I had strong reasons to quit DP for good â€" Mabikke
Oct 17, 2007
MICHAEL Mabikke is an independent MP for Makindye East but who was nurtured into politics by the Democratic Party (DP). He formally left DP recently and opted to work with the hitherto little-known Social Democratic Party (SDP).<
MICHAEL Mabikke is an independent MP for Makindye East but who was nurtured into politics by the Democratic Party (DP). He formally left DP recently and opted to work with the hitherto little-known Social Democratic Party (SDP).Hamis Kaheru and Rehema Aanyu asked him to explain the 17 reasons he gave for quitting DP.
QUESTION: When did your problems in DP start?
ANSWER: Around 1997. When we formed UYD, the first point of departure was the slow speed at which DP leaders were moving. The pace at which programmes would be handled was extremely worrying. In UYD we began doing things faster and even went upcountry establishing branches, until we got to Parliament. DP leaders were simply not up to the task and that led us to cooperate with Nasser Ssebaggala. Ssebaggala was quicker at reacting and he grasped the issues of the day. This is how we came to handle his campaigns of 1998 for mayorship. Since then, we have always had disagreements with DP leadership. We organised the first return (from prison in America) not really because we loved Ssebaggala a lot but we thought the activity would revamp the party and revive support in the countryside, which indeed worked. Then we organised his second return from studies in the UK because whenever Ssebaggala was away, the party went to sleep. This time they showed it openly and all of them boycotted and went to Pope Paul Memorial Centre for a meeting. They were not at the airport. That is when they began dismantling the UYD. They began purging those elements that were not pro-mainstream and creating factions. UYD had grown into a stronger institution that had to be checked so that it did threaten the party leaders themselves.
The second attempt at revamping the party was when we formed the DP parliamentary caucus. The party leaders disassociated themselves from the caucus. They said that is not a DP caucus; that we had gone to Parliament on our individual merit, not as DP members. This was a vibrant group comprising Kassiano Wadri, Ogenga Latigo, the late Patrick Musisi, Odonga Otto, and others, which had began another effort of re-energising the party.
So DP leaders dislike those who organise for the party?
DP is full of conservative elements that do not want progress. They are more preoccupied with conserving it as an exclusive club than capturing government. That is why when you become vibrant in DP you have no space. I told them that Ssebaana is not a good candidate for the presidency much earlier than 2006. They were not amused.
What is the problem between the old UYD leadership and DP?
It is ideology. DP has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is a right wing organisation. Their policies including capitalism. We do not subscribe to that ideology. A young man with no wealth to protect can never subscribe to that kind of ideology but the Ssebaanas of this world can because they have buildings to protect. He has got 67 houses and can align himself to such ideology. For us we subscribe to social democracy. This is a revolutionary ideology because there is no organisation which has ever taken power using a capitalistic ideology. Everywhere in the world capitalists are fought. We were aligning with socialist leaning parties and this was becoming a concern from the global right wing movement.
Which party would you ally with?
All the left wing parties of Europe. In Germany, DP was dealing with CDU and UYD was dealing with the Social Democratic Party. In UK, DP dealt with the Conservatives and we dealt with Labour. In Norway, DP had contact with the Conservative Party while for us it was the Norwegian Labour party. In South Africa, we were dealing with ANC while DP was dealing with Inkatha Freedom Movement. This month DP is hosting the Democratic Union of Africa, an association of African right wing parties and that causes controversy. That is why Konrad Foundation which was bringing in up to sh400m a year for DP nearly wound up operations here. They wanted clarification.
Are you a founder member of SPD?
In 2005, at the height of our disagreements in DP, we floated many options, one being to conclude the internal fights in Namboole by removing the old guard. The second option was to register another outfit. Some of our inactive supporters including Nabillah Sempala registered SDP. After Namboole, Ssebaggala and I, and and others who wanted to contest for elections, were denied DP backing. We wanted to stand on SDP ticket but we could not because it needed time to build party structures. That is why we came as independents. Some 19 MPs have signed a memoranda of understanding with NRM. DP and everyone has been on my neck to sign one with them but I am with with SDP.
How many independents are with SDP?
In Kampala, we have the Mayor. In Makindye, we have an MP, LC3 chairman and councillors. We also have councillors in other parts like Gulu and Jinja. We re going to build the party structures. After that we will go for a delegates’ conference in Namboole very soon. Some 50,000 people are expected to attend the party launch in Namboole. It is the next big event after CHOGM.
Where does that leave Mao who enjoy support of of the old UYD leaders?
