Why didn't Besigye do a Yushchenko?
Yoga Adhola
In Sunday Monitor of September 2, Mr Sam Akaki, the famed Forum for
Democratic Change (FDC) envoy in the UK and Europe launched a most virulent
attack on Uganda's Chief Justice, Benjamin Odoki. I don't know whether the
Chief Justice, by virtue of his office, can respond to Mr Akaki's attack.
However, I would like to make a few comments as an ordinary citizen.
Common sense tells us that we compare similar things, not dissimilar ones.
You don't, for instance, set cows to compete with goats; or in the case
Akaki is citing, compare people in similar situations or who are performing
similar tasks.
In the political vacuum that then existed in the Pakistan opposition, the
Chief Justice ended up being the flag bearer. I think it is for that reason
that he was fired. That is not the case in Uganda. Chief justice Odoki could
not from his own whims assume a political role, the kind of role Chief
Justice Chaudry played.
The role Chaudry played was already being executed by leading political
figures amongst whom was Dr Kizza Besigye, the leader of FDC.
In the circumstances, the role Odoki should have played was to use the law
to lay ground for political action by those in the opposition. I believe the
judiciary did this very well.
The Supreme Court unanimously declared "We find that there was
non-compliance with the provisions and principles of the Constitution,
Presidential Elections Act and the Electoral Commission Act, in the conduct
of the 2006 Presidential Elections, in the following instances: in
disenfranchisement of voters by deleting their names from the voters
register or denying them the right to vote; in the counting and tallying of
results; the principle of free and fair elections was compromised by bribery
and intimidation or violence in some areas of the country; the principles of
equal suffrage, transparency of the vote, and secrecy of the ballot were
undermined by multiple voting, and vote stuffing in some areas."
The court added, "We are constrained to comment on the following matters
which have given us grave concern: the continued involvement of the security
forces in the conduct of elections where they committed acts of
intimidation, violence and partisan harassment.."
By these words, the judiciary had, in my view, given ground for political
action. And who was better able to lead the action than Dr Besigye and the
FDC? The reader will recall that the FDC had sold Dr Besigye to the
electorate on the grounds that he had the necessary support in the army to
defeat Museveni. If this was true, why didn't Dr Besigye lead the people to
resist the imposition of what Akaki calls an illegitimate government? Why
should Akaki blame this on Odoki instead?
Just as Akaki uses Chaudry as a yardstick to measure Odoki's role, we would
like to use Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine to evaluate Dr Besigye as a
political leader. For those who don't know him, Yushchenko is the President
of Ukraine. He rose to the presidency through a gruelling fight which nearly
killed him.
In November 2004, there was a run-off vote between the two leading
candidates in the previous elections in Ukraine. Several domestic and
foreign election monitors, just like the case in Uganda, observed that the
elections had been rigged against Yushchenko.
The protests were prompted by reports from several domestic and foreign
election monitors as well as the widespread public perception that the
results of the run-off vote of November 21, 2004 between leading candidates
Yushchenko and Yanukovych were rigged by the authorities in favour of the
latter. Akaki treats us to a long list of brave things that Chief Justice
Choudry did. That is fine.
What Mr Akaki does not realise is that in the same way he can give us a
litany of heroic things Chief Justice Choudry did, we can also give a long
list of brave things which Yushchenko did. Why can't Odoki learn from
Choudry and stop Museveni from leading Uganda along the slippery slope? How
will history judge him?
This same question, although in a slightly different wording, was raised
about Dr Besigye immediately after the elections. The question was premised
on the assumptions that Dr Besigye was a very brave man; two, that he had
sufficient support in the army to contain Museveni; three, that he had
actually won the elections.
Why, some people asked, doesn't Dr Besigye lead the country into the kind of
'revolution' that occurred in Ukraine? Or to use the kind of language that
Akaki used? Why didn't Dr Besigye learn from Yushchenko?
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"
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