YOUR PLATFORM: 2006: Which Way For Uganda?
Oct 28, 2003
I have heard people talk and plan ahead, about business, politics and bank loans. All this planning seems to use the year 2006 as the ceiling - as though it were the year of the return of the Lord.
I have heard people talk and plan ahead, about business, politics and bank loans. All this planning seems to use the year 2006 as the ceiling - as though it were the year of the return of the Lord.
I believe many people have either been forced not to think, or have deliberately refused to think about Uganda in 2006, assuming their thinking would help Uganda anyway.
I personally was caught in the “2006 trap.†two weeks ago in Bangladesh when I confessed to an MP from the Falklands Island that 2006 might be the right time to have a political recess. I later realised I was not the problem, being an elected leader, I have a responsibility.
We are in a revolutionary period; we cannot stop the progress of history. We must go forward, but the question is in which direction? to chaos or towards a fresh steady start? to rebuild Uganda as a nation premised on institution rather than a personality cults. Could we strike a political equation in 2006, which benefits the status quo and those who need change to survive?
How can we balance between those living in fear of past regimes and those blessed with hope for the future? I would rather a country with hopes than fear.
The movement system at this time in history is experiencing its maximum degree of vulnerability. Who are the major actors as we move towards 2006 and what is the way forward?
I have interacted with several MPs who hold views such as; we give ourselves three years and also give the President three more. Some say why can’t the parties register? These are the usual cliques good at blaming victims. Others recommend a dialogue with the Kiyonga team, Kiyonga being a pro third term believer.
The MPs who are demanding three years extension are not being honest to themselves. These are unbalanced minds with unbalanced morals aiming at balancing their budget. They are not sure of bread in the next parliamentary elections. Until we get rid of essential immorality, this parliament is bound to lose credibility.
If their interest is really a peaceful transition, why don’t we do so in the three years, without emoluments. Or rather why don’t we give the president one year as MP head for parliamentary elections in 2006, so that a year later the president can quit when there is a sense of continuity with checks by the then parliament. This might be the easiest way to balance rational ideas and rational greed.
The easiest way is to recommit the Political Organisation Act to parliament and open the political space at all levels then there will be no cry why parties are not responding to the current call for registration.
The greatest challenge Museveni has is to get institutions to respond to a situation like this. The lullaby of individual merit does not make the baby sleep after 17 years; the purpose for individual merit that was posed in 1987 is not as it is posed now. The president has a golden chance of peaceful departure. Allow free and fair election by levelling the ground for full blast party elections. Those advising the president to go for a third term are second hand liars. The army needs to be professionalised with great input from the president. We need an army commander with both power and authority. The “spoilers†ought to be retired from the army, then we can have an independent respectable army that can survive without Museveni after 2006.
However, the challenge remains to get a predictable army commander with no interest in political power yet with the confidence of the President and all stake holders.
Hon Odonga Otto Jr
MP Aruu County
Pader District
I believe many people have either been forced not to think, or have deliberately refused to think about Uganda in 2006, assuming their thinking would help Uganda anyway.
I personally was caught in the “2006 trap.†two weeks ago in Bangladesh when I confessed to an MP from the Falklands Island that 2006 might be the right time to have a political recess. I later realised I was not the problem, being an elected leader, I have a responsibility.
We are in a revolutionary period; we cannot stop the progress of history. We must go forward, but the question is in which direction? to chaos or towards a fresh steady start? to rebuild Uganda as a nation premised on institution rather than a personality cults. Could we strike a political equation in 2006, which benefits the status quo and those who need change to survive?
How can we balance between those living in fear of past regimes and those blessed with hope for the future? I would rather a country with hopes than fear.
The movement system at this time in history is experiencing its maximum degree of vulnerability. Who are the major actors as we move towards 2006 and what is the way forward?
I have interacted with several MPs who hold views such as; we give ourselves three years and also give the President three more. Some say why can’t the parties register? These are the usual cliques good at blaming victims. Others recommend a dialogue with the Kiyonga team, Kiyonga being a pro third term believer.
The MPs who are demanding three years extension are not being honest to themselves. These are unbalanced minds with unbalanced morals aiming at balancing their budget. They are not sure of bread in the next parliamentary elections. Until we get rid of essential immorality, this parliament is bound to lose credibility.
If their interest is really a peaceful transition, why don’t we do so in the three years, without emoluments. Or rather why don’t we give the president one year as MP head for parliamentary elections in 2006, so that a year later the president can quit when there is a sense of continuity with checks by the then parliament. This might be the easiest way to balance rational ideas and rational greed.
The easiest way is to recommit the Political Organisation Act to parliament and open the political space at all levels then there will be no cry why parties are not responding to the current call for registration.
The greatest challenge Museveni has is to get institutions to respond to a situation like this. The lullaby of individual merit does not make the baby sleep after 17 years; the purpose for individual merit that was posed in 1987 is not as it is posed now. The president has a golden chance of peaceful departure. Allow free and fair election by levelling the ground for full blast party elections. Those advising the president to go for a third term are second hand liars. The army needs to be professionalised with great input from the president. We need an army commander with both power and authority. The “spoilers†ought to be retired from the army, then we can have an independent respectable army that can survive without Museveni after 2006.
However, the challenge remains to get a predictable army commander with no interest in political power yet with the confidence of the President and all stake holders.
Hon Odonga Otto Jr
MP Aruu County
Pader District