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I submit that I am not the only person who is discombobulated that a respectable member of parliament, Sarah Opendi, introduced a bill before parliament aiming to regulate the bars on the time of selling and drinking alcohol. Her overbearing conclusion is that Ugandans are presently misusing the free operation time of the bars. That people spend days and nights in the bars drinking alcohol instead of going to work.
So, she thought it very important to legislate on that so that the law would thwart them. It is laughable.
I have always opined that the Parliament of Uganda’s legislative agenda has nothing to do with the development of Uganda and that the institution has failed to strengthen laws to help the country develop. I doubt if the majority know the role of law in development.
I cannot dismiss the laws which have been enacted already but why is the country not developing? Is it because of alcohol and other morality laws that will extricate us from opulence and expenditure on non-productive ventures that have indebted the country? If the answer is no, then parliament must copy useful laws from other progressing countries so that we move a step ahead. As far as we all know, the laws augment the existing policies on meritocracy, pragmatism and honesty for a country to be extricated from stagnation.
The honorable members of parliament are only interested in infringing on the personal autonomy of the citizens through legal paternalism. Those of you who may not be cognizant with the term, it refers to the idea that the state can restrict individual freedom for their own good or to protect others.
For example; the state can prohibit certain dangerous drugs, legislate on the minimum legal drinking age, enforce seat belt, road discipline and helmet laws, regulate smoking in public places, and other regulations deemed fit to limit harm to self. That is a concept of criminal law.
However much the state is obliged to protect citizens pursuant to the social contract—an agreement between the government and citizens—it is inadvisable to excessively use paternalistic laws to infringe upon people’s personal autonomy. It is going beyond and I submit that the law enforcers shall not have the capacity and will to effectuate and bring to bear such a law equally.
We all saw during the COVID-19 lockdown when bars were required to close or people restricted from movement, but such directives affected only the poor people. The rich were very busy going about their ways uninterruptedly while us the wretched suffered the inequality.
This bill of course is targeting poor people in the countryside or those who live in squalid slums but not those who drink from high end places like Nakasero, Kololo, Muyenga, to mention but a few. Everyone knows that. These paternalistic laws introduced by idle members of parliament end up giving the state more excessive power over individuals and of course it is beyond doubt that the state will not abuse such power.
The bill, if passed into law, shall not be proportional to the problem being addressed so the idle parliamentarians should not over assume that individuals are not capable of making the right decisions for themselves. If such stupid bills will become laws that conflict with fundamental human rights of people, definitely the affected shall be recalcitrant.
Parliament has failed for years to determine what is best for the country to move forward for instance enacting and enforcing laws that support economic growth and development so that the conditions that allow businesses and individuals to thrive in order to promote a prosperous economy but now wants to determine the opening hours for bars and time in which people must take some swigs on the mighty drink.
We have seen the laws against sale and use of bleaching creams which are rampant nowadays albeit dangerous for skin, fail in being implemented. The failure is witnessed in a growing number of recalcitrant people who are bleaching nowadays despite the ban on the creams, lotions and soaps. People will not stop drinking too because of a law.
It is embarrassing that the same parliament has not saved Ugandans from strengthening the laws that limit authority of our leaders who have turned into misleaders with gross callous disregard for the available primary and derivative laws.
KAKWENZA RUKIRABASHAIJA
Lawyer and Novelist
www.kakwenza.de
Email: [email protected].
Whatsapp/Signal: +447958104814