It is time for people to make choices; either to remain with them or with us.
Are you with other UYD founders like Kakande, Mbidde, Komakech?
There is a strategic problem here. There are people who still think like they used to in 2006 that DP problems can be solved at Namboole in the next delegates’ conference, in 2008, but some of us disagree with that strategy. DP has not future.
Why do you see no future for DP?
Firstly, there is no funding. DP will never have the capacity to organise another delegates’ conference. After the Namboole conference of 2005 Ssebaana was taken to court for failure to pay sh67m. He was personally liable.
Secondly, no one in DP has the financial muscle to stand for presidency. Former sources of DP funding went to FDC. They would not simply want to fund a dead thing. They want to see change but they are not seeing it through DP.
Thirdly, FDC has come out to align itself with the same ideology as DP; not socialists but the Christian Democrats in Europe. This year leaders of both parties were invited to the Conservative Party conference but compared to DP, FDC is performing better. If you are a funder interested in progress in Uganda, you would go with FDC not DP which can’t even sustain a Secretariat or organise a single seminar. So how will they organise funds for elections? Had it not been Ssebaana’s personal wealth in the past election, DP would have been in trouble. He injected sh300m of personal resources to fund his campaigns. So tell me which candidate has this capacity to fund his own campaign? No one. DP has no future. That is why I quit. No more good will, no more strategy; it’s a dead party.
Do you think a non-Muganda can be president of DP?
It is unlikely because it is sectarian. So I do not believe Norbert Mao can be allowed to be president of DP. We went to Namboole and we saw all the sectarianism and I could see the mindset of the conservative mainstream elements. I am a young man, I have a future, I can never waste any more time. I pity people who still have their hopes in DP.
Pacifism is another reason you left DP. Why?
In 1980 DP leaders left the opportunity of fighting for the party’s rights to someone else who had fared so dismally in the elections and he used the resources and structures of DP to get into war and eventually into power. It is not even Pacifism but cowardice. If someone tells you ‘I do not believe in shedding blood’ and sits around the same table with someone who used that approach to get into power, is that not cowardice and opportunism? That is a hyena approach, which waits for the lion to hunt and it eats leftovers.
You also complained of lack of truth and justice in DP
We have elements who tell more lies than truths and they smear others. When someone speaks his mind they say he has been bought. Look at the lie that we are going to power! What kind of mechanisms or funding do you have to get to power? Who are your strongest people in the army? DP is about gossip. They lied to the whole nation and went to Kabakanjagala and said they had bought a plot of land to build party headquarters yet it was a personal plot of land which was sold thereafter to a prominent member of DP. Ask them what happened to the land? They showed an artist’s impression of the headquarters and the plans. Those plans have never existed. They were trying to divert the public’s attention from the issues the parliamentary caucus was raising.
What about internal bickering?
Their National Executive Committee (NEC) alone has about four factions: There is the old UYD and the new UYD of Susan Abbo and Bayiga Lulume as their warlord. He is aligned to the new UYD but in DP he has his own caucus because he is building his own power base. Then we have the Lukwago-Nambooze faction and they are fighting Bayiga badly. They do not see eye to eye. Then there is the Ssebaana clique. Then the old Ssemogerere conservative clique which is against everything and everybody; plus the Bwengye group. All these undermine each other. The centre of DP can no longer hold like in the NRM. But in NRM when Museveni comes everything holds together. But the state of affairs in DP is that in Somalia.
About internal democracy?
I will give you my case a clear example. I was never defeated in preliminaries. I was elected unopposed at Ggaba KK Beach as chairman of DP Makindye East constituency. Polly Mukiibi and Robert Kitariko supervised the elections. That meeting also endorsed me as the party candidate in the parliamentary elections. But the tide turned in Namboole at the delegates’ conference. My candidate (Mao) was defeated and Ssebaana became the party president. He held meetings in my constituency and said ‘I cannot allow Mabikke who has been fighting me to be the candidate’ and he endorsed himself as constituency chairman without passing through any committee. After defeating his candidate I felt I had defeated Ssebaana and everybody.
You also accuse DP leaders of destroying the party’s grassroot structures?
DP was the strongest political party before Museveni came here. It had district committees, parish committees and village committees. Museveni came and gave them ministries. He made sure that in the first NRC elections, every DP district chairperson became the LC5 chairman. That is how Christopher Yiga became the chairman of Kampala; Kiwanuka Musisi became the chairman of Mukono, and Deo Nsereko in Luwero. The whole group which should have taken over after Ssemogerere got lost: Winnie Byayima, Maria Mutagamba, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, Sam Kutesa and others. If you want to write about DP it is a sad story. It has no ambition of grabbing power. If an old political party loses five elections and a small and new party like FDC comes up and beats you, do you still have a future? Are you still credible?
