Voters won't desert Museveni - Ofwono

* Common people do not understand stuff like junk helicopters, but peace and stability Ofwono Opondo is the new Director of Information and Public Relations at the Movement Secretariat. Gawaya Tegulle interviewed him regarding the state of the Movement as the Presidential elections draw near. Question: You are in this office because your predecessor Winnie Byanyima was fired . is it an instance of the Movement's failure to accommodate internal dissent? Answer: No way. Winnie had three fundamental failures. First, she came here with an inflated ego - she said this herself on the floor of Parliament and it is recorded in the Hansard. She said that how could she be put at the same level with people like Kirunda Kivejinja who resigned from cabinet over the misappropriation of 2000 litres of fuel. She thought she was some supermodel who should not be put at the same level with some of the directors here, elderly men and politicians of the 1970s and 80s, some of whom tried their luck at elections and failed. She failed to appreciate that in politics in order to succeed, you need a broad coalition. Two, she failed to appreciate protocol and internal regulations of the Movement. She thought she could be here as director, attend cabinet meetings (by virtue of being Director of Information), hold consultations with intelligence organs, then go and splash whatever information she got all over the floor of Parliament or spill it on the Capital Gang (on Capital FM). There is no way you can conduct government business that way. There is a proper forum for everything. If she thought that the appropriate organs were not working she should have raised that point. Three, as a result, Winnie tried to work alone, thinking she could cause change all alone. She failed to create structures and worked alone till she was fired. I did not find even a punching machine in this office. She never sat here. Though she was earning a good salary here and sh600,000 per month as fuel allowance, most of her work was conducted at her offices in her NGOs. You even wonder why she accepted this appointment in the first place. If she thought the system was dead and not responsive to her demands, she should have resigned, not waited to be sacked. By the way, Winnie wasn't even too critical, she was just an anarchist raising no serious issues and making personal attacks. Museveni is getting so many media advisors. Won't too many cooks spoil the soup? Museveni has only one Media Advisor,- John Nagenda. The others: Information Minister Basoga Nsadhu speaks for government as a whole, not Museveni alone. I speak for the Movement as a whole. I have a new role in the National Task Force, so I speak for candidate Museveni, not President Museveni. It is Hope Kivengyere (Museveni's Press Secretary) who speaks for President Museveni. We have tried to specialise in areas, even if we may not be doing a necessarily good job. So, are you Museveni's propaganda chief or spin doctor? Spin doctor yes, propaganda chief no. The Movement does not conduct propaganda, telling lies and making false promises. I spin the image of the Movement and candidate Museveni. If they are portrayed negatively, I correct the image. If somebody tells lies about us we'll fight back. Propagandists tell lies and promise what is not attainable. They tell you they will abolish graduated tax and get all the money in Uganda Commercial Bank and give you. Is the Movement panicking as the elections draw near? Our people are naive. I spoke to the President today (last Monday) and asked him: "Is it true you instructed that political columnists in the New Vision be banned because they are critical of your government or insulting to you as Museveni?" His answer was, "No, I never issued such instructions". The President says he has no problem with the columns. But somebody in government has failed to do his job, to do good public relations, explain to people what good the Movement has done and provide information on time. He has let the media set the pace, instead of the reverse. In the process, the President gets constant attacks and then this person resorts to something cheap to solve the problem. I told the President that the correct way forward is not to crack down on The New Vision but to constantly and promptly challenge those who spread lies about the Movement. So we are not panicking. We know the political geography of this country better than the media. There is a perception the media is taking, that this contest will be tight. But we are very solid. Our campaign methods and the result will show you that we are not panicking. The population out there will not desert Museveni just because Kiiza Besigye says he (Museveni) is corrupt. Common people do not understand stuff like junk helicopters and corruption. People appreciate the stability and peace that Museveni brought. The businessmen in Owino market want to sell until 10.00pm then walk home without anyone grabbing their money. We shall move at every level. We shall utilise all channels, even FM stations. These were brought in by the Movement's policy of liberalisation. They are all owned by strong allies of the Movement and they will give us audience. Even most journalists in the media are pro-Movement. It is our people in government who have failed to do their job and are now turning to cheap methods like cracking down on The New Vision. Would there be media crackdowns on the FM stations? I wouldn't call it a crackdown. Just a failure by certain people in government to appreciate the fact that the New Vision should be as editorially independent as possible so as to remain the dominant paper in the market. But discussions are going on to allow the New Vision the liberty it deserves. In a struggle there are always contradictions here and there. The important thing is how do we handle these contradictions. If we can win over (former Democratic Party Assistant Secretary General) Maria Mutagamba who abused us so much during the 1996 campaigns, why not people in the media? As the new spin doctor, will you be expected to spin and swing public opinion the President's way? Yes, but more important is to give accurate information to those who need it. After 15 years the incumbency of the President has created its own problems and complacency has crept in. There has been a tendency to take the masses for granted and feeding them on the same old story of atrocities committed by past leaders. But we have forgotten that many of the people now are a new generation that was not around or were very young when these atrocities were being committed and remember little or nothing. Even the President has pointed this out. So we need to change the information we give to people. The Movement keeps endorsing Museveni as its sole candidate at virtually every Movement meeting, then they turn around and say they have no such thing. The Constitution defines the Movement as a dispensation, an atmosphere; not an entity that can do this or that. These moves by the Movement confirm it as a party, no less. The National Conference did not say nobody else should stand. If so Museveni would have been the sole candidate. The Movement Caucus is broad. There are people we know who support Besigye. So anyone can support somebody other than Museveni and they will still be allowed to attend the Movement Caucus meetings. It is only the meetings of the campaign task force for Museveni that such people will not be allowed to attend. The problem would be if the caucus said anybody who attends Besigye's meetings will be expelled. Winnie Byanyima attended the Movement National Conference and even made contributions, even though we know she is Besigye's wife and suspect she is the one behind his campaign. President Museveni has said Besigye should be wooed back. If the Movement is not a party, where is Besigye being wooed back to? Constitutionally, we are all in the Movement and no one can say he has left it ? The President meant wooing Besigye back to the main Movement fold. There are two tendencies within the Movement. First, is the Movement versus Multi-party and then even within the Movement itself there is the main tendency (pro-Museveni) and that of Besigye. The main tendency is the one with structures like the Caucus, National Conference and National Executive Cimmittee (NEC). But whether Besigye comes back or not, that is his business; we are not worried. The principal strategy in the struggle is to defeat the multi-party tendency in this coming election because that will guarantee that the long-term interests and vision of the Movement will be maintained. Many people whom you trained in Kyankwanzi Political School say you had the knowledge and brains but you were too harsh. Shouldn't we expect a harsh Ofwono moving against the non-conformist media? No, no. The media will benefit from my appointment. My history in the media is known. I have been friendly or at least got on well with everybody. Even now I call back whichever journalist calls me. The problem is that people mix being serious with being harsh. I was a military instructor. If you come for military training you have not come to a hospital. That is what we call combat hardening and perseverance to prepare people for hard times on the frontline. I have no regrets. I was only being serious with the syllabus of military training. Ends.