President
Museveni’s Famous quotes
We are people in suits by day, but in
uniform at night. We fought a liberation war. Don’t play around with freedom
fighters, you can see Mugabe. Liberation armies are not like these mercenary
ones which earn salaries. We fought and we can still fight. Even if Morgan
Tsvangarai had won, do you think Mugabe would have accepted? Oh ho! You are
playing with fire! Museveni’s
2002 speech to his Parliament , The Monitor 15 march 2002
I will campaign against multipartyism. I
don't believe in multipartyism for Africa now or Uganda. For the next ten or fifteen
years. 1 don't believe in it. So I will campaign against multipartyism in Uganda in four
years time. And I am sure we shall defeat it. We shall not have multipartyism
here. They have got enough experiments in other African countries. So since
we're rich in multi-party experiments, let Uganda be (the place) where There
is no multipartyism. Then we compare [others who have it] with our
not-so-satisfactory no-party democracy.. http://www.monitor.co.ug/specialincludes/ugprsd/museveni/mus06075.php
These news
papers!!!!! I’m the elected leader of Uganda. I have the ultimate mandate
to run the affairs .Now , I will no
longer tolerate a newspaper which is like a vulture .When the people are crying
the vultures are happy. Any news paper which plays around with regional
security , I will not tolerate it , I will just simply close it , finished ,the
end , Gasiya (rubbish)….These news papers must stop or we shall stop them. If
they want to continue doing business in Uganda , they must stop interfering
with security matters of the region. KFM , Andrew Mwenda Live , 18th
April 2006, http://www.monitor.co.ug/specialincludes/mplsups/kfm/index.php
“This country is where it is
because of this uniform (military). It’s a uniform of honour and that’s why I
don’t put it off even when I’m an old man. Even when they are going to bury me,
they should bury me in my uniform,”
THE THIRD WORLD AS A MODEL FOR
THE NEW WORLD ORDER
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000156.htm
American Client states and the art of deception: Trying to Divert us from the Nebanda case using scare crows of Ebola and Political intimidation: Ebola suspected in Mubende district: Museveni summons NRM MPs to Kyankwanzi to frustrate a recall of MPs to debate the Nebanda saga
Museveni tells MPs: Army can take over
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Museveni-tells-MPs--Army-can-take-over/-/688334/1668782/-/15pey9/-/index.html
By Monitor Reporters
Posted Friday, January 18 2013 at 07:07
Posted Friday, January 18 2013 at 07:07
In Summary
Swords drawn. President tells legislators at a
retreat of the ruling NRM party that the military, of which he is the
Commander-in-Chief, is watching political developments in the country closely
and will not accept confusion in Parliament. President Museveni is reported to have warned the ruling party’s retreat in Kyankwanzi on Wednesday that if the “confusion” in Parliament persists, the military would not allow it.
The President’s reported warning came days after Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga also delivered a veiled fear of a military intervention if MPs continue undermining public confidence in Parliament.
It also comes at a time when the NRM leadership is reasserting its authority over members, some of whom have joined the crusade against corruption.
Dr Kiyonga warned the House rules committee last week that soldiers were watching Parliament.
“If the military feels the country is in the hands of wrong politicians, some officers might be forced to intervene in the name of refocusing the country’s future,” he said while not ruling out the possibility of a coup.
The minister was testifying before the committee investigating the chaotic break-down in decorum which forced Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to suspend debate on the oil Bill late last year.
Some of the sources at Kyankwanzi said Mr Museveni echoed his minister’s fears.
However, the Daily Monitor could not independently establish what the President meant by the army, which is represented in Parliament, not allowing the confusion to persist.
But caucus spokesperson Evelyn Anite accused the sources of “putting words in the President’s mouth”, saying the head of State only emphasised that action shall be taken against difficult party MPs.
Simmering tensions between the two arms of government mounted after MPs signed a petition to force a recall of the House to discuss the controversy sparked by the sudden death of Butaleja MP Cerinah Nebanda.