QUESTION: When did your problems in DP start?
ANSWER: Around 1997. When we formed UYD, the first point of departure was the slow speed at which DP leaders were moving. The pace at which programmes would be handled was extremely worrying. In UYD we began doing things faster and even went upcountry establishing branches, until we got to Parliament. DP leaders were simply not up to the task and that led us to cooperate with Nasser Ssebaggala. Ssebaggala was quicker at reacting and he grasped the issues of the day. This is how we came to handle his campaigns of 1998 for mayorship. Since then, we have always had disagreements with DP leadership. We organised the first return (from prison in America) not really because we loved Ssebaggala a lot but we thought the activity would revamp the party and revive support in the countryside, which indeed worked. Then we organised his second return from studies in the UK because whenever Ssebaggala was away, the party went to sleep. This time they showed it openly and all of them boycotted and went to Pope Paul Memorial Centre for a meeting. They were not at the airport. That is when they began dismantling the UYD. They began purging those elements that were not pro-mainstream and creating factions. UYD had grown into a stronger institution that had to be checked so that it did threaten the party leaders themselves.
The second attempt at revamping the party was when we formed the DP parliamentary caucus. The party leaders disassociated themselves from the caucus. They said that is not a DP caucus; that we had gone to Parliament on our individual merit, not as DP members. This was a vibrant group comprising Kassiano Wadri, Ogenga Latigo, the late Patrick Musisi, Odonga Otto, and others, which had began another effort of re-energising the party.
So DP leaders dislike those who organise for the party?
DP is full of conservative elements that do not want progress. They are more preoccupied with conserving it as an exclusive club than capturing government. That is why when you become vibrant in DP you have no space. I told them that Ssebaana is not a good candidate for the presidency much earlier than 2006. They were not amused.
What is the problem between the old UYD leadership and DP?
It is ideology. DP has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which is a right wing organisation. Their policies including capitalism. We do not subscribe to that ideology. A young man with no wealth to protect can never subscribe to that kind of ideology but the Ssebaanas of this world can because they have buildings to protect. He has got 67 houses and can align himself to such ideology. For us we subscribe to social democracy. This is a revolutionary ideology because there is no organisation which has ever taken power using a capitalistic ideology. Everywhere in the world capitalists are fought. We were aligning with socialist leaning parties and this was becoming a concern from the global right wing movement.
Which party would you ally with?
All the left wing parties of Europe. In Germany, DP was dealing with CDU and UYD was dealing with the Social Democratic Party. In UK, DP dealt with the Conservatives and we dealt with Labour. In Norway, DP had contact with the Conservative Party while for us it was the Norwegian Labour party. In South Africa, we were dealing with ANC while DP was dealing with Inkatha Freedom Movement. This month DP is hosting the Democratic Union of Africa, an association of African right wing parties and that causes controversy. That is why Konrad Foundation which was bringing in up to sh400m a year for DP nearly wound up operations here. They wanted clarification.
Are you a founder member of SPD?
In 2005, at the height of our disagreements in DP, we floated many options, one being to conclude the internal fights in Namboole by removing the old guard. The second option was to register another outfit. Some of our inactive supporters including Nabillah Sempala registered SDP. After Namboole, Ssebaggala and I, and and others who wanted to contest for elections, were denied DP backing. We wanted to stand on SDP ticket but we could not because it needed time to build party structures. That is why we came as independents. Some 19 MPs have signed a memoranda of understanding with NRM. DP and everyone has been on my neck to sign one with them but I am with with SDP.
How many independents are with SDP?
In Kampala, we have the Mayor. In Makindye, we have an MP, LC3 chairman and councillors. We also have councillors in other parts like Gulu and Jinja. We re going to build the party structures. After that we will go for a delegates’ conference in Namboole very soon. Some 50,000 people are expected to attend the party launch in Namboole. It is the next big event after CHOGM.
Where does that leave Mao who enjoy support of of the old UYD leaders?
It is time for people to make choices; either to remain with them or with us.
Are you with other UYD founders like Kakande, Mbidde, Komakech?
There is a strategic problem here. There are people who still think like they used to in 2006 that DP problems can be solved at Namboole in the next delegates’ conference, in 2008, but some of us disagree with that strategy. DP has not future.
