Amnesty for the corrupt is an infatuation with the devil

SALEH'S PROPOSAL

Reading the proposal by Gen. Salim Saleh that the corrupt should be offered amnesty should have left many as awed as I was. The core of Saleh’s proposal is that government should provide a channel through which people who have accumulated wealth illegally and by corrupted means, should declare the loot and get taxed. He proposes that government should emulate the success in ending insurgencies in the country through the instrument of amnesty. There are other interesting details about this proposal in the Saleh dossier, but let us look at its core recited above.

The proposal by Saleh, should not shock many people who knew Saleh of the 90s. Only those who had expected a changed in Saleh to a less greedy and mature Saleh in 2013 should be shocked. Saleh’s proposal therefore has roots in his own personal guilt as the pioneer of blatant corruption in Uganda. First, to assume that corruption is forgiveable and should be provided amnesty constitutes an infatuation with the devil itself. Second, it reveals how contemptible these people are to the misery of the Wanainchi that the corrupt deprive of basic social services such as medicine, drinking water, electricity and so forth.

But we also know that Saleh is not aware of  what constitute corruption because of his privileged access to state resources. One could say that this grandiose proposal is a personal statement or wishes to absolve himself from accounting for his expansive record of graft and corruption. I recall in the 90s when censor motions in Parliament targeted the corrupt, Saleh himself offered millions of shillings for anyone who could define this taboo – corruption. Since no one has come to claim that bait, we would surely assume that Saleh himself still does not understand that he is at the pinnacle, in fact a pioneer role model of the corrupted Uganda under this NRM regime.

A quick google search with key words “Salim Saleh AND/OR Corruption” generates more than ten pages on the subject with one click. When you begin to read each link, you begin to feel that the name Salim saleh is almost synonymous with corruption. One good reading is from the STAR of the World Bank and United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes website. STAR is Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative. The STAR recounts how Salim Saleh almost single handedly dismantled UCB while at Greenland Bank where he improperly engineered the takeover of 49% shares of UCB.

One would be damned not to recognize that Saleh himself partook in the primitive accumulation of wealth, breaking down legal and due processes to rob Ugandans of industrial complexes during the privatization process and swath of arable land in the country. There was no destruction of any major government asset in the 90s that never had the characteristic signature of Saleh’s hands on it. From UCB, NYTIL and so on…all were ravaged by the insatiable greed of one legend who is now asking government for a concession it cannot afford - to  give amnesty to the corrupt.

Corruption is a deviant act and criminal in nature. For professionals, corruption compromises on quality of services and deprives the masses of what is due. If the corrupt were offered amnesty, those hard core criminals who steal human organs or mediate human sacrifices would also demand for amnesty. Imagine serial killers like Arinaitwe of the 90s and serial rapists, drugs, arms and human traffickers asking for amnesty so that they could pay taxes on their loots! That would compel the country to degenerate into modern day Sodom and Gomorrah!

The lessons we learn from this particular proposal is that the NRM regime has its ideology dried up. However, what is satirical and quite disturbing is how lack of accountability is normalized. Uganda is where the new normal is what every sane society objected to in the past. The real bankers are the robbers, security agencies are the very agents of insecurity, the criminals are the heros, the hard working people are the villain in an economy where survival is only secured for the bushwar veterans like Saleh.

By no means shall a country develop and lay a firm foundation in this manner. Everywhere we go now, people appear to be obsessed with living fast and dubious lifestyles. The poor want to be rich by any means possible, irrespective of due process. In Uganda today, everyone is corrupt. Unfortunately, bribery has become normalized; elected leaders now procure the will of the masses to lead. If we buy into this self directed propendency of  Gen Salim Saleh, then we are damned as a nation.

END.