The petition drew the wrath of Mr Museveni.
Fearing a threat to the country’s democracy, critics yesterday reminded Mr Museveni and Dr Kiyonga that Uganda’s government was elected by the people.
Mr Haruna Kyeyune (Indep, Kyotera) and Ms Florence Namayanja (DP, Bukoto East) said the insinuation of a military takeover is intended to intimidate independent-minded legislators.
Ms Namayanja said the government wants to suppress the right to free speech which is guaranteed by the Constitution.
“The President needs to be reminded that we have rule of law, the Constitution which is clear on the separation of powers,” Mr Kyeyune said.
Mr Livingstone Okello-Okello (former MP Chua) suggested that the country is headed for military government.
But the President’s press secretary, Mr Tamale Mirundi, said “even if the President made the statement, why should the indiscipline in Parliament persist?”
He said those criticising the President are fighting a proxy war and do not understand NRM politics.
“The President fought for democracy, he is a strong believer of democracy and rule of law. One of his achievements is an independent Parliament and there is no need to capture this institution,” Mr Mirundi said.”
Ruling out the possibility of military coup because of House indiscipline, Mr Mirundi said “a jigger cannot force you to cut off your toes.”
Samuel Otada (Indep, Kibanda), Jack Sabiiti (FDC, Rukiga) and Abdul Katuntu (FDC, Bugweri), some of the senior members in the House, accused the President and Dr Kiyonga of blackmail.
Laid bare
“It is good news, the pretence is now over, none of these two gentlemen can claim to have democratic credentials. They do nobody a favour to have democratic institutions in place,” Mr Katuntu said.
Last week, a bush war comrade of the President, Maj. Gen.
Pecos Kutesa, was quoted in the Independent saying that the ongoing row between
Mr Museveni and Parliament shows the danger of
politics motivated by money.
Army Spokesman Col. Felix Kulaigye yesterday said: “The President is my Commander-in-Chief and the [Defence] minister is my superior. They have spoken for themselves. Once they have spoken, there is nothing for me to add, that will be indiscipline on my part.”
During the Budget deadlock in September last year, Mr Museveni told NRM MPs that re-allocating Shs15 billion from Defence to cater for the recruitment of health workers could result in the army overthrowing him.
Maj. Gen. Jim Muhwezi and other non-military MPs salute President
Museveni at the NRM retreat in Kyankwanzi. Photo by Fiswal Kasirye
Don’t tempt the army – Kiyonga
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Don-t-tempt-the-army---Kiyonga/-/688334/1669654/-/iich9k/-/index.html
By Charles M. Mpagi
Posted Sunday, January 20 2013 at 02:00
Posted Sunday, January 20 2013 at 02:00
Dr Kiyonga re-echoed the comments he recently made to the Parliament’s committee on rules and privileges and a day after President Museveni was quoted to have made similar comments at the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) caucus retreat at Kyankyanzi.
Dr Kiyonga, who first joined Parliament in 1980, told the Sunday Monitor in a wide-ranging interview that he had made the comments in Parliament not knowing that some of those in attendance worked for newspapers or that there were journalists but in confidence to colleague MPs and in the right forum of a committee of Parliament.
“I told my colleagues that, you know friends we are building democracy so that our country’s stability will not be challenged again in future, we have to give confidence to the population that democracy is good, that democracy will work for them, that we, the leaders are serious.”
“If, on the other hand, the population feels that there is no hope in the politicians, that in itself can generate a dynamic where the military could intervene in an attempt to refocus the country,” he said.
But he warned that “for us to go back to a military government will be very unfortunate and all of us should do everything possible (to avoid it). we must not generate a situation to give excuse to the military to take over power”.
Dr Kiyonga’s and the President’s comments come at a time when the country has been facing a fluid political situation with increasing dissent in the ruling party and back-to-back incidents, a mysterious death and arrests of prominent politicians that have put the army back into focus.