Why do you see no future for DP?
Firstly, there is no funding. DP will never have the capacity to organise another delegates’ conference. After the Namboole conference of 2005 Ssebaana was taken to court for failure to pay sh67m. He was personally liable.
Secondly, no one in DP has the financial muscle to stand for presidency. Former sources of DP funding went to FDC. They would not simply want to fund a dead thing. They want to see change but they are not seeing it through DP.
Thirdly, FDC has come out to align itself with the same ideology as DP; not socialists but the Christian Democrats in Europe. This year leaders of both parties were invited to the Conservative Party conference but compared to DP, FDC is performing better. If you are a funder interested in progress in Uganda, you would go with FDC not DP which can’t even sustain a Secretariat or organise a single seminar. So how will they organise funds for elections? Had it not been Ssebaana’s personal wealth in the past election, DP would have been in trouble. He injected sh300m of personal resources to fund his campaigns. So tell me which candidate has this capacity to fund his own campaign? No one. DP has no future. That is why I quit. No more good will, no more strategy; it’s a dead party.
Do you think a non-Muganda can be president of DP?
It is unlikely because it is sectarian. So I do not believe Norbert Mao can be allowed to be president of DP. We went to Namboole and we saw all the sectarianism and I could see the mindset of the conservative mainstream elements. I am a young man, I have a future, I can never waste any more time. I pity people who still have their hopes in DP.
Pacifism is another reason you left DP. Why?
In 1980 DP leaders left the opportunity of fighting for the party’s rights to someone else who had fared so dismally in the elections and he used the resources and structures of DP to get into war and eventually into power. It is not even Pacifism but cowardice. If someone tells you ‘I do not believe in shedding blood’ and sits around the same table with someone who used that approach to get into power, is that not cowardice and opportunism? That is a hyena approach, which waits for the lion to hunt and it eats leftovers.
You also complained of lack of truth and justice in DP
We have elements who tell more lies than truths and they smear others. When someone speaks his mind they say he has been bought. Look at the lie that we are going to power! What kind of mechanisms or funding do you have to get to power? Who are your strongest people in the army? DP is about gossip. They lied to the whole nation and went to Kabakanjagala and said they had bought a plot of land to build party headquarters yet it was a personal plot of land which was sold thereafter to a prominent member of DP. Ask them what happened to the land? They showed an artist’s impression of the headquarters and the plans. Those plans have never existed. They were trying to divert the public’s attention from the issues the parliamentary caucus was raising.
What about internal bickering?
Their National Executive Committee (NEC) alone has about four factions: There is the old UYD and the new UYD of Susan Abbo and Bayiga Lulume as their warlord. He is aligned to the new UYD but in DP he has his own caucus because he is building his own power base. Then we have the Lukwago-Nambooze faction and they are fighting Bayiga badly. They do not see eye to eye. Then there is the Ssebaana clique. Then the old Ssemogerere conservative clique which is against everything and everybody; plus the Bwengye group. All these undermine each other. The centre of DP can no longer hold like in the NRM. But in NRM when Museveni comes everything holds together. But the state of affairs in DP is that in Somalia.
About internal democracy?
I will give you my case a clear example. I was never defeated in preliminaries. I was elected unopposed at Ggaba KK Beach as chairman of DP Makindye East constituency. Polly Mukiibi and Robert Kitariko supervised the elections. That meeting also endorsed me as the party candidate in the parliamentary elections. But the tide turned in Namboole at the delegates’ conference. My candidate (Mao) was defeated and Ssebaana became the party president. He held meetings in my constituency and said ‘I cannot allow Mabikke who has been fighting me to be the candidate’ and he endorsed himself as constituency chairman without passing through any committee. After defeating his candidate I felt I had defeated Ssebaana and everybody.
You also accuse DP leaders of destroying the party’s grassroot structures?
DP was the strongest political party before Museveni came here. It had district committees, parish committees and village committees. Museveni came and gave them ministries. He made sure that in the first NRC elections, every DP district chairperson became the LC5 chairman. That is how Christopher Yiga became the chairman of Kampala; Kiwanuka Musisi became the chairman of Mukono, and Deo Nsereko in Luwero. The whole group which should have taken over after Ssemogerere got lost: Winnie Byayima, Maria Mutagamba, Prof. Gilbert Bukenya, Sam Kutesa and others. If you want to write about DP it is a sad story. It has no ambition of grabbing power. If an old political party loses five elections and a small and new party like FDC comes up and beats you, do you still have a future? Are you still credible?