Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba

Opposition should ignore Mao’s DP for a bit and start selling their policies to the voters

15 Aug 2010 3 Comments

by semuwemba in 2010-2011 elections, FDC, IPC

Dear Ugandans,

We have got less than 200 days away to 2011 elections but the Uganda opposition has failed to convince the voters that they have got a bigger alternative than fighting among themselves. DP-Mao and Bidandi Ssali’s party are fighting the IPC instead of NRM which has confused the voters so much. So I suggest that the IPC ignores Mao and Bidandi for a bit and start selling their policies to the voters. The opposition should, for instance, have a policy on Universal primary (UPE) and secondary education (USE) instead of just criticising it but I have not read any yet. The opposition should have an independent policy on ‘prosperity for all’ or ‘BONA BAGAGAWALE’ and ‘how to deal with terrorism’, but I have not read anything to that effect.What have the opposition got to say on the disputes between the Heritage Oil company and the Uganda government?

President Museveni, on the other hand, only goes back to Ugandans when he is looking for votes. When he introduced UPE or ‘Bona Basome’ in 2001 elections, it won him a lot of votes despite the fact that he was facing a formidable challenger in Dr.Besigye for the first time. In 2006, when he went back to the population, he told them that ‘I introduced UPE and all your kids are now having free education, what else do you want from me?’ The peasants replied: ‘Anti Muzeyi, when the kids finish primary school, they stop there and we cannot do anything about it’. So Museveni responded like a king: ‘O, you will then have USE if you vote for me’ and indeed some peasants did vote for him though that time Besigye fairly won it but was denied the presidency by the rigging machine.Actually, Universal Education is mainly funded by the World Bank but NRM always takes the credit.

Courtesy of John Nsubuga (member of UAH forum)

I don’t know what President Museveni is going to promise the voters in 2011 but he has always got something up his sleeve to give them. The July bombs in Kampala have already paralysed the 1PC and other opposition pressure groups as they are now finding it difficult to hold rallies and demonstrations in and around Kampala. The bombings have also helped the president to get USA and other donors to his side which is not good news for the opposition at all.

Nevertheless, some people have been unfair on FDC’s Dr. Besigye by saying that he has got a bad temper and that is why he is losing out to Museveni. Dr.Besigye has improved on the way he deals with the common man in Uganda. I read about him trying to crack jokes in his speeches while on his nation wide tours. He has been forced to dress in Muslim attires while on Muslim functions like Iddil or when he was attending Late Dr. Sulaiman Kiggundu’s prayers(‘DUHA’) at Kibuli mosque in 2008. He dresses in Buganda’s traditional ‘Kanzu’ while meeting Mengo leaders and the Kabaka -as we saw recently in Butambala during the celebration of Kabaka’s coronations. He dances ‘DOMBOLO’ on different wedding parties or other functions he is invited to in Uganda. He has generally learnt to do emotional labour (smile even he doesn’t want to) and dress in ‘BITENJE’ unlike in 2001 when he used to put on shirts all the time. The man is doing a lot of things to connect with ordinary Ugandans and we should give him credit for that.

Some in DP keep comparing Dr.Besigye to Mr.Mao which I find odd because these are two different people. Yes, Mr. Mao is a likeable person, I hear, but I don’t think that he is gonna worry Museveni at all because he(Mao) is a secessionist, presidential newcomer and novice, and a political beggar. The main effect I see on Mao’s candidacy is that it may help DP to divide the opposition votes in northern Uganda and Buganda which in turn will help president Museveni to win more votes in northern Uganda and Buganda.

The truth is that most Ugandans still believe that the only person who can take over from Museveni must be a military man like him, and I think even president Museveni agrees with them. That’s why the president had to write a full letter in Sunday Vision in May 2009 responding to Besigye’s allegations that he never fired a single bullet throughout the NRA struggle. I read president Museveni’s letter with a heavy heart and I was amazed that the president could make time to respond to such a pity issue till when I tickled my brain to look outside the box. What I found out was that the military is still running the show in Uganda and it is embedded in everything the state is doing at the moment. You ignore the military at your own peril.

The opposition should look at DP Mao in the same spectrum as the Nelson Ocheger’s party in 2001 elections. The Nelson Ocheger’s party were one of those parties created to distract the ‘real’ parties. In Venezuela, Likewise, Chavez melded together an amorphous array of parties to support him during the presidential elections. Chavez unlike Museveni, he never banned political parties in the first place. When elections are held with a multitude of ‘fake’ political parties, you end up with an ‘elected’ dictatorship , much like 2001 and 2006 Uganda elections, where elections kept on sending Museveni Yoweri into office.

That said, the opposition (particularly IPC, and Suubi) just need to organise themselves and sell their policies to the Uganda electorate after all they have got some form of legislations protecting them at the moment. At the end of the day, even an opposition working in an environment where freedom of speech is zero can make a formidable challenge to the government. For instance, Boris Yeltsin abolished freedom of the press, crushed an elected parliament with armed force, outlawed opposition parties, suspended the constitutional court, and ruled by decree but where his legacy in Russia is.   Another one is Hitler of Germany- Hitler and his party members set about grabbing as much dictatorial power for himself as possible. The final act was the passage of a “law” making him dictator just after the death of Hindenburg. He outlawed opposition parties, intimidated dissent with the “wild concentration camps,” and assumed control of almost everything but ultimately Hitler had to go. Nevertheless, the fact is that most Germans did not support democracy, and Hitler managed to use emergency powers in a manner not intended by the constitution in order to eliminate the major opposition parties.  The point is that everything has got an end.

Byebyo ebyange

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba