Dr. Kiiza Besigye
>From my understanding, medical doctors are supposed and expected to have good
>and long memory in order to save lives. Unfortunately, yours seems to be very
>very short and very very poor. Could that be the reason why you traded your
>stethoscope in January of 1981 for the gun to kill people instead of treating
>them? It is a great surprise to some of us to see you playing the Saint
>Besigye, in the US forgetting what you did in Luwero only 35 years ago, when
>the world still remembers what happened in 1941. when Jews were systematically
>murdered in one of the deadliest genocide in history.
Dr. Besigye, since your memory is very short, let me remind you of the
following:
* You were involved in the logistics and the carrying out of mass
killings in the Luwero Triangle
* You participated in the mass murder and other human rights abuse
* You sought with Museveni to repeat in Northern Uganda what Nazi Germany
did which became known as the final solution to the Jewish question, you wanted
to exterminate the entire Northern region. In the process you created Lakwena
and Kony who carried out the rest of your agenda attempting to exterminate
their own people. You did exactly what Nazi Germany did created a network of
concentration camps which you named camps for internally displaced people, to
mislead the world. What some of us will never understand, why the Acholi people
have and continue to support you and Museveni considering what you have done to
them.
* Your victims in Luwero a district I come from, included some of the
most innocent people: "Children, women and the infirm". How can a man who has
committed such grave crimes stand in front of the world and claim he is
fighting for human dignity, human rights, freedom and democracy?
* Besigye, you participated in putting on display skulls of those you
murdered in Luwero for the world to see, and you felt very proud of it. You
forgot that some of those skulls belonged to our relatives and friends. For the
first in the history of humankind a Ugandan who claimed he is fighting for the
protection of human lives joined the list of leaders such as Hitler who had no
regard for the dead.
* You claim that you are fighting Museveni for his refusal to leave
power, what is the difference between you and him, you are doing the same by
refusing to step down from the so-called leader of FDC?
* If you consider Museveni an enemy of the state, why are you sharing the
same podium with his 75 Members of Parliament at the UNAA convention? Could
you not have declined this invitation knowing very well that UNAA is financed
by Museveni's government, and it is NRM's external agent? Nowhere in the world
not even in the animal kingdom have the lamb and lion shared the same house.
But again, it is obvious that NRM. FDC, UNAA, UPC and UAH are birds of the same
feather only pretending that they have different feathers. Ugandans who take
the time to dig deep into history are very much aware that those who gave you
cover and supported you during the Luwero war, are the same members of UAH and
UNAA that is why they continue to extend the same cover and support ignoring
all the crimes they helped you carry out. With their support you are guaranteed
the path to another mass murder in the future.
Your speech that is being distributed by UAH offers nothing new from the 10
point program you used to mislead Ugandans with, during the 1981-85 Luwero war.
As the saying goes, "You can never teach an old dog a new trick". The brain is
too aged to understand something new and challenging. The only good news is
that future generation of Ugandans 20 years from now, will never experience
your misguided leadership. You will be too old to preach what you are preaching
today, and who knows, perhaps by then you will be sitting in front of Pontius
Pilate the prefect of the Roman Province of Judea, being tried for the Luwero
massacre. And you know what Pontius does, he washes his hands and says here he
is do whatever you want and leave me out of it. If he could hand over Jesus the
most innocent person that has ever walked on this earth and harmed nobody, to
the Pharisees to be crucified what makes you think he will not hand you over
to the tax collectors to deal with you. Dr. Besigye, my advice to you is very
simply, stop playing the saint, get out of your sheep's clothing and expose
your true self, tell the world the crime you committed throughout Uganda, and
ask for forgiveness while you still can. You can never be and will never be
Uganda's President when the sun still rises from the East and sets in the West.
Maybe that time will one day happen considering today's state of the earth.
Even if it happens, you and I will never be around to experience it.
Leave the US and go straight to Luweero and ask for forgiveness sir.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika
machafuko"
From: 'Afuwa Kasule' via Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Community
[mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2016 6:43 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: {UAH} Besigye's lecture at the New York City Bar Association in
New York, United States of America on Thursday.
Read the full speech below
Opening Remarks
Thank you for the very kind introduction and warm welcome, [Name].
I would like to start by thanking the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International
Justice for hosting this historic event.
I would in particular like to thank Mr. Alexander Papachristou for his
unwavering dedication to the cause of freedom and democracy in Africa. It’s
hard to overstate how important it is to have reliable friends when you are in
the trenches fighting for freedom.
Alex has been a source of great inspiration to many of us in Africa. I am
particularly grateful to him for his wise counsel and support, always reminding
us why democracy and the rule of law matters.
