{UAH} Patience will defeat Museveni schemes

WRITTEN BY JACK SABIITI

Two months ago, President Museveni signed the controversial public order bill into the Public Order Management Act (POMA), notwithstanding a historic popular clamour for more consultation to build consensus.

This piece of legislation is arguably one of the most contentious and controversial laws made in independent Uganda.

Although it was originated ostensibly to regulate the exercise of the freedom to assemble, associate and demonstrate together with others peacefully, the law, conspicuously lacking an interpretation section, in effect limits the enjoyment of those very liberties that are inherently granted, not just from a constitutional point of view, but from a divine order of creation.

Keeping law and order in Uganda is a duty of the Uganda Police Force and the Police Act, chapter 303, is a sufficient legal instrument for police to execute its constitutional mandate.

But because of the government's desperation to maximally contain an angry population stung by discrimination, poverty, disease and senseless death, the Police Act was thought lacking.

Yet the freedom to assemble and to associate is a core value that is demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

To the learned judges, it was incomprehensible that citizens seek permission from police in order to exercise their inalienable rights to associate and assemble moreover with no immediate legal redress if such permission was unreasonably withheld.

Why is Museveni's government so intent on curtailing, by draconian suppressive means, the freedom of Ugandans to assemble, associate and demonstrate?

To answer the foregoing question, one needs to consider the history/evolution of NRA/NRM as an organic philosophical creature, the presents realities obtaining on Uganda's political terrain and the thinking that drives the class holding political/military power in Uganda today.

NRA/NRM, founded in 1981 as an offshoot of a revolutionary force – Popular Resistance Army (PRA), was projected as a mass liberation movement formed to rid Uganda of colonial/neo-colonial mentality, ethnic and religion-based divisions and socio-economic backwardness.

Posturing as a mass organization, NRM endeared itself to the population through lies, propaganda, rhetoric and indoctrination during and after taking over state power in 1986. Fortunately or unfortunately, the frustrated population bought into the illusions and rendered all the goodwill at its disposal.

It cannot be denied that at its inception as a government, NRM, with its mantra of fundamental change, was very popular and highly regarded, perceived as a heroic organization of promise, nationally and internationally.

A saying goes that "you can lie or fool some people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

The 1989 arbitrary extension of NRM's executive rule for four more years, without an election under the guise of economic reconstruction, did not take many by surprise.  Unknown to some of us, a constitution-making process had already been sanctioned to begin in 1988, whose sole objective, as it turned out, was to further prolong Museveni's rule.

Hence when the new republican Constitution was promulgated in 1995, Museveni's eligibility to continue as president was never in question, legally. Under Article 105 (2) of the Constitution then, Museveni became the beneficiary of a presidential two-term limit, which he readily took, before orchestrating yet another fraudulent extension in 2005 when Article 105 (2)  was amended through bribery to provide for a limitless presidential term.

So while many, including Museveni's closest friends, took the 1989 and 1995 extensions as political adjustments made in good faith, the 2005 amendment, aimed at creating a life presidency, rattled even the stone-hearted and exposed Museveni the person.

By the time the 1995 Constitution was enacted, NRM was visibly an autocratic monolithic political system, with Museveni running the show. The character traits of the oligarchy called the Movement did not change thereafter, not even after the 2005 national referendum that ushered in the multiparty political dispensation. Museveni conforms to the Constitution only to the extent it serves his selfish interests.

We have had elections whose results are determined before polling yet the basis on which Museveni launched the bush war was electoral fraud. The evolution of the NRM, from a legitimate political organization to a dictatorship, has not been an event nor has it come without attrition. It has been a protracted process masterminded by Museveni himself through levels he conceived a longtime ago and managed through a lot of friction, hence the current discontent and public outcry.

The once popular force called NRM has since become a shadow of itself, haunted by its ugly past and relying on rumours and moot defections, especially from FDC, to instill confidence in its supporters. It has moved from scandal to scandal with headline mismanagement, corruption and abuse of authority the order of the day. Demonstrations such as the walk-to-work campaigns have at times snowballed into riots, throwing the government into panic and confusion.

The Executive, with its militarized police, has quite often been caught flat-footed, inhibited by the lack of crude legal commands to suppress dissent and therein lies the origin of the monster called POMA. This law is one of those desperate steps taken by a regime struggling to survive, after running out of lies, ideas and one that is now very afraid of the people it rules for failure to deliver even the basic of services.

No wonder, Museveni who took office in 1986 with a handful of escorts today moves in a snake-like convoy, complete with a toilet and which keeps growing the longer he stays put to achieve the vision. Museveni is afraid of Ugandans and completely at a loss, wondering whether those behind him are following or chasing him.

However smart the architects of apartheid in South Africa were, their legal but unjust system collapsed from the weight of people's will to determine their destiny.  My plea to Ugandans of goodwill therefore, is to be patient as Museveni and cohorts box themselves out of power with disgrace.

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*A positive mind is a courageous mind, without doubts and fears, using the experience and wisdom to give the best of him/herself.

 

 We must dare invent the future!
The only way of limiting the usurpation of power by
 individuals, the military or otherwise, is to put the people in charge  - Capt. Thomas. Sankara {RIP} '1949-1987

 *"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent

revolution inevitable"**…  *J.F Kennedy