Govt bends with the wind

Feb 12, 2005

THE Government scored heavily this week by giving way on a number of somewhat controversial issues.

By John Nagenda
THE Government scored heavily this week by giving way on a number of somewhat controversial issues. First was what happens if there is an intractable stand-off between the Presidency and Parliament. What Government had sought in a White Paper was authority for the President to dissolve Parliament in such a case. But as a balancer at the very same time the office of the presidency would also become vacant and presidential and parliamentary elections would be held. To me this had seemed a perfectly reasonable suggestion, and quicker and better than the referendum route advocated by parliament. But Government conceded. While making the statement to that effect in parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi also announced that a proposal in the White Paper to compulsorily acquire land for investors had also been dropped. There are precedents in many countries where this is done, and properly carried out there would be merit in such a move. But when you look at many of our "investors" you don't have to be a brain surgeon to foresee what a mess we could be in if such legislation were passed. Nsibambi announced, "Having listened to you seriously we have decided to drop this matter." We are lucky indeed to have Nsibambi as our Leader of Government Business. This week also a tricky situation arose with the in-your-face (ahem!) title of a play, Vagina Monologues. Pandemonium broke out as some tried to have the one-off presentation cancelled, if necessary by Government order. Others, your columnist included, thought such an action would be unnecessarily high-handed; especially since no citizen would be taken at gunpoint to see the play. I am one of very many who find the title of this play gratuitously and unnecessarily offensive. Indeed I would find it extremely irksome to stand up and declaim I in public, especially in my own language, Luganda! But sometimes shock is essential to make a point, and that would be the playwright's defence. Indeed Cathy Watson wrote a most moving article in Vision on these lines. I understand it was Nsibambi who quietly restored order by saying the play should go ahead, although he was no lover of its title. If this is true, the premier will be heartily thanked by very many in Uganda and beyond.
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What's in a name? The poets tell us that however you address a rose, it comes out smelling sweet. But when the newfangled political party, Forum for Democratic Change, finally came out with the list of its interim leadership I could not fail to notice that some of its better-known people had the title "envoy" bestowed upon them. I rushed to my dictionaries: Chambers, and Fowler & Fowler's Concise Oxford (the latter no doubt Mr Sebaggala's favoured choice when he sojourned, for frolics of his own, in that famous city). Chambers had this to say: "a messenger, esp one sent to transact business with a foreign government; a diplomatic minister of the second class". It also has a second meaning: "the concluding part of a poem or a book; the author's final words…written in certain archaic metrical forms". But this latter sense, as indeed the former, does not easily equate with Messrs Eriya Kategaya, Prof Kanyerezi, Dr Sulaiman Kiggundu, nor Chapaa Karuhanga (what a spectacular fall from grace for this founder member!), nor the vociferous Betty Kamya. The Concise Oxford says much the same. My original copy of Phillips, 6th edition published 300 years ago, calls an envoy "an able person of a lower degree than an ambassador sent from one sovereign prince or state to another upon public affairs." Is Dr Kizza Besigye, chairman of FDC, a sovereign prince? Is FDC a sovereign state? Are the worthies above being seen off with mere baubles? Kategaya is named as one who cut the meeting. The list of vice "chairs" reads like the white flag of surrender. Then comes my old friend Sam Njuba as executive coordinator, deputised by another old friend Augustine Ruzindana. Are their non-executive coordinators? A Maj. Gen. is good for Mobilisation, but Mugisha Muntu, has always struck your columnist as decent but over-shy. Will he easily shake the hand of one and all in line of duty, to say nothing of hugging snot-nosed infants, of whom there must be thousands accompanying their mothers in every organisation? Joyce Ssebugwawo, ex Mengo government, is in charge of Culture and Religious Affairs. Eh? Old friends Jack Sabiiti and Asanansio Rutaro are here, as well as Wafula Oguttu, rather bulkier than when he trod the streets looking for copy. And if yet another friend, FDC financier James Musinguzi takes charge of Political and Interparty activities, where does that leave poor Kizza Besigye as Party leader? Speaking of Besigye, has his wife Winnie "done a runner", rat-like, from the sinking ship? She doesn't even feature as in charge of Women Affairs. Yawn, yawn; enough already! FDC is a thousand million miles from meaningful politics. Who would walk a thousand inches for one of its smiles. It is a cabaret my friend. But it is too easy to hit something lying on the ground. As Frank,8, cried out to me on the phone when I was unwell in South Africa, "Please Dad come home!" Brothers and sisters lost in FDC don't be too proud to come home! Equally, the Movement must start preparing the way home. Who ever said it would be smooth sailing? Just one line of advice for armed Palestinian groups. Late Arafat once passed up an opportunity brought by ex President Clinton to the bargaining table. Don't do the same thing now.

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