Free Uganda’s (FU) Gen. David Sejusa backs FDC’s Dr. Kizza Besigye and his calls for pre-election electoral reforms
[Commentary]
News coming in from the Democratic Alliance (TDA) indicate that the earlier official decision not to front one flag-bearer is undergoing a transformation of sorts, after one of the front-runners, Mr. Amama Mbabazi went back to the TDA offices and held a press conference, accompanied by a number of political leaders who were part of the group that issued the earlier declaration of no one candidate has been chosen to lead TDA into the 2016 elections.
It is very interesting that after TDA officially declared that, in line with the established TDA rules, particularly that of unanimity in the process of choosing a flag-bearer, there are now maneuverings within the same organization to reverse the final decision and instead declare one of the candidates as the winner and, therefore, the sole candidate for the Alliance.
Having failed to come up with a joint candidate, TDA had agreed to recognize the reality of the two prime actors, Besigye and Mbabazi standing separately, one as an independent and the other as the FDC candidate.
Now, however, that position seems to have changed – with a coup of sorts being carried out in the Democratic Alliance.
But what is actually going on and what are the implications for the Ugandan political dynamics in the coming months and years?
On the surface of it, it seems like this is political jockeying or pure politicking of the highest order, with two distinctive alliances now being configured, i.e Mbabazi with what is a collection of the remnants of what was TDA, while Dr Besigye now falls back to his core support base of the FDC party.
By the look of things, therefore, the two – Besigye and Mbabazi are still going their separate ways, although Mbabazi, realizing that he has no infrastructure to operate from, has decided to grab what remains of TDA and that is how he is going to run his campaign.
The problem, of course, is that one of the two alliances seems to be determined to go into the elections come what may, even without any reforms, and with Museveni in the driving seat – something that they may regret later when they are denied any win by Museveni, in his characteristically anti-democratic manifestations and machinations.
Warning about harboring false dreams: One hopes that these fellow Ugandans fully understand the implications of going into Museveni-organized elections without any political or electoral reforms and with Museveni firmly glued on the driving wheel of the entire electoral process.
It is not good enough for pro-democracy forces to ignore the vital problem of No Reforms and opt to just give it a try even when past evidence has shown that, even when the opposition win the elections, one man and his family keep declaring themselves winners.
It is incumbent upon all who see themselves as progressive patriots to realize and fully acknowledge how terribly damaging such a Museveni sham will have on Ugandans going forward.
Sooner or later Ugandans will have to start asking the real motivations of such politicians, who seem to be ready to accompany Museveni on his journey to another sham electoral win. Ugandans are not that dumb not to realize that in any political landscape there will always be some fake political actors, who profess to fight for freedom and democracy, but in actual fact, are only as good as those who they say they are fighting against.
The great hope is that none of our comrades in todays political opposition is ready and happy to hopelessly accompany Mr Museveni in his anti-democratic and anti-people crusade, even when they know the adverse and tragic consequences such defective machinations will bring to the already suffering people of Uganda.
It will be a sad day for Uganda, and a real shame for any well-meaning Ugandan to end up at Musevenis victory parade, congratulate the tyrant and dictator, even when the latter has once again rigged his way to power through a sham election.
But Uganda being Uganda, it is unwise to rule out the possibility of some opposition political elites saying to themselves So what? It is all about me and not the so-called Uganda. I will go ahead and make peace with Museveni. I will even go into negotiations with him after elections to get some powerful post in a future Museveni government.
To some, this is what a peaceful transition means – Museveni remains in power, and a weak opposition strikes deals with him, with the hope that one day a miracle will happen and Museveni will bow down and hand over power to them.
That, never-the-less, is a dream too far – as The Museveni family and Muhoozi Projects are real and will always remain real, as far as Museveni is around and active on the Ugandan political scene.
Museveni will never give up on those projects, for, he has invested heavily in them and devoted a whole thirty years building the founding blocks for their realization.
Fortunately, Ugandan People in their majority are aware of this absurd reality, and a People’s Liberation Struggle has been launched to make sure that Museveni does not succeed in his misguided vision of a Uganda Forever-Ruled by the Museveni Family.
That is why Free Uganda (FU) and Platform to Rescue Uganda (PRU) have committed themselves to working with all progressive forces and individuals, who believe that Uganda must be rescued from the Museveni dictatorship in ways that can succeed.
FU and PRU do not believe in merely taking risks with the hope that Museveni will somehow do the right thing.
Museveni will never do the right thing, otherwise he would have already done so long time ago. He has had 30 whole years to do the right thing, and he never did so. What has changed now for some political elites to believe that Museveni will allow a peaceful transfer of power from the Museveni family to anyone else? Nothing.
It is sobering to still hear some powerful voices, to still encounter words that seem to tally with what Free Uganda and PRU are saying.
What needs to happen now is for all well-meaning Ugandan politicians not to merely pledge not to go into Museveni organized elections without reforms, but to go a step further – and declare a People’s Struggle for Uganda without Museveni – meaning that the focus of all actions of the forces involved in the struggle is essentially about dismantling the Museveni regime, and preventing it from organizing sham and already rigged elections which will be won by MuseveniI, even though the real winners are the opposition.
The way forward from now going forward is simple:
– NO SHAM AND ALREADY RIGGED ELECTIONS SHOULD BE ORGANIZED IN UGANDA.
– AND THE MAIN ORGANIZER OF SUCH ELECTIONS HAS NO PLACE IN UGANDAN POLITICAL LIFE.
– MEANING THAT THE PEOPLE’s STRUGGLE IS ABOUT DISMANTLING THE REGIME, BY EFFECTIVELY ORGANIZING, MOBILIZING AND EQUIPPING THE MASSES WITH THE TOOLS TO CAUSE IMMEDIATE CHANGE.
Once Museveni is gone from the scene, Ugandans will have to sit down in a national dialogue, and a transition authority will be empowered by the people to shape a new nation where the People can then chose the leaders of their choice in free and fair elections.
For now, though, the focus must be on dismantling the Museveni regime – all else will follow in a logical manner.
Dr. Magombe is Press Secretary, Free Uganda (FU)
