Re: [Ugnet] GOVT'S BLIND SPINN DOCTORS OR SYCOPHANTS ?

[David Nyende]

Spinning for the govt under all circumstances   TIMOTHY KALYEGIRA   Sunday Monitor, 4 September, 2005   Kampala There are many people in the public, other than me, who are wondering about a certain group of people who they see on television, hear on radio, or whose articles they read in the newspapers every week. These are the State House presidential advisors and assistants, newspaper columnists and other hired hands whose chief role in Ugandan society is to defend the political establishment. Introducing Mr. John Nagenda, Dr James Nsaba-Buturo, Mr. Francis Onapito-Ekomoloit, Mr. Moses Byaruhanga Adyeeri, Mr. Joseph Tamale Mirundi, Mr. Frank Tumwebaze, Mr. Zedekiah Ofwono Opondo, Ms Mary Karooro Okurut, Mr. Peter Nyombi Thembo, Mr. David Mafabi, Mr. Robert Mukholi Kabushenga and Prof. Semakula Kiwanuka. All these people are reasonable, educated, fairly well traveled, have the sort of commonsense, skepticism, and judgement that one would expect of people at a certain level of education and exposure. And in large measure, they do. In many ways, they play a useful role in the shaping of public opinion (although, of course, the way they do it exposes the embarrassing irony in their assignment): they keep a scrutinising eye on the Ugandan opposition, exposing the opposition's contradictions, past flaws, and vague political goals. Since these President's spokesmen and woman are somewhat privy to insider information, they help Ugandan society and international observers of Uganda in one important way - through them we see well ahead of time the flaws in today's FDC leaders who were once an integral part of the ruling NRM so that, should the FDC one day come to power, we shall be thoroughly versed in their weaknesses and shall therefore not be as easily fooled as we were by the NRM when it came to power in 1986. Grateful So in that sense, some of us who belong to no political party are grateful to the President's Men and Woman for giving us some perspective and reminding us that opposition leaders can be just as fickle and dishonest as the sitting government. Having said that, it leads one to the principal question: if these people who write regular commentaries are smart enough, and insightful enough, to correctly see through the weaknesses and past failures of the opposition, especially the breakaway NRM group that is now at the core of the FDC, how can they convince us that the gross flaws in the NRM establishment are also not so blindingly clear for them to see? Can Nagenda, an old Kings' College Budo student who writes so beautifully, loves the gentleman's game of cricket, has a certain addiction to things British supposedly including that most British of qualities - self-deprecating humour and belief in manly fair play - be the same person to make us believe that he can not see through the administrative weaknesses of his boss, President Yoweri Museveni? How is that possible? Or are we rather to believe the more plausible explanation that these so-called Museveni sycophants are not really sycophants after all, but are FDC, UPC, Jeema, DP, CP, like most of the rest of us but disguised as Museveni’s supporters? About 2002 or 2003, one of my friends visited the President's eldest daughter Natasha at her House of Kaine boutique and asked if she believed all the praise and flattery being heaped on her and her family by the aforementioned choir. "No," came her curt reply. If the President's daughter, who is not particularly keen on politics, can see through the pretence of the people who write and say things so nauseating in praise of the President, how does Mr. Museveni himself feel about all of this praise singing? The President, after all, is the same man who, while speaking at Kololo Airstrip on August 10, quoted the late Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara, who said a guerrilla should, among other things, never trust? If these advisors and admirers who surround Museveni are trusted by him, why, according to a Daily Monitor news report in June, did State House buy a machine that detects poison in food? Whom does State House expect to poison the First Family over their dinner? An opposition MP or an ordinary DP supporter? Or those who sit most intimately in the company of the President, night and day? So, who leaks? Also, if sycophants at State House and in the army are all that loyal, fanatical, and believe in the NRM system, who is it that is always leaking those classified and confidential reports, minutes of meetings at State House, the President's country home in Rwakitura, and the army High Command meetings at Bombo to the media and the general public? As the Managing Editor of the Weekly Observer, Mr. Kevin Aliro, told the Radio One talk show Spectrum during the arrest of Daily Monitor journalist Andrew Mwenda, after army High Command meetings are over, even before the top generals have returned to the city centre from these supposedly top-secret meetings, the newspapers already have the full briefing of what exactly went on: who said what, and what decisions were reached. Who are these Museveni hangers-on in State House and the army fooling by this pretence at undying loyalty? There is one thing that these people need to bear in mind: Museveni is a special kind of human being. There is nothing you can do, now or in the future, that can win his everlasting gratitude and support. When you are no longer of value to him, when it is expedient to dump and forget about you, he will do it. The best thing is to do your job as an employee of the President without having to sound ridiculous by writing the kinds of things that you would not want anybody to say about, or to, you. Right now, Uganda is running the risk of being ostracised by the international community because rather than watch the trends and advise the government on the big picture at a global level, the President's people are busy berating the FDC and other opposition parties in their weekly columns!   DMN

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