UGANDA'S OPPOSITION
Last week, the serial Presidential Candidate, Dr. Abed
Bwanika gained notoriety for demanding that Buganda should only elect a person
from Buganda to be President; and not to support Dr. Besigye, a resident of
Buganda! Notwithstanding the fact that all the traditional Presidential
candidates are residents of Buganda. The sectarian (tribal) undertone there was
prominent. But that is the depth and
limit of Dr. Abed Bwanika’s politics!
We realized that Dr. Bwanika or his utterances do not add
any value to the opposition politics in Uganda. His assault on KB started off
by problematizing KB while at the UYD alumni re-union. But, this was just a
cacophony of an ongoing onslaught on KB, given his growing material threat to the
status quo.
I have heard Politicians justifying their unfortunate
alliance with the Go-Forward campaign that collapsed in its infancy in 2016.
One is on the account that Dr. Besigye is selfish, and that FDC aims to
invaginate their Parties like NRM did to DP since the 90s. However, the old
grand Parties in Uganda have been at serious cross roads on their own already.
These parties have adopted self-destructive modus operandi
of double dipping and selling off to the NRM. It is their way of preservation,
a trait that has cultivated public distrust and apathy towards Opposition. Party
leader are now hiring the same repressive state agencies and employing same
repressive laws to muzzle power in their own parties.
What is happening at the helm of UPC’s Party leadership with
the Party’s first lady serving in NRM and husband helplessly presiding over a
deeply divided and conflicted Party, attest to how these leaders are renting state
arms to keep them in place. It invalidates any of their claim that they are
legitimately vying to seek state power! In DP, their historical alliances, partnerships
and collaborations with NRM has been fuzzy, exploitative, opportunistic and so
forth. The impact is visible – we have good DPs who eat off the palms of the
tyrants, and multiple splinters. You never know where the loyalty of each lies.
It is a murky affair in there!
In fairness of all things, DP seems more nationalistic when disjointed.
In fact, we see the best of DP cadres when they work in splinter groups - the
Social Democratic Party, Suubi and a mainstream skeleton.
The splinter organizations are tolerable because of their narrow
focus. They do not claim to have a national interest. You hardly hear tribal,
or Buganda centric sentimentalism or religious overtones that are attributed to
the mainstream DP. The moment DP comes together, through any sort of union or
re-union, then the tribalism and religious sentimentalism emerges. And,
conveniently, Mr. Abed Bwanika was there, on that podium, at the re-union, to
remind us of this narrow agenda that DP embodies – a Muganda Catholic for President
or none! This mindset is retrogressive and opens old distrust towards Buganda,
unfairly.
The “intellectual” argument against KB is that he is the
only institution that Mr. Museveni has instituted successfully in Uganda, as
Opposition. As such, Museveni has a ready-made solution to defeat Dr. Besigye predictably
in any contest.
In rebuttal, problematising KB is an oxymoron, although
trendy, ala Andrew Mwenda. Importantly, KB is the most valuable tool in the
liberation tool box that Uganda has now. Museveni rigs elections because those
who criticize Besigye tend to hide instantly under their beds when the rigging
begins, and the sell their loyalty when the rigging is done to legitimize the
rigging.
Dr, Besigye as a phenomenon in opposition arose organically, through
a protracted and unwavering personal sacrifice, unlike the staged Bwanikas and
Ochegeres of this world. Characteristically, those who problematize KB, have credibility
and legitimacy issues up their sleeves.
END
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