Good piece Bwanika, & great piece as well from Dr. Muniini Mulera.
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| Not retiring from political commentary, just refocusing |
| April 10, 2006 |
| Dear Tingasiga: I was touched and very humbled by the sentiments that were expressed by dozens of readers in response to last weeks column, nearly all of them appealing to me to reconsider the decision to retire from writing.
Every time I opened an e-mail from a reader, either expressing gratitude to me for my contributions through these pages, or chastising me for quitting when the struggle for democracy had just begun, I literally cursed my editor for having misled the readers with a headline that had nothing to do with the central theme of my column. Whereas my letter last week simply and clearly stated that I was taking a break from commenting on President Yoweri Musevenis regime, my editor declared in the headline that I was retiring from political commentary. Nothing could have been further from the truth. For purposes of clarity, I should restate my message. I am not about to retire. I am simply refocusing my efforts because I have nothing more to say about the Museveni regime. I believe that all that needed to be said about the Museveni regime and the ruler has been said. Further comment is akin to a needle stuck in a record groove. I
challenge you Tingasiga to tell me one new thing that the Museveni regime offers us to analyse. Is it the theft of a presidential election on February 23? Weve been there before, havent we? It was the story exactly five years ago and, barring a miracle, we shall be in the same spot five years from now. The irony, of course, is that back in 1981, a young Museveni and a few colleagues launched an armed rebellion against a government that had come to power through a fraudulent election, one which had been conducted by an electoral commission that had bent the rules to favour Dr Milton Milton Obote and his Uganda Peoples Congress [UPC.] Museveni and his colleagues did not even bother to go to court to challenge the fraudulent process and results. Instead they declared a bloody war in February 1981, a war that is yet to come to an end. Twenty-five years later, the justices of the Supreme Court of the Republic have unanimously
confirmed that Museveni was about to start his fifth term in office after winning another election that was neither free nor fair, conducted by an Electoral Commission that had broken electoral laws. Nothing new there, not even the decision by their Lord Justices of the Supreme Court to uphold an illegitimate result conferring the presidency onto Museveni. As it was in 1980, so is now. As it was in 2001, so is now. Can you think of anything else that is new, Tingasiga? Is it the current judicial commission of inquiry into the latest corruption scandal, this time in the Ministry of Health? Of course not. Whereas Judge Ogola and his colleagues are doing an excellent job; and whereas they will produce an excellent report, complete with recommendations for prosecution and punishment of a number of top officials in the regime, including a cabinet minister or two, their report will find a permanent spot in the very cemetery where President Museveni has buried all the other reports that have been so painstakingly prepared and submitted amidst great expectations over the last two decades. Criminal investigations and commissions of inquiry have thoroughly looked into the assassination of Dr Andrew Lutakome Kayiira in 1987, the corruption in the Uganda Police, the corruption in the UPDF/Ministry of Defence, the criminal exploitation of the Congo Free State and corruption in the defunct Uganda Airlines. Great reports have been prepared. Clear recommendations have been made. And then silence. Complete silence, save for a few noises and legal charges against minor participants in a couple of the criminal activities. Likewise, the current revelations coming out of the Ogola commission into the loot of the Global Fund will be forgotten as soon as the report is delivered to State House amidst the usual presidential hot air about fighting corruption. The ministers who have been
at the centre of the scandal will be re-appointed to the cabinet. It will be business as usual. Thus it is not worth further comment. What else is new? Is it the rejection of peaceful dialogue and engagement of political opponents in favour of muscle flexing with threats of violent repression against the opposition? Is it the denial of the reality that Musevenis fraudulent claim of political power, and the muscle-flexing that his regime favours, have created very dangerous conditions that could trigger the emergence of yet another armed rebellion? Recall that our warnings went unheeded after the fraudulent elections of 2001. We heard the same denials by the same people who, today, are again trying to persuade themselves that those of us who warn them of the dangers are warmongers, not realising that we are the peace-seekers. The irony is that the very deniers of these threats are the ones who have alleged that an armed
anti-Museveni rebellion was launched after the 2001 elections. Pray tell, Tingasiga, if people took up arms after the 1980 and 2001 electoral thefts, why cant others do so in 2006? The problem, of course, is that men and women who are intoxicated with power, especially of the illegal sort, are without ears. They hear a cacophony of noises of self-praise, of self deception, and are unable to listen to honest comment from those of us who wish the country very well. Hence my decision that until Mr Museveni and his regime come up with something really new and worthy of comment, and until they climb down from the peak of Mt. Illusion and begin to listen to reason, I will exercise my right to remain silent. Fortunately, Museveni and his regime are a mere chapter, albeit a tragic one, in the timeless and limitless story of Africa and of the human race. My humble contribution to our dialogue must now shift to other equally important
political, social, economic and spiritual issues that I believe have an impact on our individual and collective stories. Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
d b <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
How Ugandans Ended into Servitude
There are two remarkable advertisements running in Uganda media these days. One is invitation for prequalification for provision of consultancy services for the proposed BEAUTIFICATION of Entebbe-Kampala road corridor.
