Prime
Political prostitution: An ideology?
What you need to know:
- It is not easy to shed this aspect of the revolutionary’s mindset after capturing power.
Hussein Kyanjo (ignore all his titles) could be summed up in one word: Integrity.
I am generally not inclined to write eulogies; I am not ‘correct’ enough.
In the case of Kyanjo, I am not even qualified, having met him only once, long ago; moreover, in a conversation that was less about his many sides than about the aesthetic barbarism that had seen part of Prof Todd’s mosaic on the façade of the Libyan bank on Kampala Road obscured. Result: half-grace, half-eyesore.
What I know about Kyanjo is from the interviews and conversations in the media, and his parliamentary presentations, especially before his voice was literally neutralised in unclear pathological circumstances.
However, at his passing, in both public and private conversations, the verdict is that Kyanjo had a rare level of truthfulness, purpose and reason.
His death came at a time when Forum for Democratic Change (FDC, an Opposition party different from Kyanjo’s JEEMA) was in turmoil.
The cause: Money.
FDC had got several billion shillings from a source alleged to be linked to the ruling NRM and the national Treasury. The mystery, motive and lack of accountability surrounding this money have split FDC into angry camps.
The allegations against the NRM in the FDC saga are not surprising. Apart from deploying State machinery to perpetrate acts of intimidation, violence and torture to tame or silence Opposition politicians, the NRM has extensively (and often openly) used State resources to ‘persuade’ or bribe its opponents to do what it wants.
There are times when even NRM’s own Members in Parliament are bribed to ensure a big majority on controversial issues where some might have been reluctant to toe the official party line, which generally is the will of the President.
People who call themselves revolutionaries usually have no scruples about using violence in struggles to capture power. They parrot theories that not only incorporate violence as a necessity in their ideological frames, but as a virtue. The capacity to kill thus makes one a higher man, even a glorified man.
It is not easy to shed this aspect of the revolutionary’s mindset after capturing power. When he runs out of ideas for socio-economic transformation and justice, and any legitimate democratic process appears to be a threat, the revolutionary very readily turns to violence.
The NRM post-Bush War establishment has not been free from that tendency. To sabotage any progress other parties might make as an authentic opposition, but without resorting to industrial-scale brutality, the NRM has been rumoured to secretly push money into those parties to influence party decisions, pay ‘moles’, and to solicit deserters and converts, all of which help to weaken Opposition parties and fuel their cycles of internal and cross-party suspicion.
Listening to NRM’s chattering apologists on our TV/radio airwaves, they argue that for the sake of harmony, Museveni’s government needs to ‘work/cooperate’ with key Opposition people. This means emasculating them by paying them in cash or fat jobs, raising political prostitution to the level of an ideology.
The NRM has never truly embraced life in the intense heat of a dynamic competitive democracy. Political prostitutes may not offer much love to the ruling party, but they ensure that the relationships between the legitimate members of the Opposition are always troubled enough to be distracted by their internal conflicts, instead of focusing on raising enough heat to uproot their common adversary. And that adversary knows, and will exploit the fact, that most of those opposed to NRM rule do not have the integrity of Hussein Kyanjo.
Alan Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator.
[email protected]
