Transitional/interim government: A far-fetched call by Besigye

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By Henry Mayega

One daily on May 31, 2015, published an article headlined, “Col. Besigye calls for interim government in 2016”. 

Using the holy grail of “electoral and political reforms proposed by the opposition and civil society; all hailing from the same pedigree, Kiiza Besigye suggests that if their suggestions are not accepted by the Yoweri Museveni administration, then, Uganda should revert to  a transitional government. He even had the guts to poignantly refer to the elected Government of Yoweri Museveni as an “NRM junta” and a “dictatorship”.

First, according to Webster’s New World Dictionary, a junta is a group of military men in power after a coup detat.  In 2011, Uganda had elections which returned Yoweri Museveni as President and at the subsequent Kololo victory celebrations, Amama Mbabazi, as master of ceremonies, referred to Besigye as a “bad loser”. 

The same Webster Dictionary also defines a dictator as a ruler with absolute power and authority exercising it tyrannically.  Any how Uganda’s electorate should forgive Kiiza Besigye’s cognitive deficit and lack of comprehension for the two words; Uganda has the requisite three arms of government performing superbly and connoting democracy.

Secondly and more importantly, the constitution of Uganda as the parent law and existing electoral laws provide for periodic elections of office bearers for President, members of parliament and the local councils.

This situation has obtained since Kiiza Besigye left the NRM family to go and politically fend for himself via the Reform Agenda and later FDC; on three occasions he has lost the bid, first in 2001, 2006 and later in 2011.  These pieces of legislation have not borne for us a crisis that would warrant a transitional/interim government. 

All political parties, including the NRM are in agreement that we ought to refine our electoral laws in order to end with a good election.  Uganda’s august House will debate these laws and anyone trying to scuttle this conversation via street protests as Besigye has tried before (and may intend in future) should not be massaged.

Kiiza Besigye, Elias Lukwago and Zac Niringiye should appreciate that we do not have a hung parliament where passing Bills into laws becomes impossible, where the proper functioning of Government is affected because there is not any one party that has a majority on the floor of parliament.  Such a situation would necessitate a coalition.

I have written in this column before that the UK’s Conservatives, until the last elections, had a coalition with the Liberal dems due to, in a sense, a vacuum created by lack of absolute party majorities. The Conservatives had to politically cohabit with the Lib-dems that meant ceding ground to each other.  Such a scenario was tried out in Zimbabwe (between Mzee Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Morgan Tsangirai) and in Kenya (between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga Oginga) with devastating political consequences, especially for small parties.

Uganda’s political path since 1962, the year of independence, is littered with experiments of transitional governments. 

After the overthrow that blood thirsty dictator, Idi Amin in 1979 Ugandan victorious exiles formed the UNLF government led by Prof. Yusufu Lule.  This was caricature of a transitional government replete with convoluted political interests representing; monarchists, anarchists, republicans, tribalists, nationalists, capitalists, Marxists etc. 

Many in that regime had bellicose and belligerent minds and the experiment collapsed like a house of cards at a flick of a baby’s finger with dire consequences of despoliations murders as well as economic retardation.

I must add though that, that transitory arrangement was borne out of a war that ousted Idim Amin.

In a quick succession, the military junta that took over in 1985 from the Obote regime tried an interim experiment by absorbing UPCs, DPs and others.  Again this was borne out of a coup detat.

The Yoweri Museveni administration takeover in 1986 was, in my view, a renaissance of Uganda.  A government of national unity was formed and many wrongs of the past were corrected including the restoration of traditional leaders in places where they were revered.  Agitation from within the NRM by those who had been politically accommodated led to the opening up of the political space in 2005 after the referendum.

From the foregoing, therefore, transitory politics is over in Uganda.  A longer view suggests necessarily. All parties, including Kiiza Besigye’s FDC are free to make meaningful noise to voters rather than resorting to boisterous gymnastics on the streets of Kampala in order to attract the attention of unsuspecting media and an already fatigued donor community who are tired of funding a stunted opposition.

But it is also easy to build an account and the intentions of Kiiza Besigye.  His aim, in my view, is to politically dwarf unsuspecting and upcoming fire brands from the opposition and a section of pseudo civil society. 

This usurpation by Besigye is not irresistible; his target is not even President Museveni for reasons best known from the elections of 2001, 2006 and 2011, it is those upcoming from the opposition.  These may include but not limited to Mugisha Muntu, Elias Lukwago, Zac Niringiye, etc.

The writer is ambassador and a special mobiliser of the NRM party