Ssemujju Nganda: Protests bearing the desired fruits

Columnist
Written by Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda
Observer Thursday, 26 May 2011 20:16

One of the things Mr Museveni detests the most is putting him on tenterhooks (bunkenke) all the time.

Like many Ugandans, Museveni treats leadership as a contest that is decided by a single event like elections. Probably that is why he bribes Ugandans to vote for him and unleashes brutality on them when things are not going his way. Museveni has always been helped to hold onto this view by the failure of the opposition to sustain pressure on his administration beyond an election calendar.

After the elections, Museveni has in the past been afforded the luxury of ruling without disturbance. The period after election for him is time to reward loyalists. I am profoundly happy this is changing. If there is one single value the walk-to-work campaign has added to our body politic, it is the rebirth of accountability.

The time after election is now not for rewarding supporters but serving the country. That is what Chicago media scholar David Mervin emphasized in Mass Media in Modern Democracy (1996). Mervin argued that democracy cannot settle for a passive citizenry that merely chooses leaders and then forgets entirely about politics. Such a citizenry would not know what it wanted its public officials to do.

Forget how Museveni got re-elected. He must deliver and had better stop looking at the next five years as a harvest season. In fact for me, when I joined politics, I assigned myself two duties. The first, and I think most importantly, was to contribute to building civic competence. Ugandans ought to know that Museveni, or any leader for that matter, is doing us no favour.

In fact, leaders are paid to serve the citizens. I will very soon begin picking a salary from Parliament. This salary is not a gift or reward for winning elections but a facilitation to enable me represent the people of Kyadondo East. I must remain accountable to them at all times.

Therefore, the facilities we attach to the office of the President are not gifts or rewards for winning/rigging elections but rather for enabling the holder perform specific duties. The second reason I joined politics was to fill the vacuum created by the departure of decent people from politics and also to increase on the numbers joining it, especially in Buganda.

The reason there is less output from Parliament and local councils is because standards have been progressively and deliberately lowered by, mainly again, Museveni. You remember his infamous saying that he doesn’t mind as long as one wakes up from slumber to vote for NRM in Parliament?

His cabinet is like a market; anyone can enter it. Even Idi Amin, the semi-illiterate, had a better cabinet than Museveni. Since even the private sector will not flourish in a chaotic political environment, we better sort out politics first and then retreat to our private firms and businesses.

I get the feeling that Ugandans are now more aware of their rights than ever before. But a colleague asks me to differentiate between hatred of a regime and awareness. That people who pour onto the streets today to protest rising commodity prices and government failure to ameliorate the situation, do so out of hatred more than awareness.

But for me, whatever the motivation, I am happy people can protest even for no reason. In fact, if the government is so shaky that it is collapsing under the weight of the walk-to-work campaign, it better happen quickly rather than them looting what is left of our treasury in the next five years.

Our contract with Museveni is not to be president for the next five years but to serve us during this period. If he fails, he has no business completing the five years, as Uganda is not his private mailo land. Resorting to deployment of the military and police makes Museveni look a coward.

I have never doubted that Museveni is an intelligent man surrounded by some intelligent advisors. He better put his intelligence to use to reduce on the number of funerals and those crippled or forced into hospital beds resulting from police shooting at citizens.

Mr President, you better get ready for more protests; Uganda has changed. We will now hold you accountable. You chose to kill Parliament; now be ready to account to Kisekka market, Kireka or Kaleerwe.

The author is Kyadondo East MP.