{UAH} AP Interview: Uganda's president says he's the one bullied
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AP Interview: Uganda's president says he's the one bullied
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — There is so much freedom in Uganda that it's nearly anarchy, the country's president joked, stepping carefully around what's an open secret back home: Yoweri Museveni will run for yet another term next year, and surely he will win.
Museveni, casual in an untucked dress shirt during an interview in a Waldorf Astoria hotel suite, gave The Associated Press his version of power and succession on the sidelines of his appearance at a high-level U.N. meeting, where he scolded the United States and the other permanent members of the Security Council on their approaches to Africa's problems.
Later Tuesday, with his role on display as the leader of a regional power and one of Africa's most militarized countries, he met with White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice to discuss the conflicts in South Sudan and the Darfur region of Sudan, the White House announced.
Dismissing accusations from critics that his rule over three decades has become more and more authoritarian, far from the days when former President Bill Clinton praised him as one of a "new breed" of reform-minded African leaders, Museveni told the AP, "If anybody has been bullied, it is me."
And as he prepares to turn 71 in September, Museveni appeared little concerned about a possible legal challenge to another presidential term by those who argue he will be too old to be in charge. A new term would take him over Uganda's 75-year-old presidential age limit.
But even as regional neighbor Burundi is shaken by deadly protests over the not-unusual African scenario of a president who wants to run again, Museveni said he will let Uganda's courts decide.
More than 30 floors above midtown Manhattan, his conversation was only faintly marked by the sound of sirens. Museveni was comfortable, saying that the future of the presidency depends on what the ruling party wants.
"The party," as Museveni put it, because there are few other political parties with any power in Uganda, and those have been allowed only in recent years. Until then, he argued that poor African countries could not afford political rivalries. "That chaotic way of managing politics is not our ideal," he said Tuesday. Internal party chaos is no better: He fired his prime minister last year.
Instead, the already emerging 2016 campaign looks like this: Huge posters in the capital, Kampala, declare him the ruling party's sole candidate.
And at party events, loyalist members are known to kneel before Museveni and beg him to run again, saying he is the best they ever had.
Perhaps he cannot disappoint them. He made it clear Tuesday, whoever the party chooses will win: "Yes. Yes. Absolutely."
When told, "Well, they want you," Museveni replied, "Well, if they want, then we shall see that when we get there."
There are conditions under which he might decline to run, he said, but they are not for the press to know. "Stop politicking and get to work," he tweeted earlier this year.
"To an American, what you need to understand is Museveni's been in power while America's had six presidents," said Nicholas Opiyo, a prominent Ugandan lawyer and watchdog. The only thing that would allow a peaceful transition is if Museveni is not allowed to run because of the age limit, he said, "or if, by an act of God, he drops very sick."
Here is a sketch of Museveni's and Uganda's rise: Independence in 1962 from the British, the ousting of a repressive regime in 1986, presidency since then, wrestling with vast problems of the economy and the AIDS crisis, efforts for which he was praised.
There has never been a peaceful transfer of power in all that time. Museveni gave no details Tuesday on what such a transition might look like in his country of 36 million people.
"It's all provided for in the constitution," he said. And does he want the presidency to pass one day to his son, who leads Uganda's special forces and who observers say is likely being groomed as the future leader? "Oh no, it is not what I like, it is what my party wants and what the country needs," Museveni said.
His reputation has been damaged by accusations of corruption, human rights abuses, and electoral fraud. Some observers worry he has become the kind of dictator he once threw aside. Uganda's problem, he once said in 1986 when he became president, "is not the people, but leaders who want to overstay in power."
Nearly 30 years after becoming president, the former Marxist rebel still speaks in terms of liberation on one hand, control on the other. Uganda, and Africa, must be transformed. Uganda must shift from a third-world country to a middle-class one. Africa's markets must be integrated. Prosperity is key.
"Some will be achieved while I'm in heaven, but I will play my role," he said.
Western powers, he has said, must stop their imperialist policies on the continent. And if the Security Council had listened to Africa before authorizing military action in Libya a few years ago, he said in his U.N. speech Monday, that country's current chaos and the deadly journeys of migrants on the Mediterranean could have been avoided.
"African solutions for African problems," he said in his speech. Rwanda's neighbors could have stopped that country's genocide two decades ago, he declared. But critics have called him reckless; he has backed rebels fighting governments in what is now Congo, Rwanda, Central African Republic and Somalia. Museveni has said he was helping fight corrupt regimes.
Closer to home, he was asked about Uganda's recent notoriety over an attempt at harsh anti-gay legislation, which a court invalidated last year. Some fear that another attempt might be made with an election coming. But Museveni, who signed the bill but correctly warned about its effect on economic ties with the West, said, "It's really not a priority for us."
