M7's opponents shifting goal posts

According to my former colleague, Charles Onyango Obbo, Editor of The Monitor, the scent of a rigged election hangs in President Yoweri Museveni's clothes! At least, that is the view he expressed in his regular column in The Monitor last week. And what are his reasons for making that bold pronouncement? My understanding of the "The Gospel according to St Charles" is that the basis for the pronouncement is that Museveni's opponents alleged that the election was "massively rigged". The literary expert, however, despite his acknowledged manifestation of political know-how in various fora did not find room for the observation that both international and local observers expressed the view that the result of the polls reflected the wishes of the majority of the people of Uganda. Not that anybody versed in the reading of people's sentiments would entertain any degree of surprise over that kind of approach. Interestingly, instead of facing the fact that the ruling of the Supreme Court which dismissed Col. Dr Besigye's petition head-on, my good friend Onyango Obbo opts for a search of sentiment appeasing theories that the court's verdict would have been in Besigye's favour, if it had not been twisted at the eleventh hour. Quoting unconfirmed rumours, Obbo asserts that the initial ruling of the Supreme Court was 4-1 in favour of Besigye, but this was on April 2l, the day before the verdict was delivered, translated into a 3-2 majority in favour of Museveni. In other words, two judges dramatically shifted their ground a few hours before the judgement of the court was pronounced by Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki. This state of affairs calls for a number of pertinent questions. But I will mention only a few that I consider relevant to the issues I am raising. First, but not necessarily foremost, why should a person of Onyango Obbo's professional calibre find solace in the disbursement of "unconfirmed rumours" relating to a matter of vital national interest? Or, could it be that the allegation is merely a figment of the author's fertile imagination? Assuming that the rumours originated from some source, what source could that be since the judges do not hold their discussions, I stand to be corrected if I am wrong, in the presence of anybody not involved in the hearing of the case. In that case, was the rumour kicked off by an eaves-dropping agent? And who could that have been? Be that as it may, it was the final verdict of the Supreme Court as pronounced by the Chief Justice that counts both legally and morally. It is high time Ugandans discarded the habit of showering lavish praises on the Judiciary whenever it delivers a judgement against the government and then finding excuses to punch holes in decisions given in favour of the government. People who applauded the judiciary as a "Daniel come to judgement" when the Constitutional court ruled that the Referendum Act was unconstitutional, are now engaged in a mud-slinging campaign designed to shake the integrity of judges of the Supreme Court. The tradition of rushing to "move the goal-posts" whenever the opponent is favourably positioned, is one of the dangerous aspects of Uganda politics. For quite a while, opponents of the Movement system have advanced arguments intended to paint the Movement as a dictatorship in which nobody's views, save Museveni's, matter. Or an air-tight compartment in which there is no room for dissent. But what happens when people like Col. Besigye demonstrate beyond any doubt (not just beyond reasonable doubt) that in fact there is vast room for dissent in the Movement? Room enough for a Colonel to challenge a Lt. General both in countrywide election and in a legal battle in the highest court of the land. Museveni's adversaries are sounding the death knell. They claim that dissidents have eroded Museveni's moral authority and he does not have a firm grip on national affairs any longer. So what is Museveni expected to do ? He is condemned for allegedly employing strong-arm tactics. He is at the same time labelled a degenerating force for allowing dissenting elements to emerge. This is a contradiction I am sure Onyango Obbo cannot fail to observe. My prayer to all Ugandans is that they should accept the fact that the verdict of the Supreme Court vis-à-vis Col. Besigye's petition is final and binding. The situation is similar to that in which United States President George W. Bush was ushered into the position of the world's most powerful man by a 7-2 majority of judges of the US Supreme Court. Ends