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Letter to A Kampala Friend
By Muniini K. Mulera In Toronto |
Museveni's Movt in the grip of fiction
Nov 24, 2003 - Monitor
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Dear Tingasiga: A predictable aftermath of September 11, 2001 was that the world's anti-democrats would take advantage of the US-led international war against terrorism to settle political scores with legitimate political opponents. Those who had home-grown terrorists did not even have to assign their political opponents to the ranks of Osama bin Ladin's worldwide network of Al Qaeda. For example, Ugandan rulers made good use of the wicked Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a despicable local terrorist outfit that has wrought death and suffering for well over a decade. With an eye fixed on winning favours from Washington D.C. and other Western capitals, President Yoweri Museveni and his courtiers promptly announced that they were ready to lead the African front against the scourge of terrorism. Keen students of Museveni and his regime knew right away that Kampala was less concerned about fighting international terrorism than they were about exploiting terrorism to criminalise serious political opposition. However, we thought that their focus would be on those with the skills and potential to organise an armed rebellion similar to that which had brought Museveni to power in 1986. We were therefore not surprised when the Museveni team announced that they had "found" evidence linking Dr Kizza Besigye with the LRA. Dr Besigye, it should be recalled, is the gentleman who almost brought Museveni's reign to an abrupt end when he mounted a very formidable run for the presidency in 2001. Most serious people laughed off the attempt to link Besigye to the LRA. It was one of those outlandish allegations that never caught on. Though the President and his people had good reason to worry about the agendas of exiled army officers, they had justifiable confidence that they could contain any armed rebellion. Indeed Lt. Gen. Museveni's forces seem to have stopped, or at least slowed down, the recent rebellion that was launched from the Congo Free State. What the Museveni team has felt less confident about is the appropriate response to the intellectual 'war' that has been waged through the mass media. The ranks of the President's once formidable cast of intellectual colleagues have grown very thin. Most of those who have stayed with him have remained silent. Those who have soldiered on have failed to advance convincing arguments in favour of keeping their man in power beyond 2006. So what do you do when you are bereft of ideas and sound arguments? You criminalise even your mildest critics whose only weapons have been a fidelity to the truth and the courage to state publicly what many others would rather whisper behind closed doors. To be sure, we did not think they would resort to outright libel and defamation. But that is exactly what they have done in recent weeks. Writing in the Sunday Vision of September 28, Mr Moses Byaruhanga, Presidential Assistant for Political Affairs, accused me, Muniini wa Mulera wa Misango na Mabindi ga Kangabo ka Byamarembo, of being a terrorist in cahoots with the LRA. The fabrication was picked up by Mr Ofwono Opondo, the ruling party's chief propagandist, during an appearance on Capital Gang on November 8. The Sunday Vision of the next day quoted Opondo as saying that I was aiding terrorism. For a moment I thought the two court jesters had succumbed to a sick sense of humour. To accuse me of terrorism was akin to accusing Museveni of drunk driving. Part of me would have preferred to treat these gentlemen's defamatory allegations with contemptuous silence. However, after very many readers from all over the world wrote to me to express their outrage at these false allegations, I handed the matter to my lawyers in Kampala. The legal process of seeking redress from Byaruhanga, Opondo and the New Vision newspaper has already begun. I categorically state here that I have never been, I am not and shall never be a member of any terrorist group. Furthermore, I am not part of any armed rebellion. What I plead guilty to is life membership in the community of intellectuals who fearlessly exercise their freedom of thought and _expression_. One feels sorry for Museveni if he depends for his decision-making from these types of assistants. The danger is that he may soon believe their fabrications, which may lead him to go after imaginary enemies while his real armed opponents, and even terrorists, steal from behind. Could this be the reason why the LRA rebellion has been so difficult to contain? When the law against terrorism was enacted by the Obote II regime, it was aimed at Museveni and the National Resistance Army (NRA), then known as bandits. Today, Museveni has expanded the law to include people living abroad in order to stop expatriate Ugandans from engaging in politics back home. Soon we may hear that Obote is a bandit wanted on charges of terrorism. There is an irony in all this. The day after Museveni leaves power, the same law may be used against him. By definition the armed rebellion Museveni waged against the established government of Uganda from 1981 to 1986 was a criminal offence to which the statute of limitations does not apply. Thus yesterday's liberators, who are today's prosecutors, may become tomorrow's defendants. Those who appropriate terrorism in their struggle against legitimate opposition and criticism exploit a despicable crime against humanity for political advantage. It is at once a sign of surrender in the battle of ideas, and a reflection of gross insensitivity to the pain and suffering of the direct victims. It distorts the concept of terrorism and discredits the legitimate struggle against real terrorism. It elevates terrorism to an undeserved status. Less analytical minds might be corrupted into thinking that terrorism is a form of legitimate political opposition, which it certainly is not. Perhaps we should not be surprised that people who have themselves used a combination of state-sponsored terrorism and election engineering to rig themselves back to power would turn round to frame perfectly innocent people whose only "crime" is that they do not share the ruling house's concept of democracy. We should also not be surprised that the post-NRM Museveni regime must vilify intellectuals while shying away from debating their ideas. Their only hope for winning the war of ideas is to continue duping the masses who lack access to information and basic analytical tools. It is no wonder that a regime whose mantra used to be the fight against backwardness, now glorifies peasantry and ignorance. It is a far cry from the days when the NRM was carried shoulder high by a formidable army of intellectuals in various professions who relished opportunities to engage in intellectual contests. A regime which was once rightly praised for its intellectual competence and its encouragement of open criticism must now resort to deception and defamation to respond to its critics. Surely, Uganda deserves to be led by people with a vision and a plan to transform the entire population into an educated working class. Uganda needs a leadership that uses logic and persuasion to win support, not force, fiction and political terrorism to fight its peaceful opponents and critics. A regime which must depend on lies to sell its message has long passed its expiry date. |
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
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