John Nsubuga
Continuing with your reasoning, think about an LC3 chairman or two let alone 1.
How powerful is he/she? They are people that live with people yet they are
small autocratic people in their very little way. The system was brought into
Uganda for the LC knows his people and they know him so he/she will treat them
with respect and will build his/her own area for he/she lives into the area.
2014 is a time for a report card. How good are the RCs or LCs out there? How
many areas have developed thanks to them? Are they also instructed by Museveni
to be autocrats to their own people? Should we go back to them and strip the
powers off them too? The solution for Uganda is way larger than stripping
Museveni's powers in state house.
You have written very well and thank you.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Nsubuga
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2014 1:27 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: G_NET; [email protected]; 'Oryema Johnson'
Subject: {UAH} RE: EM - B.Kamya_ THE CALL and Electoral Proposals///
Edward Mulindwa,
Ugandan doesn't have a constitutional crisis, but like any other, the
established precedents embodied in our constitution will always be open to
challenges, and therefore inevitable amendments were necessary. Among others,
that is the reason constitutions exist in the first place anyway….to be
reviewed if need be. Let me quickly add that, this must ONLY, and I repeat,
ONLY, be executed after critically thinking things through properly, and not
after collecting a certain number of signatures.
In fact, I think that is one area we should consider amending in our
constitution, because, signatures alone should not be enough to cause an
amendment of a republican constitution, albeit the only legal process
available. With that admittance therefore, we can not punish those who employ
perfectly legal and available means to cause change, but what happens if five
years from now, some one else is unhappy with those amendments and decides to
collect signatures to challenge the same? A vicious circle of sorts!!, but I'll
leave that part to the technocrats.
In developed countries where we copied the above process, citizens will only
append their signatures on paper with precise knowledge of why they are doing
so, and the consequences of that action. Does a Kayunga drunkard know the
mechanics involved in appending a signature on a piece of paper, for as long as
one can afford to make them drunk? He will sign four times depending on the
direction the wind is blowing, and even come back very early in the morning the
day after looking for you to sign some more.
Understandably, one of the most ridiculous argument we as a country make is to
falsely believe that we can somehow amend our selves out of post-colonial
problems, even though fundamentally, the problem has never been the absence of
enough legislation / laws, but rather not respecting them.
Those who dismiss and refuse to obey court orders, send UPDF forces into
foreign territory for combat purposes, or buy combat equipment and personal
jets using tax payer’s money with out consulting parliament first, do not take
such decisions because they are oblivious to the existence of the constitution
/ law, and what is clearly spelt out therein. They do not do so because there
is no law that requires them to seek permission first, but because they despise
it. They do so arrogantly, and in full contempt of the law, because they can.
This isn’t an argument against a particular law, its functionality and or
bottlenecks, IE.. "the president's powers" it’s an argument against respecting
the rule of law. For example, have we put to good use of the already existing
laws, and if not, why? Lets start there and move forward before we amend and
legislate even more, only to get stuck with the same problem, but with
additional laws that overlap each other. If you examine the powers conferred to
the president by the constitution, those same powers are constitutionally
further checked therein by other institutions of government and independent
ones like parliament and the judiciary.
You can also call them semi-independent, because they are controlled by the
president and their existence hinge on a thin thread really. But because we’ve
got a week parliament for example, dominated by dysfunctional NRM MPs, with a
gun pointed at their heads, the president will always be on top of his game.
All he has to do is to ensure that the establishment’s network machinery is
regularly oiled and working in tandem with a tight Rwakitura / statehouse
coercion policy. You can amend the constitution however you want, but for as
long as you've got leaders in place who believe that their persona long
supplanted the supreme law of the land, you're wasting resources and valuable
time. This belief that the law should bend to your will is even more dangerous
than the belief that laws have no purpose since certain people won’t follow
them.
That could even be counter productive in the long run, because more
legislation could further entrench dictatorship. As citizens demand more powers
using the enacted laws, the dictators will feel isolated, and therefore use
more brutal means to silence agitators. Is there any law that bares anybody
from walking to work? if not, why has Besigye and many other political
activists been tormented to the extent of using draconian laws to keep them in
their homes?
