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TUESDAY REFLECTIONS
With Kintu Nyago |
Cultural leaders should steer clear of politics
Feb 24, 2004
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I believe in the hard won right to culture which had been undermined by the 1967 Republican Constitution that had been imposed on the population after the 1966 �Battle of Mengo�. This right, now enshrined in Article 37 of our 1995 Constitution, in part reads that �Every person has a right �. to belong to, enjoy, practice, profess, maintain and promote any culture, cultural institution, language, tradition� religion in community with others�. My other view is that partisan politics should be left to the proletariat with our cultural institutions remaining firmly apolitical. They are required as pillars of stability. We can learn from the experiences of other enduring apolitical constitutional monarchies in Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Japan and closer to home from the Ashanti and Zulu kingdoms and the Northern Nigerian emirates respectively. I differ from Luwero�s Haji Abdu Naduli�s position, as reported in last week�s Bukedde Ku Sunday, advocating for the creation of political monarchies in contemporary Uganda. I, however, understand Naduli�s sentiments. The populist NRM mobiliser cut his political teeth in the Mengo led Kabaka Yekka (KY) party of the early 1960�s. But caution is required and we need to learn from history. For the re-introduction of political monarchies in Uganda would be a clear recipe for disaster. Debating the role of monarchies on Uganda�s political landscape dates back more than a century. It always emerges in periods of political transition. This occurred during the sectarian/religious wars of the 1880�s and in events leading to the signing of the 1900 Uganda and 1955 Namirembe Agreements respectively. This debate re-occurred at the Lancaster House talks that created our 1962 Independence Constitution and in the making of the Republican 1967 Constitution that banned monarchies altogether. This issue again emerged during the 1990�s Army Council and Constituent Assembly deliberations that re-instated our monarchies. This question has over the years troubled many eminent Ugandan minds. It formed the core of Bishop Joseph Kiwanuka�s Pastoral Letter in 1962 whose prophetic contents warned of the looming danger associated with the creation of political monarchies in Uganda. Similarly the Democratic Party�s visionary founder, Benedicto Kiwanuka walked out of the Lancaster House Constitutional Conference in protest over the UPC-KY�s insistence on the creation of partisan political monarchies. On the other hand extremist elements within the UPC during and after 1966, after falling out with KY, responded to this question by applying brute force. This in addition to unilaterally abrogating the very 1962 Constitution. All well meaning Ugandans need to avoid recreating similar circumstances and those that led to the traumatic and tragic ending of the political monarchies of Ethiopia, France, Czarist Russia and Cromwell�s England, amongst others. The near universal respect and prestige accorded to Uganda�s contemporary cultural leaders directly relates to their apolitical status that antagonises none of the major contending political organisations. Politicians and parties would like to benefit from this popularity, which explains why nearly all of them, even those that have historically been opposed to monarchism, now support these institutions and in Buganda�s case its demand for a form of federalism. Politics, however, is partisan in its nature and if our cultural institutions and leaders are allowed to turn political the dynamics are such that they will inevitably antagonise many contending political forces. As a way forward, the government of Uganda should conclusively implement its long held promise to facilitate the existence and set out activities of our designated cultural leaders. As is the case with the South African, Lesotho, European and Japanese constitutional monarchies. Such intervention should not undermine their autonomy and dignity and needs to be crafted in a manner that ensures that these institutions do not merely depend on the goodwill of the government of the day. The current NRM government, with its record of being responsive to the demands of the monarchist lobby, is well positioned to introduce this long awaited policy. I will end by mourning the 190 or so Ugandans murdered last Saturday by the notorious Lord�s Resistance Army rebels in Barlonya Camp, north of Lira. This culture of impunity must be stopped at all costs. |
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
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