The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
How Uganda’s former largest opposition party is killing itself using its own false narratives
THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) is in deep, deadly crisis. Its leadership is locked in a ferocious fight verbal and physical. Each side accuses the other of being bribed by President Yoweri Museveni. It is possible Museveni thinks he is funding both sides in this conflict. But it is also possible that neither side has received his cash. If he released it, his corrupt handlers may have eaten it. Given FDC’s deeply entrenched culture of gossip, the handlers would spread a rumour that Museveni is bribing its leaders. That would be enough to set FDC leaders onto each other’s throats. Museveni’s handlers would enjoy his cash while the president would get what he wants. Welcome to Uganda’s politics.
The disintegration of FDC was inevitable. The party long lost its soul when its de facto leader, Dr. Kizza Besigye, shifted it from its founding liberal principles into a radical extremist group intolerant of dissenting views. Besigye actively cultivated his radical extremist base by encouraging accusations of bribery by Museveni against anyone who disagreed with him in the party. The atmosphere in the party became suffocating. Many of its founding leaders quit the party, some went silent, others re-joined NRM. FDC’s electoral fortunes continued to dwindle because the party solidified its base without trying to grow its appeal.
The story of FDC is going to be replayed as the story of NUP. Like FDC, NUP is hostage to the same radical extremist base. Its leaders carry an exaggerated sense of the moral righteousness. Any criticism of their party and its cult leader, Bobi Wine, is prohibited. You are either with them 100% or against them. Any mild criticism means the one voicing it is an enemy to destroy, not an opponent to defeat. Anyone who gives whatever scintilla of credit to Museveni is accused of being on the president’s payroll. On social media, they conduct scotch-earth campaigns of vilification of anyone who disagrees with them hurling insults and abuses at the mildest critics.
It is intriguing that our opposition parties are collapsing at the very moment when the ruling NRM itself is in deep crisis. Riddled with corruption, fatigue, inertia, foot-dragging, indifference, incompetence, apathy and greed, the NRM is a pale shadow of its former self. Today it is incapable of inspiring confidence in the population. Lacking any moral basis to govern, NRM has retreated to bribery and repression as its only instruments of power. But its ability to bribe is undercut by its deeply rooted corruption. So, spreading rumours to disorganise its ever-emotional opponents has become its specialty. Unable to win people’s hearts, NRM has retreated to sowing seeds of discord among its opponents. It is succeeding because its opponents are narrow-minded, emotional and power hungry.
The most effective opposition in Uganda is largely composed of Defiance, led by Besigye, and NUP led by Bobi Wine. The two are Siamese twins. Their only agenda is ‘Museveni agende’ i.e. removing Museveni from power. For them, power is an end in itself, not a means to an end. In pursuit of regime change, they appeal almost exclusively to their most passionate supporters. And in doing this, they have become radicalised and intolerant. This has alienated the vast majority of the people of Uganda from politics and the electoral process exactly what Museveni wants at this time of his heavily diminished legitimacy and credibility.
Uganda is caught in a dangerous and tragic fix. The Museveni camp has lost all moral purpose to power. It seeks to hold power for its own sake regardless of the consequences on the country. Its opponents in the radical extremist opposition want to wrestle that power from them and do exactly what Museveni is doing with it line its pockets and those of its allies. This radical opposition does not care the consequences of its reckless pursuit of power on the country. Museveni is leveraging China to fund his power. The Bobi Wine faction is leveraging sections of liberal imperialists of the West and their human rights mujahedeen to outflank Museveni.
The two sides are holding the country hostage by its throat. They keep tightening the grip as the country suffocates more and more. As fate would have it, a third force that is reasonable has failed to emerge to challenge these extreme groups. I hope that the two sides will destroy each other, allowing this third force to emerge and regain the political center. It is only a hope. But the lesson to draw from it is that such a force needs to have a broader perspective of Uganda beyond the petty personal interests of its leaders. It would have to see Uganda as a human experiment whose growth and development will come through mutual engagement of the different political tendencies in the country through negotiation and compromise.
Museveni and his close circle see Defiance and NUP as subversive political forces seeking to destroy Uganda. Besigye confirms this when he says elections are meaningless he participates in them to stimulate an insurrection. Defiance (and NUP is following this path) believes Museveni is a devil out to destroy the country. Each side sees the other as Hitler. This extremist position frees either side of all moral restraints in dealing with the other. This is because if your opponent is Hitler, you are justified to employ all means to destroy him. Because Museveni controls the state, he sends his security apparatus to abduct and torture NUP and Defiance activists. The only weapon available to Defiance and NUP is maximising their nuisance value: so, they viciously attack anyone who crosses their path on social media, vandalise power lines and plot violent uprisings.
It is in this context that we should see the death of whatever semblance of civility that existed in FDC. Its none radical base of enlightened and liberal politicians has been sidelined, weakened and is hopeless. NUP, a bastard child of Defiance also believes that negotiating with Museveni about the future of Uganda is a sign of weakness (means the president has bribed you). Therefore, compromise with him is equated to capitulation. Besigye and Bobi Wine and their radical extremist followers see the future of Uganda only in one side destroying the other in a war of annihilation. To pursue this holy war, this jihad or crusade, they must first conduct a purge of their camp to eliminate those who are not ideologically pure. That is the fight in FDC killing opponents using false accusations.
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amwenda@independent.co.ug
And the best part is how the author sees Museveni and his cronies as the morally bankrupt power-hungry villains who don’t care about the country’s welfare. Yet, at the same time, he sees the opposition as the “evil” forces out to destroy Uganda. So, who’s the true devil here? I’m starting to lose track.
It’s essential to remember that while political commentaries can be entertaining, they’re not always grounded in facts. Take this article with a grain of humor, a dash of skepticism, and a pinch of critical thinking.
Mwenda knows quite a lot about the underhand or clandestine power politics in Uganda. If you are a keen reader, he kept on praising Nobert Mao and eventually he crossed over to Museveni. There was also a story he wrote about meeting Nandala Mafabi on a flight and having a conversation with him and Mwenda praising Nandala that he could be a good leader and president if he could get some good coaching. These so called opposition leaders he praised have sold out to M7. Mwenda assured us that Mao would deliver and cause a significant change under NRM. Time is passing and we are still waiting to see any significant contribution of Mao to Uganda’s democracy. Instead it is the voice of opposition such as Besigye et al; Bobi et al. that continue to play a significant role to Uganda’s democratization inspite of the huge challenges paused my dictator M7 and harsh and unrealistic critics like Andrew Mwenda. According to Mwenda, his two voice of reason who could get fence seaters to vote were Nobert Mao and Mugisha Muntu. Good enough they all contested in presidential elections and performed extremely badly. So, back to Mwenda, what happened to your fake and emotional analysis? Why would you expect your readers to at least believe in your view points? Your showing is far below the average bar.