“We are working to consolidate democracy but we must also not create situations which can complicate the democracy and throw it over board. You must be careful that you can create a situation which justifies the overthrowing of democracy,” he said.
“The challenge to democracy is that politics of Uganda appears to be veering back to populism not principle-based,” Kiyonga said, “the danger is that the population could lose faith in democracy… will know that it is just mchezo,” Dr Kiyonga said.
When asked about whether this did not represent a contradiction of the UPDF as a professional and modern army, Dr Kiyonga said: “What we have built is first a revolutionary army; first forget about this issue of modern, but first revolutionary.”
“Revolutionary army means that they know the conditions of their people, they know that the country needs to be transformed, they know that the country can be overrun by foreign forces; they know that sovereignty can be lost.”
He said because of that the army continued to sacrifice living in grass-thatched huts and earning low pay even after 27 years of NRM rule.
Gen. Aronda Nyakairima. Photo by Maria Wamala
Aronda says army takeover possible
By CHARLES MWANGUHYA & RISDEL KASASIRA
Posted Thursday, January 24 2013 at 09:16
Posted Thursday, January 24 2013 at 09:16
In Summary
Threat? Days after the President and Defence
minister warned of possible military takeover in case of a political stalemate,
army commander says the warning is not far-fetched. The military leadership yesterday weighed in on the debate around the likelihood of the army staging a coup as has been suggested by President Museveni and his Minister of Defence, warning that “the message was deliberately sent out.”
Addressing a press conference to announce plans for this year’s Army Day, which falls on 6th February, the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, said the military would not allow “bad politics” take Uganda back into turmoil.
“We are going about our normal business. I can’t do more than what they said. The message was well taken for those to who it was intended. Stand warned. Stand advised. Should you not change course, other things will be brought into play. Let no one return to the past. We have seen enough, almost 25 years of turmoil.
Gen. Aronda was responding to a question raised by a journalist and when asked for clarification on the coup talk, he said, “the message was deliberately sent out and we leave it at that.”
More than a week ago, Defence minister, Dr Kiyonga, said that the army was watching and that there was a possibility that it could re-insert itself should the politicians in Parliament continue “not showing seriousness that they can solve the problems” facing the country.
He said that such an intervention would be carried out to “refocus the country’s future”.
Assertive Parliament
The comments came at a time when the regime is faced with an assertive Parliament which refuses to back down in the fight against widespread corruption, among other social ills.
Days later, President Museveni was also quoted as having told ruling party members of parliament in Kyankwanzi that if the “confusion” in Parliament persists, the military would not allow it.
Both comments have drawn swift condemnation from regime critics who say that the ground is being set for Mr Museveni to carry out a ‘palace coup’ and replace the current relative democratic order with an overt military government.
The President and Dr Kiyonga have also been asked by the same critics to remember that Uganda is a democracy with an elected government.
Others have pointed out that the military is already an intimate part of the country’s political landscape with serving army officers deployed in non-traditional roles, and 10 representatives sitting in the House as army MPs.
Professional army
Uganda’s present army evolved from a guerilla force (NRA) but is today applauded by Mr Museveni as a professional law-abiding force unlike past armies that were notorious for committing atrocities and overriding legitimate civilian authority.
The country has suffered a bloody history associated with military rule which the President usually refers to whenever he talks about what he calls the “peace and stability ushered in by the NRA/M”.
Yesterday, Gen. Aronda said the three-week civil military activities before February 6 will see UPDF repair 15 boreholes, renovate six health centres, construct two toilet and bathrooms, four classrooms and two bridges in West Nile region.
The Chief of UPDF medical services, Lt. Col. Dr Stephen Kusasira said starting Monday, the army will carry out public health interventions that include cleaning of general wards, immunisation, deworming, dental and maternal health services in the districts of Koboko, Nebbi, Arua, Yumbe, Zombo and others.