Thank you Alex for your support and friendship to the people of Uganda and
Africa. I would also like to thank the staff of the Cyrus R. Vance Center who
have worked tirelessly to make this event possible. In particular, I would like
to single out Dr. Brenda Kombo for her leadership in organizing this event.
I would also like to extend a special thank you to the African Affairs
Committee of the New York City Bar for co-sponsoring this event. I understand
from reliable sources that you have been a bulwark supporting the rule of law
in Africa. I salute you for your dedication and contributions to a better
Africa and a better world.
I see in this audience many friends and familiar faces. Thank you for welcoming
me and for making me feel at home. It’s good to be amongst friends. And it’s
especially inspiring to be amongst those who labor to promote justice and
democracy around the world. Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Begin Speech
Introduction It’s a unique and singular honor to stand here today to address
this august institution which represents, in its finest form, the ideals and
the pillars of an open, democratic society—the rule of law.
In a democratic society—and in a diverse and pluralistic society—it is to the
Temple of Justice that we go for the peaceful and just adjudication of disputes.
It is at The New York State Supreme Court Building that it is written, with
good measure, that:
“The True Administration of Justice is the Firmest Pillar of Good Government.”
It is also in the founding document of the modern constitutional government,
The Magna Carta of 1215, that is written:
“To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay right or justice.”
These statements go to the very foundation of the rule of law—Justice.
I am an African
And it is justice, at its core, that is the foundation of democratic
government, and without which there can be no open society.
It is with this firm understanding of the rule law that I stand before you
today to talk about
“Fighting for Justice, the Rule of law, and Democracy in Africa”
I take my lessons from Uganda—that favored land from which I hail.
Despite our many problems, we still like to call it “The Pearl of Africa.”
Whenever I hear “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika”—God Bless Africa—the anthem of Africa
I think of those rolling hills and the rugged ridges of Rukungiri, where I was
born.
I think of the verdant valleys of Northern Uganda
The green pastures of the West Nile Mount Elgon and The Mountain of the Moon
I think of the Nile and Bwindi impenetrable forest
I think of the ancient heritage of Buganda and Bunyoro and the Luo
Then I remember, with no small measure of pride—
That it was my ancestors—our people from all across Africa—
That erected the pyramids and invented the hieroglyphics. That the first
footsteps of man is to found in the heart of Africa.
When I remember all these, and the rich culture of our people, and the great
civilizations they forged and will continue to forge until the end of time—then
I find courage to stand here before you.
I find courage in my past and I am buoyed by hope for the future. As Thabo
Mbeki would say, I am, after all, an African! A Ugandan, yes! But above all an
African!
Personal Confessions
Let me begin with a personal confession.
I stand before you as a man who has been living under the shadow of the law—not
in its brilliant and luminous radiance.
I stand before you as a man charged with treason in his land of birth.
I am here today, outside Uganda, by the permission and grace of the Uganda High
court, to which I am very grateful.
What treason means
I will begin by explaining the nature of the treason charges against me. There
are, specifically, two charges against me.
During the last presidential campaign in Uganda, which culminated in the
February 2016 presidential elections, which I contested and which I believe I
won convincingly, I campaigned on one radical and threatening idea:
That all Ugandans—all my compatriots—must be citizens and not subjects. That
was the core of my campaign: citizens versus subjects.
To understand the force of my argument and the power of our campaign, we must
briefly revisit the political history of Africa.
The Colonial State in Africa.
Colonialism in Africa stood for one radical idea: that no African could be a
citizen.
And that by the edict of nature and some inscrutable faith, an African was
forever consigned to be a subject. Under apartheid, Africans were “drawers of
water and the hewers of woods.”
The colonial state—and the entire edifice of the colonial system—were based on
the belief and the simple premise that Africans were inferior human
beings—beings destined to be governed by a stern state or a stern master.
This is the colonial idea of tutelage. Africans were projected as naturally
backwards and in need of tutoring in the art of modernity and civilized
existence.
Upon this ideology was erected the concept of people as subjects. In fact,
people as chattels. In colonial Africa, Africans were simply subjects—people to
be governed from a distant metropolis by unaccountable but “enlightened”
despots. Colonialism meant total domination: No power to decide how and by who
people would be governed and no power over their resources (including their
labor).
The Neo-Colonial State in Africa
After independence, the African elites inherited the colonial state and hardly
buried or interred the colonial ideology that Africans are merely subjects. The
African elites have
used the same coercive tools to perpetuate monopolization of decision making,
State institutions and resources.
