I insist judges’ strike didn’t achieve anything!
Mar 22, 2007
<b>SAYING IT WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR</b><br><br>WHEN the Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon came last week and did not comment, at least publicly, on the High Court saga involving nine PRA treason suspects, and the strike by judges and lawyers he left the instigators holding the short end
OFWONO OPONDO
SAYING IT WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR
WHEN the Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon came last week and did not comment, at least publicly, on the High Court saga involving nine PRA treason suspects, and the strike by judges and lawyers he left the instigators holding the short end of the stick and gnashing their teeth.
I still hold that the so-called court siege and the strike by judges and lawyers were just storms in a teacup, although Ian Clarke disagrees because for a Uganda, which has gone through and now rising steadily from 40 years of total state collapse these are child’s play. Besides, within one week the ‘crisis’ has vanished, courts are back to normal and the anticipated political fallout hasnot been realized.
The ploy by the opposition groups led by the FDC was to target the visit by the high profile delegation led by McKinnon for the launch of the Commonwealth Day in Kampala to paint President Yoweri Museveni and his government as breakers of the rule of law. The FDC leaders, section of the judiciary and legal professions had hoped to push the police into bartering them similar to what is going on in President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe but unfortunately for them, government was very alert not to fall into this cheap trap.
So it came as no surprise when former ‘independent’ senior journalist and editor Wafula Oguttu the FDC’s loudest spokesman bashed McKinnon for “ignoring†Museveni’s “widespread†human rights abuse, and promised to compile their own abuse record for the Queen when she visits. This is a very tough time for the NRM because every single one of our core beliefs is under relentless assault by people and groups who have little credibility in the political arena.
Who would have predicted that we would have to defend the idea that Museveni and the NRM have brought this country from the edge of political, state, social and economic collapse only two decades ago! The first duty of every knowledgeable NRM member is to keep reminding people what Museveni and the NRM have accomplished and the kind of place Uganda would be if the NRM had failed to capture power and played a huge role in setting the course of this country.
The NRM should not be shy to drum for itself because for sometime now it had been foolish enough to leave the country’s history to be written and presented by pseudo historian on the political horizon. It is our turn to prove to Ugandans that there has never been and will take a long time to have a party or philosophy in this country to achieve as much as the NRM, and we possibly don’t need to go back to the days when Col. (rtd) Besigye and Maj. Gen. (rtd) Mugisha Muntu were at the helm.
We can focus on the precise period 1996-2006, which they are most keen to distort beyond recognition. Yet they can’t resist wrapping themselves in the success of the Museveni era like when Uganda became organised and confident of its own power and ability to determine its destiny, general peace, stability, and prosperity, social and political emancipation. The dawn of that period was, of course the new democratic constitution, autonomous and independent parliament, judiciary and other constitutional bodies, and multiple universal direct elections.
It is within this period that government launched and provided free public education in such a massive scale, whose objective is to banish illiteracy, poverty and provide skilled manpower in the long run. today we are able to provide incrementally however modest for those who had little yesterday, and there are strong indicators this will be sustained. But while looking back with nothing but satisfaction the achievements over the past two decades of NRM control, we should ask why the NRM, which was un-questionable a few years ago is today on its heels, off balance, and not knowing what it will be hit with next as opposition groups get cocky, pop corks and toast to their self-claimed demise of NRM revolution.
And the opposition has been saying that the NRM looks like a huge, impressive, condemned building, which with a single well-placed charge could come down.
Yes, while they could be right, the NRM will not collapse because the opposition has set charges under its building but due internal complacency, mistakes and failure to correct them. The constant attacks and negative political schemes particularly by the rightwing opposition should give the NRM the steel girders and support beams it needs to shore up everything.
Think about it this way. It is becoming increasingly visible that reasonable and clear-thinking FDC elements have either lost or are losing the war of priorities to a band of extremists like Besigye, Oguttu, and Salaamu Musumba. The current open disagreement between Besigye and Mugisha Muntu over the possibility for an armed opposition to government needs no guessing what might happen if the most intolerant, greedy and shortsighted elements take over FDC or the whole opposition.
