Reflecting on last presidential election

The opposition that has emerged in this atmosphere has not been able to leverage opportunities presented by IT and social networking sites to build a mass political base. What, for example, is their social media strategy in a country where 3.2m people visit the internet daily and 80 percent of these use facebook? They have also failed to produce concrete alternative policies. They are most emotional and not integrative.  But more critically, those who assemble to oppose Museveni are not just undemocratic, they actually are anti democratic.

This anti democratic stance by the loudest section of the opposition stems from their philosophical beginning point. They are identical to Museveni in that they carry a strong puritanical and self righteous streak. Like Museveni, they look at the political arena as a moral contest between good (themselves) and evil (Museveni) , not between two alternatives from which Ugandans can find a choice. Throughout his political struggles Museveni was unable to see any value in his opponents, casting Milton Obote and UPC as evil and him as a Moses coming to take Ugandans to the Promised Land. So he could not see value in alternative ideas.

This fanatical but loud fringe of the opposition is “anti democratic” (as opposed to “undemocratic”) because a democratic system is based on the belief that those who disagree with you are not enemies to destroy but opponents to exchange ideas with. Museveni calls all his opponents his enemies; the noisiest faction of the opposition follows in his footsteps. A democratic system sees the political arena as a meeting ground of diverse ideas. Those who disagree use the political arena as a platform for debate over alternative conceptions of the issues and work out a compromise where each side concedes ground. Without such compromise, there is no democracy. There is war.

To be fair, the opposition in Uganda are not homogenous. They are as diverse as it gets. There are many honourable, sincere, nationalistic and reasonable men and women in the opposition. People like Wafula Oguttu, Ben Wacha, Sam Njuba, Cecilia Ogwal, Paul Ssemogerere, Mugisha Muntu (even Kizza Besigye when he is reflective) have a fair degree of democratic and tolerant streaks. The challenge has been how to harness this honourable quality into a purposeful political movement that is integrative, not polarising; that places the pursuit of democratic reform above the obsession with removing Museveni from power.

The particular section of the opposition that is dangerous is the fanatical fringe of mindless Museveni haters who place their feelings above reason; so afraid to deal notice Museveni’s core strength and recognise the weaknesses inside the opposition. It is that loud section that speaks on radio and writes blogs like radio katwe and Ugandans at heart. There are many people of goodwill able to look beyond Museveni’s belligerence and curve a new politics for our country and they constitute the vast majority.

However, something has failed in Uganda. Many reasonable and progressive Ugandans who are anti Museveni and pro democracy have opted out of public debate because they are disgusted by the extremism that characterises the current opposition rhetoric. They are fearful that if they argue that we need to find some accommodation with Museveni, they will be misunderstood. The extremists will accuse them of having been compromised by Museveni. Yet it is possible to compromise with Museveni without being compromised by him.

That is why Uganda desperately needs a third force that will be led by a person of extraordinary integrity and honesty. Mugisha Muntu is one such person; a leader who will not pander to the passions of the extremists but will construct a message of tolerance, compromise, negotiation and understanding that can appeal to a broad section of Ugandans. A leader who will be strong enough to recognise Museveni’s achievements and promise to build on them while at the same time fearlessly pointing out Museveni failures and presenting Ugandans with concrete proposals on how to overcome them – the necessary sacrifices and compromises needed to achieve that end.

amwenda@independent.co.ug