The neo-colonial state –and most states across Africa are neo-colonial
state—continue to treat Africans as subjects.
The colonial states turned Africans into subjects and the neo-colonial African
states have perpetuated that colonial ideology.
Kwame Nkrumah Patrice Lumumba Steve Biko Nelson Mandela—all the heroes of the
pan-African liberation struggles—revolted and waged pitch campaigns of defiance
against this racist ideology.
They refused—and defiantly did so—to accept Africans as mere subjects and not
citizens. They refused to accept that we, as Africans, are children of a lesser
God.
Pan-Africanism Redefined
Thus, at the core of the pan-African liberation ideology is the radical belief
that every African is a citizen.
That we are children of a benevolent God just as any other race of this earth.
That, my friends, is our campaign in Uganda. That is our campaign of defiance.
The campaign that every woman and man and child in Africa is a citizen. That
every African—by birthright—is a citizen of our beloved continent. That we, as
citizens, determine how and who governs; that we control State institutions and
our national resources.
Masters, not Servants—My Act of Treason
Where there are citizens, the people are the masters and the state is the
servant. Where there are subjects, the state is the master and the people are
the servants. This distinction—between citizens and subjects—is at the heart of
our campaign in Uganda. We are simply seeking to democratize Uganda—to have
free and fair elections, and to have basic human rights, including the right to
free speech and assembly. That is the profound nature of our struggle.
That is the act of treason I have been charged with—that I dare, in the face of
corrupt power, to say that Africans are citizens.
That is my act of treason. And to that I plead guilty. It’s an honor to plead
guilty. And I carry that charge, as an African and as a human being, as a badge
of honor. In the face of oppression and injustice, one must bear witness. Today
in Uganda I am a witness. The second treason charge leveled against me is about
the outcome of the February 2016 presidential elections.
With almost no exception, all election observers declared that the elections
were deeply flawed and comprehensively rigged. For example, the Commonwealth
Observer Group, the European Union Election Observer Mission, and United States
Government declared as “deeply inconsistent with international standards and
expectations for any democratic process.”
The election returns received by my own party, the Forum for Democratic Change
(FDC), show that I won the elections convincingly.
But a thoroughly compromised National Electoral Commission (NEC) declared the
loser to be the winner. So I did something entirely radical.
I asked for an independent international audit of the elections.
I said let’s determine the winner of these disputed elections through an
impeachable empirical audit.
For that I was charged with treason.
I was charged with treason for questioning the outcome of the rigged elections
and for proposing that an objective audit should resolve the dispute.
Free and Fair Elections and the Rule of Law
You might ask, rightfully, what do free and fair elections got to do with the
rule of law?
The Rule of Law v. Rule by Law
You can have oppressive laws and you can have undemocratic laws. Nazi Germany
and apartheid South Africa illustrate why the phrase “the rule of law” can be
meaningless, even dangerous, without the constraints or the requirements of
justice.
The rule of law alone, in itself, is not sufficient in a democratic society.
The rule of law, to be beneficial and enlightened, must be undergirded by
justice. That is, the rule of law must be morally defensible. In modern terms,
it must be democratic; it must satisfy certain core requirements of an open and
democratic society.
The two—the rule of law and democracy—are inextricably linked. You cannot, in
an enlightened society, have the rule of law without democracy; and you cannot
have democracy without the rule of law.
Democracy and Citizenship
But what is democracy in the modern context? Simply defined, democracy is rule
by the people. It means that the people are the masters. It means that a
community of citizens and not a community of subjects.
It means, at its core, universal suffrage and the accountability of the
government to the electorate.
But the people cannot govern as a mob. Democracy is not an exercise in mob
rule. It must be structured through free and fair elections.
Free and Fair Elections
It means, therefore, that the will of the people must be expressed through
regularly scheduled free and fair elections.
So democracy means, in brief, rule by the electorate through universal suffrage
expressed through regularly scheduled free and fair elections. That is also the
definition of citizenship: the people as the electorates.
For elections are the instruments through which the people—not acting as a
mob—exercise their power and will.
Where there are no free and fair elections—the process by which the government
is held accountable—there can be no citizenship, and there can be no democracy.
In Uganda, we have not had genuinely free and fair elections since 1963.
Democracy and citizenship are inextricably linked. We can therefore redefine
and restate what democracy means.
It means government by citizens who exercise their rights of citizenship to
hold their government accountable through regularly scheduled free and fair
elections based on universal suffrage.
The Rule of Law Restated
Allow me, then, to redefine the rule of law as I understand it. As a civilian.
