Peasantry politics and the crisis of allegiance

PEASANTRY POLITICS

Recently Hon. Ojara Martin Mapenduzi dominated the national news headlines over his decision to cooperate with the National Resistance Movement (NRM) - the hegemonic ruling party. Martin was elected to represent Bardege-Layibi Constituency as an independent, having quit his membership in FDC. Martin's decision to quit FDC also caused a brouhaha, albeit, a tremor compared to this one.

This article is not about justifying the fact that Martin's move seems to have irritated a number of people. In Uganda, there still exist people who believe in allegiance to cause and frown upon flip-flops. I find the public response to Martin's shift of allegiance to be rather strange. A trend to hemorrhage opposition from Northern Uganda into NRM was long established.

The late Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanyah (RIP) started the trend in Acholi. He once went to bed wearing a red pajama (UPC) and woke up the next day in a yellow one. People reacted with mixed emotions and they eventually settled for the status quo. At his death, Jacob was the most senior government official from the region, a position he would never have obtained had he remained in UPC.  His meteoric rise thereafter to become a speaker and northern Uganda NRM vice-chair got cemented.

A few days after Jacob's death, Hon. Norbert Mao jumped into the yellow bus.  Mao even dragged the residual DP membership he had in his hand to the signing of this same MoU as Martin - to cooperate with the NRM. Mao was appointed a minister and assigned the task of babysitting a Muhoozi project and chasing a whirlwind of political transition that will never become. That Martin has followed suit is not a novelty because many others are on the way. I am hearing a cacophony that his Gulu East counterpart - Fr Onen may have been harnessed and initiated already into the yellow fold.

Uganda is undergoing rapid socio-political changes where those in power have really concentrated power and wealth in their hands. Being a large peasantry economy, as designed by the British, Uganda actually has very little room for a meaningful opposition contribution.

The relationship between the state and the people has remained between masters and subjects. The British, in constructing the colonial state, excluded indigenous Ugandans from the colonial state spheres.  The colonial state considered the white settlers or farmers as citizens and Africans as subjects.

In that sense, citizenship rights were denied to the indigenous population. We have seen comparative studies of colonial social policies and found similar patterns of deprivation, distancing, canceling, and segregation. The Ugandan state under Museveni has retained most of these qualities that privilege foreigners over us.

Ugandan opposition is treated as state enemies - mistreated, disrespected, cajoled, kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. The same way the colonial state responded to African nationalist insurrections or liberation struggles.

Often, the contribution from the opposition is never taken seriously, with the current speaker of Parliament showing even more intolerance and greatest contempt for the opposition with their contribution. You recall their mob mistreatment of Hon. Zaake and the contemptuous dismissal of Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi 's committee reports on abuses of public office. Recently, I read with much amusement how the visit by the Leader of the Opposition to government hospitals riled the Prime Minister. There is filth everywhere in public service, most of which results from the government's dereliction of duty, negligence, incompetence, corruption, and contempt for the peasantry population.

On the side of the opposition, their response to state intolerance is terse. They have to keep a stronghold on their numbers in Parliament where they are severely outnumbered. I have seen the opposition often responding bitterly and at times applying uncharitable phrases to dismiss the impact of losing a member.

The truth is, the NRM government no longer has viable ideas or credible persons to develop the country alongside these fishermen's mentalities. Museveni has retired in power while the entire government operates on the principle of appeasement to stay put as placeholders. Martin is an intelligent person whose true potential would never materialize in the opposition. His commanding knowledge and experience of local government should have afforded him a full ministerial docket.

End.