Are religion and regionalism blinding us?

Jun 03, 2003

Last Wednesday, Ms Specioza Wandira Kazibwe resigned her position as the Vice President Two days later, Eriya Kategaya, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Internal Affairs and Bidandi Ssali, the Minister for Local Government were dropped from the cabinet in a reshuffle

Last Wednesday, Ms Specioza Wandira Kazibwe resigned her position as the Vice President Two days later, Eriya Kategaya, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Internal Affairs and Bidandi Ssali, the Minister for Local Government were dropped from the cabinet in a reshuffle.

Asuman Bisiika looks at how the debate has begun for Uganda’s political future.

The other ministers who were dropped in the reshuffle last week are Muruli Mukasa, the Minister of State for Security, Miria Matembe, the Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity and Sarah Kiyingi, the Minister State for Internal Affairs.

However, commenting on President Museveni’s dropping of Eriya Kategaya and Bidandi Ssali, analysts in the media have highlighted the personal relationship the two men had with President Yoweri Museveni and not their resourcefulness in the cabinet.

This unfortunately means that appeasing of constituencies and personal relationships are seen as the main qualification for appointments or disappointments in the political domain.

To sum up, ‘the politics of balancing the act’ have overshadowed ideological clarity and the capacity-to-deliver, in the deployment of cadres political or otherwise. Therein lies the malaise of Ugandan politics.

All political appointments are now viewed as pieces of carrot used to placate constituencies whose main qualifications are the vertical sensibilities of religion and region.

So the sacking of Kategaya and Bidandi Ssali has attracted a lot of comment not because people think the executive will miss their resourcefulness, but because of their personal closeness to President Museveni.

Look at the appointment of Vice President Gilbert Bukenya. He is a Roman Catholic and a Muganda. As if the man would not merit being a VP if he was not a Muganda and a Roman Catholic.

Norbert Mao, Gulu Municipality Member of Parliament, heaps all the blame for this political trend on the doorsteps of President Museveni.

“The origin of this political attitude is President Museveni. After appointing someone to a ministerial post, he goes around telling his or her tribe that I have given you a minister. It creates the impression that the position one holds is exclusively for the tribe whose interests the appointee is supposed to represent. This undermines the concept of meritocracy,” says the legislator.

Mao adds: The movement leadership is no longer ideologically responsive to the socio-political aspirations and the demands of the people.

“That is why they have fallen back to the old constituencies of religion and region they once despised that as being vertical and parochial. The absence of this ideological guidance has therefore left a gap which religion and region have naturally filled up,” says Mao.

But Moses Byaruhanga, President Museveni’s Private Secretary for Political Affairs says, that the analysts lose it when they insinuate that the recent appointments were made to appease constituencies.

“I recognise very many good qualities in Bukenya that merit him to be Vice President,” says Byaruhanga.

Byaruhanga adds that the so-called analysts are unqualified to give reasons for some presidential appointments.

“The appointing authority has not given any reasons for which he appointed so and so to such a position in the recent cabinet reshuffle. So there is no need to speculate”.

An academic at Makerere University who preferred anonymity says that Ugandan politics seem to have gone full circle.

“The forefathers of Ugandan national politics mobilised along religion and region because they were the most conspicuous points on which to rally the population at that time. Then Museveni came with ideological issues and despised our forefathers for being narrow-minded. It is ironic that the man who despised religion and region as political constituencies is going to hand over power to someone whose strong points are region and religion”, said the academic.

Onapito Ekomoloit, Special Presidential Assistant on Media says he does not see anything wrong with the speculations that appointments are tagged to religion and region.

“Ours is a pre-industrial society with the reality that people still attach their sense of belonging to region and religion. However, the person appointed because he belongs to this or that region and religion should first have basic qualifications such as being morally upright. And the appointed person should also look at his appointment as a call of national duty; he or she should not see himself or herself as representing this or that constituency,” said Ekomoloit.

Humphrey Kirungi, a Development Studies lecturer at Makerere University, partly agrees with Ekomoloit. Kirungi says that the appointments which seem to be appeasing some non-ideological constituencies is an attempt by the Movement to respond to the realities of Uganda’s socio-political set up.

Kirungi however added that this might be counter-productive and a recipe for enhancing tribalism.

“It may compromise on efficiency and quality. It is also at variance with the universally accepted concept of merit as the basic qualification for appointments,” he said.

A European diplomat who preferred anonymity said that religion and region considerations are vital in European politics. “But that it is not main issue in ministerial appointments.”

As Ugandans brace themselves for multi-party politicals, mobilisation may just end up revolving around religion and region, just like old times.

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