A delegate conference is not a pilgrimage

trueBy Keefa Kaweesa

At the last NRM delegate’s conference held at Namboole, the National Executive tabled a motion regarding the period at which the holding of a delegate’s conference should be.

It was proposed that the conference should be held every five years and the reason offered was due to finances.

I was among the few that debated and submitted that an elephant cannot abandon its heavy tusks and that a delegate’s conference should be held every two years and we carried the vote. At that time, I did not reflect on the impact of the motion but on reflection of  the current trend of events, am damn certain that we were right  but what I missed was  to insert a clause that plus any other time as the NEC deems it necessary.

 A delegate’s conference is an organised periodic meeting of top party officials from across the country to discuss mainly ideology. It is, therefore, not a pilgrimage to the holy city or a city carnival.

There is a need to appreciate that a party is an organisation set out to promote basic and principled ideology meant to govern society through influencing major decisions affecting society.

These set out principals/ideology must be crafted by the original founder members and must be brought across to all the other members.

There can be  change of ideology along the way, which must be  understood and agreed upon first as this is the basic norm for instance, if the party subscribes to republican and wants to support feudalism, this contradicts ideology and should be known by all, the result end might culminate in holding a referendum.

 Unlike a cooperative society or an association meant to make profit, a party sets out ideology to assist govern society.

A party does not make trade or carry out business but it can invest in business ventures in order to raise resources. A party is normally formed after society has indictors for reforms or likely to undergo changes or democratic changes.

 It is a process which requires knowledgeable persons to sit down and think about how to address issues affecting their society.

It might require wide consultation on one part and in some instance it might culminate in a mass movement especially, if the previous regime was repressive and the society wanted a fundamental change.

In some instances, some society carbon copy ideology for instance in the sixties, the party in power took up communism ideology without really studying or grasping its consequences.

The major objective of a party is to capture power and retain it. A party, therefore, uses its position to influence, lobby and take advantage.

 The major asset of a party is members and the ability to attract more members. A party must have a mechanism to reward members in order to attract new members and the old to stick together failure of which the party will disintegrate.

 A party must have the ability to admonish as well as discipline members otherwise it is bound to have erratic membership. A party is equated to a religious sect or a cult and members should own up party decisions and programmes.

At the end of the party conference, delegates should be able to team up and arrange to disseminate the party decisions to members at the grassroots. This might entail holding parish conferences to minimise transport costs for members or using party diehards in the area to support holding of conferences.

My submission is that the return of delegates to the grassroots is very vital but should not be treated as from the holy land and holding of a thanksgiving  party but an opportunity to brief members on the salient issues and decisions affecting the party.

Such opportunity should be used to share ideas and plan for holding the party together.

The writer is lawyer