President Museveni killed the spirit of debate in Parliament

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES

The revelation by Deputy Speaker that MPs are not doing research and therefore not illustrating depth in their debate is not farfetched. In fact I was shocked that this observation even made its way into headline news in the very first place. Anyone who spares time to read the Hansaard would agree that the quality of debate in Parliament has deteriorated too much. Strangely there are some MPs who felt insulted by this glaring truth. In Uganda, truth has no place in society. To attract enmity and hatred at home and abroad, one just has to tell the truth or a semblance of it.

The genesis of the current problem of lack of depth characteristic of this Parliament goes back a couple of years ago. The danger of this problem is amplified by the surging numbers of NRM Parliamentarians in that House. This problem began with the President’s three step instruction that NRM MPs should enter into the house to sleep, wake up and vote. By these orders, President Museveni single handedly killed the spirit of debate in Parliament.

The President’s instructions simplified the job of MPs and rendered Parliament a lame duck branch of government. Anyone now aspires to become an MP, a position with very attractive remuneration, where the earner just sleeps and wakes up to vote. By far, this is the ideological purview of Parliamentary democracy in Uganda which has attracted peasants and scoundrels into it.

The NRM MPs who are the majority in Parliament live in a herded community like the cows at Kisozi Ranch. The tradition of NRM caucus in Parliament is to enforce abeyance to NRM lines as prescribed by its leader – President Museveni. The Chief Whip always is good at issuing directives and threats for MPs with independent minds to gag independent thinking. The plight of the so-called rebel MPs has illustrated clearly that being independent minded in a herded community can lead to a torturous experience.

The herding of members of Parliament deprives that institution of independence, discourages innovation and exploration of current research evidence to inform debates. In the end, the MPs represent the President and his vested interests which are mutually exclusive to those of the struggling electorates. Being an MP is not rocket science and does not require reasoning, research, reading or critical thinking because the formula is already set into three steps – slumber during debate, wake-up when debate is over and vote. Period!

The cumulative effect is that most of the legislative pieces made under the current Parliament are not pro-Ugandans, they are intended to entrench the life Presidency, albeit, at a very high cost. In addition, the use of bribes to sway voting patterns on contentious issues makes the Parliament stink from lack of credibility even to perform its basic oversights function. They bribed Parliament to remove term limits, offer medical treatment favors, loan baits, scholarships etc to soften hardliners and well informed legislators. The legislative arm of government is the most vulnerable in the mighty hands of the Executive.

The current environment in Parliament and the nature of elected representatives that occupy it makes it very hard for informed debate because no one is there to hold them accountable. I have agreed with analyses made by Andrew Mwenda and Timothy Kalyegira on the subject of shallowness and pettiness among the elite class. In explaining the inability of our elite community to produce and reproduce genuinely independent minded progressives, Mwenda diagnosed prevailing “mediocrity” and Kalyegira believes that “generational inferiority complex” is responsible.

In Uganda generally, reading is a disease which is treated more harshly than HIV and majority of the MPs do not know the content of most of their laws that are passed. As the Americans say, if you want to keep your money safe from a black person, keep it inside the book.

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Museveni created Gays, can eat their Votes too

ANTI - HOMOSEXUALITY

Had it not been for Rt Hon. Amama Mbabazi to threaten the President’s candidature for 2016, the signing into law of the anti-homosexuality Bill had given the president the stead one needed for a landslide. There was a unanimous consensus among Ugandans against homosexuality. Amama Mbabazi forced Kyankwanzi Resolution which diverted attention temporarily from homosexuals.

It is strange how the whole homophobia thing works so well in favor of President Museveni who created the environment for it to fester. The President pounced on homosexuals after realizing that the Speaker of Parliament, Hon Rebecca Kadaga was becoming too popular with her stand against the same.

The truth be said, the emergence of homosexuals in Ugandan society is not a new thing. Like we say, laws and policies emerge to deal with social deviations from mainstreams. There was already provision against homosexuality in colonial era Penal Code Act section 145, which post independence Uganda inherited. This implied that homosexuality existed, and especially in Buganda (Faupel, 1984.,p.9). According to Adrian Jjuko (2014) homosexuality was also acknowledged among the Iteso (Lawrance, 1957), the Bahima (Mushanga, 1973), the Banyoro (Needham 1973) and the Langi (Driberg 1923) but were suppressed.

The sporadic emergence of homosexuals in Uganda in the last decade is attributable to NRM’s liberal economic policies. The emphasis on foreign investment has given rise to tolerance for foreign cultures and practices. Some of these liberal cultures have permeated the social fabrics of our communities, thereby displacing indigenous traditions and cultures especially around public display of sex and sexuality.

The economy of Uganda now lies in the hands of foreigners; Indians, Europeans, Americans, Chinese and so forth. They own malls, hotels, salons, spas and all sorts of recreational activities. Instead of Uganda becoming an industrialized economy, it has become a feminized services provider industry. Most of the merchandise in Uganda are imported, albeit low quality goods from China, UK, USA and South Africa. These goods influence the mind and mediate western cultures’ dominance over ours.

The liberal media fraternity has witnessed a surge of explicit Tabloids, soap opera, reality shows, pornography and misogyny which have profound bearing on our sex cultures. The real problem with Ugandans is that they always like to copy western cultures; the way they talk, walk, wear, drive and have sex are all primed against western practices.

When it comes to sex and sexuality, now Ugandans sing Jamaican songs and want to dance near-naked like Jamaicans. While Caribbean cultures are explicit in their nudity and sexual expressions, most of them use drugs to achieve those when inebriated. Also, most of them expose their bodies to earn a living; in music videos, movies, brothels and so forth. So when Ugandan youths attempt to mimic some of these cultures, they simply alter our cultures in ways that make them appear paid to be gay!

What then emerges as a surge in homosexuality is all about tolerance and acceptance for it which enables some of these youths to discover their innate sexual orientations. Contrary to people who argue that homosexuality is socialized or superficial mannerism, I find that hard to believe. I have not found anyone who is willing to become gay even for money. But here is a bigger challenge; while we condemn homosexuals, we should examine the pattern of sex in Uganda today.

There are men who use their tongue to pleasure the women and likewise, women who perform blow jobs in the process of having sex. These practices are normalized and its status uplifted as the new normal thing. Everyone almost approves of this; Ministers, MPs, MPigs, musicians, pastors and just any man or woman you interact with on the daily basis, eats the human sexual organ - the very organs which produces them. Section 2(1)(a) of the anti-homosexual Act qualifies most of these Ugandans who eat sexual organs as homosexuals.

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