In any case, Uganda doesn't penalize gay people, he said. "But we also don't promote that behavior. Because it is not the normal behavior." Maria Burnett, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, said Tuesday that "no doubt about it," Uganda remains a difficult place to be gay.
In fact, Museveni said of his country at large, smiling at the mere suggestion of authoritarian rule, there is "so much freedom that it is almost a problem in itself."
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Associated Press writers Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, and Michelle Faul in Yola, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
Douglas you may have a point but lampooning all people of the African and Arab races as incompetents who can't manage and advance their own affairs the way the west has done is being so narrow minded myopic and forgetful of the world's immediate and recent history. My case in point is that look at how the west nearly destroyed the world just over 50 or so years ago with devastating wars that nearly annihilated man kind for eternity, look at the slave trade that lasted way over 200 years and was majorly perpetuated by the -wealthy today- western countries who are quick to remind us human right abuses and they pay a blind eye to the Lee Kuan Yu's of the modern world. Look at Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and most recently the Russia - Ukraine deadly spat that is threatening to drug in the west. Should I also remind you of the raging corruption in western world? Therefore, Douglas instead of ignorantly ridiculing Africans and Arabs are incompetent sub humans who are substantially incapable of competent self government, take a closer look at history and the good attributes of humanity and see how best you can use the positive lessons and best practices learn over time to better the world you and live in. And please don't call Africa a cesspool for its were most of the worlds wealth originates/d. I was just saying.
he refers to his party decide his future political but not the people of Uganda ...such arrogance ...the man is a spoilt dictators , the type the West usually creates , we all know that he controls his party like his household and survives on paid supporters
He's "running again" next year? Dude's been president since 1988 through fear, coercion, corruption, and eliminating his opponents. Of course he'll be elected. I hope everyone there is enjoying that sweet, sweet Ugandan freedom!
Democracy, what democracy is the President talking about when police is teargasing unarmed civilians his NRM party using tax payers money buying V8 land cruisers increasing MPs pay by 40% creating new constituencies just to win elections yet unemployment is so great hospitals running without medicine and under staffed, corruption is the order of the day and dictatorship by his RDCs who oppress the minority to achieve their selfish religious tribal interests. We are just in a mornachy and dictatorship. What democracy do we have when peoples minority voices is not heard
Uganda be kidding me!
This guy is from Africa?
Where is his funny head hat?
One thing that is clear, Democracy is a concept and cant be perceived the same way by different scholars.
All politicians are crooked, anywhere and everywhere. It is one constant in the entire world, merely to what degree and how obvious they are. I am more at ease walking in Entebbe than I am in my own home town here. Uganda, like much of Africa has some incredible natural beauty.....love it there and will be returning again this year for a short time.
We Africans have to rise up to the ocassion that our people are demandig and throw out these the bone heads who have been pillaging the continent under thedisguise of democracy. Mussevei is not alone. The continent is filled with such people cauing havc throughout the continent. Look at the situation of boat people across the Mediteranian. It is pathetic.
The government of uganda was groomed into a party called NRM which is now a party that Museveni leads, initially they pretended to call it NRMO but later it was captured skinned and kept in NRM skin called a party now it runs against other parties using other state machineries. Simply a government of uganda competes with other parties for power. So can a party win a government in real sense?
Am a ugandan. If you compare uganda during sixties and now, then guess which regime is more organised and peaceful.
he really isn't a dictator because he isn't in full control of the country. rebels operate 40% and there is growing fear, of course, with africa's christian rulers that islamic rebels are going to eventually win over the population by force.
He is talking about freedom, but does he understand freedom?. The freedom he understands is to steal the Uganda's wealth. But the freedom to protest his overstay he does not understand. His party is so moribund that they cannot find a replacement. Surely with a population of 38 million, Uganda does not lack wise leaders to replace the old man well past his expiry date. But will he allow this when he knows any new leader will hold him to account for the stolen billions that he has amassed with his family? Someone was telling me of a sniper bullet that does not miss, what are you Ugandans waiting for when a well placed bullet will eliminate him if the ballot cannot!
In any other country this guy wouldn't qualify to be a garbage man.
Uganda had surprising nice roads when I was there in 1991. It's anyones guess what they are like now. It is after all Africa. I've spent 4 years on the continent.
Who let that Ubangi into the Waldorf Astoria? What next?
This guy is from Africa?
Where is his funny head hat?
Uganda is completely against homosexual activity. It has been outlawed since 2014.
The world should leave uganda alone, we live in dictatorship and you watch, when LIBYA went to the dogs still you are watching, Egypt is no less on the watch too. Uganda will soon be on the same truck soon and please wait for the next space and watch. Zimbabwe is already on yor screen. Laugh,,,!,,,,aha