Museveni sets agenda for 2002

On the night of December 31, 2001, His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni’s delivered his New Year address to the nation. Below is the speech Dear Countrymen and women, The year 2001, ending today, has seen a number of important events. Apart from entering a new century and a new Millennium, 2001 started with the significant event of UPDF, our army, on December 26, 2000, killing one of the notorious killers of the so-called ADF by the names of Cobra (Matovu). A little earlier our UPDF units in Mubende had captured the group of ADF that had been sent to infiltrate Central Uganda. These ones had been sent in order to ensure that we do not hold Presidential elections in that part of the country. These events meant that UPDF had, at last, internalised the methods of dealing with the terrorists that had been sent to us by Tourabi with the involvement of Bin Laden at one stage. The UPDF has now pacified the Rwenzori Region and garrisoned it permanently with the Mountain Brigade of the 2nd Division of the UPDF. It is now possible for the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) to go back to their homes in that area. However, 460,000 persons are still in Internally Displaced Peoples’ Camps (IDPCs) in Acholi area and 88,000 persons are in IDPCs in Katakwi District in the east. I would like to assure those Ugandans that are still in those blessed camps that they will be able to go back to their homes this year. We are in contact with the Sudan Government as well as with some of our international allies to ensure that the criminal Kony is relocated from Southern Sudan as was agreed by General Bashir and myself some years ago in Nairobi under President Carter’s mediation. Meanwhile, UPDF is doing a good job in ensuring that those terrorists who had infiltrated into Uganda earlier, are either eliminated or they surrender. Kony tried twice in this year to infiltrate into Uganda without success. We always foiled his attempts before he crossed the Uganda-Sudan border. As for the 88,000 IDPs in Katakwi, the cause of that phenomenon has been the illegal guns in Karamoja. Since 2nd December 2001, I launched the disarmament programme at Morilinga Hill in Bokora Country in Moroto district. The response by the Karamajong was excellent. On a voluntary basis, 6,434 rifles had been handed in by the 29th of December 2001. My deadline for all the illegal guns to come in had been fixed for January 2, 2002. However, since the Government has not yet given what I promised the Karimojong that brought in the illegal guns, I have now decided to extend the deadline to February 15, 2002. In the meantime, the Cabinet is working very hard to ensure that the ox-ploughs, the grain for all who bring in the guns, the mabati for the kraal leaders that hand in all guns in their kraals, the certificates for everybody that brings in a rifle, the security roads along the borders of Kenya and Sudan and also within Uganda itself, the branding of cattle on a county basis, etc. are all being tackled according to the relevant schedules of implementation. The UPDF and the Local Defence Units (LDUs) have been deployed in all important positions along the Kenya and Sudan borders to prevent the Turkana and Pokot of Kenya as well as the Topotha of Sudan from coming into Uganda to raid cattle. Therefore, I am quite hopeful that by March, the displaced people in Katakwi District will have gone home because the illegal gun in Karamoja will have been eliminated. The Karamajong are already enjoying the benefits of the enhanced presence of UDPF and LDUs. Areas like Nakilolo and Atumutau (Kamusalaba), which had been no go areas for the various Karimajong clans on account of insecurity, are now providing very good pasture and water for the cattle of the relevant clans. In fact, some of these areas, have got permanent water sources. In the coming months, more valley dams will be created in Karamoja. Contrary to popular belief, Karamoja has got a lot of water. There are some permanent streams such as Nakilolo, Longro, Kapeta and Okok. Namalu is more or less a big swamp. There are also many seasonal water courses, not to mention the springs of Labwor county. Karamoja’s problem is not waterlessness but under development. The other big events of 2001, were the Presidential elections, the Parliamentary elections and Local Council I elections. They were very free. The only problem was the Voters’ Register on account of poor identification of voters. This enabled unscrupulous persons, colluding with election officials that are mainly anti-Movement because of their past partisan connections, to vote more than once. When the Electoral Commission (EC) introduced photographs on voters’ cards, the number of voters shrank from 10.6million which had been alleged to be the numbers of voters in Uganda to only eight million people. I am informed that even the photograph identification method still has some problems. My real bedrock against multiple voting is to introduce the technique of digitalised finger prints. The Electoral Law reforms on the laws of 1962 and 1980 have eliminated multiple ballot