Among others in the advert is the
- Demolition of unsightly kiosks, stall and latrine replacing them with organised ones.
- Proper and hygienic market premises
- Patterned grass and tree planting
- Renovation and painting of road side structures
- Wise use of wetlands
- Stop rod side trading, jua kali etc,
- Relocation of billboards
- Establishment of good agricultural practices.
If the government feels embarrassed with the grotesque scenery why not relocate the Ugandas Capital City to Mbarara for example?
What is meant with the establishment of good agricultural practices along Entebbe Kampala road? Mulching, irrigation, large scale farming, hybrid farming?! Our people should really be worried. Already land along that road had been sold off to flower farmers without due regard to environmental concerns. The government is very silent about it.
Flower farms are known for their excessive use of herbicides and pesticides.
In the Soviet Russia, the state due to its impotence, could plough miles and miles of land plant it with Irish potatoes or cotton farms, without scientifically analysing the consequence of such acts. Diversion of water from Amu Darya and Sry Darya to irrigate cotton fields dramatically led to a near demise of fish rich Aral Sea. It had never recovered and the cotton fields turned in salt rocks!
Potatoes could rot in the soil, as there were no mechanised systems to harvest them large farms on time. Sometimes, the state could bring in the army recruits to harvest 10s of kilometres of potato farms but with a miserable success! Russians nearly starved!
Exactly as with the National Resistance Movement Regime in Uganda, the Soviet Russian intentions were overtly political and emotions of the ruling class rather than socio-economic needs and environmental concerns of the society.
Reading through a set of things the ministry wanted a consultant to do, I realised they could have been done by a district physical planning department in Wakiso. Not least Entebbe municipality, which is a planning authority in Entebbe together with their counterparts in Kampala City Council, at a low cost to the taxpayer, could do a better job. In fact such things would not be strange to them as they are today.
Imagine gross ignorance i.e. where renovation and painting of roadside structures. How many are they? It were to be done in a better-organised manner, imparting skills into our citizen, certainly there would be proper planning, organisation and hygiene. The government as a primitive entity that it is, its ad hoc acts, thinking today, of something they would have done years ago compounds the socio-psychology of the ruling class in Uganda.
One cant delink ones upbringing with ones way of thinking it is a fact of cultural sociology.
Rethinking over the issue I could not fail to laugh at national resistance movement mannerism. Entebbe Kampala road is 38 km. Except for the common wealth meeting here in Uganda due next year, the African has seen a necessity to beautify and even plan the entire corridor as a major gateway out of this country.
Beautification is for the foreigners, an act not so important for Ugandans. What a colonial mentality?!
Last night Saturday 9th 2006, I went to Karelwe and passed through Wandegeya, the conditions at that market place is deplorable. Tears filled my eyes as men, women and their children were involved in what appeared to be brisk business-on the surface. That was past 8.00 oclock in the evening.
I could not comprehend the darkness into the market area, munaku tadobba (paraffin tin lamps) giving a faint lease of light behind stalls of merchandise. Looked like a midnight street candle prayer. A sea tramping into the mud knee high was quite disheartening.
All over this country, it is the same despicable and unsightly scenery. Our people have become a social disgrace, at their own peril, a situation they surely cant do nothing about.
Reports allege powerful politicians and army officers have made efforts to grab huge chunks of miles of land along the road including Kisubi school land.
Second advert coming only weeks after the first one, is to construct a road to Munyonyo! Ill look for the details. As norm suggests this one too is to construct what is going to become a common wealth road to a Multimillion Munyonyo resort beach.
So far Nakasero is UTV or hospital has been earmarked for a 90 million dollar hotel that in addition to Shimoni primary and teachers college hotel rated to be in billions of shillings. Heres where antediluvian emotions override common sensuality and rationalism. Nakasero hill will soon have more hotels than the rest of Uganda.
What more can one say? Even the colonialist never went that far! Revolutionary rhetoric and verbosity; self-integrated economy, swine, aah what a contradiction! Europeans built schools in appropriate location now being relocated by revolutionaries to serve their own political egos.
What is left for Uganda to be called a nation state? Dairy Corporation or Uganda Railways? No!
If you were not in the bushes of Luwero, were so many perished for reasons their knew nothing about then you do not share in the booty.
A new colonialism has started in earnest by a revolution. Once Ugandans were discovered to be terribly backward and so primitive to even manage a latrine today donated and managed by NGOs and CBO foreign funded entities, their ability to do anything by themselves has been phased out.
It is sickening to a shocking degree.
Bwanika in Kampala
Bwanika
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--> for your consultancy needs
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