POLITICAL STRATEGY
Last week Marxist scholars almost butchered me for
loosely using the word “class” in reference to elites. This week, I discuss “silence”
with much caution. The application of silence as exemplified by John Patrick
Amama Mbabazi (JPAM) is a strange concept in Uganda’s politics of patronage. An
evaluation whether deliberate use of silence has a place in Uganda’s politics may
be warranted. For now, the influence of oral tradition in the body politics of African
society discourages silence as a mode of communication as illustrated by JPAM’s
predicaments.
Silence in African justice system signifies implicit admission
of guilt. Most Africans I know like to plead out their cases with eloquence and
bravado. Ugandans in particular, are generally loud people. They like shouting
and dramatizing situations with vigor. A good example of a typical Ugandan
politician is Hon Ken Lukyamuzi who even goes far enough to speak in strange tongues,
when pressed for accountability. Quiet
people in our communities are always a subject of suspicion, often lowly regarded
as bereft of virtue, intelligence or ambitions. Only in Asia and western
society, is silence valorized as a trait.
The tranquil exemplified by JPAM during his Kangaroo trial
before the NRM machination illuminates both the potential and limits of silence
in African politics. The art of silence have been common among career philosophers,
innovators and monks – not politicians. In Uganda, if you cannot speak when
occasioned; make a no-show when anticipated; and contract when expected to
expand, then your credibility is often judged harshly.
The reorganization of the NRMO Party towards the end
of 2014 exposed an opportunity for analysts to critically examine the
effectiveness of silence in body politics of Uganda. In his silence, JPAM
stirred discomfort and made powerful men equally anxious, puzzled and enraged.
Many desired to attack and destroy, and yet found themselves in very awkward
position with no justifiable trigger to attack JPAM. In destabilizing the
chauvinists from their comfort, the strength of silence was uniquely
precipitated.
Leaving everyone tensed and speculative was probably
the only benefit of that silence as a strategy. In that silence, he softened
the zeal of evil and unmasked the faces of his nemeses. Even the President, on
many occasions did not know what to do with JPAM who had neither confessed, nor
denied espousing any ambitions to stand for President in 2016.
The silence worked for only a while but JPAM stretched
it to extremes. The backlash proved that one cannot sustain silence in politics
without a meticulous organizational structure like those operated by the
Illuminati and Mafias. The limit of silence was apparent as it militated
against JPAM’s own interests. In that silence, he disengaged with his core
supporters allowing the opportunistic youths to jump ship. There were people already
set for a political brouhaha to elicit change within the NRMO. The silence
disengaged them and they lost the confidence to act in the absence of a clear
messaging from their prospective leader. Certainly JPAM could not have thought
that his followers were telepathic or prophetic to somehow connect intuitively
with whatever was going through his mind.
If there are lessons learned, we now know that it
takes a revolutionary zeal to employ silence where the politics of patronage
reigns. In the short run, it saves you from annihilation, in the long run; it
effectively disengages the actor from his followers. JPAM is probably not the first
person to have attempted to use silence as a revolutionary tool in vain. But if
his agenda was to provoke the wrath of the regime to cause him harm to attract
sympathy from the populace, then his agenda fell flat. Principally, it would
take a lot, including skinning JPAM alive, for many Ugandans to feel a sense of
remorse for the man from Kinkizi West.
But yes, silence is detrimental to anyone’s ambitions.
Not only does it portray a lack of seriousness. It casts the silent politician unfavorably
as insensible, irresolute, and pusillanimous!
END
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