The rule of law must be based on rules made in a democratic society by citizens
who exercise their rights of citizenship through governments that are elected
through free and fair election based on universal suffrage.
That is the basic requirement and the foundation of the rule of law: free and
fair elections based on universal suffrage.
But our restatement is still incomplete. It is still not sufficient.
The modern rule of law must, at a minimum, have protections of minorities, and
must enshrine and respect the freedom of speech and assembly and the free
exercise of religious beliefs.
For without these freedoms—freedom of speech, of assembly, and religion—you
cannot have free and fair elections or a free society. Without these freedoms
you cannot have a government that is accountable to the electorate.
And there is one other requirement: that good laws must be impartially
enforced. In our case, we have on several occasions challenged presidential
election rigging. Unfortunately, the courts have failed to enforce the law so
that the candidate that rigs does not benefit from rigging.
Citizenship and the Rule of Law
We have defined citizenship as the right to hold the government accountable
through regularly scheduled free and fair elections based on universal suffrage.
And you cannot have free and fair elections without the basic freedoms that I
have just enumerated.
The rule of law, therefore, must be firmly based on the freedom of speech,
freedom of assembly, freedom of religion—the pillars and foundations of a free,
democratic society. They are also the foundations of citizenship.
Without citizenship you cannot have the rule of law—understood as laws based on
substantive justice.
These, then, are the theoretical and ideological foundations of our struggle in
Uganda and Africa: the rule of law as the quest for justice and democracy.
The rule of law as the product of citizenship, and as the product of free and
fair elections. The problem of democracy in Africa
As I have stated earlier, the problem of democracy in Africa is the problem of
elite politics divorced from the masses.
Effectively, in Africa, it often is the rule by minority—family, ethnic,
racial, religious, Or a criminal syndicate, that has monopoly of coercive
forces.
In Africa, the state has been the master, and the people have been the
servants. Instead of citizens, we have subjects. Instead of accountability of
government, we have a predatory and parasitic government.
We have had a society of subjects and not citizens. This is the colonial legacy
in Africa—a legacy our political elites have heartily embraced.
The people of Africa have, for the most part, remained supplicants to their
governments. The strong man owns the country. The resources of the country are
his own. “My army”;” my oil.”
Legitimacy and the Rule of Law
In a society of subjects, the concept of legitimacy is reversed. Instead of the
government being accountable to the people, it’s the people who are now
accountable to the government. It is no longer government of law but government
by law. More appropriately, government by fiat and dicta.
The government makes the law as it pleases. It holds the people accountable to
its edicts, however grievious, bizarre or oppressive or predatory. Even the
constitutions are merely indicative. In a non-democratic society, there is no
government of law.
For without citizenship, defined as participation in governance through free
and fair elections based on universal suffrage, undergirded by the freedom of
speech, assembly, and religion, there can be no rule of law.
Africa, Pan-Africanism, and the Rule of Law
The struggle in Africa is the struggle to reclaim citizenship and, therefore,
to develop and enshrine the rule of law.
The colonial powers saw Africans merely as subjects. The African elites have
continued that racist ideology of treating Africans as subjects and not
citizens.
Let there be no doubt that no one can credibly claim to be a pan-Africanist or
a defender of the African people who does not defend the right of every African
to citizenship. Please allow me to redefine pan-Africanism.
Pan-Africanism is an ideology which insists that every African is a citizen
with indefeasible rights, which must include the rights to free and free and
fair elections through universal suffrage, and the freedom of speech, assembly
and religion which make possible the rights to free and fair elections.
Let no African dictator claim, therefore, to be a Pan-Africanist.
Lessons from Uganda
Our struggle in Uganda has been singular. How to restore the citizenship of our
people. That is my only commitment in politics: to finish the struggle for the
African liberation. To allow every African to be a citizenship.
And freedom begins with reclaiming one’s citizenship.
Kwame Nkrumah was right: “seek ye first the political kingdom.”
I say, seek ye first to be a citizen before other blessings can be bestowed
upon you. Seek ye first to be free.
That is our campaign of defiance in Uganda—to complete the vision of Kwame
Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba and Steve Biko.
Just as during the struggle against colonialism and apartheid, we do not beg to
be free. You must walk for your freedom; you must march for freedom, and you
must fight, with every senew, for freedom if you are to be free.
Freedom is not given. Freedom is earned.
You go to jail for it, as did Mahatma Gandhi;
as did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr;
as did Rosa Park;
as did Vaclav Havel;
as did Nelson Mandela;
as did Wangari Maathai;
as did Aung San Suu Kyi; among the great heroes of the universal struggle for
freedom.
