Teachers have been modest with their request

So, technically, in Uganda, improving the livelihood of public servants constitute subversion of development while bribing Parliament and funding their lavish lifestyles support national development. I think the teachers have been modest with their request for increment of their remuneration and I support their strike fully.

I heard the statements made by President Museveni while meeting Ugandan teachers in Jinja with awe and shock. I have written in these columns before, describing the deplorable state of affairs of teachers in Uganda. I think if there are Ugandan martyrs who are alive and their contribution to Uganda’s economy must be celebrated every year, then it is the public servants.

The teachers, the police, the prisons guard, the nurses and the bulk of other professionals who toil day in and day out to circumvent our society from collapse are our true heros. The arrogance with which the President has approached this humble request by teachers to have their remuneration increased must be addressed and made a national issue, not just teachers’ issue.

I am yet waiting to see how the Police force that lives in the most worrisome houses and conditions will respond, as well as the nurses and the prisons guards.

But, the teaching profession is a noble and costly one which requires commitment, time for research and various preparations. Teachers need time to grade papers; pay one-on-one attention to their students, conduct intra-murals; organize extra-curricular activities and on top of that attend to their impoverished families and relatives. Even with their meager pay that always comes late or in arrears, teachers have proven to be the most prudent, resilient and patient group of public servants for many years. They toil the soil for food, wear modest clothes and live humble peasantry lifestyles with little hullaballoo

There is no special assistance accorded them as a national policy, such as scholarship for their children to study at high school or higher institution of learning. They are supposed to pay like MPs and Ministers. There are no health benefits or insurance for them and members of their immediate families, no contingency funds for emergencies, no -nothing. Teachers are just there, fully detached from the mainstream society, laboring day in and out to educate the nation.

They are scorned in village paths for their poverty and yet they are expected to lead by example. Some wear torn shoes, some cannot afford decent clothing, some have jiggers and others are homeless – because they are poor and yet RDCs and government officials still harass them, humiliate them and arrest them for not “living as role models in society”.

This contradiction in our society is by all means, a great form of indifference that must not be tolerated. I fully support the National Union of teachers for their strike and scorn those teachers and public servants who have not joined in this noble cause of striking.

President Museveni for instance has advised that teachers form groups to benefit from SACCOS. That is not a bad idea, but it is untenable because once Saccos proceeds kick in, teachers will abundon teaching and schools for business, creating shortfall of teaching staffs nationwide. The efforts and time required for a teacher to uphold professional standards should not be split between private business and public service. This, we already witnessed when teaching standards drastically depreciated during the coaching regime and we cannot afford a return to such a situation.

I agree with every other Ugandan who has pointed out that the sky high administrative cost and the cost of sustaining the political status quo is the real source of subversion to national infrastructure development and delivery of social services.

The Billions that the Statehouse requisitions annually to facilitate such a lavish lifestyle for the President and his gazillion relatives and cahoots in statehouse; the huge public funding that is sunk in bogus legislation called NRM Parliament; and the funds that gets stolen between government agencies and people of connection are the real causes of subversion. How come the MPs don’t give up their remunerations so that they can benefit from Saccos?

The number one priority is to radically reduce the size of governance at every level to a small and manageable one. In every developed and seriously developing country, teachers and public servants are some of the most reasonably paid. There is no way a nation can develop when its core employees in public service are viewed as subversive for asking for the fundamental right to earn a well deserved living after toiling with much commitment.

The President must be told without a wink that he has lost touch with realities and it is high time he considered retirement.

END.

After all, in DP everyone seems to be a mole!!

The defection of DP’s former Spokesperson – “Emma” Emmanuel Lutukumoi to the ruling Party on the weekend of July 23^rd, 2011 coincided with the preparation for my birthday event. As such I was unable to follow Ugandan news as usual. Luckily, I’m hooked to many media outlets and social networks, so kind friends prompted me on my cell about the defection. Quickly, I took the liberty to contact Mr Lutukumoi himself to avert rumours and fortunately, we were able to share some interesting insights.

Defection by agents of political parties, whether during campaign, after or in upheavals, is not something new or strange to me because even Parties merge with rivals anyway. Luckily for me, I have had several conversations with Emmanuel beginning April and his grievances, notwithstanding, had informed me that he was up to something strange.

Understandably, so many people from the North and within DP have been deeply disappointed with this defection. It is one which comes at an irrelevant time and definitely at no political value to Emma and his friends, but one which annoys people who had trust in him under those shades, very deeply. I guess even the NRM was shocked at such a bizzare move!