The Chief of Defence Forces said the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces was giving back to society as part of celebrating peace, development and security in the country.
HAUNTING TIRADE: Brig Henry Tumukunde's 2005 views landed him in dire trouble
What Tumukunde said in 2005
Friday, 18 January 2013 00:34
On April 30, 2005 Brig Henry Tumukunde appeared
on CBS radio’s Palamenti Yammwe, a Luganda talk-show, where he made some strong
statements against President Museveni’s leadership.
Medi: When did you join the
military?
Tumukunde: In March 1981, with many friends such as Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu. Some have died, like Lt. Col. Sserwanga Lwanga ... I have done a lot of training. I did a staff command course in Nigeria in 1992; the one many UPDF officers including lieutenant generals Salim Saleh, Elly Tumwine and David Tinyefuza are doing in Jinja. I did so many others that the wananchi will not understand.
Where did Gen Museveni train?
I don’t think President Museveni is so much a
military person in the sense of career. President Museveni is a revolutionary
fighter and strategist. He has never done any career programmes.
Exiled [Col Kizza] Besigye last Saturday said President Museveni should at least train with a local defence unit!
Ask the President himself … I don’t think it was
his [Museveni’s] plan to be in the military, just like was the case with many,
including myself. I never joined the army in search of a career. We simply
joined it for the revolution.
After the revolution everybody was assigned
military duties. What is going on now – when professionalism is so much
emphasized above our otherwise important political mission, is a political
move. It cannot be a matter to strengthen or make the army more professional.
Are you in the Movement or NRM Organisation?
… I want to retire from the army but they are not
releasing me, so I am still there. Our biggest mission when we were going to
the bush was political. In the army, we are just cushioning the revolution.
But, of course, I have enjoyed my stay in the army. I did quite a lot for the
army. For politics, I am not NRM-O. That one is very clear. No! No!
The rest, I have personal political views. As a
soldier, I wouldn’t like to go into details. But when I retire, I have applied
and I am pressing harder, I do not think I will join NRM. I will look for a
party that has brilliant ideas. There are new parties coming up. The old ones
still have internal problems; we shall watch and see how they sort them out ...
Where I see a lot of light is a party, although it has not captured public
attention, called People’s Alliance Party (PAP).
They say it is mine. It is not mine; but the most
important thing is that it has many good ideas. I have not retired from the
army, when I retire. I will show my political views. I would like the army to
retire me. If [UPC leader and ex-president Milton] Obote allowed Museveni to
stand and form Uganda Patriotic Movement (in 1980), why don’t they let us go?
It is not fair.
That army is another area of labour. When you are
offering labour, you must give it freely and when you choose not to offer the
labour, people must consider these as your views and they allow you to leave.
But you represent the Army in Parliament ...
Which makes me proud…
Are the views you express yours or those of the army - like your opposition to the lifting of presidential term limits?
I have not said that [on] lifting of term limits.
I will speak more about the amendment of the Constitution. Changing the Constitution
has a terrible history in Uganda.
Obote changed it and you saw the outcome. It started the chain for so many
problems in this country. When we came here, people worked so hard to restore
constitutionalism.
There was the Odoki Commission; there was the
Constituent Assembly (CA). We worked so hard. I was a member of the legal and
drafting committee, we had people like Justice George Kanyeihamba, Ben Wacha
...
We worked day and night to make sure that we
produce a good Constitution. Now within very few years, 60 percent of the
Constitution is about to be changed!
The changes proposed now were even proposed during the CA (1994). The people were still independent and they rejected then. There is nothing new they are bringing.
The changes proposed now were even proposed during the CA (1994). The people were still independent and they rejected then. There is nothing new they are bringing.
What I am raising doesn’t concern only the
president of Uganda,
but other leaders elsewhere. When you serve in a leadership position for 25
years, you must find reasons to justify your continued stay. You must look for
people who will defend you because you yourself have lost the energy to do so.