Totalitarianism and Oppression Require Silence
Totalirarianism and oppression succeed by enforcing silence. ·
They want to silence the victims · They want to silence the people of
conscience · They want to silence the witnesses ·
They want no testimony or evidence against their evils
That is why totalitarian regimes and dictators rule by fear. They want to force
the victims to police his or her conscience and remain silence.
They oppose freedom of speech and freedom of assembly because they want silence.
They muffle the press and the voices of freedom because oppression can only
thrive where there is silence.
They jail their opponents because they want silence. So I refuse to be silent.
Because there is only one moral response to oppression and injustice: you must
stand up and bear witness.
The path to serfdom is paved by silence.
We must refuse to remain silent in the face of injustice and oppression.
§ Mahatma Gandhi refused to be silent
§ Kwame Nkrumah refused to be silent
§ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr refused to be silent
§ Jomo Kenyatta refused to be silent
§ Julius Nyerere refused to be silent
§ Jaramogi Oginga Odinga refused to be silent
§ Patrice Lumumba refused to be silent
§ Leopold Senghor refused to be silent
§ Steve Biko refused to be silent § Rosa Park refused to be silent
§ Vaclav Havel refused to be silent
§ Nelson Mandela refused to be silent
§ Elie Wiessel refused to be silent
§ Aung San Suu Kyi refused to be silent
Please stand up and bear witness. Please refuse to be silent in the face of
oppression. Refusing to silent is our campaign of defiance in Uganda.
DEFIANCE: This means that our people minds must be freed for them to take on
the new status of citizens; they must acquire organizational tools that allow
them to speak and act together in challenging domination; and lastly, they must
together deny the dictators their cooperation until they concede that people
are supreme.
Let me end by quoting a great African hero: “It’s the little things citizens
do. That’s what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees”
That was the late Professor Wangari Maathai.
Please do your little thing. In Uganda, I am doing my little thing by refusing
to be silent. And that is how we defend the rule of law and freedom and justice
and democracy.
Please do your little thing!
Thank you!
On Sat, Sep 3, 2016 at 1:10 AM, Abbey Semuwemba <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> > wrote:
Opening Remarks
Thank you for the very kind introduction and warm welcome, [Name].
I would like to start by thanking the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International
Justice for hosting this historic event.
I would in particular like to thank Mr. Alexander Papachristou for his
unwavering dedication to the cause of freedom and democracy in Africa. It’s
hard to overstate how important it is to have reliable friends when you are in
the trenches fighting for freedom.
Alex has been a source of great inspiration to many of us in Africa. I am
particularly grateful to him for his wise counsel and support, always reminding
us why democracy and the rule of law matters.
Thank you Alex for your support and friendship to the people of Uganda and
Africa. I would also like to thank the staff of the Cyrus R. Vance Center who
have worked tirelessly to make this event possible. In particular, I would like
to single out Dr. Brenda Kombo for her leadership in organizing this event.
I would also like to extend a special thank you to the African Affairs
Committee of the New York City Bar for co-sponsoring this event. I understand
from reliable sources that you have been a bulwark supporting the rule of law
in Africa. I salute you for your dedication and contributions to a better
Africa and a better world.
I see in this audience many friends and familiar faces. Thank you for welcoming
me and for making me feel at home. It’s good to be amongst friends. And it’s
especially inspiring to be amongst those who labor to promote justice and
democracy around the world. Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Begin Speech
Introduction It’s a unique and singular honor to stand here today to address
this august institution which represents, in its finest form, the ideals and
the pillars of an open, democratic society—the rule of law.
In a democratic society—and in a diverse and pluralistic society—it is to the
Temple of Justice that we go for the peaceful and just adjudication of disputes.
It is at The New York State Supreme Court Building that it is written, with
good measure, that:
“The True Administration of Justice is the Firmest Pillar of Good Government.”
It is also in the founding document of the modern constitutional government,
The Magna Carta of 1215, that is written:
“To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay right or justice.”
These statements go to the very foundation of the rule of law—Justice.
I am an African
And it is justice, at its core, that is the foundation of democratic
government, and without which there can be no open society.
It is with this firm understanding of the rule law that I stand before you
today to talk about
“Fighting for Justice, the Rule of law, and Democracy in Africa”
I take my lessons from Uganda—that favored land from which I hail.
Despite our many problems, we still like to call it “The Pearl of Africa.”
Whenever I hear “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika”—God Bless Africa—the anthem of Africa
I think of those rolling hills and the rugged ridges of Rukungiri, where I was
born.
