Our MPs must resist Museveni’s ‘no bail’ laws
By Abbey K. Semuwemba
23rd May 2011: President Museveni’s proposal to change the constitution so that rioters or protestors are denied bail is a violation of people’s rights. I hope NRM MPs resist the temptation to change the constitution for the sake of short term gains by the President.
Ugandan creativity in the face of adversity
What police actions reflect is that President Museveni is so shaken at the moment by the events around him. Uganda is the first country in the history of Sub-Sahara Africa to demonstrate for more than a month against a sitting government. Africans are known to be cowards when it comes to repressive regimes, not anymore.
If the issues fronted by Activists for Change (A4C) are addressed by the Museveni government, then this pressure group will just remain in name; like most groups. But it seems the President is not ready to back down. All these actions show that President Museveni is uncomfortable with the FDC leader Dr. Kizza Besigye despite ‘winning’ the 2011 elections.
I also think it was unwise for President Museveni to meet foreign diplomats and ask them “…not to support opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye’’. This shows that the President has started seeing that there is a real threat of being taken out of power by Western nations and that is why he cannot trust foreign diplomats anymore.
But what does he achieve by meeting them? Not a great deal because big nations hate being ordered around by leaders of small nations. I can see the US and UK ambassadors angrily talking to themselves behind the scenes after this meeting with phases like: What the hell does Yoweri think he is? So, the whole thing is likely to back fire on him.
Museveni must have been advised to do this as part of a a public relations campaign against Besigye in the eyes of the international community. It is the same thing Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu did in December 2006 when he summoned 70 diplomats in Israel to a meeting to pressure them to join his country’s efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear program.
It worked temporarily for Israel on the international stage but it did not stop Iran from continuing with its nuclear program. I don’t know whether the Uganda ambassador was part of this meeting but at least we know now that President Museveni supports Iran’s right to nuclear technology.
President Museveni’s twelve page statement issued on the 17th of May 2011 was also another sign that things are not at all well behind the curtains. He specifically attacked BBC, Aljazera, Daily Monitor and NTV for cheering on ‘irresponsible people’ – meaning the protestors.
Waging a war against the international media is probably not a wise move. The press is supposed to be a watchdog but they are being muzzled out every day by the President and we don’t know how this is going to end.
President Museveni was clearly not happy that Besigye got more attention than him on his swearing-in day. He expressed his feelings very clearly in his statement when he said, “…the excuse of “big crowds” that held up Besigye for hours is a myth and a lie because I was the first to drive through that road after Kololo. Somebody had advised me to take shelter at Nakasero State Lodge until they had removed Besigye from the road. I rejected that view and went straight to Entebbe. I was able to see a few hundred people at Kibuye roundabout, at Najjanakumbi and Kajjansi, making FDC signs”.
So who says that big crowds don’t matter in a politician’s life? With this, it is possible that people working with the President do organize buses to transport people to follow him whenever he goes as a way of appeasing the President. They know that big crowds mean a lot to him.
I wrote an article before the riots started suggesting that Uganda tries to solve the current food crisis by adopting the Cuban experiment. But it seems not to have caught the attention of those in power and I assume that is why we are still having problems.
So like they say, let’s us leave the wise ones to come up with better solutions. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
