By Sam A. Akaki

15^th Oct 2012: Either by omission or commission, all the three prospective FDC leaders have failed to pronounce that they want to replace Dr Besigye because they can and will create the vital missing link with the real world, which is a constructive working relationship with the security organisations. (Why FDC’s Muntu, Mafabi and Ekanya want party’s top position, Daily Monitor, 24^th September 2012).

Of course they are right to talk about creating robust party structures, empowering the youth, women and workers, mobilising resources, building networks and co-operation, and defining relationships with other opposition political parties.

However, if these were a panacea, Dr Besigye would have been elected president in 2001, 2006 and 2011. The fact that he won 27% of the vote share, helped build FDC party headquarters, and became the first African opposition leader to meet a sitting British Prime Minister speak volumes about the extra miles he covered to build political and diplomatic alliances, and raise funds locally and internationally.

Muntu, Mafabi or Ekanya will have to confront something singularly important in Uganda politics, which repeatedly stopped Dr Besigye from becoming president – the perception that he was steering a confrontational path with the security organisations.

Whether we love or loath the UPDF, police, Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), Internal Security Organisation (ISO), External Security Organisation (ESO), Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT), Kiboko Squad (KS) and many other over-lapping security organisations, the manifest fact is that they have become integral to our national lives – for now at least.

Dr Besigye’s 2001 Agenda for Reform, which irresistibly appealed to your correspondent, informed us that he would gradually reduce the historical role of the army in politics until it was eventually phased out.  That must remain the long-term national goal.

A lesson from Egypt

For now FDC must learn from Egypt which, like Uganda, has had a long history of profound military involvement in politics. While we have the NRA high command, the Egyptians have the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF).

After battling with the army for 80 years, the Muslim Brotherhood finally won the elections on 24^th June 2012. Barely two months later, President Mohamed Morsi “retired” the defence minister and SCAF chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Chief of Staff Sami Anan, Vice Admiral Mohab Mamish and Air Defence Force commander Lt. Gen. Abd El Aziz Seif-Eldeen.

Despite having declared (soon after Mr Morsi’s election) that they had taken control of the legislature, constitution-making process, and military budget, the same officers who once persecuted the Muslim Brotherhood unexpectedly agreed to step down and take up other appointments – including advising the new president!

Quod pro quo

The Muslim Brotherhood, which was implicated in the assassination of President Anwar Sadat for signing the March 1979 Camp David peace treaty, which recognised Israel, has not revoked that land-mark treaty.  Instead, President Morsi is working closely with the Israelis to contain the Egyptian militants operating in the Sinai Peninsula, after an attack in August, which killed 16 government soldiers.

It is reasonable to conclude that the Muslim Brotherhood must have pressed the reset button with their erstwhile enemies – the Egyptian army, which is more embedded in politics than the UPDF is.

FDC’s moment of truth

According Albert Einstein, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” So, who among the FDC leadership candidates is best placed to abandon the politics of confrontation and press the “reset” button with the security organisations?  On balance, the answer has to be Major General Gregory Mugisha Muntuyera.

This is not because he is a “mole”. If talking to the NRM or the members of the security forces makes one a mole, then almost everyone in FDC is a mole.  Another whispering campaign is that Gen. Muntu is not a “pure” Ugandan.

But anyone insisting on such a leader must create original DNA building blocks from thin air and produce their prototype of a pure Ugandan. If the colonialists had decided otherwise, we would have been Sudanese, Congolese, Rwandese, Tanzanians or Kenyans  – just like our ethnic kith and kin who live across the borders!

To summarise, Muntu’s professionalism and personal trait are well suited not only to bring the much-needed harmony between FDC and the security forces, but also to lead the party by personal examples and instil mutual respect and discipline within the party.

For example, Muntu is unlikely to issue unilateral “ultimatums” to FDC members such as we heard about the so-called Shs.20million bribery. Nor is he likely to allow senior officials and their supporters to turn Najjanankumbi into a war zone, literally, which it became during the EALA primaries.

But it is his capacity to press the reset button with the security services, which will persuade many individuals in other political parties including the NRM that he is a man they can do business with for the sake of Uganda. Why?

Like the devout Christian Gen Muntu, many Ugandans also believe strongly that “there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3).

I commend Gen Muntu to the FDC delegates.  END.  Login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories mid-week for our updates

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Mr Akaki is FDC’s International Envoy to the UK and EU, and also a member of the party’s NEC.