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OLD MAN’S CORNER
By F.D.R. Gureme |
Wake the House before it’s too late
Oct 7, 2003
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Last Tuesday we missed some Cabinet proposals intended to influence the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC). I undertook to cover today: the hollow offer of ‘federo’ to Buganda, the see-through lure of a “return to multiparty politics,” curtailing of Parliament’s powers, disempowerment of the Inspectorate of Government and the elimination of Uganda Human Rights Commission. Readers are aware that many writers expressed similar concern. I emboss David Kibirige’s bright analysis titled “Professors in a Circus in…Cabinet Proposals,” The Monitor, October 2. Kibirige wonders which intelligent people drafted these inane proposals. A cabinet comprising seven professors, four Ph.Ds, thirteen lawyers and a product of a British Army College: comparable to former president Idi Amin’s (RIP) initial team of ten university graduates, four lawyers, two university teachers one a professor, four permanent secretaries, two secretaries general, one former minister in Governor Andrew Cohen’s “dress rehearsal cabinet;” also being Uganda’s first Permanent Representative at the UN. The Inspector General of Police and Commissioner of Prisons respectively; plus a Sandhurst-trained Lieutenant Colonel. But Amin’s academically impressive cabinet comprised fewer than twenty persons; against President Yoweri Museveni’s approaching seventy. Yes, Amin sought no votes, and did not have to please regions, groups or communities. The sooner Cabinet (and Parliament itself) is reduced to say 30 persons, districts reduced to the original community-based sixteen, RDCs re-designated District Commissioners, taming their salaries accordingly, the better for Uganda. It is a strange mind that conceived the trimming of Parliament’s powers; subordinating it to the presidency: to appropriate powers mandated by the voters! Kibirige marvels at the sobriety of such an intellectually endowed executive: making preposterous proposals to a commission appointed by its chairman. Hitler’s War started in 1939 when I was is P.4 ending 1945 when I was in S.5. Until relatively recently I wondered how a nation arguably having the world’s scientific and intellectual cream, allowed itself to be led by an insane former sergeant; and doing his behest, pitting itself against a world, weary of war, but capable of marshalling to victory. Clearly, upcoming dictatorships may misuse democracy: soaring at critical points. Hitler hated elections. His critical point came when the Nazis burnt down the federal assembly hall, and blamed it on the communists whose deputies they threw out and imprisoned. Given a Bundestag majority, they passed the “Enabling Act,” empowering Hitler, now Chancellor, to do as he fancied. The top Movement leadership has a pathological fear of fair competition, which party leaders, themselves overstayers, should have discerned upon suspension of party activity in 1986; and especially the National Resistance Council’s self-extension of tenure in 1989, to the constitution-making process where candidature of aspiring MPs to the Constituent Assembly was encouraged. The critical point was insider Col. Kizza Besigye’s rival candidature; arousing perpetual panic, animosity, rancour, hostility…harassment and institutionalised violence. Actually, the “federo” being dangled under Buganda’s nose need not be linked to horse-trading among 56 synthetic districts. Federo’s blue print existed in 1963/4: when homogeneous communities (c.f. US example) were given “federal” character regardless of size. We may build from this, mutatis mutandis, not on non-homogeneous “regions.” Only mutual dialogue may peacefully restore multiparty politics, which National Political Commissar, Dr Crispus Kiyonga appears to have recognised. The hyped referendum, essentially unconstitutional, is an accursed roadblock to democracy. Let Parliament, albeit partisan predominated, resist and uproot despotism in the interests of posterity. And recognise that the Inspector General of Government, who, along with the Auditor General, who reports in retrospect, merits more rather than fewer powers to apprehend walking convicts. The contemplated cutback on the rights’ commission’s brief is an example of how the wealthy downplay the plight of the needy: an international outrage! The CRC must, in its conclusions, look not to a transient regime, but to history, democracy and posterity. Critics are not enemies. But I received hostile SMS suggesting I denigrated the president; with threats of me paying heavily through “our wrath,” and such silly threats. I despise cranks but as a responsible citizen, I took appropriate steps. Contact: 077 401173 |
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
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