LCs shouldn’t lose social responsibility

Sep 29, 2005

POLITICAL manoeuvring has begun in earnest as the numerous political forces meet to map out strategies.

POLITICAL manoeuvring has begun in earnest as the numerous political forces meet to map out strategies.

The Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) has begun grassroots elections leading to the party’s national delegates conference. The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has set a date for its own delegates conference. The National Resistance Movement’s interim executive committee has been meeting to work out a roadmap and guidelines for the organisation’s internal elections. The Democratic Party (DP) has appointed a committee to organise their elections.

All this is well and good as the country prepares for the first multiparty election in a quarter of a century. This is the political transition that has been anticipated for long - the change, at electoral and legislature level, from the all-embracing movement system.
One of the strong points of the movement system is that it brought together people in their communities through the LC (Local Council) levels to do community work and look after other local interests like security, hygiene, civic law and order, and group-specific social norms.

With the change to multipartyism, what is going to happen to the LCs? This is not yet clear. Will multiparty politics do away with LCs? Is this desirable?

The spirit of LCs needs to be retained. Granted, they had lost much of that especially in urban areas where their non-functionality has been manifesting itself in social chaos and disorder that they previously handled efficiently. But this does not mean that we should do away with them.

Their fate will depend partly on how political leaders, at various levels, relate to each other. There will be diverse political shades of opinion on the different tiers of the LC system, but partisanship should be kept at a minimum, with social responsibility being predominant. LC councillors shall do well to bear in mind that issues at the grassroots levels are of the social nature, unlike higher up in institutions like parliament where partisanship is paramount.
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