I'll answer my self…, “because our leaders / president Museveni doesn't respect
the laws of the land”. The remedy to this problem therefore, lies some where
else, and that is in removing the cause of the problem, which is the “NRM
distinct polity” replacing it with a people’s government.
Let me end mine with a confession that, whatever I’ve written here today, was
inspired by what UFA is attempting at, but under no circumstances should it be
misunderstood to be literature intended to water down, or dilute the good work
that UFA is doing. Even though my views on this matter are divergent, changing
Ugandan for better, is a concerted effort and should be every Ugandan’s
pre-occupation.
My conviction is that, whatever contributions and gains UFA, and or any other
party, individuals and civil society etc.. manages to pull off, the entire
country wins.
Chibuku is calling, I’m off to Kundi pub.
J.N Munyoganda
--------------------------------------------
On Sun, 16/2/14, Herrn Edward Mulindwa <[email protected]> wrote:
Subject: RE: B.Kamya_Re: {UAH} THE CALL and Electoral Proposals///
To: [email protected]
Cc: "G_NET" <[email protected]>, [email protected], "'Oryema Johnson'"
<[email protected]>
Date: Sunday, 16 February, 2014, 10:39
Betty Kamya
“we
hold a national referendum on the question(s) whether the Constitution of
Uganda should be amended to trim the constitution-given-powers of the
president, which mandate him to appoint electoral commissioners, Governor of
Bank of Uganda, Inspector General of Police, Chief Justice, Justices, Judges
and all public officers above the rank of head of Department.”
With all due respect do you
want a leader of a country without such powers? May be you do not need the
president at all, if you deny him to appoint these people what is his use in
office? These positions are appointed worldwide and your preaching to deny
them from State House is laughable for it simply cannot happen in any
country. Ugandans as you have been watching the saga of Mayor Rob Ford in this
city, a whole whack of ideas have been thrown to the table. When the municipal
law of this province was written, all Municipalities were not put at the same
level, the mayor of Toronto has a more leverage than for example the mayor of
Windsor or Ottawa, Toronto runs almost as a government its self. The way the
law empowers the mayor of Toronto is very different from how the mayor of
North Bay is empowered let alone protected. You see we built the law according
to what particular cities want to accomplish, they show up to the province and
plead their case then the province empowers or refuse to empower as such, so
it is on as we go basis. Because the province sits in Toronto and because of
our size and economical value to both the province and the country, we have a
larger say in what we need, Toronto is the main economic engine of this
province and country.
When Rob Ford screwed up,
suggestions came up for the city to go to the province and strip the powers
off him, but when we thought about it, the problem is actually not the powers
the mayor has, it is Rob Ford in the position. You be very careful when
setting up laws and making demands for such decisions are going to affect the
next mayor. So we went back and studied the municipal law and how it empowered
the council to deal with such a case, and it empowers them to vote some powers
off the mayor, and some being the operative term here. Under a normal person
when you are stripped off powers this way you resign, but Rob Ford refused to
resign even though he was stripped. The Premier of Ontario must always be in
contact with the city mayor, but in Toronto she is in contact with the deputy
mayor for he took the powers of the mayor.
Never ever stand up to change
the laws according to the situation you have at hand for such changes come
back and bite you. It is like how we never get a family member of a murdered
person and we ask him to write a law of how we must punish killers in this
province, no because you are a bias man and you are going to write a law that
is unfair to the victims let alone the convict. The law must always be fair
and must remain so in good times or bad times. What we can do in this city is
to use the example of Mayor Ford and we plan to write a better law, then 10 15
years after Rob Ford goes away and we have a good mayor in the city we sit
with calm heads to rewrite the law.
Betty Kamya do you really want
to strip these powers from the president? What if you turn around and become
the next president?
