{UAH} MAO'S DECISION VS SEMOGERERE'S IN 1986

MAO'S DECISION VS SEMOGERERE'S IN 1986

By Halima Kiberu 

Dear people  

I do agree that there is nothing objectively wrong with Hon. Mao joining the NRM Government. I, too, wish him well in his decision. 

I must, however, express my disappointment with you for trying to justify Hon. Mao's decision on the basis of Dr. Semogerere's participation in the NRM Government in 1986. I am not convinced that the Co-operstion Agreement between President Museveni and Jon. Nobert Mao is predicated on Dr. Semogerere's  decision of 1986. The two situations are poles apart and the effort to link them is inordinately laboured. Let each of the two leaders take responsibility for his decision. What if Dr. Srmogerere's decision was a mistake? Would you have to also make it 36 years later only because Semogerere made it? And you want Mao's defence to be, " I was only following Dr. Semogerere"? 

 There is a world of difference between the decision the DP leadership made in 1986 and the decision Jon. Mao has made in 2022. I must hasten to add that I am not saying that Mao's decision is wrong, only radically different. History at the most appropriate time will pass that judgment. 

In 1986 the country was coming out of a destructive internecine war, a fratricide war. There was no government in charge, there was no law and order, there was no business going on. Everything had come to a complete halt. There was no police in place. The gurilla army in rugs without a place to live was in charge. 

The man in charge of yhe situation, had no government in use to govern. He was trying to put in place law and order, and he did not, on his own alone, know what to do. It was rational and sensible for him to summon all elements of civil society he could reach to join him and help switch the country on again. The most eminent of these civil society resources then available were political parties and religious organisation's. 

You will no doubt agree that the most credible political orgaisation available then was DP. It made a log of sense for Mr. Museveni (as he then was) to reach out to DP for collaboration and it similarly made sense for DP under the democratic leadership of statesmen to respond positively to that gesture. Dp did not go in to negotiate jobs. It went in to help switch the country on again. 

The first step you take is to create a government,  and administration that could run in the country in the short term as the country's institutions were being switched on. When asked to nominated people yo hold Ministerial positions, DP named its own NEC which the body that would still have held those positions if the Party itself was in power. The co-operation  between the NRM and DP at that time was all at arm's length, and issue-based. It was was agreed that the interim administration was to stay for 4 years after which the country should have been prepared for full democratic rule. Within this period DP and the Movement put in place a joint committee to work out an appropriate co-operstion framework for a more permanent functipnsl alliance ce based on democratic governance.  

The NRM negotiating team was led by the late Eriya Kategaya, with Getrude Njuba and Gyagenda Kibirango and others I forget as members. The DP negotiating team was led by the late Joseph Mulenga, with Zachary Olum, Ambrose Okullo, John B. Kawanga, Tarsis Kabwegyre (I forget who else) as members. Those meetings were formal and their minutes taken and periodically approved by the leaders of the two sides. The DP team reported to NEC on a weekly basis or more often as the situation demanded. I should know, I was taking the NEC minutes assisting the SG Robert Kitariko. One of the members of NEC that did not miss a single of these meetings was Deputy Secretary General, Jon. Sam Kutesa. 

The DP team presented the Party's own idea of democratic governance, from its own Party Consyitution to show how the Party is internally governed, Inner-Party Democracy. The team further presented the Party's 1980 Manifesto and other policy papers on other aspects public policy issues. NRM was impressed and requested DP for a more permanent co-operation. The DP proposed a functional coalition. The NRM team went back to consult the Party Chairman, but failed to return with a categorical position. Instead they asked DP to dissolve itself and join the NRM  on the basis of individual merit. They wanted DP to cease to exist and support the "No Psrty Democracy" idea that wax President Museveni's passion. This brought the talks for structured co-operation to their end. Dr. Semogerere said that he did not have the mandate to dissolve the Psrty which was not his personal property. He had mandate yo lead it, not to sell it off. Does this account provide the dividing line between Dr. Semogere's participation in the NRM Government and Hon. Mao's? 

It was from this point that the two parties went their different way. It is for this reason that DP presented its own Memorandum of Proposals for the new Condtitution to the Odoki Commission. It is the reason DP and other democratic forces such as the one led by the late Prof. Dani Wadada Nabudere refused to sign the 1995 Constitution. This constitution was promulgated on on majority decision, not by consensus.  This denied it the status of a social contract although it is legally bidding.  It is the reason it is routinely amended. 

I've tried to explain that while I fully respect him. Mao's decision, I do not accept parallels you draw between this decision and that of DP in 1986. Hon Mao himself cannot agree with you. He was not yet anywhere near DP. He was attracted to DP when he also developed an interest in leading it through the Mbale Delegstes' meeting of Febryary, 2010.

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