It has already happened in parliament where Nandala Mafabi and Geoffrey Ekanya who, until recently, were zealot backbenchers, now chair powerful committees except that they are deflated by the NRM’s huge numbers, which the amiable Prof. Ogenga Latigo as leader of the opposition in parliament would possibly not handle.
SAYING IT WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR
WHEN the Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon came last week and did not comment, at least publicly, on the High Court saga involving nine PRA treason suspects, and the strike by judges and lawyers he left the instigators holding the short end of the stick and gnashing their teeth.
I still hold that the so-called court siege and the strike by judges and lawyers were just storms in a teacup, although Ian Clarke disagrees because for a Uganda, which has gone through and now rising steadily from 40 years of total state collapse these are child’s play. Besides, within one week the ‘crisis’ has vanished, courts are back to normal and the anticipated political fallout hasnot been realized.
The ploy by the opposition groups led by the FDC was to target the visit by the high profile delegation led by McKinnon for the launch of the Commonwealth Day in Kampala to paint President Yoweri Museveni and his government as breakers of the rule of law. The FDC leaders, section of the judiciary and legal professions had hoped to push the police into bartering them similar to what is going on in President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe but unfortunately for them, government was very alert not to fall into this cheap trap.
So it came as no surprise when former ‘independent’ senior journalist and editor Wafula Oguttu the FDC’s loudest spokesman bashed McKinnon for “ignoring†Museveni’s “widespread†human rights abuse, and promised to compile their own abuse record for the Queen when she visits. This is a very tough time for the NRM because every single one of our core beliefs is under relentless assault by people and groups who have little credibility in the political arena.
Who would have predicted that we would have to defend the idea that Museveni and the NRM have brought this country from the edge of political, state, social and economic collapse only two decades ago! The first duty of every knowledgeable NRM member is to keep reminding people what Museveni and the NRM have accomplished and the kind of place Uganda would be if the NRM had failed to capture power and played a huge role in setting the course of this country.
The NRM should not be shy to drum for itself because for sometime now it had been foolish enough to leave the country’s history to be written and presented by pseudo historian on the political horizon. It is our turn to prove to Ugandans that there has never been and will take a long time to have a party or philosophy in this country to achieve as much as the NRM, and we possibly don’t need to go back to the days when Col. (rtd) Besigye and Maj. Gen. (rtd) Mugisha Muntu were at the helm.
We can focus on the precise period 1996-2006, which they are most keen to distort beyond recognition. Yet they can’t resist wrapping themselves in the success of the Museveni era like when Uganda became organised and confident of its own power and ability to determine its destiny, general peace, stability, and prosperity, social and political emancipation. The dawn of that period was, of course the new democratic constitution, autonomous and independent parliament, judiciary and other constitutional bodies, and multiple universal direct elections.
It is within this period that government launched and provided free public education in such a massive scale, whose objective is to banish illiteracy, poverty and provide skilled manpower in the long run. today we are able to provide incrementally however modest for those who had little yesterday, and there are strong indicators this will be sustained. But while looking back with nothing but satisfaction the achievements over the past two decades of NRM control, we should ask why the NRM, which was un-questionable a few years ago is today on its heels, off balance, and not knowing what it will be hit with next as opposition groups get cocky, pop corks and toast to their self-claimed demise of NRM revolution.
And the opposition has been saying that the NRM looks like a huge, impressive, condemned building, which with a single well-placed charge could come down.
Yes, while they could be right, the NRM will not collapse because the opposition has set charges under its building but due internal complacency, mistakes and failure to correct them. The constant attacks and negative political schemes particularly by the rightwing opposition should give the NRM the steel girders and support beams it needs to shore up everything.
Think about it this way. It is becoming increasingly visible that reasonable and clear-thinking FDC elements have either lost or are losing the war of priorities to a band of extremists like Besigye, Oguttu, and Salaamu Musumba. The current open disagreement between Besigye and Mugisha Muntu over the possibility for an armed opposition to government needs no guessing what might happen if the most intolerant, greedy and shortsighted elements take over FDC or the whole opposition.
It has already happened in parliament where Nandala Mafabi and Geoffrey Ekanya who, until recently, were zealot backbenchers, now chair powerful committees except that they are deflated by the NRM’s huge numbers, which the amiable Prof. Ogenga Latigo as leader of the opposition in parliament would possibly not handle.