EMOn the 49th
Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication
Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi "Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni
na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of beti kamya
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2014 5:15 AM
To: Abbey Semuwemba
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: B.Kamya_Re: {UAH} THE CALL and Electoral Proposals///
Abbey, Thanks for your positive
comments about me. Yes, we are soooo determined that by May 2014, UFA will
present over 2M signatures of registred voters supporting my petition that we
hold a national referendum on the question(s) whether the Constitution of
Uganda should be amended to trim the constitution-given-powers of the
president, which mandate him to appoint electoral commissioners, Governor of
Bank of Uganda, Inspector General of Police, Chief Justice, Justices, Judges
and all public officers above the rank of head of Department. It is this
constitutional mandate that gives YKM significant clout to do all the things
he does. Whether M7's establishment frustrates the holding of the referendum
or not, M7 will have to struggle with the fact that over 2M registered voters
called for a referendum to trip his powers.
If Ugandans understood the significance of this and participated in
collection of signatures and we raised 5M of them, M7 would have a huge
problem to carry around, explaining to the world why we do not hold a
referendum on presidential powers as demanded by voters and as provided for
in the constitution of Uganda. For now, he hides behind being elected by 68%
majority to claim legitimacy. Abbey, Dr Besigye and I made peace a long
time ago and we have met several times and exchanged views. We agree on most
things, but it is impossible for me to go back to FDC coz federalism is not a
core value of FDC as it is for UFA. Indeed, most FDC stalwarts I know, like
Gen Muntu, Hon(s) Katuntu and most of the other leaders of FDC do not support
federalism. They emphasise poor administration which has led to poor service
delivery, corruption etc, rather than ideological issues. There is national
consensus on poor adminstration, even among the NRM, so this does not provide
a case for a qualitative difference between the various political players. All
political parties promise better service deliver, fight vs corruption,
promotion of democracy etc. But what should really differentiate political
parties are the ideological platforms.
In other words, all the 38 registered political parties in Uganda promise
good accountable managemnet of this country, which will eventually lead to
good service delivery but the question is which system will the best
environment for our promises to come true? UFA believes the federal system
provides the best system because it devolves power closer to the people than
the unitary system which over-centralizes power, and in so doing makes the
centre so remote from the people! Anybody who is an opponent of federalism,
even if s(he) is the greatest
M7 hater, falls short of my ideological leanings and anybody who is a
federalist, even if he is a great M7 lover, I can talk business with. So I
would not go back to FDC because of that ideological difference although I can
do business with them on the things we agree. Similarly, I would not join NRM
coz we have serious administrative and ideological differences although I can
work with those who support federalism to push our common agenda forward.
Indeed, I have collected
hundreds of thousands of signatures of NRM supporters who agree that we need
to amend the constitution to trim the powers of the presidency, yet there are
numerous people in the opposition who refused to give me their signatures on
grounds that they have no problem with the constitution as it is, as long as
M7 gets out of State House. That's why we need to be issue, rather than
personality oriented and work with whoever promotes ones goals. In UFA, coz we
are ideological rather than personality driven, we are able to work with both
opposition and NRM supporters, as long as they are federalists and will work
with us to promote it. Take care - Beti KamyaOn Fri, Feb 14, 2014 at 4:27
AM, Abbey Semuwemba <[email protected]> wrote:WBK,Beti seems to be a
good mobilisor, organisor and very determined. She should have been handy in
the current crisis in FDC. Besigye should make peace with her! Abbey
Sent from my iPad
On 14 Feb 2014, at 07:25, WB <[email protected]>
wrote:
Ms. Beti Kamya: Keep on doing what you are doing, which is educating
Ugandans about the merits of federalism. But also be honest with them that
like any system there may be some cons such as decentralized corruption and
thieving as seen in Kenyan counties, but overall the merits of federalism
overweigh the cons. Your message is definitely getting through and the best
thing going for federalism is actually YKM! So it was music to read the
minions at Kyankwanzi, ok, NRM MPs falling over each other to nominate YKM.
The more YKM stays in power the better for the federal question. This is an
example of proof by contradiction. YKM may not want to hear about federalism,
but he is actually the best thing going for federalism. So let the opposition
in parliament DEMAND electoral reform while also fighting about juicy shadow
cabinet slots. Keep focused on what you are doing like a laser beam.
