Besigye has Enjoyed Uganda's Democracy the Most

There’s nobody in Uganda who has enjoyed democracy and freedom of association more than Kiiza Besigye. Besigye together with his ilk recently reserved, under the names of Peoples Front for Freedom as the newest party with Uganda’s electoral commission. They were driven by their desire of forming a new party separate from Najanankumbi Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) faction which to them is comprised of political “sell outs and fifth columnists!” 

Nice to hear; people should be free to form, deform or become apolitical at their time of choosing given the splendid democratic space the Yoweri Museveni administration introduced and anchored in the pearl of Africa after years of political instability and incessant insecurities that dogged us in the 1970s - 1980s.
Kiiza Besigye has been a conspicuous constant in a string of party formations: from PAFO to Reform Agenda to FDC and now to People’s Front for Freedom. He is also known to have enjoyed, at least as part of the “Kifefe” family of Rukungiri, membership to “Uganda okawurire aka Uganda Congress - UPC before 1980 and of course NRM after the debacle of the 1980 general elections that sparked a guerrilla war.

First, the 2005 referendum and other pieces of legislation thereafter permitted every Tom, dick and harry to belong or not; never in the history of Uganda did citizens enjoy their freedom of association as they have during the Yoweri Museveni administration, Besigye is included. The pre-1986 times before independence were checkered with political insecurities and external interference that didn’t permit a free atmosphere for party formation or even by extrapolation desolution. It’s during this administration’s time that people like Besigye and others have found a large enough space to openly enjoy their “edembe eryobwebange.”

Secondly, since 2001, as said earlier, Besigye and others have actively formed and dismembered their own creations: PAFO, Reform Agenda, National Democratic Alliance and now, the FDC. This kind of behavior speaks to a great sense resident in someone that “the party is me” and “I am the party.” Whichever party Besigye helped to form has ceased to serve his purpose. His actions have been to dismember it as clearly seen over the years. In other words, if in the future, the PFF ceases serving Besigye’s selfish and utterly egoistic interests, he would compel his unsuspecting and vulnerable acolytes to disband it.

Thirdly, this column has always argued that attempts by Besigye and his ilk have always been dogged indefatigably with the idea of coalitions yet the aggregation of whatever they stand for has always pooled together weaknesses rather than areas of strength. The current pulse and pace of opposition politics in Uganda is less than obdurately tenacious and disjointed that no sound Ugandan bombastic voter would vouch for them; on the one hand Besigye says the ballot cannot remove President Yoweri Museveni’s administration characteristically insinuating an insurrection against him and on the other, he has been an active participant in all Uganda’s general elections since 2001. It would appear that he wants to suggest that others’ participation in those elections is out rightly weird and his is not.

Fourthly, back to the PFF; Uganda’s electoral commission has rejected it on account of its chosen name and colors that may confuse the voter given that they resemble other party’s. It’s timely for the Electoral Commission to protect voters against the beast ensconced in the forest most especially in our country where civic education and monitoring are ignominiously paltry. A couple of years ago, NUP stole colors from another gullible party headquartered at Kampala Road and the Electoral Commission did not call the thieves to order. Orderly campaigns and elections should be our country’s bedrock parameters and if such is left unattended, the ramifications arising out of that could be dire.

Fifty, the Yoweri Museveni administration has ably anchored democratic practices in Uganda; elections are currently regular and predictable. Those who doubt that should do a reality check into the past between 1971 - 1986 when coups, takeovers, despoliations, savagery as well as extra-judicial killings were the order of the day, a terrible preponderant. This column has always reminded some who were still wearing diapers that between 1979 - 1980, the country staggeringly changed heads of state five times: Idi Amin - Yusufu Lule - Godfrey Binaisa - Paul Muwanga to Milton Obote and the mind boggling cost to human life and property?

Written by Ambassador Henry Mayega