by Vincent Nuwagaba on Friday, May 6, 2011 at 8:23pm
I have always taken Andrew Mwenda to be a promoter of democracy and human rights. Indeed, Mwenda has won numerous awards because of promoting good governance, democracy, liberty, freedom and social. Until recently, Mwenda has been one of the longest critics of Museveni. Ironically, Mwenda is also one of the ardent admirers of Museveni to the extent that he can use all tools at his disposal – the pen and his tongue, to destroy whoever threatens Museveni’s hold onto power. This, in my view, explains why he has often argued that given power, Besigye would be worse than Museveni. Mwenda has interminably branded Besigye a violent man; in the current walk-to-work campaign, he has clearly stated that Besigye is a bully to Museveni; he has even criticised Besigye’s holding a hammer as a pointer that he is belligerent; he has compared Besigye to Idi Amin, among others.
While I disagree with Mwenda, I am guided by Voltaire who said, “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death, your right to say it”. Mwenda knows pretty well that Museveni has undermined state institutions but goes ahead to cast aspersions against Besigye for failing to appeal to those institutions well knowing that they cannot deliver justice. I find this paradoxical.
On his programme on Capital FM the Andrew Mwenda minute on 5th May, Mwenda said that the 2001 election was to be annulled but one Supreme Court judge weighed in the pros and cons of annulling the election and that they felt that even if they annulled the election, the violence, intimidation and all other malpractices would reoccur. We all know too well that Museveni has just recently revealed that the Inspector General of Police is a good NRM cadre. So the fusion of the state institutions and the NRM is apparent for everyone including the blind to see. So what institutions does Mwenda refer Besigye to? He argues that Besigye has often got justice from the judiciary and thus, he should have run to the courts of law if he felt the election was rigged but I find that a gimmick to discredit the man. I find it futile for anyone to think that anyone can have our judiciary overturn a presidential election. There are two precedents already and currently the most impartial court – the court of public opinion is the one Besigye, Mao, Otunnu and others have run to. We shall respect state institutions as long as they are not fused with the regime. Who doesn’t know that there is a dearth if not death of institutions in Uganda? Who doesn’t know what befell Inspector of Police Alphonse Mutabazi?
By the way, why does anyone limit this debate to Besigye? One of the leading iconic political leaders, Norbert Mao made a tougher statement than Besigye in calling the election, a sham exercise and is also participating in the W2W campaign.
While Mwenda is entitled to his opinion, I sense intellectual hypocrisy when he compares Dr Kizza Besigye with Amin. Mwenda should juxtapose Besigye with Museveni and give us cogent facts to prove that Besigye is like Amin and Museveni is an angel. Some of us have already benefited from Besigye’s struggle although he is not a president. Before scrapping of graduated tax, in my home Sub County, men used to sleep in lairs (used for ripening bananas before they are squeezed into juice) which in Runyankore are known as entabo; personally, I went to Makerere University on government sponsorship because of Besigye; cost-sharing in public institutions was abolished, and so forth. The civil society organisations under the umbrella of the NGO Forum traversed the country and came up with a Citizens’ Manifesto. The Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda (CCEDU) whose birth I witnessed run various campaigns telling people not to vote Wolokoso but issues. Indeed the president made numerous promises ranging from reducing fees in Makerere; creating jobs and his usual catchphrase “prosperity for all”. What is Museveni doing now? Total contempt of taxpayers and voters is all we see.
Ugandans are not president Museveni’s fathers and mothers that he should depend on their sweat without anything in return. It is only our parents who could give us all without anything in return. On our part, we expect services nothing less. I find the president’s intransigence quite abhorrent at a time when citizens including the 5million “who voted him” are suffering the brunt of high costs of living, lack of drugs in health centres, grand unemployment, and so forth. We have read about a man who undressed because he was asked for gloves in a public health centre! I have often heard Mwenda say that if Besigye was in a similar situation he wouldn’t have an answer and I find his reasoning wanting. One, Besigye doesn’t own the Walk to Work campaign – Ugandans do. Has he asked Mao to establish whether or not he has a solution? While addressing the press on 12th April, Norbert Mao asked the government to cut tax on fuel by only 400 shillings from each litre. But Museveni said, nobody should advise him how to run the country. Not only is this intransigence but utter arrogance. While the president obstinately refused to cut fuel taxes, I have read that police spends shillings 1.2billion of taxpayers’ money to quell protests!! The president is our servant and not our boss, and as a servant he must do what we hired him to do. Short of that, he has no business in leadership. I must say, we are citizens and not subjects. Thus, we feel bitter when an individual uses our money to dehumanize us.
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