Mao blames Besigye over failure of IPC

By Innocent Anguyo

Democratic Party (DP) president Norbert Mao has blamed former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) president Dr Kizza Besigye for the failure of the now defunct Inter-Party Coalition (IPC) to unite all opposition leaders and parties against the National Resistance Movement in the 2011 general elections.

“IPC failed because Col. Besigye didn't adhere to the agreed protocol. Summit members were to get support for the positions they were aspiring for but Col. Besigye undermined people like Micheal Mabikke and Muhammad Mayanja who should have been supported under the protocol,” said Mao.

“If you are not faithful in small things, will you be faithful in big ones? That is why Olara Otunnu quit the IPC in protest. I do not agree that if you are a leader in the opposition then you should not be criticized,” Mao added.

Mao also accused Besigye of having a hand in what he called ‘confusion’ in DP saying, “I have heard him publicly criticise me in the media. I also know that he has a role in the current confusion in the Uganda Young Democrats. In 2011 he encouraged individuals in DP to back him and today his strategy is the same,”

The former chairman for Gulu and MP for Gulu municipality noted that there were two tendencies in the opposition today.

“There are those who believe that political parties are irrelevant and we should embrace a personality driven struggle and not bother with the agenda we seek to achieve. Then there are those who believe that institutions matter and that political actors should relate on an institutional basis and craft an inclusive agenda,” Mao reiterated.

The first tendency, Mao said is being promoted by him, Uganda People’s Congress president Olara Otunnu and FDC president Mugisha Muntu adding that, “the second tendency has Col Besigye as its high priest. Ugandans have a choice between the two tendencies. I have spoken my mind without dithering or equivocating,”
“That is why unlike Ssebaana Kizito who travelled around Uganda to introduce me as the new DP leader, Col. Besigye has never been seen to move with Gen Muntu to introduce him as his successor. Why?” Mao asked.

Mao, a former guild president of Makerere University also scoffed at claims that he had launched a verbal war with Besigye saying that, “It is also not true that Col. Besigye has never criticised me. I have heard him publicly criticise me in the media,”

As to why he had decided to wash the dirty linen of opposition in public Mao said, “Trouble with the truth is that you may denounce it, smear it and ignore it but at the end of the day, there it is. On the whole this debate is healthy and very liberating. Let’s pursue the truth and it will set us free.

Sometimes people will try to deceive us but we should never succumb to self deception. We better have bitter disagreements as we struggle to find a way out of our national malaise rather than pretending to agree then fight as soon as the first goal is reached,”

“Ugandans will trust individuals and institutions that have struggled over time for democracy, truth and justice. They will not cling to straws in the wind,” he added.