WBK Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2014
16:12:09 +0100
Subject: B.Kamya_Re: {UAH} THE CALL and Electoral Proposals///
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected],Thank
you for trying but please tell us how you are going to stop the mass printing
of paper money, which by thr way can only be carried in sacks? How many years
have you people not been talking about the so-called sensitizing of the
empty-bellied peasants - and almost each time only when elections are
near?Talking of existing law, my foot! How come Lukwago is where he is today.
If my chicken brain is to help me, i remember there has ever been the useless
refurendum - how did it end?Try something else next time, if any...NyarOn 13
Feb 2014 18:19, "beti kamya" <[email protected]> wrote:CORRECTION - It
is not the "Opposition" that launched the demand for electoral reforms but
"The Opposition in Parliament". Uganda Federal Alliance (UFA), Peoples'
Development Party (PDP), Peoples'
Progressive Party (PDP) and many others were not represented. If UFA had been
consulted, we would have advised the Opposition in Parliament and civil
society that "demanding" will NOT be useful! "Demand" of who? - The
President, to help legislate himself out of the power he loves so
much? - The Electoral Commission to help legislate themselves out of
jobs?- The 9th Parliament which has
267 NRM MPs who just endorsed
President Museveni sole NRM presidential contestant in their parliamentary
caucus in Kyankwanzi VS 54 Opposition MPs? I can predict without fear of
contradiction that their demands will at worst be ignored.
At best, if they table them before Parliament, a few concessions will be
made, for Govt to look good, but the important ones will be defeated. There
are only two fora under the constitution of Uganda where laws are made (i)
Parliament (ii) referenda. The act of "demanding for electoral reforms" is not
provided for in the constitution of Uganda and even when 10,000,000 Ugandan
"demand", it has no force of law and is not binding on anybody, least of all
the President. So why would the Opposition in Parliament and Civil Society
take us to MUK to "launch demands..." which will be ignored because demanding
for electoral reforms is not backed by law, when we can demand for a
referendum as provided for under Article 255(1) of the constitution and
mobilize voters to make decisions that "are binding on all persons, organs
and institutions of the State of Uganda..." as provided for under Article 255
(3)? UFA is already collecting signatures of registered voters under Article
255(1) to demand that the EC organises a referendum to amend the Constitution
of Uganda to among other things, overhaul the manner of constituting the
Electoral Commission, appointment of the IGP, Governor of Bank of Uganda,
Chief Justice and Judiciary. We have so far collected over 900,000 signatures
of registered voters who have suppoterd the petition for a national referendum
to amend the constitution. It includes all the electoral reforms proposed at
the launch Plan B should be to support the referendum effort where Ugandan
voters will decide directly on all the obnoxious items in the constitution.
Neither Parliament, the EC or the Executive can or will do it for us, we have
to do it ourselves and the referendum is the only channel that will have the
force of law Beti Kamya - President, Uganda Federal AllianceOn Thu, Feb 13,
2014 at 6:05 PM, John Nsubuga <[email protected]>
wrote:
Comrades,
The opposition is way too fragmented to adhere to these demands. As usual,
Museveni is not going to yield to the demand for electoral reforms, therefore,
what we want to read about is:...what else does the opposition has in store?
In otherwords, "plan B"
Is it going to be business as usual, giving him company "AGAIN" to state
house? From: Abbey Semuwemba <[email protected]>;
To: <[email protected]>;
Cc: Kale Kayihura <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>; beti
kamya <[email protected]>;
Subject: {UAH} THE CALL and Electoral Proposals
Sent: Wed, Feb 12, 2014 10:55:47 PM
Read the attachments please.
Thank you.
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:From: Okello Lucima <[email protected]>
Date: 13 February 2014 01:13:07 PST
To: Abbey
--
___________________________________________
No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every Man is a peece of the
Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe
is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor
of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans
death diminishes me,
because I am in-
volved in
Mankinde; And therefore
never send to know for
whom the bell tolls; It
tolls for
thee.
John
Donne
____________________________________________________________
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