boxes and ballot papers, the hidden polling booths, not counting soon after polling in front of the public and so on. The remaining obstacle has been this problem of voter identification, leading to multiple registration and multiple voting by some unscrupulous people. However, these irregularities could not have changed the outcome of, especially, the Presidential elections because they were, mainly, against the Movement on account of the anti-Movement Election officials. These repeated electoral exercises, not to forget the Referendum, show how far we have come on the democratic road. I should like to remind Ugandans that we had one election in 1962 and for 18 years, until 1980, we did not have any other election. It is, therefore, amazing that those who were responsible for that prolonged disenfranchisement of the Ugandans or acquiesced in the disenfranchisement are the very ones talking of the “dictatorship” of the Movement. Those lies must stop. The democratic road of Uganda is quite clear. We have the 1995 Constitution. Unlike the 1962 Constitution, which was written, in the main, by chiefs and many un-elected people, the one of 1995 was written by the people’s delegates to the Constituent Assembly (CA). The process of how the Constitution can be amended is laid out clearly. On top of that I have appointed a Constitutional Review Commission (CRC). All concerned should address their views to the Constitutional Review Commission. It will produce a report in due course. We shall, then, discuss it and see how to move forward in any important area of concern. I will strive to fund adequately the CRC. Within the Movement, I have set up an internal Committee headed by the National Political Commissar – Dr. Kiyonga to advise the Movement on the way forward. The way forward is clear. I, therefore, would like to warn the habitual anarchists that have, moreover, never made a useful contribution to the destiny of the long suffering people of Uganda to desist from agitation and from illegal practices. We shall take decisive action against them if they try to disturb our stability. I would like to assure Ugandans that in my double role as the historical leader of the resistance of the people of Uganda and the popularly elected President of the Republic, I will no longer countenance the sufferings of the Ugandans on account of terrorism by the likes of Kony and ADF or any other adventurers be they political or otherwise. One problem has been the perpetual under-funding of Defence. I am engaged in detailed talks with our partners to come to an optimal level of defence spending that can cope with the perceived and jointly identified threats. There is, for instance, the Defence Review Exercise in which we are involved with the British. This will harmonise our position with the international partners on the issue of Defence spending. The under-spending on defence while we live, as we do, in such a turbulent region, has been, partly, responsible for the lingering insecurity in some parts of the country that has stunted the recovery of our tourism industry. Fellow Ugandans, I need to remind you that a modern country needs to cope with the following major challenges: Employment, widening the tax base, developing the human resource through education for all and improved health care, improving infrastructure and supplying enough goods and services. Since 1986, the Movement has seriously tackled the question of the adequate supply of goods and services. These are now plenty in the shops as you all know. We have also addressed the question of human resource development through UPE, through the building of more secondary schools and universities, as well as ensuring immunisation and building health units up to the parish in some cases. However, the question of employment and widening the tax base are still unresolved. What is amazing, though, is that many Africans rarely address this issue seriously. That is why emphasis by the African elite has been on aid always. Aid cannot resolve the issue of employment. The issue of employment is linked with the question of industrialisation. It is linked with modernising the provision of services. By services I mean transport, professional services, banking, insurance and so on. And also it is linked with modernising of agriculture. You cannot, however, industrialise, you cannot modernise services or modernise agriculture unless you resolve another issue; this is the issue of accessing big markets with large populations that have got great purchasing power. Unless somebody buys from you, you cannot sustain your industries, services or agriculture. Our internal market as you know is limited. It is limited first of all because the population is not so big: only 23million people; and secondly the purchasing power is low on account of limited cash in the hands of the people. When we speak of large markets, we, inevitably, speak of the regional markets in Africa and we also speak especially of the World markets. The market of the USA, for instance, is an US $11 trillion one while the Uganda market, on the other hand, is a market of US $6.5 billion (GDP at current