In the case of President Museveni, you know he has worked so hard. He puts in
18 hours. This time, 25 years, is a lot of time...
Remember the days
of Kamuzu Banda of Malawi.
There came a time when Kadzamira (Cecilia) and the brother Tembo (John) were
the ones ruling. [Kadzamira was Banda’s official hostess while Tembo was her
uncle).
Even myself, where I have worked, I feel tired
and when you get tired, other people come in. So in the next few days, you will
find that the one who was leading, is no longer in charge. Other people will be
ruling in his name. That is what I see with overstaying. I have given you the
example of Kadzamira and Tembo.
May be one point I should raise here is that the
leaders fear that when they are out of power, they will not be safe. This
depends mostly on what they have done while in power. You hear Obote fears to
come back. I think Ugandans must find a solution to this. First, to make sure
that a leader doesn’t fear what will happen to him when he is out of power. That
is very important.
There is no way you will not make mistakes when
you are in leadership. Secondly, there are privileges that you give leaders; 30
vehicles, slashing their compound and doing everything for him. When you come
and simply tell him to go on street, there is a bit of a problem. When a leader
is out of power, he should be sure of a living without depending on the support
of others. In UK,
they are made members of the House of Lords.
Thirdly, the vengeance. They ask me when I appear
on radio that since Museveni has harassed you what will you do to him. You must
kill vengeance. Politicians must not be vindictive, viciousness. It is very
bad.
People know that your relationship with Museveni soured but he used to be yours truly. What went wrong?
It is like saying that since your father liked
you so much, you should never have married or won more degrees than him. What I
want to assure Ugandans is that I will not carry out vengeance. I will not be
vindictive when I am wronged, and I have been wronged very very much.
But I will not carry that forward because when
you choose to go into public life, you don’t do that. Actually whoever behaves
like that is not fit to be voted into office; they will cause us problems.
Why are you not being promoted?
Promotions in the army should not be on
[someone’s] political whims or a favour from the big man. If a country is doing
it, it is a very big mistake ... In the army, ranks are based on
performance. The armies we would have liked to copy, apart from performance,
consider promotional exams. You are not promoted because it will please the big
man or the army commander. No! No! May be medals, but even those are given to
those with exemplary performance.
For me, brigadier is enough. I have no panic. I
don’t want to lobby that they give me this, those who want ranks can get them
even tomorrow. Maj. [Fidel] Castro [of Cuba] is still there. Don’t you
think he should already have promoted himself to a general?
He is still a major. It is us here who still have
pressures of being general. This is still a small army ... I don’t think a very
small army should be with 100 brigadiers, so many lieutenant generals. Those
who want to run the army in a professional way should apply the deep theories.
You do not promote to balance politics. It is not fair at all.
We are transiting to multiparty, how should the army behave?
The army should not have a side. Once the army
gets a side, then we would be repeating earlier mistakes. That puts the
soldiers themselves in danger. Many of Amin’s soldiers have suffered, they have
formed rebel groups but it has not worked. When their boss was overthrown, they
were separated from their families.
By the time some of them came back, their wives
had been married, their children dropped out of school. That is why; West Nile is volatile; it has a lot of people with no
chance to live a normal life. The mistakes they committed were passed onto
their children and they are suffering.
I wouldn’t want our army to be like that. That is
why I want to retire, for us we were politically motivated. Let us leave the
professionals to be in charge. Recently in Kenya, you saw how the army behaved
[during presidential elections in 2002 that the ruling party lost].
There was no fear of the army intervening. In Tanzania, the
army was asked to quit the CCM (ruling partly) and Parliament. Most important,
that ensures continuity. When there is a regime change, it saves us from
starting afresh, training soldiers.
Is Museveni the problem for Uganda or Movement?
I wouldn’t want to go personal. Ugandans, you
have the power to vote.