I think of the verdant valleys of Northern Uganda
The green pastures of the West Nile Mount Elgon and The Mountain of the Moon
I think of the Nile and Bwindi impenetrable forest
I think of the ancient heritage of Buganda and Bunyoro and the Luo
Then I remember, with no small measure of pride—
That it was my ancestors—our people from all across Africa—
That erected the pyramids and invented the hieroglyphics. That the first
footsteps of man is to found in the heart of Africa.
When I remember all these, and the rich culture of our people, and the great
civilizations they forged and will continue to forge until the end of time—then
I find courage to stand here before you.
I find courage in my past and I am buoyed by hope for the future. As Thabo
Mbeki would say, I am, after all, an African! A Ugandan, yes! But above all an
African!
Personal Confessions
Let me begin with a personal confession.
I stand before you as a man who has been living under the shadow of the law—not
in its brilliant and luminous radiance.
I stand before you as a man charged with treason in his land of birth.
I am here today, outside Uganda, by the permission and grace of the Uganda High
court, to which I am very grateful.
What treason means
I will begin by explaining the nature of the treason charges against me. There
are, specifically, two charges against me.
During the last presidential campaign in Uganda, which culminated in the
February 2016 presidential elections, which I contested and which I believe I
won convincingly, I campaigned on one radical and threatening idea:
That all Ugandans—all my compatriots—must be citizens and not subjects. That
was the core of my campaign: citizens versus subjects.
To understand the force of my argument and the power of our campaign, we must
briefly revisit the political history of Africa.
The Colonial State in Africa.
Colonialism in Africa stood for one radical idea: that no African could be a
citizen.
And that by the edict of nature and some inscrutable faith, an African was
forever consigned to be a subject. Under apartheid, Africans were “drawers of
water and the hewers of woods.”
The colonial state—and the entire edifice of the colonial system—were based on
the belief and the simple premise that Africans were inferior human
beings—beings destined to be governed by a stern state or a stern master.
This is the colonial idea of tutelage. Africans were projected as naturally
backwards and in need of tutoring in the art of modernity and civilized
existence.
Upon this ideology was erected the concept of people as subjects. In fact,
people as chattels. In colonial Africa, Africans were simply subjects—people to
be governed from a distant metropolis by unaccountable but “enlightened”
despots. Colonialism meant total domination: No power to decide how and by who
people would be governed and no power over their resources (including their
labor).
The Neo-Colonial State in Africa
After independence, the African elites inherited the colonial state and hardly
buried or interred the colonial ideology that Africans are merely subjects. The
African elites have
used the same coercive tools to perpetuate monopolization of decision making,
State institutions and resources.
The neo-colonial state –and most states across Africa are neo-colonial
state—continue to treat Africans as subjects.
The colonial states turned Africans into subjects and the neo-colonial African
states have perpetuated that colonial ideology.
Kwame Nkrumah Patrice Lumumba Steve Biko Nelson Mandela—all the heroes of the
pan-African liberation struggles—revolted and waged pitch campaigns of defiance
against this racist ideology.
They refused—and defiantly did so—to accept Africans as mere subjects and not
citizens. They refused to accept that we, as Africans, are children of a lesser
God.
Pan-Africanism Redefined
Thus, at the core of the pan-African liberation ideology is the radical belief
that every African is a citizen.
That we are children of a benevolent God just as any other race of this earth.
That, my friends, is our campaign in Uganda. That is our campaign of defiance.
The campaign that every woman and man and child in Africa is a citizen. That
every African—by birthright—is a citizen of our beloved continent. That we, as
citizens, determine how and who governs; that we control State institutions and
our national resources.
Masters, not Servants—My Act of Treason
Where there are citizens, the people are the masters and the state is the
servant. Where there are subjects, the state is the master and the people are
the servants. This distinction—between citizens and subjects—is at the heart of
our campaign in Uganda. We are simply seeking to democratize Uganda—to have
free and fair elections, and to have basic human rights, including the right to
free speech and assembly. That is the profound nature of our struggle.
That is the act of treason I have been charged with—that I dare, in the face of
corrupt power, to say that Africans are citizens.
That is my act of treason. And to that I plead guilty. It’s an honor to plead
guilty. And I carry that charge, as an African and as a human being, as a badge
of honor. In the face of oppression and injustice, one must bear witness. Today
in Uganda I am a witness. The second treason charge leveled against me is about
the outcome of the February 2016 presidential elections.
With almost no exception, all election observers declared that the elections
were deeply flawed and comprehensively rigged. For example, the Commonwealth
Observer Group, the European Union Election Observer Mission, and United States
Government declared as “deeply inconsistent with international standards and
expectations for any democratic process.”
The election returns received by my own party, the Forum for Democratic Change
(FDC), show that I won the elections convincingly.
But a thoroughly compromised National Electoral Commission (NEC) declared the
loser to be the winner. So I did something entirely radical.
I asked for an independent international audit of the elections.
I said let’s determine the winner of these disputed elections through an
impeachable empirical audit.
For that I was charged with treason.
I was charged with treason for questioning the outcome of the rigged elections
and for proposing that an objective audit should resolve the dispute.
Free and Fair Elections and the Rule of Law
You might ask, rightfully, what do free and fair elections got to do with the
rule of law?
The Rule of Law v. Rule by Law
You can have oppressive laws and you can have undemocratic laws. Nazi Germany
and apartheid South Africa illustrate why the phrase “the rule of law” can be
meaningless, even dangerous, without the constraints or the requirements of
justice.
The rule of law alone, in itself, is not sufficient in a democratic society.
The rule of law, to be beneficial and enlightened, must be undergirded by
justice. That is, the rule of law must be morally defensible. In modern terms,
it must be democratic; it must satisfy certain core requirements of an open and
democratic society.
The two—the rule of law and democracy—are inextricably linked. You cannot, in
an enlightened society, have the rule of law without democracy; and you cannot
have democracy without the rule of law.
Democracy and Citizenship
But what is democracy in the modern context? Simply defined, democracy is rule
by the people. It means that the people are the masters. It means that a
community of citizens and not a community of subjects.
It means, at its core, universal suffrage and the accountability of the
government to the electorate.
But the people cannot govern as a mob. Democracy is not an exercise in mob
rule. It must be structured through free and fair elections.
Free and Fair Elections
It means, therefore, that the will of the people must be expressed through
regularly scheduled free and fair elections.
So democracy means, in brief, rule by the electorate through universal suffrage
expressed through regularly scheduled free and fair elections. That is also the
definition of citizenship: the people as the electorates.
For elections are the instruments through which the people—not acting as a
mob—exercise their power and will.
Where there are no free and fair elections—the process by which the government
is held accountable—there can be no citizenship, and there can be no democracy.
In Uganda, we have not had genuinely free and fair elections since 1963.
Democracy and citizenship are inextricably linked. We can therefore redefine
and restate what democracy means.
It means government by citizens who exercise their rights of citizenship to
hold their government accountable through regularly scheduled free and fair
elections based on universal suffrage.
The Rule of Law Restated
Allow me, then, to redefine the rule of law as I understand it. As a civilian.
The rule of law must be based on rules made in a democratic society by citizens
who exercise their rights of citizenship through governments that are elected
through free and fair election based on universal suffrage.
That is the basic requirement and the foundation of the rule of law: free and
fair elections based on universal suffrage.
But our restatement is still incomplete. It is still not sufficient.
The modern rule of law must, at a minimum, have protections of minorities, and
must enshrine and respect the freedom of speech and assembly and the free
exercise of religious beliefs.
For without these freedoms—freedom of speech, of assembly, and religion—you
cannot have free and fair elections or a free society. Without these freedoms
you cannot have a government that is accountable to the electorate.
And there is one other requirement: that good laws must be impartially
enforced. In our case, we have on several occasions challenged presidential
election rigging. Unfortunately, the courts have failed to enforce the law so
that the candidate that rigs does not benefit from rigging.
Citizenship and the Rule of Law
We have defined citizenship as the right to hold the government accountable
through regularly scheduled free and fair elections based on universal suffrage.
And you cannot have free and fair elections without the basic freedoms that I
have just enumerated.
The rule of law, therefore, must be firmly based on the freedom of speech,
freedom of assembly, freedom of religion—the pillars and foundations of a free,
democratic society. They are also the foundations of citizenship.
Without citizenship you cannot have the rule of law—understood as laws based on
substantive justice.
These, then, are the theoretical and ideological foundations of our struggle in
Uganda and Africa: the rule of law as the quest for justice and democracy.
The rule of law as the product of citizenship, and as the product of free and
fair elections. The problem of democracy in Africa
As I have stated earlier, the problem of democracy in Africa is the problem of
elite politics divorced from the masses.
Effectively, in Africa, it often is the rule by minority—family, ethnic,
racial, religious, Or a criminal syndicate, that has monopoly of coercive
forces.
In Africa, the state has been the master, and the people have been the
servants. Instead of citizens, we have subjects. Instead of accountability of
government, we have a predatory and parasitic government.
We have had a society of subjects and not citizens. This is the colonial legacy
in Africa—a legacy our political elites have heartily embraced.
