{UAH} Stop broadcasting seeds of disunity

Some Ugandans – thankfully a tiny group – are criticizing me for being an agent of disunity. Some have accused me of having a hidden agenda. They are advising me to focus on uniting the people of Uganda instead. The analysis of this tiny group shows that there are two major sub-groups: those who are doing well under present conditions and want to maintain the status quo. The second sub-group consists of Ugandans that are eager to change the NRM regime and form the next government. It wants to form alliances and therefore isn't willing to discuss differences especially controversial ones among the various groups.

Uganda has suffered tremendously since independence in large part because of the views of the latter sub-group. Onyango Odongo has demonstrated clearly how the policy of appeasement or refusal to discuss differences crippled UPC and KY relations from the very beginning and the coalition collapsed in 1964, two years after independence.

Onyango writes "Even Ganda leaders who were engrossed in pursuit of their sectarian interests could not [discuss] why Milton Obote had changed so suddenly from being an outspoken nationalist into being a very strong supporter of Buganda's [constitutional] proposals".

Regarding Obote, he consistently refused "to attack the views of the Baganda even when they appeared to constitute the greatest obstacles to the constitutional advance. The survival of the alliance in these circumstances was due more to a continued refusal to clash than to any fundamental unity of outlook between the two groups"(Onyango Odongo 1993).

This behavior of refusing to discuss differences and agree on a common platform upon which to build a sustainable national unity continues to be Uganda's Achilles Heel.

A beginning needs to be made to confront our differences, drawing on our past, with a view to finding a mutually acceptable model for lasting unity. To do this we need to put national interests before personal or sectarian ones. I believe this is the path we should all take.

Eric Kashambuzi

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