Is Uganda ready for a new revolution? Part 1
By Charles Ochen Okwir
28th March 2011:- The North African and Middle East revolutions have forced me to revisit a battered old book that I had abandoned midway. My desire therefore, is only to share what I found in it. I am only a messenger; a messenger who is sounding an alarm; an alarm whose origin is the mind of a much greater man.
That man says: There comes a time in the life of society when a revolution becomes an imperative necessity. That is to say, when it proclaims itself as inevitable! New ideas germinate everywhere, seeking to force their way into the light and find their application in life. Such ideas are always opposed by the inertia of those whose interest it is to maintain the old order.
Soon, the old order ideas find that they can hold out no longer against the barrage of implacable criticisms that undermine them daily at every possible opportunity. In ideological writings as well as in daily conversations, the situation will be the same.
Political, economic, and social institutions are crumbling. The social structure, having become uninhabitable, is hindering, perhaps even preventing the development of the seeds that are being propagated within its damaged walls. Everywhere, it’s being brought forth around them.
That is the exact time when the sane brains within the old order must realise that the need for a new life has become apparent. It is when the code of established morality and conduct, that which governs the greater number of people in their daily lives, no longer seems sufficient. It is also when, what formerly seemed just, begins to be felt as crying injustice. The morality of yesterday has come to be recognised as revolting immorality. That is the time to leave the stage.
When conflicts between new ideas and old traditions flare up in every class of society, the wise ones in the old guard will know it’s time to pack their bags. Only those haunted by death will remain. Because when the revolution finally comes, it annihilates every key figure associated with the injustices of yester-year.
The typical tyrant has a very unrealistic view of his place in society. Without good reason, he views himself as “the father of the nation”. In his perverted mind, all men in society are his sons; and all women his daughters.
But when “his sons” begin to rebel against what he often told them was natural, when “his daughters” begin to rebel against what their mother handed down to them from her long life experiences in State House, then you can be sure the chickens have come home to roost; a revolution is underway. It’s only a matter of time before it crush-lands into the hitherto safe bulwarks of the State.
When you see that every single day the popular conscience rises up against the scandals which breed amidst the privileged and leisured, when it rises up against the crimes committed in the name of “the law of the stronger”, it is time to bow out my friends. Bow out and save your souls. A revolution is around the corner.
A revolution is around the corner when those who long for the triumph of justice, those who would put new ideas into practice, are finally forced to recognise that the realisation of their generous, humanitarian, and regenerating ideas cannot take place in a society thus constituted.
These well meaning men, fiercely patriotic men, now perceive the necessity of a revolutionary whirlwind that will sweep away all the rottenness of the old order; a revolution that will revive sluggish hearts with its breath and bring mankind that spirit of devotion to the welfare of the oppressed majority.
Without that revolution, these men, a very different breed from those previously seen, believe society will sink through degradation, vileness, and into complete disintegration. For that fear of degradation, and ultimate social disintegration, come hell or high waters, they are determined to see their mission prosecuted with revolutionary discipline to its logical conclusion.
These men have seen periods of frenzied haste towards wealth; periods of unprecedented corruption and moral decadence; periods that have seen the sudden downfall of great industries and other branches of production; and periods of scandalous fortunes amassed in a few years. For these men, it has also become apparent that the economic institutions which control production are far from giving to society the prosperity it deserves.
Instead of order, the old socio-political system has brought forth chaos; instead of prosperity, poverty and insecurity have taken root; instead of reconciled interests, a perpetual war of the exploiter against the exploited has broken out; human society is splitting more and more into two hostile camps, waging merciless wars against each other.
So weary of these miseries, society is rushing to seek a new social order; one that completely remodels the system of property ownership, of production, of exchange, and of all economic relations which spring from it.
That new order, I warn you my friends, only comes through a revolution. Let’s meet here next week for the second part of this series. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
