If we can fight wars, why can’t we protest peacefully?
By Dr. Vincent Magombe
7th February 2011
In the concluding part of my opinion article last week, [See: The next people revolt ‘Bus Stop’ will be Kampala] I told President Yoweri Museveni that his belief that what happened in Ivory Coast cannot happen in Uganda is fundamentally defective. Let me tell him why.
They are defective because he is underestimating the determination of the political opposition in Uganda. He also seems to be unaware of the attention the international community, especially the US and the EU, intend to give to ensure that the pro-government Electoral Commission does not do the wrong thing.
And when he threatens that he will shoot down any ‘stupid’ Ugandan who dares to demonstrate on the streets after a rigged election, President Museveni is forgetting that increasingly, the international community, and even the African Union, is becoming intolerant of any regime that uses violence to silence its own people.
One thing is for sure: If hundreds of innocent civilians are gunned down by Museveni’s security forces in the coming post-election chaos, then that will be the end of his regime. And the President together with his army and police commanders may find themselves in International Criminal Court [ICC] cells at The Hague.
The internet revolution is now unstoppable
In Uganda, the ruling NRM regime is very afraid of a possible grass-root people revolt organised by opposition groups based within the country. But it is also possible that the regime is under-estimating the power of the new media to facilitate a people revolt. In their thinking, the absence of a well established internet infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa makes new media irrelevant as a mobilising tool.
It is an open fact that the successful mass revolt in Tunisia and the ongoing uprising in Egypt were made possible by the widespread use of the new media. Tunisian and Egyptian demonstrators actively used internet-based social networking sites like Facebook and Twiter to mobilise and communicate between each other.
What the Kampala government is forgetting is that already an active linkage between Uganda anti-government groups and the so-called ‘New Media generation’ is well under way. Most opposition politicians and grass-root activists are already establishing a pro-active presence on the Worldwide Web. They are also building functional linkages with Diaspora Ugandans who are becoming intolerant of the repressive and undemocratic tendencies of the NRM government.
This intolerance is being expressed in various internet-based forums and mushrooming online media outlets. Today a number of Ugandan websites and Facebook pages have appeared on the internet; all seeking to mobilise and organise Ugandan masses for a Tunisia type of uprising.
Here are some examples are: “Ugandans Against Museveni Dictatorship” – http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Ugandans-Against-Museveni-Dictatorship/125343177536127, “Museveni Must Go” website –http://www.musevenimustgo.com/index.php?id=NEWS&newsid=100
Then there is the ‘Free Uganda’ website – http://freeuganda.com/. Then we have the power of online radio stations, like Ngoma radio – http://www.ngomaradio.com/ , Munansi – http://radiomunansi.com/index.html, Free Buganda – (Ekibakibe) http://www.ekibakibe.com/, and others, are being felt right at home.
Not long ago, I was privileged to be among the many Ugandans who were given the opportunity to grill the controversial Chairman of the Ugandan Electoral Commission on Ngoma radio. What amazed me was the fact that 100% of all those who called in were against the current Electoral Commission and the government of President Museveni as a whole.
Meanwhile, a huge number of online discussion forums like Ugandans-at-Heart and Acholi Forum have been functioning very successfully. These have enabled Ugandans within the country and the Diaspora to vigorously debate each and every political event as it happens. All this is in addition to the critical independent online newspapers like ‘Uganda Correspondent’ which are quickly making their mark on the quest for free speech and democracy in our country.
There are those who argue that what is happening in Tunisia and Egypt cannot happen in sub-Saharan Africa because of the peculiar nature of those societies. A friend of mine told me that mass people uprisings cannot come to Uganda because Ugandans love their lives too much. My friend thinks that the Arab North has a culture of suicide and self-sacrifice which is not common in Uganda. I find this argument faulty.
In Uganda, we love fighting. We have fought and overthrown governments by force. That was collective suicide and self-sacrifice. After all, the people involved were ready to die for causes they held dearly. What happened in Tunisia and what is happening in Egypt now, are not civil wars. They are simply peaceful demonstrations against entrenched dictatorships. The people in these countries have shed the fear of brutal violent governments.
I believe that Ugandans are capable of demonstrating peacefully. They are capable of defying violent repression by the security forces. They are already losing fear of the NRM dictatorship. In that way, Uganda is exactly like Tunisia, Egypt and Ivory Coast. END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
