Change in Law Could Usher Back Dark Days

The Observer (Kampala)

James Magode Ikuya

18 May 2011

opinion

Strange natural phenomena normally lead humans as well as wild animals to stampede.

The swearing-in ceremony of an incoming president after elections has always been an occasion for immense joy because it bears fresh and buoyant expectations for the future of the country. This year, however, the omen of the current events in the country seems to presage a different mood.

As President Museveni was being sworn in at Kololo, there was for the first time in our history a pandemonium parallel to the stately function. Dr Besigye and his supporters were swarming along the Entebbe road in virtual defiance of the on-going ceremony to install the President.

They were welcoming back Dr Besigye from Nairobi where he had been for medical attention arising out of rough treatment meted to him in an earlier face-off with government over the walk-to-work protests.The massive show of crowd by Dr Besigye was a culmination of his continuing confrontation with government over the general elections that gave NRM overwhelming victory.

He thumps his chest vowing that the walk-to-work protests have to go on to assert his rights in protest at the escalating prices of basic items by a government whose legitimacy he does not recognise. The government, on its part, accuses Dr Besigye of instigating an insurgency. It has growled its readiness to crush Dr Besigye’s walk-to-work protests in the same manner it did other dissidents, like the UPA, ADF and LRA.

True to its goal, the President has directed a constitutional amendment to deny bail to a number of specified offences. It is now in the open that NRM MPs have already agreed to effect the constitutional amendment. The government is, therefore, on course for the expected suppression of the arrant defiance by the oppositionists. Dr Besigye and his group will now have to brace for a long stint in jail before trial.

The ease by which the constitutional amendment directive is likely to sail through in Parliament must be sweetly astounding even to President Museveni. Although the NRM has superiority in the number of MPs to assure itself of any intended legislative thrust, parliamentarians are normally expected as an institution to exercise circumspection and wariness when dealing with constitutional matters that may weaken the safeguarding of the people from the caprices of government officials.

This is why it is a historic swoop for the government to obtain such a blank cheque from the incoming NRM MPs. They have pledged the renunciation of vital clauses of the Constitution well before they have even taken oath of office to defend it.

The stipulated right to bail of accused persons was not inserted in the Ugandan Constitution fortuitously. It took the country countless struggles to sanctify the bill of rights in our Constitution. In his days as a student at Dar es Salaam University, Yoweri Museveni led many student protests to disrupt authoritarianism against the convictions he stood for. Our bush-time NRM struggle was itself a commitment to put an end to all repressive practices.

The automatic removal of bail guarantees on mere whimsy and ambivalent offences takes our country full circle back to the period of detention without trial. It reopens another round of possible impunity. The consequences may not stop only at the doors of the targeted dissenters like Dr Besigye and his fervent admirers.

Enactments by Parliament are permanent laws in the statutes of the country for all the time that they are effective. They are applicable to all residents. It means that even the MPs who pass the iniquitous laws are subject to its provisions. The sharp razor that one uses to shave can also sever off one’s own fingers.

The country is thus treading back to the explosive bleak past where no one can be secure from vengeful arbitrariness. Some people have suggested a dialogue between President Museveni and Dr Besigye to ward off the crisis. This customary consigning of public affairs to the mercy of individual personages spells helplessness.

There is no guarantee that a dialogue left between two people in Uganda can serve the interests of all the others, leave alone succeed in ending social crisis. Only the political strength of an organized population can influence the outcome of events.

Instead of appealing to piety and prayers for individuals, all political actors should assert themselves in their different organizations to bring back sanity and commonness to our affairs.

The author is a member of NEC (NRM) representing historicals.

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