By Betty Nambooze Bakireke
June 9, 2004
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The Democratic Party (DP) is being haunted by the same problems it suffered in the past and the fact that they keep resurfacing means that the party learns nothing from its history. Recently, DP�s leadership still under the same chairmanship of Mzee Boniface Byanyima elected to retain its old executive, with Dr Paul Ssemogerere as the president general and Mr Francis Bwengye as the secretary general. The same way it was done in 1963 when the party chose to retain Mr Ben Kiwanuka as the president and Mr Basil Bataringaya as secretary general. In that year, the idea was to reconcile the two men. It did not work. Bataringaya finally crossed to the Uganda People�s Congress in 1964. Some party members had suggested that both Kiwanuka and Bataringaya be removed to give way to a neutral person. Today, some members think both Bwengye aand Ssemogerere should also be dropped. However like in 1963, the retentionists have won. When I was young there was a belief that whenever you would found yourself facing the same problems then there would be a Muhima woman sitting somewhere on a heap of herbs, smoking a tobacco pipe �bewitching you. When I grew up however, I found out that what I considered to be problems were in fact the result of my own mistakes. This is what most people in our political parties, especially in the DP have failed to appreciate. A look at DP�s history shows that the party has been making the same mistakes since its inception. Take the current misunderstandings between the party leadership and the party�s parliamentary caucus. This is exactly what happened in 1963 when Bataringaya revolted against the leadership of Kiwanuka. Like it is today, when the DP members were disturbed about the party�s continued failure to take state power in 1962, there was a sort of witch hunt when party members tried to find out who was responsible for their defeat by UPC and Kabaka Yekka. The question was how UPC�s Dr Milton Obote, a Lango convinced the Mengo establishment to ally with him against Kiwanuka, a Muganda. The committee, among other things, found that Kiwanuka was accused of being short sighted, stubborn and incorrigible. They recommended that Kiwanuka relinquish the party leadership. So, many people approached Kiwanuka requesting him to leave the party leadership but he refused. Others tried to convince Bataringaya to respect the party leader and stop challenging him but Bataringaya and colleagues, who were members of Parliament also refused. Kiwanuka had the support of DP members at the grassroot while Bataringaya had the support of fellow Parliamentarians. Eventually, Kiwanuka came out of these wrangles the winner at the expense of the party because the humiliated Parliamentarians failed to swallow their pride; they accused their colleagues of tribalism and discrimination. They also alleged that Kiwanuka was turning DP into a Ganda organisation. It was, thus no surprise that on December 31, 1964 Bataringaya and five others joined the UPC government. Before he deserted DP, Bataringaya in his document �The Role of Opposition� first advocated for a united front government thereby exposing his wish to be part of government. Bataringaya also argued that the Parliamentary group was the core of the party and should issue policy to the Party Central Executive. At one time he said: �We must substantially revolt against barrenness, absolutism and dogmatism. We must be the future for our world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.� The only difference today is that unlike 1962-1964, no DP member of Parliament has crossed to the Movement yet, but it cannot be far-fetched to say they may be heading in that direction. The rumour mills already have it that President Museveni might soon appoint some DP legislators as ministers. The root cause of the 1962-64 split was frustration, having failed to win the elections after being in power for only nine months. Wherever there is failure people spend a lot of time looking for scapegoats. The handling of the today�s Bataringayas would have been easier if the DP leadership was sensitive to the younger members. I can also safely say that the root cause of divisions in DP today is frustration and the failure to win state power. In Luganda we have a saying that �ogutaggwa gubolanya abataka� which loosely translated means that a matter which takes long to be resolved results into divisions among colleagues. In an organised political party therefore, members should be prepared for both victory and defeat. In 1980 Museveni prepared his supporters for defeat and war when he continuously talked about how he will fight the rigging group. For every loss there should be a person or group of persons who should shoulder the blame; people who say I have failed my party in this so I stand down. The person standing down does not necessarily have to be the cause of the trouble but at least this gives hope to supporters that next time we shall win as the source of our defeat is now out. That is human nature. |
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
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