But there is rigging of elections?
That should not worry you … There will always be
electoral fraud but even if there is, you think in Kenya they did not attempt to rig?
But they changed government.
The problem with the movement is the use of state
resources. You thought that Obote was a dictator, yes but he allowed people to
argue their political views, practice their ideology and form parties. If
President Museveni didn’t form UPM which gave birth to NRM where would Uganda
be?
You said you are a prisoner?
Yes I’m [prisoner] of conscience is too bad. I am
in that situation. I would have been patient but the problem of having no
alternative ... You find that you must be like Besigye [exiled former
presidential candidate and UPDF officer].
When you want to stay in power that shouldn’t
stop others from ... What surprised me is that the big person [Museveni] got
soldiers I have worked with - some I am more senior to them – nabooza
(rehabilitated them), gave them promotions and retired them in honour.
It is surprising, the Baganda say ‘Gwowonya
eggere’ – the person you save - for me it is graver. Gwowonya eggere yalikusa!
I find it very very unfair. I was very hard-working. … I worked so hard but my
returns are in negative. It is something I find very unfair … I’m worried about
poverty. Leadership is like sickness. You prescribe for a particular drug, when
it fails, you make a fresh prescription. Our poverty prescriptions have failed.
I want Ugandans to vote out poverty.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1116712/-/c4jc0uz/-/index.html
The Monitor, Tuesday, March 1 2011
The Monitor, Tuesday, March 1 2011
You have been declared winner by the Electoral Commission and Your
Excellency is obviously jubilating. All the political parties that
participated in the electoral exercise have termed the exercise a sham
because of malpractices that have characterised the entire process
dominantly perpetrated by the NRM under your leadership.
Political parties, civil society organisations, including all
religious leaders and international partners, cautioned you well in
advance about the need for your government to create a level ground
for the 2011 general elections. I personally wrote to you about the
need to amend the relevant electoral laws well in time.
Your response was that “there was no need for any amendments except
the cleaning up of voters’ registers to prevent the opposition from
stealing votes”. Now your “cleaned up” voters’ register is one of the
major tools that the NRM and the Electoral Commission used to produce
the current electoral debacle in the country.
The result has created despair and disenchantment over elections in
the country for many Ugandans. This has produced a politically
explosive situation in the country which has even forced you deploy
mambas and other kinds of artillery at almost every sub-county in
Uganda ready to maw citizens who dare raise a finger expressing their
discontent.
As I chaired the Executive Committee of the People’s Progressive Party
last week discussing the way forward for the country and our party, I
recalled a meeting you chaired as Chairman of the Uganda Patriotic
Movement (UPM) at Kintu Musoke’s residence in 1980 discussing the way
forward for Uganda and UPM. This was after what we then termed sham
election results announced by the military commission following an
electoral exercise that had been characterised by vote falsification
by the UPC leadership in control at the time.
The UPM Executive Committee discussed two options that is, going back
to the people and build the UPM or going to the bush to take up arms
to fight the Obote regime. In anticipation of what would be the cost
in human life that had to be paid by Ugandans, the Executive Committee
resolved for the former option to which some of us stuck.
You stormed out of the meeting declaring that you had taken the armed
option. To date your decision is epitomised by a devastated Luweero
Triangle scattered with monuments of human skulls, and a devastated
northern region still wailing the massacre of more than one million
Ugandans with more unaccounted for.
As I write, other political parties are also discussing the way
forward for the country and their parties. Some of them have resolved
as a preliminary reaction to the rigged election results, to call upon
the disgruntled people of Uganda express their displeasure through a
peaceful demonstration. Your response has been “Anybody who dare goes
to the streets for demonstration will be killed” and your armed groups
are already deployed in positions ready to execute the order!
Your Excellency is so imbued with military prowess that you are
convinced that you will be able to preside over a police state you are
creating pitched on patronage, the might of the gun and the power of
money. The sustainability of such a state Mr. President is not borne
out by any example in recent history.
