It use to be that fighting the British Imperalist in Uganda meant kidds subotaging the
local electic pole...you know shoot the light with a catapolt... Now subotaging
Yoweri NRm means selling the electric transformer in Kabale...or better yet "eating"
the man's money during the day ..while doing your thing at night.... there is
absolutely nothing wrong with the moves impliments by revolutionaries to achieve the
grand objective.. getting ridd of Kaguta!...if that means woking "within" ...so be it
MK
Come Out of Uganda's Political Closet
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The Monitor (Kampala)
OPINION
July 3, 2004
Posted to the web August 2, 2004
Anne Mugisha
Kampala
In the United States there is a slogan used for people who decide to stand up for
their rights in the face of intimidation, stigmatisation and rampant discrimination.
It is called "coming out of the closet".
Although the idiom is often associated with people identifying positively with their
sexuality it also connotes the idea of standing up for strongly held ideals in the
face of adversity. People who live with political repression find that it is safer and
many times inevitable to undermine dictators covertly "inside the closet".
In order to achieve their purpose politicians under a repressive regime may opt to
weaken the government by taking a supportive stance by day and then working overtime
at night to undo the political base of the same regime. Whether this is an effective
method of removing dictatorship is difficult to say especially since the overall
effect of this covert action can effectively confuse the public to the benefit of the
dictator.
Many political leaders who could have supported Dr Kizza Besigye in 2001 reasoned that
they would not leave the closet because it was tantamount to political suicide.
They were based in Movement constituencies and a fight against President Museveni
would amount to losing the next Parliamentary election. The fortune of becoming an MP
rested on the blessing of the incumbent. The President therefore had the power to
create a pliable Parliament which he hoped would cement his plans for life-presidency;
simply by campaigning for his preferred candidates after he was assured of another
term.
This was the argument behind our support for holding presidential and parliamentary
elections on the same day. The principle of individual merit not only disempowered
political groups; it also created leaders who were completely unaccountable to anyone
but the incumbent.
So in 2001 many leaders who clearly knew and resented Museveni's long term plans to
entrench himself in power felt too powerless to come out of their closets and oppose
him lest they lose their constituencies.
But times have changed and they call for politicians to quickly abandon their closets
and come out boldly to stand on the side where they belong. While the Movement system
called for chameleon like qualities to survive another day politically and try to curb
the excesses of the Movement "system" from within; the introduction of multi-party
politics instantly antiquates the need for manipulating your identity in order to fit
in.
This brings me to the rather confusing antics of senior politician Jaberi Bidandi
Ssali. Bidandi appears to be the embodiment of the art of surviving within a
monolithic and phony Movement system.
In all fairness to the man, it would appear that Bidandi's utterances and Haji Moses
Kigongo's rebuttals are a desperate effort by two senior politicians to try and
salvage a fitting legacy for a failing organisation.
They hope that the Movement might hold onto some claim to decency and that much
acclaimed status of bringing back peace and sanity to a Uganda that was in a deep
abyss of civil strife and economic doldrums.
Haji Moses Kigongo has toured the country trying to restore an image of tolerance and
respect for the opposition. Unfortunately he has to work around Maj. Kakooza Mutale
and his yellow bus gang as well as the irrepressible behaviour and disrespectful
tongues of Charles Rwomushana, Fox Odoi and Ofwono Opondo. And as Bidandi Ssali
lamented recently, the Movement is ruled by the 'boda-boda' squad and the young Turks.
The cynics believe that Bidandi is trying to destroy the NRM-O from within by refusing
to leave the organisation and remaining there long enough to deal the final blow from
its very epicentre.
As we all know the President wasted no time in firing Bidandi from his Cabinet on
account of his refusal to accept a straight forward fifth term campaign.
But Bidandi the master strategist bounced back by introducing a proviso to his
objection: He would consider a fifth term that was draped in a non-presidential type
of victory. If the party won under a multiparty election, the chairman of such a party
could become President.
So if Museveni was chairman of the party and he became President under this proposed
arrangement then Bidandi would have no problem with this back door manner of achieving
a fifth term.
Bidandi left political analysts shaking their heads in disbelief and prompted the
elderly Dani Nabudere to call him a "real spoke". But Bidandi being no one's fool
managed to clinch himself a senior position in the NRM-O while Kategaya and company
who had leapt out of the closet found themselves ejected from both the Cabinet and the
top echelons of the party.
The lesson I learned from the 2001 campaign is that it does nothing to strengthen the
opposition if you grumble from within the Movement. The electorate is not convinced by
those who grumble while clinging to the skirts of the Movement.
The dishonesty of saying one thing and doing another always manages to put politicians
in a twist which the electorate spots right away. The break up of the Movement's
political base with the emergence of Reform Agenda and Pafo has created an
unprecedented predicament for the regime where it faces adversaries that have a
thorough understanding of their tricks.
Former external security chief David Pulkol has already given us an insight of how the
"dirty tricks" desk operated a smear campaign against the Elect Kizza Besigye Task
Force in 2001.
It does not make sense under a multi-party system for Bidandi Ssali to suffer the
impertinence of his junior colleagues.
If he looks around him at the people he is now forced to call colleagues, he will
quickly realise that he is giving credence to a group that he clearly despises.
Relevant Links
East Africa
Uganda
If he truly wants to remain in the ranks of moderate reason then this is time for him
to exit the closet and come directly to the Coalition of the Willing where we
understand that the gangrene destroying the Movement has eaten the organisation too
deep and the best option is to join the preparations for its burial.
Ms Mugisha is Secretary International & Regional Affairs, Reform Agenda.
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