Mr Lutukumoi is a consenting adult with liberty, as a rational being and given his constitutional rights to choose to associate with any political organization as he so wishes, we must show tolerance. For these, I will not slight him, nor feel any sadness but for the social capital and the goodwill of the people of Acholi and Gulu Munispality, he should have endured.

What truly interests me in this whole saga is discussing why potential Party leaders resort to defection to solve their political woes. And why rational Northerners are flocking to the NRM considering the indifference of the Party to this region.  What is even objectionable is that after defection, they embark on lambasting their mother Parties and their leaders  by wishing them back luck – which to me signifies that the oddity of defections are inspired largely by personal limitations and petty grudges as opposed to ideological differences.

There are people who disagree ideologically, or on strategies within their party, but would never defect. Instead, they would form their own Party.  What differentiate the two groups identified above is that our democracy has produced a generation of political lumpens inclined on personal aggrandizement and not public service.

In Uganda, people head to elections with these overarching hopes that they have to be elected for better livelihood. If they are not elected they remain poor and desolate because the process of procuring votes from electorates is costly one and yet if they failed, their natural ability to innovate is nominal. In Uganda, Parliament under the NRM regime is like a Kraal of angry beasts or "noble" savages with no conscience, purpose or obligation to the electorates (Horrible Members of Parliament).

This insensitivity is superimposed on the general polity that in itself, is inspired entirely by corruption. People want to be in positions of power with primary objectibe of feasting incessantly on tax payers. When they fail to procure votes successfully, they defect to the ruling Party to gain favours; small contracts; political clout; possible appointments and all the illicit spoils of the ruling regime.

Lutukumoi is not the first defector and will not be the last defector. In fact, chatting with Lutukumoi on Facebook not long ago, he informed me straight faced that his conscience is intact - clear! After all, he had felt like an outsider in DP; disenfranchised and despised by the Party machinery; distrusted and disrespected - he had no option but to dissociate. So his decision to defect was personal and not ideological after all!

However, the fact that Lutukumoi was able to emerge from the periphery to clinch an important position of DP spokesperson, signifies that he was a rising star who needed to use that to establish a strong national profile, for which he has reneged the opportunity.

 In DP, everyone distrusts everyone; everyone is afraid of everyone; just show me any one DP leader who has not been accused by fellow DPs of being a mole! And so what the heck, Emmanuel Lutukumoi!

END.

And hurrrr, Mo is born!!!

I am the flamboyant gentleman from Pajule, in Pader district found in Northern Uganda. This week, I bring you a short story about me because it is also the week that my birthday falls. So, naturally I have to send regards to my folks by recognizing them. I was born sometimes in the far past, on a steamy Sunday heat and in Gulu Hospital.  Gulu is a Municipality 332 kms North of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. For beginners, Kampala is found in Uganda, East Africa. July 23 of every year, I tend to gather my friends to do reflections of life and to revisit our goals for the future.

I am already on the third floor of my building in case you may suffer deceit by my baby face features.  Definitely am in the hours of late mornings of life approaching the noon. Life for me has been a struggle and at times, cumbersome ones but one that has also been spiced by trials and tribulations of varying magnitudes. I have endured many odds; being a child of civil servants and humble people who lived life not so close to the margins of life and yet moved from one duty/ assignments to the next around the country in order to eke a living for their children and at the same time fulfill their desires for public service.

Humbly raised by a father who served in the army and a mother of five who was an elementary school teacher. Dad was a gentle disciplinarian at home and mom was a ruthless educator who put every fibre of her being for our education. I learned from an early age that life can be humbling, but can also come in variety of harsh hues. Inner strength therefore was the element in each one of us that set us apart from another humble being that were my older siblings. It was taught to us early in life that a good person must liberate himself from the harshness of ordinariness. I found myself developing gentle character and ability to survive and thrive through some of the adversities and inconveniences of life out of that imperative.

Somewhere down the lane one would imagine how life can impress upon an individual such strong resentment and yet the will and power to thrive enables this individual to survive all odds. For me, the most trying moments were those that I endured in the warring zones of Northern Uganda. I was a victim of NRA Kadogos (child soldiers) brutality, way back in 1986, just as I was turning 8 years old.

Riddled with bullets and left to die, I defied death that stared at me impatiently in the eyes. That experience, such a close encounter with death, can never be equated with any other human experiences such as incarceration, starvation and slight acts of transgression. When you are faced with making choice for dear life, life itself becomes a subject, not pain or suffering or torture – but life!  That indescribable experience was for me the definitive moment that shaped my life; where I had to either succumb to the sequestering impulses of death that beckoned at me or defy. I chose the unimaginable, to live and defy death.

