Opposition Must Respect the Office of the President

Sheila Kangwagye

17 June 2011

In September 2009 during US President Barack Obama’s speech to Congress on healthcare reform, a Republican representative for South Carolina, Joe Wilson, in an unexpected breach of political protocol shouted the words “You lie!” at Obama as the President told Congress that his plan for a universal healthcare system would not cover illegal immigrants.

After the brief interruption during which Obama looked (stared) at the Republican representative and denied the claim, he continued with his speech. Still, the damage was done. The outburst stunned both Democrats and Republicans alike and drew criticism from the public. Wilson was heavily criticised for breaching protocol and good manners. He tried to call the President and apologise but only managed to speak with then White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

This is the scenario that came to mind when Leader of Opposition Nandala Mafabi and members of the opposition staged a walkout during President Museveni’s State-of-the-Nation address. The action was totally disrespectful of the Office of the President. Not disrespectful of Yoweri Museveni the man, but of the office for which over 5 million Ugandans have mandated him to hold.

Democratic decency dictates that we behave with civility and express our views in a manner that is respectful and useful to our leaders and fellow citizens. If we do not agree on an issue, that’s ok. But let’s be respectful of how we express our opposing views. Surely, there are systems and procedures in place to address grievances that the opposition may have?

To date, we are yet to see productive counter policies from them on what they propose to help govern our country and take Uganda to the next level. What we see instead are violent demonstrations that lead to loss of lives, disruption of business operations and negative global publicity. If this is what the opposition gets us, why should we vote them into office? How sure are we they won’t walk out on us when things get rough?

When the police provides guidelines for those wishing to demonstrate, why can’t we just follow these? I’d love to see that the opposition actually wrote a letter to the IGP informing him of their desire to stage a demonstration, receive the necessary guidelines as to how they can go about their action, follow through and see if there will be any violence at the said demonstration. I’d like to believe that both the opposition and the police would stick to their word and abide by the rule of law. Because that’s what civil nations do and I’m inclined to believe that Uganda is a civil nation.

We need inspired leadership in Uganda. We need leaders that are respectful of opposing views and who allow us to express ourselves freely without fear of ramification. Otherwise we will not move forward and we can’t blame anyone for this except ourselves.

Whilst the zeal of the opposition is highly noted and appreciated, the action of the Leader of Opposition and his members showed a complete lack of respect for the office of our President, Yoweri Museveni. Yes, our President. Because like him or not, he is who we have for the next five years and we must honour his rank. Because one honours the rank even if one does not honour the person who holds it.

Ms Kangwagye is a business owner/concerned citizen

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