Opondo's party is behaving like UPC of the past. You cannot address election violence or put a representative electoral commission in place, you interrogate school girls, coerce peasants to hold party cards, bribe your own MPs, force the country into a sham referendum, politicise the civil service and now with a leader who does not want to relinquish power.

Opondo, are these not the attributes of political parties of the past?

[Ugnet] Opondo, Whatever Museveni Touches Wilts

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