prices). Therefore, to be locked out of the USA market, the European Union market, the Chinese market, the Indian market and the Russian market, while you fail to develop your own continental market that is currently worth US $545 billion, (the GDP figures for the whole of Africa of 1999) is to be sentenced to perpetual under-development. You can certainly not resolve the issue of employment or widening the tax base unless you resolve the issue of markets. The recent opening of the USA market under AGOA (the African Growth and Opportunity Act) and the European Union policy of everything but guns albeit the maintenance of agricultural subsidies by that bloc are the greatest events for Africa, only next in importance, for the African Continent, to the decolonisation Movement on the Continent and the end of Apartheid in South Africa. No other comparable opportunity has presented itself. As usual, the sleepy public service of Uganda and elements of the political elite have been slow to grab this great advantage. I am resolved to cajole everybody concerned to wake up and play his/her role in utilising this opportunity. I am glad, at last, the law stopping transhipment of textile through Uganda was amended after a lot of delays. Let us now help our textile mills, leather firms, fruit processing firms, and herbal oils producers to export to the USA. All energies should go into this. I do not welcome useless diversions. Accessing lucrative markets is the greatest challenge for our future. We shall talk about other challenges on another occasion. For instance, in developing the human resource, we must pay attention to the school curriculum. We must produce school leavers that are equipped with skills that are needed on the labour market. It is not useful to produce people with degrees in subjects which cannot get them jobs on the markets; we already have an over supply of those type of people who have studied humanities. Therefore, it is the work first of all of the government to advise the public as to which subjects can lead to better employment opportunities after qualification. It is also the work of parents to guide their children as to which subjects they should do in schools which can lead to better employment opportunities. As I have told you before, it is not true that all the jobs are finished. Some of the jobs are plenty for instance, if you take doctors. We need a larger number of doctors than we have now. If you qualified as a doctor, you will not fail to get a job for a very long time. If you qualify as a science teacher for instance, you will not fail to get a job for a long time. But if you qualify in humanities you may not be able to get a job because the opportunities there are not in plenty. Accountancy jobs, auditing, business administration in general are more plentiful. As our economy expands, we need more managers and sub-managers. Engineering, for instance is a discipline which will enable you to get a job with more certainty than some of the humanity subjects that many of our children study. Lastly, I am glad the AES deal has been, finally, accepted by the World Bank in spite of the attempted sabotage by so many circles including some Members of Parliament that secretly wrote to the World Bank decampaigning a project that will directly and indirectly create jobs for our children. I condemn and warn such saboteurs. With more facts I will expose all those involved. We have come to the beginning of the year 2002 and we are thankful to our Creator for all the blessings bestowed on us as individuals and collectively as a country during the year 2001. Many friends and relatives have not made it into the New Year; and in some cases their demise could have been prevented. In 2002 we should resolve, amongst other things, to preserve others and ourselves so that the preventable losses of human lives can be avoided. One way to avoid human waste is to reduce the carnage on our roads. Our roads are not the best; yes, our vehicles are not in the best mechanical condition. But these contribute least to the horrific accidents on our roads. The greatest problem is the bad drivers, bad not because they are not qualified to drive; most of them indeed are bad because they are discourteous; they regard the roads as battlegrounds where the others must be defeated through overtaking; bad because some of our drivers use drugs, such as mairungi and other substances and drive when they are already high on these drugs. I appeal to all our drivers to stop the relentless massacre on our roads by making sure that they are in a fit condition to drive, by ensuring that their vehicles are roadworthy, and above all by desisting from going into combat with other drivers on the roads. This last appeal requires basic good manners, which all Ugandans should have or aspire to have. You remember I ordered the traffic police off the roads because of extorting money from the public. I have now directed the new Police Administration to ensure that a new traffic force is created from the many young, educated Ugandans, including Movement activists, to ensure that our roads are safe again. I wish all of you a Happy New Year.