The people of Africa have, for the most part, remained supplicants to their
governments. The strong man owns the country. The resources of the country are
his own. “My army”;” my oil.”
Legitimacy and the Rule of Law
In a society of subjects, the concept of legitimacy is reversed. Instead of the
government being accountable to the people, it’s the people who are now
accountable to the government. It is no longer government of law but government
by law. More appropriately, government by fiat and dicta.
The government makes the law as it pleases. It holds the people accountable to
its edicts, however grievious, bizarre or oppressive or predatory. Even the
constitutions are merely indicative. In a non-democratic society, there is no
government of law.
For without citizenship, defined as participation in governance through free
and fair elections based on universal suffrage, undergirded by the freedom of
speech, assembly, and religion, there can be no rule of law.
Africa, Pan-Africanism, and the Rule of Law
The struggle in Africa is the struggle to reclaim citizenship and, therefore,
to develop and enshrine the rule of law.
The colonial powers saw Africans merely as subjects. The African elites have
continued that racist ideology of treating Africans as subjects and not
citizens.
Let there be no doubt that no one can credibly claim to be a pan-Africanist or
a defender of the African people who does not defend the right of every African
to citizenship. Please allow me to redefine pan-Africanism.
Pan-Africanism is an ideology which insists that every African is a citizen
with indefeasible rights, which must include the rights to free and free and
fair elections through universal suffrage, and the freedom of speech, assembly
and religion which make possible the rights to free and fair elections.
Let no African dictator claim, therefore, to be a Pan-Africanist.
Lessons from Uganda
Our struggle in Uganda has been singular. How to restore the citizenship of our
people. That is my only commitment in politics: to finish the struggle for the
African liberation. To allow every African to be a citizenship.
And freedom begins with reclaiming one’s citizenship.
Kwame Nkrumah was right: “seek ye first the political kingdom.”
I say, seek ye first to be a citizen before other blessings can be bestowed
upon you. Seek ye first to be free.
That is our campaign of defiance in Uganda—to complete the vision of Kwame
Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba and Steve Biko.
Just as during the struggle against colonialism and apartheid, we do not beg to
be free. You must walk for your freedom; you must march for freedom, and you
must fight, with every senew, for freedom if you are to be free.
Freedom is not given. Freedom is earned.
You go to jail for it, as did Mahatma Gandhi;
as did Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr;
as did Rosa Park;
as did Vaclav Havel;
as did Nelson Mandela;
as did Wangari Maathai;
as did Aung San Suu Kyi; among the great heroes of the universal struggle for
freedom.
Totalitarianism and Oppression Require Silence
Totalirarianism and oppression succeed by enforcing silence. ·
They want to silence the victims · They want to silence the people of
conscience · They want to silence the witnesses ·
They want no testimony or evidence against their evils
That is why totalitarian regimes and dictators rule by fear. They want to force
the victims to police his or her conscience and remain silence.
They oppose freedom of speech and freedom of assembly because they want silence.
They muffle the press and the voices of freedom because oppression can only
thrive where there is silence.
They jail their opponents because they want silence. So I refuse to be silent.
Because there is only one moral response to oppression and injustice: you must
stand up and bear witness.
The path to serfdom is paved by silence.
We must refuse to remain silent in the face of injustice and oppression.
§ Mahatma Gandhi refused to be silent
§ Kwame Nkrumah refused to be silent
§ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr refused to be silent
§ Jomo Kenyatta refused to be silent
§ Julius Nyerere refused to be silent
§ Jaramogi Oginga Odinga refused to be silent
§ Patrice Lumumba refused to be silent
§ Leopold Senghor refused to be silent
§ Steve Biko refused to be silent § Rosa Park refused to be silent
§ Vaclav Havel refused to be silent
§ Nelson Mandela refused to be silent
§ Elie Wiessel refused to be silent
§ Aung San Suu Kyi refused to be silent
Please stand up and bear witness. Please refuse to be silent in the face of
oppression. Refusing to silent is our campaign of defiance in Uganda.
DEFIANCE: This means that our people minds must be freed for them to take on
the new status of citizens; they must acquire organizational tools that allow
them to speak and act together in challenging domination; and lastly, they must
together deny the dictators their cooperation until they concede that people
are supreme.
Let me end by quoting a great African hero: “It’s the little things citizens
do. That’s what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees”
That was the late Professor Wangari Maathai.
Please do your little thing. In Uganda, I am doing my little thing by refusing
to be silent. And that is how we defend the rule of law and freedom and justice
and democracy.
Please do your little thing!
Thank you!
"In tribute to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Uganda, two bastions of
strength in a world filled with strife, discrimination and terrorism."
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