My concern Mr. President is what is next for our country. You are
convinced that the situation is very much under your control and that
every Ugandan will be cowered down because of the presence of the
military hardware and threats you keep dishing around. They remind me
of a similar scenario by the Obote regime as you went to the bush!
They were so sure of their invincibility.
You are so sure! Many Ugandans are convinced that the situation is
politically volatile and that it needs a statesman’s approach to avert
a chaos that can anytime turn bloody during or even worse, after our
lifetime you and I. Surely Mr. President, Uganda should never be
subjected to another spate of blood-letting and self destruction. We
need to create a political environment in which all seeds of hatred
and strife amongst the people of Uganda are never given opportunity to
germinate.
In Kenya and Zimbabwe, such seeds were allowed to sprout into
blood-letting and destruction of property. It was after extensive loss
of human life, destruction of property and the intervention by the
international community that Kibaki of Kenya and Mugabe of Zimbabwe
came to their senses and a formula was struck for each country which
have kept their countries in relative peace to date. But then the said
formulae would have been reached before hundreds of thousands died and
many communities displaced.
It is amazing the way you brag over what is going on in the Arab
countries such as Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. “None of those people
spent 13 years fighting to defend their country” you are quoted by the
media. To you the almost three weeks street battles in Cairo between
citizens and the armed forces without the latter opening live bullets
to the demonstrators was lack of your 13 years experience on the part
of former President Mubarak! No Mr.
President, I believe it was because much as he wanted and stuck to
power, the lives of Egyptians far outweighed his unbridled lurk for
power. This stance was fortified by the same consideration by the
leadership of the Egyptian armed forces. They did not shoot citizens
in the streets or in their houses like was the case with your armed
groups during the September riots in Nateete and Busega.
Mr. President, you have put the future of our youth and the country at
large in jeopardy. Because of extreme poverty in the country, the
youth are being lured into political thuggery perpetuated by your
leadership. Recently, you recruited hundreds of youth at almost every
sub-county in the country ostensibly for security during the
elections. Some of them executed their duties during the postponed
Kampala mayoral elections when they beat up innocent voters with
sticks embedded with nails. I am sure you watched the debacle on TV.
What will be the fate of their future with such training?
Mr. President I have a belief that the euphoria that currently engulfs
the NRM over the so called landslide victory contains seeds of self
destruction incubated within the subdued emotions of hate and revenge
in the hearts of many Ugandans. Some are only temporally gripped with
fear and others by the lure of money given the abject poverty in which
the bulk of the population is trapped. But sooner or later fissures
will develop along which those emotions may volcano out Rwandan style.
Mr. President this must not be allowed to happen. It is not your style
of the brutal might of the gun and torture that will prevent it but
through the power of the human heart of a leader as he feels for the
people he leads.
The way forward
Mr. President with due respect I appeal to you to try and develop a
new stance towards the opposition in Uganda. Start considering the
leaders of other political parties as colleagues and not as enemies
vying to snatch “your” power, your mutual deep rooted abhorrence
between Your Excellency and my younger brother Besigye not
withstanding! As my colleague Mao has been reported to have suggested,
you may wish to consider a transitional national unity administration
in which all the dominant political shades will participate.
This olive branch will bring about an environment which will engender
reconciliation and harmony. Should some parties rebuff the branch, the
door should be left open for any future change of mind as tempers calm
down.
Obviously, this will leave you at the helm until a fresh election
considered free and fair by all stakeholders is organised. Needless to
say under such election to be organised under a new Electoral
Commission as soon as practical, you would definitely have no fear of
losing, “after all the just ended elections gave you almost 70%”.
This will be a home grown solution not imposed by the international
partners after people of Uganda have once again murdered themselves
silly.
For God and My Country.
Bidandi-Ssali Jaberi
Chairman,PPP