To the insane and highly indoctrinated Child soldiers who visited such atrocities on me, justice has eluded them yet.  I have never returned to this spot where I got shot at, but soon and very soon, I will brave the heat of the occasion and return to that memorable place.

That’s my humble snippet of life and perhaps, as I celebrate this birthday, it is an important occasion for me. It will also remind me of the sudden death of my brother, Eng Bongomin Bongos in 1997 at Gabarone Hospital in Botswana from internal bleeding in the brain as a result of stroke; My beloved sisters Suzan Akello-Acii who was murdered in cold blood in Rwanda at the peak of the genocide in 1994 for being a Ugandan and; Winifred Lawino who died out of the recklessness of attendant Physician overseeing her still birth in 1992.

Finally, I salute my departed Father, Lt Col Pangarasio Onek who passed on 30^th November 2000. You were a good man who understood professionalism. I continue to get inspired by your values. To My Mom and all my orphaned nieces and nephews who have won my love and affection. I am so proud of all your successes and steadfastness. Utmost salutation to my Mom and brother Tom not forgetting you – sweet likkle Melanie Justice P’Loreng’a!

END!

Museweri/NRM Cannot defeat corruption

Museveni cannot defeat corruption

This topic of corruption is probably a bitter pill to share since it lacks in form and shape and is invisible. Corruption is pervasive and very relative in that it is a vice, a tool and a product of our social systems. Corruption has become an efficient mode of production; it produces fake political system, middle class and economy boom. It is a tool used by immoral agencies to obtain their ends and sustain it. Corruption is now self producing since it governs all subtle forces that shape our society.

The paradoxes of this entity – corruption – are the common understanding that everything in Uganda happens by means of corruption and every product in the Ugandan market arrives there through corrupt means. This is the reason we have seemingly incompetent civil servants; loads of fake, dangerous and expired goods in our markets; selective or partial application of justice and a sick society that cannot adequately cater for its ailing masses.

Take for instance the ongoing saga involving the former Vice President, Bukenya. This is a man who postured himself as the shadow of the person of the President; he mimicked everything, from the swagger of the President, to his styles of speech, expressions, hand-eye movements to hairstyle. In essence, Bukenya was duplex of the person of Museveni.

During the CHOGM meetings, some decisions had to be made and those decisions involved lots of money that taxpayers would have to bear its burden in the future. A lot of these men; well educated and experienced in the matter of proper functioning of society, rule of law and bureaucratic mechanism through which governments should properly function misappropriated the funds.

Given the allures of the resources at hand to be distributed, their conscience naturally faulted because they are noble savages. Whatever happened therein remains sub judice and I cannot explicate it any further. My point of interest is that when the ink went dry on those forged receipts and influenced purchases, only VP Gilbert Bukenya, a.k.a Mahogany had a neck on the guillotine to fathom.

What remained strange was that while the VP faced the humiliation of being hunted down like a Yankee Bandit and getting incarcerated by the IGG, the powers that be looked the other side. Bukenya was all left alone to pay the price for expediency while the real power brokers and the thieves basked in glee with appointments, promotions and protection.

Had Bukenya not made a strong statement that he participated in allocating the CHOGM funds on behalf of, and as an executive member, his case would have been obvious.  Bukenya’s request for minutes of executive meeting was therefore very dangerous and a turning point. The case had come so close to expose all the mafias in government. Naturally, Museveni had to speak out to protect “his” lieutenants from public scrutiny. Like Wandira Kazibwe whose dams became too philosophical, Bukenya now becomes the sacrificial lamb on the alter to rinse the sins of the members of the dangerous power matrix.

So, we looked at how Museveni plays with power and how in that sway, corruption becomes embalmed into the fabrics of society as a political medium. It is justified by executive decree such that those who belong to the ruling political fold become impervious.

But the basis of legitimacy of the ruling system is rooted in the very vice of corruption - for Museveni’s regime is a product of it. One cannot therefore claim to fight the very machination, the process and material from which he or she is a product. This reminds me of JJ Rousseau who posited that humans, by nature are a kind of “noble savages” and that society and social contracts corrupts this nature.

Even then, the current state of corruption and rampant societal malfunction in Uganda defies what Locke projected of a nation-state being efficient tool of raising humanity out of deplorable states of existence. Indeed, the Ugandan state under Museveni has mutated into what Locke described as an abominable institution compared to the relatively benign unmodulated state of nature. I contend that Museveni has no capacity whatsoever to end corruption else he subverts his own government. Period!

END.